How long can a sequence be?

[Shane Ross]

I’ve had a 5 hour sequence before…that’s the longest I got. It was a combination of the same show, but 4 different versions of it.

Shane
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[Melissa]

Just to be clear, I don’t mean how long FCP will actually let a sequence be. Is 5 hours the limit for having a sequence that playback and edits with out causing a fuss to the system?

Thanks!

[Shane Ross]

Depends…what computer are you using? How much RAM? What OS? What sort of drive is the media stored on? Connected how?

Things will get slower the longer the sequence…but mainly in the time it takes to load it. Project Size is a factor in slow down.

Shane
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[Melissa]

We are working from 2 or 3 machines. The lesser of the bunch is a MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM with OS 10.7.5

Our media is stored on a few external hardrives, mostly G-Tech drives that are connected with firewire 800. Some are daisy-chained, others are plugged directly into the machine. (Actually, that would be the case for our more powerful tower. In the case of the macbook, all but one are daisy-chained.)

Thanks.

[Shane Ross]

Things might get slowish if using FW800 drives. That’s the lowest end connection recommended for ProRes. WHEN will it get slowish? Not sure. I did that 5 hour timeline on my 2008 MacBook Pro. My newer one is better.

Shane
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[Melissa]

What connection would you recommend for ProRes? (In an ideal world..)

[Shane Ross]

FW800 is fine…but ideally eSATA or Thunderbolt.

Shane
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