• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  FCP and Motion Movies Don’t Play Smooth in QT– Always this way?

  Posted by Jeff Coleman on August 26, 2009 at 4:16 pm

  My movies from FCP and Motion (SD 720×486) don’t play smoothly in QT.
  Has it always been this way?
  Should it be this way?
  Is it this way for you?

  Here’s a very simple Motion project test:
  229_stilltraveldv.motn.zip
  Standard def frame. Still image half size. 2 keyframe move over five seconds from offscreen right to offscreen left. No background. Render it to DV or whatever you like.

  Motion can’t play it smoothly in the timeline.
  More importantly, the rendered movie won’t play smoothly in QT player.
  The rendered movie won’t play smoothly in the canvas or viewer within FCP.
  The movie DOES play smoothly when viewing it FCP via the Kona-attached video monitor.
  Unfortunately, I’m trying to get to the web and not a video monitor and the resultant H.264 movie is jumpy as well.
  How about you?

  I’ve tried this with AE also and achieved the same results.

  I’ve also tried this in two cities, at four places on six or seven machines–all running Motion 3.0.2, some running latest QT, some not, some running Leopard, some not.
  This seems so easy, so basic, but doesn’t work. Why not?

  Jeff Coleman replied 17 years ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  David Roth weiss

  August 26, 2009 at 4:33 pm

  [Jeff Coleman] “My movies from FCP and Motion (SD 720×486) don’t play smoothly in QT.
  Has it always been this way?
  Should it be this way?
  Is it this way for you? “

  Yes!

  Probably not!

  Yes!

  QT player is certainly not reliable for playback of anything at 100% frame rate.

  David Roth Weiss
  Director/Editor
  David Weiss Productions, Inc.
  Los Angeles

  POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

  A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
• 

  Shane Ross

  August 26, 2009 at 6:14 pm

  And it could be drive speed related. SD 720×486 can mean many things. is this uncompressed SD, 8-bit? 10-bit? And where are they stored when you try to play them?

  But yeah, QT player is not the smoothest for high data rate formats.

  Shane

  

  GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
  Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def
• 

  Jeff Coleman

  August 26, 2009 at 9:40 pm

  Multiple codecs were tried (10bit Uncompressed, DV, Motion JPEG A, JPEG2000, mp4, Animation) on a variety of media drives (SAN capable of HD 10bit Uncompressed, a RAID capable of 130MBs, external SATA drives and internal SATA drives).
  I don’t think the codecs could’ve been easier and the drives faster for all practical purposes.
  Can you play that Motion project smoothly in any codec on any drive?

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