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Background processes are an impediment to starting the edit
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[Oliver Peters] “When I first start an edit and import a ton of media, I have to wait for thumbnail, filmstrip, and waveform generation. FCPX is virtually unusable during this stage to try to do any editing”
So Oliver, is this lead paragraph under the original post “accurate” – or is it your intention to tell the legions of people who might not have ANY experience with X, that it’s an “unusable” system for working with “a ton of media” because that’s the pretty explicit impression from your writing here.
“Unusable?” Really?
Cuz I “use” it during the import phase every day.
Just a week ago I was shipped a 10 terabyte drive filled to the brim with 4K Multicam interviews – various cameras and codecs – and had absolutely no issues turning out heavily edited targeted timecode window dubs for client review in a day.
How can I get my work done so easily – when in virtually every one of your posts here – the impression you are leaving is that you’re struggling mightily to get even the simplest things done fluidly?
THAT is what pushes me to feel there could be something “not understood” about your X workflows.
It just seems weird that tens of thousands of us can get this tool to work highly productively, day in and day out, yet all you seem to experience (or at least post about) regarding X, is extreme frustration.
Pardon me for trying to explain the workflows that I typically employ – that might reduce your angst – I thought it might help.
And also pardon me for reacting snippily. But terms like “unusable” applied to, processes that I find perfectly “useable” every day – just seems highly disconnected from the reality I experience.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
I think I’m confused as to what speed problem is going on…. I haven’t seen anything with any of my students computers on import, and believe me, if there’s a problem a class full of high schoolers will find the darn thing. LOL
Let me get this straight, when you have selected your clips in the Import Window and click import, you can’t view any of the clips without stuttering occurring? And this is somehow related to FCPX generating new waveforms?
Sorry, I’ve re-read a number of posts to try and get this straight, so I can inform my students and we can avoid any problems with importing.
Our collective experience has been, once we hit the import selected button, the clips are immediately available to edit, other than the fact that you have the progress dots reminding you that the footage isn’t technically finished importing. We know that you can proceed with the edit, but we usually don’t because the import background task stops every time you move your curser over the footage.
Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick
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[Bill Davis] ” is this lead paragraph under the original post “accurate” “
Accurate.
[Bill Davis] “”Unusable?” Really?”
You are missing the operative qualifier: during this stage.
[Bill Davis] “and had absolutely no issues turning out heavily edited”
How soon after import were you able to review footage without waiting on system performance? What codec?
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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[Jeremy Garchow] “I now leave the machine on overnight after I import. It’s the only way to come back to a normal performing NLE.”
Wow! That sounds like a disaster. I would be ready to through my system out the window.
One thing that I have seen with my own eyes is X acting very different sometimes on the same model computers,
same OS and some footage. So I know it happens.Just trying to narrow it down a bit. (Apples to Apples)
I’m using mostly XDCAM footage at 1080 around 40GB of at a time, X 10.3.4 OS 10.11.06 I leave footage in place on Import.
My computer is 8 years old so I shouldn’t be getting better performance than people with newer Macs. Something is wrong.
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[Tony West] “Just trying to narrow it down a bit. (Apples to Apples)”
Mostly XAVC 300 or 480 at QHD 23.976. Also lots of DJI footage from both drone and Osmo Pro., usually mp4 (those clips usually have no audio).
My projects average between 1 – 4TB of media.
To be clear to Winston, this slow down happens after import while FCPX builds waveforms and thumbs. I never transcode and leave files in place (MXF and mp4). The XAVC footage has 8 channels of audio on it (2-4 active), and if I don’t mute blank channels, performance literally goes down the tubes.
Since there’s so much media, I let the computer cache all the necessary waveforms overnight. During editing, I’ll beachball 3-4 times a day, and this started with 10.3.4. 10.3.3 and 10.3.2 were much better. I agree something is wrong and not quite sure it’s hardware related. This happens on all the machines we have.
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[Bill Davis] “You can start to move your edit forward via all the many database preparation tools X pioneered that do not need ANYTHING to be prepped to function.”
Not this again : )
[Bill Davis] “Every traditional editor I’ve ever walked through X has this same bias. They don’t think their edit has commenced until they have clips on a timeline. It’s maddening since I’ve been talking about this for six years now.”
Why not give us a demo of how proficient FCPX really is as opposed to just talking about it?
[Bill Davis] “Removing ALL the crap from your view via Reject saves sometimes whole days later on. It clarifies editorial thinking EXACTLY like a string out – except it’s 100 times more flexible.”
As I stated why not do a demo for us?
[Bill Davis] “After Hide REJECT – the shape of your raw materials starts to emerge – telling you precisely where you have options and where you might have content holes.”
Once again a demo would be nice.
[Bill Davis] “After six years on X, I’ve truly come to see Tagging AS editing. It’s a “first cut” in everything but name. Those not comfortable with X thinking just miss this because it happens away from the “timeline” but it’s as palpable to me as using a motor to fix an AC rather than starting with magnets and wire and assembling the motor from scratch. Precision range keywording creates useful custom “parts” I can use to build more efficiently with later.”
I have FCPX and I can create keyword with ranges but I should also add other NLE can create custom built parts of their own.
[Bill Davis] “The point is that there is lots and lots of effective edit prep that can take place during the first few days of a typical X pre-edit period that lets me move my edit very much forward – they just don’t take place on my timeline.”
You can prep stuff in other NLE as well.
[Bill Davis] “Once again, if you try to drive X using non-magnetic prep thinking and expectations (the “the edit happens only on a timeline) approach) X will probably slow down to about the efficiency of any other NLE.”
Why not do a demo and see if someone else has a better technique? You always say you want to learn. Perhaps you use a grappling style when a striking technique might prove to be just as efficient.
[Bill Davis] “It’s only when you embrace its complete gestalt – that things start to really fly.”
There is also many obstacles with FCPX as well.
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Keep in mind if you are editing h.264/AVCHD/MPEG4 Intel’s Quick Sync will help for rendering and playback. An iMac with a Kaby Lake CPU would probably handle playback of 4K AVCHD better than an octo core Xeon. People will probably get different results depending on the computer system and video codecs being used
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[Tom Sefton] “We edit on nearly all programs – avid, premiere, fcpx and resolve – whichever is the best tool for the job and more often than not with an honest evaluation we are using fcpx and resolve more often.”
Have you tried a mediocre PC with 4.0 GHZ i7 Skylake, a GTX 1070 and 32 GB of RAM? Obviously a 500 SSD for the OS would be wise and 6 3 TB HD in a RAID array would be nice.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “My projects average between 1 – 4TB of media.”
That’s a lot of media. I can totally see a how a 4TB project could bog down. No wonder I’m not seeing it. I think the highest I have been is maybe 1TB. I’m surprised that X was ever instantly plowing through that size.
I hope they fix it on the next update.
BTW, what are your thoughts on the quality of the Osmo Pro? I seeing more folks with them.
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