1080p60 editing

[Rob Gutermuth]

Hi Guys,

I shot a 3 cam shoot in 1080p60 – everything is working fine, running FCP 7 (last) 5,1 2010 machine, and I have a Intensity pro 4k card that displays 1080p60 great.

I put 2 SSD drives on a Sonnet card that creates a 800mbs Read and Write time and speed test is all green…

The problem I have is that every 15 min, I get the color beach ball spinning if I move the playhead around in the time line (normal editing, etc) – have to force quit everytime.

The question is, why? – Im not trying to edit in 4K – just in 1080p60. – I tried this on my 2012 laptop with a single SSD drive and same thing happens (more frequently)

is there a setting that I can check so it doesn’t have to work as hard maybe? – I have 10 audio tracks but only 4 at a time (the others are muted) – and just 3 layers, etc. Im not adding any filters, etc – just working with the raw footage, and one clip at a time (just cutting between shots)

Any ideas? – I hate having to restart every 15 mins

Thanks so much

[Bret Hampton]

You don’t mention what format your files are. I’m guessing H264 if they’re straight from your camera.

Most pro edit programs work better if you transcode to an edit-friendly codec such as ProRes422, Avid DnX, etc.

H264 encoding scheme is GOP [group of pictures] rather than frame by frame. So FCP first has to decode the GOPs to play them. Not necessary with ProRes.

And Apple created ProRes specifically to work with FCP

[Daniel Scherl]

Couple of things:

1) Have you thought of creating proxy files and editing with those? I think you’d have a much easier time. If not, transcoding yeah.

2) You mentioned FCP 7. Not to be that person, but… you’re also using a very, very old program by today’s standards. I made the switch years ago and now today, FCP X is a truly fantastic editing program that I think would handle your issues a lot better.

3) Worst case, this might be a very good excuse to buy a new Mac Studio computer which will handle 1080p 60fps like butter.

Good luck!

[Rob Gutermuth]

Hi, oh you are correct I forgot to mention what the files were – they were transcoded to ProRes 422 prior to import, using editready.

I guess I just wondered if this is a limitation of it being a 32bit program, but seems like if that was the case, it wouldn’t work at all, and it’s only when I move the playhead lots in the same area to fine tune an edit for example where I get this happening.

Does FCP only allow you to edit all day long in 1080p30? is 1080p60 too much for it to handle? – im not even rendering in 10 bit, just 8 bit.

I never had any issues editing 1080i 59.94 footage, which I know would be the same as 1080p30 (or 29.97)

So, if I had edit ready do proxies and the full ProRes at the same time, I could edit the proxies and then replace them with the better/larger full prores files? I never made proxy files before, but that is my understanding…

I would upgrade but seems like doing multicam editing on either premiere or FCPX seems less easy to do it quickly, etc – guess it’s a matter of learning it.