Export problems with Final Cut Suite 2

[Ron James]

Hi, Rafael…

Excellent suggestion. I’ll be on this system again on Wed and will report back. I very much appreciate everyone’s help!

James

[Jim Watt]

I think your computer needs some attention.

I exported a one hour 15 minute self contained QT movie on my DP225 and it too about 35 minutes. Processor was using about 25% of capacity and running about 21 mb/sec.

In compressor, doing the export from FCP to MPEG 2 “best compression for a 90 minute preset, it also took about 35 minutes. Data read was about 9.23 to 20.14.

I’m running 10.4.11 with the latest upgrades for FC 2.

We usually run disk warrior on all our machines once every two or three weeks. I’d suggest giving that a try since I see no issues on either one of our Power PC’s.

The DP 200 is just a little slower, but we haven’t encountered any big issues there either.

We normally only work in HD, so going from HD to MPEG2 SD is pretty slow. An hour show will take about 20 hours, but on our quad core Intel machine by using all the processors it only takes about 3 hours.

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Jim,
Thanks for backing my about the use of DiscWarrior. I had an interesting experience acouple of weeks ago. I took a brand new HD and I installed MacOX and FCS2. I made a perfect installation. Step by step: System, QT, FCS2. Repairing permissions after each install.
When I tried to open FC, the list of the Easy Setups couldn’t pen. I ran DiscWarrior and I sow that the 32% of all the items were out of order. I rebuilt the directories and FC opens without problems.
So as the most of the people I thought that after the installing my System would be in perfect shape, but was a real mess. I think that the use of DiscWarrior or TechTools have became critic to run MacOX.
Same than you, I run DW every week or two, and not problems at all.
Rafael

PPC G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM/BlackMagic SD/PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM
JVC DTV-17″/FCS2/AE CS3/COMBUSTION/SHAKE

[Ron James]

Hi, rafalaos…

Okay, I’m back on this machine and it’s definitely bogging down. I’ve got a sequence that’s fully rendered (with “full” checked) that is just DVTSC w/ a timecode read. Right now, I’m just trying to export a reference movie.

The data read (in Activity Monitor) is averaging about 3.5 MB.

Final Cut Pro CPU is about 145%.

This only started happening after upgrading to FCS2 from FCS1.

James

[Jeremy Garchow]

The ‘recompress all frames’ button is not checked when exporting is it?

Jeremy

[Ron James]

Jim, there’s most definitely something screwy in this Mac. Can you tell me what version of QuickTime you’re running? I’m wondering now if it’s 7.3 that’s wreaking havoc.

Thanks!

James

[Ron James]

Hey Jeremy, no that isn’t checked. I’ve been using since v.1, so I’ll never ever forget that ‘recompress’ checkbox. Remember it used to be selected by default?

I’m wondering now if the problem could be QT 7.3, although if I remember correctly, I had to install 7.3 to upgrade to FCP 6.0.2.

The exports are definitely bogging right down to a halt, though. And I did a full render with “full” selected. It’s almost as if it’s recompressing anyway. Weird. Whatever it is, it’s affecting Compressor exports, too, so I can’t get anything out of Final Cut. This is officially a pain in my backside now.

Thanks for your continued help!

[Jim Watt]

We’re running 7.3.

jw

[Ron James]

Ah, thanks! So I can probably rule QT out, then. Next step, I’ll try reinstalling FCS2

[Rafael Amador]

Hi james,
Look at the Activity monitor when you send to Compressor from FC. If you see that FC is taking more CPU that Compressor, is just because FC is re-rendering everything. When FC is jut reading, you see that Compressor takes more CPU than FC.
If you get 3.5 M/s reading (in FC or Compressor), that means that your DVCam footage is being processed in RT, because 3.5M/s is the weight of your footage.
rafael

PPC G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM/BlackMagic SD/PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM
JVC DTV-17″/FCS2/AE CS3/COMBUSTION/SHAKE