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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy Performance issues with DSLR vid

  • Performance issues with DSLR vid

    Posted by Mike Gerken on July 17, 2012 at 7:57 pm

    I am using FCP 7 and trying to edit HD vid show with a DSLR D800 Nikon. I have a 2.4 dual core 2 processor with 4gb ram. I am using external hard drive with firewire 800 for storage of all media. I am having performance issues with the FCP. .MOV files lag in playback and in the viewer. They play ok in timeline but scrubbing skips.

    Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong or of the hardware needs upgrading.

    -Mike

    Alan Okey replied 13 years, 10 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Shane Ross

    July 17, 2012 at 8:13 pm

    Let me guess. You didn’t convert the .MOV files the camera shoots. You are trying to edit those files natively in FCP.

    Sigh…

    This comes up every day…twice a day. You must convert those files to an edit friendly codec if you want to use FCP. ProRes is the best option. If you want to edit those files natively, you need to use Adobe Premiere…and get a machine with lots of RAM and a good graphics card to enable the Mercury Engine. If you want to stick with FCP…you must convert the footage to ProRes.

    Compressor does this. MPEG STREAMCLIP does this. Heck…I think Log and Transfer might work with that camera…but I’m not sure. Here’s that workflow:
     
    https://library.creativecow.net/ross_shane/tapeless-workflow_fcp-7/1

    It would behoove you to learn a bit more about how the application deals with media before you jump right in and try to edit files it cannot deal with. Sorry to lay this all on you…it’s not just you. As I said, people pose this exact same question 2-3 times a day here in this exact forum. “Why doesn’t FCP edit my DSLR files well? It’s sluggish, and I have to render all the time.” You are just getting the brunt of my frustration.

    Convert to ProRes. Then edit.

    Shane
    Little Frog Post
    Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

  • Mike Gerken

    July 17, 2012 at 8:29 pm

    Shane,
    That’s ok I dont mind being the brunt. Great advice and already done with Streamclip.
    Cheers!
    -Mike

  • Alan Okey

    July 17, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    Download the AJA System Test software, run it and let us know what numbers you get back for your Firewire 800 storage.

    https://www.aja.com/en/products/software/

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