-
FCP project loading time
I’m editing a documentary on FCP 6.06, and a 3 Ghz Quad core Intel Xeon tower with 4gb DDR2 RAM.
We’re working with a few different codecs though all are 1080i60. There is a little less than 4TB of media on a 2 tower Raid Drives.
My concern is that final cut is taking anywhere between 6 and 10 minutes to load the project. Is this normal with this much footage, even on a powerful computer like this??
I recently finished a documentary with 2.5 TB of 720p media and owrked on an iMAC from last year and it never took that long to load.
Thanks for any advice?
-
8 Replies
-
How big is the project size?
-
It’s usually not how much media a project file contains that causes a slow load most of the time. It’s how many sequences you have open, and how many edits are in those sequences. FCP uses something like 2.7gigs of RAM is all… so when you open a project with open sequences, it loads a lot of information about those sequences into RAM. If you fill it up, then the system starts disk caching.
Once you open a project file, only work with one sequence open at time… maybe that’s all you need to do.
How large is this project file? Smaller is better, and sequences which are backup copies are best kept away from the same project file if that’s what’s going on… Titles and graphics created from within FCP also make the project files get big… It’s really just a workflow issue, rather than a how many clips are in a project file, and it’s irrelevant how much media they reference, because it’s not in the project file itself save those titles and graphics.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO, CD’s
-
project size is 139mb.
-
Thank you.
Project is only 139mb and I made sure to have only one sequence open, still took 6 minutes. There are dozens of sequences in the project in general because we were working with hundreds of individual clips (P2 etc) so master sequences were created to view footage more fluidly.
Could that be the issue? I’ve worked that way before (using lots of master sequences) and loading time still want this long. I like you’re idea of creating seperate projects with sequences I won’t be using regularly. Thanks again.Nick
-
[Nick August-Perna] “Project is only 139mb”
Only? That’s pretty big. You will want to consider breaking that project up in to smaller chunks. Just looking real wuick, two current projects I have on my system are right around 6MB. Stills, sequences and multiclips all add to the size of the project.
This, also, might be worth your while:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/63/getting_organized_in_final_cut_pro
Jeremy
-
That is a BIG project. Breaking it up into smaller projects is a good idea. I’ve had to do that on a few docs that I’ve edited. Once you have your content more or less locked in, you may want to media manage your sequence down to a new project. Then create another project just for B-roll, narration, and last minute cut ins ect. I’ve done this a few times and it makes the project much more manageable.
-
The other thing you’re going to find is that the autosave takes an age, and interrupts you (every 8 minutes in my case) right when you’re in the middle of cutting.
My current project is 156Mb, and I’ve just gone through the same process outlined above of breaking it into smaller projects. I have one project for rushes, one for previous cuts and one for current sequences. Previous cuts is far and away the bulkiest, but it’s also the least used, so just pulling that out of the main project goes a long way.
When I’m splitting a project into smaller projects I create a new project and then copy the bins/seqs into that. Rather than Save/As and deleting bins. I think this may clean the project up a touch, or I might just be making that up.
Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv -
Thanks all. Very helpful as always.
Nick
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up