FCPX – Video Stutter Problem After Import AVCHD

[Craig Seeman]

You’re leaving out key bits of information.

How is the drive connected? If USB that might be a problem.

If using USB or Firewire, how many other devices are also using the same ports?

How much free space is left on the drive? It’s hard to define a “cutoff’ point for issues to start but if under 20% free space the drive may be accessing the data slowly.

Playing back the file may not indicate record issues. Jog through the file one frame at a time and the same places where you see the stutter. That would tell you if it’s recorded in.

[Vincent D’angelis]

hi – craig thanks for responding…

the drive is connected with a firewire 800

there is a ton of free space left (1.87T left)
– these were the first clips i imported onto it (about an hour’s worth of footage) – which is making me wonder… 128 gigs for about an hour of footage? that seems like an awful lot! no? is it possible that this drive is saving copy files or something? or does that sound right for optimized avchd footage?

also, the footage is 720/60p that i imported-

– i actually just went through some footage (watching clip in fcpx viewer window) playing clip from event window (i’ve also brought into timeline & played) – but like i was saying, i just watched some footage, and when it stuttered, i stopped & rewinded, and when i replayed, it didn’t seem to stutter…

– i also did what you said, i played back through a stutter situation frame by frame, and i didn’t see anything that would signal damage in the footage

– but i think a big key here is that the footage doesn’t stutter when i stop/rewind/& play it again (after I just saw it stutter… it’s like the video gets “glicthy” in playback (maybe thats a better way to put it than stutter –

– another test i did – I imported a clip directly into my iMacs hard drive (instead of the external) to see if the internal would play back smooth, but still saw the glitchyness from the internal import/playback as well… which kind of concerns me…

– but because it plays back smooth after rewinding & playing it back again, i’m thinking a final render when exporting will play smooth?? – but this glitchyness bothers me a lot…

– someone else on the dvxuser site thinks maybe i might need more RAM memory (which would then take my system from 8 up to 16g) – ??

– i also just noticed another issue, and i have no idea why this happened, but when i open my g-drive just now to look at the “original media” .mov’s I only see like 5 thumbnails (in a random display, one here, one there) – when there should be like 98 of them…??? originally i saw all of the thumbnails when i first looked in the g-drive.. – i don’t think they became corrupt, or got erased because fcpx can still play the media… but why are they now not viewable? (the glitchyness was happening before this issue) – and like i said, i tested for the glitchyness on the internal drive as well (so i have no idea where this is coming from now…??

– i shut everything down, & restarted everything & thumbnails are still missing…

– this is starting to make me crazy –

thank you for responding & for your help
i appreciate it!

– Vince

ps – one last question here, shouldn’t the g-drive pop up on my desk top when i turn it on? and also, shouldn’t the SDHC card pop up as well when i insert it? neither pop up – they are only viewable when i go into my computer… i know on my macbook pro the sdhc card pops up on the desktop…

thanks again

[Kevin Patrick]

First of all, on my system FCP X averages just over 7 GB of RAM usage. So, if you have 8 GB, this could be your issue. I have noticed others reporting issues, including performance that have gone away for them after upgrading RAM. Some of the cases they have upgraded to 16 GB.

Also, are you running Lion?

Have you looked at the Activity Monitor when you’re having these issues? I’ve recently posted an issue about memory usage with FCP X and Lion. At first I thought it was an issue specific to FCP X. But after finding more information on this topic, it may not be FCP X itself. It may be that applications like FCP X simply magnify the issue.

The issue is that for some reason Inactive Memory usage seems to grow as you use FCP X. In my system, 24 GB of RAM, I’ve had Inactive Memory grow to over 5 GB, quite easily. When you combine this with FCP X’s memory needs it might just explain your playback stuttering. FCP X seems to love memory (being 64 bit I would assume so) and doens’t seem to be happy when it doesn’t get enough.

[Rafael Amador]

[Vincent D'Angelis] “128 gigs for about an hour of footage? that seems like an awful lot! no? is it possible that this drive is saving copy files or something? or does that sound right for optimized avchd footage?”
That sounds to Prores transcoding.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[T. Payton]

Can you post a small clip sample somewhere so we can test on on some of our machines.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Dave Gage]

[Vincent D'Angelis] ”
also, the footage is 720/60p that i imported-“

I seem to remember a couple of very long threads at the Apple forum where people were having issues with 60P footage. If I remember correctly, it seems they had to take ClipWrap or something similar and transcode into 30P Pro Res so FCP X would work with it properly. It’s possible that this issue was fixed in 10.0.1, but since I only shoot in 30P, I haven’t followed it that closely.

If you don’t get your problem solved, you might try a search at the Apple FCP X forum for “60P” and see what the current word is.

Dave

[Vincent D’angelis]

hi Kev –

yes i have Lion…
i actually just upgraded to 16g ram and do see an improvement, but still here & there the footage will still seem to stutter – but it does seem alot better… i think also 60p may have something to do with it, on top of the fact that i think there are many bugs that still need to be worked out with fcpx… which i think is the real issue, because when i run the footage straight out of the hard drive, it seems to run great…

how do you access the activity monitor? i’m new to mac, and still very much in the learning stages with everything… what does it tell you?

also what do you mean by inactive memory?

thanks!

– Vince

[Vincent D’angelis]

hi Rafael –

did you mean that sounds (right) for Prores transcoding?

i’m sure this might sound like a stupid question, but what exactly is prores transcoding?
my impresion is that its some type change that the software makes to the footage when it imports it… i’m thinking it does this so it can be worked on?

– thanks!

– Vince

[Vincent D’angelis]

hi Tim –

is there a special way to post a clip for others to test?
or do you just post something to youtube?

– thanks!

– Vince

[Vincent D’angelis]

hi Dave –

yes i also remember seeing some threads about 60p issues…

i just upgraded my ram to 16g, & there seems to be an improvement, but i haven’t really been able to observe all of my footage yet because i’m still trying to figure out which externals to use for my workflow… (another issue it seems at this point)…

but i do think the extra ram has helped some…
a few people have told me that when you export, no glitches should be present…

i also think this is a fcpx issue more than anything now, because when i play the footage straight from the hard drive, it seems to play fine…

is clipwrap a program that you need to buy? (i’ve heard of this program, but not really familiar with alot of this stuff yet as I’m still on a very serious learning curve with all of this)…

i’m assuming you would first import through clipwrap (as opposed to your editing program) – and then just import from those files on the hard drive when you open up the editing system?

is there a reason why people go this route?
also, why would someone shoot 60p if ultimately, it has to be transcoded into 30p?

i just shot some 30p filming my brothers band, & that seems to play fine… but i also viewed it with the upgraded 16g of ram so don’t know if 30p would have stuttered with the 8g –

i find though shooting 30p blurs very easily (i know that you have to pan slowly & stuff) but still, my consumer camcorder i believe was 30p & i don’t recall the blur being this apparent (as opposed to the “pro level” HMC150 that i now have) – even when you look at the lcd, you can totally see the footage staggering as you pan the camera (but it doesn’t come out like that)… but there still seems to be a blur factor when shooting 30p (at least it does with this camera that i have)…

are you using fcpx? avchd?

thanks!

– Vince