Final Cut is acting slow..

[Craig Alan]

Is your media and/or system drive over 80% full? Is anything rendering in b.g.? Do you have too many apps open for the amount of ram you have? Are you using a new codec? Have you tried trashing FCP permissions? Have you tried repairing permissions on system drive? Try disc warrior on media drive and or system drive (Back-up first).

MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170, Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Fernando Bobadilla]

I don’t know what rendering in BG means.. My rendering bars are yellow before I render – every time I slightly move a clip, it creates this giant yellow render bar that i have to sit thru before editing again.. It’s very annoying..

As to: “Are you using a new codec? Have you tried trashing FCP permissions? Have you tried repairing permissions on system drive?”

I started the session in HDV compressor in the sequence – but then realized I had to use Apple ProRess 422 because of the footage from my DSLR I’m using.

I don’t know what FCP permissions are neither…

[Fernando Bobadilla]

I have a 400 to 800 cord.

Thanks Dave

[Fernando Bobadilla]

So, I’m thinking of going out and buying a 800 Firewire drive… Now, I have to transfer all of the progress I’ve had – any idea of how to do this?

I only have one Firewire port on my comp.

[Bret Williams]

[Fernando Bobadilla] “I started the session in HDV compressor in the sequence – but then realized I had to use Apple ProRess 422 because of the footage from my DSLR I’m using. “

Whoa – you’re using DSLR footage? How did you convert that to ProRes? Sounds like you’re just rendering your footage as ProRes. Doesn’t sound like your footage IS ProRes. You can’t use your DSLR footage in the timeline. Have to convert it to ProRes first. The footage is h.264 codec. Doesn’t work.

And if you do need another drive, get one that has two ports on the back and daisy chain them.

[Todd Bunner]

Here are some suggestions to add to what others have said above;

Use ProRes Codec. Think about using separate drives for a) store footage on one drive, b) set cache/render settings on a separate drive. Buy faster hard drives (7200rpm minimum). Look into RAIDing two drives together for speed if needed.

If all else fails, get a better computer; processing speed and memory of MacPro > iMac or Macbook pro. (**astericks on the MacPro vs iMac, considering Apple hasn’t updated their pro line in years and MacPro is still buzzing on SATA II when the new iMacs got SATA III capability, lol.)