Importing P2 footage slows eveything

[Fernando Mol]

I just copied the folder from the P2 card to the hard drive (mounted the card via USB, drag and drop). Didn’t do any conversion or used any software.

The files are MXF. I imported the full folder from the hard drive to the project in AE.

I did the same in Premiere and it seems to work fine. That’s why I thought it was something with my preferences in AE.

I’m feeling a little embarrassed. I’m doing everything wrong?

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[Fernando Mol]

It seems that it is what it is. AE CS4 supports native MXF but at least in my system it still use a lot of resources just to have the footage available in the project.

I used to work on a Mac with Final Cut and the work flow never was compromised when using the ingested media in After Effects. But, as you mentioned, the Mac files are quicktime.

Maybe CS5, with all the promises on the better performance, can manage better the imported MXF files. We’ll see.

Thanks again for the useful help, Dave.

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[Fernando Mol]

Agree with the common “container” problem. I forgot to mention the footage codec is DVCPRO HD (720 30PN), recorded on an AG-HPX170.

That shouldn’t give any problems to AE. Right?

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[Fernando Mol]

I think the performance issue is fixed now. It was as you mentioned, Dave, not an After Effects issue. It seems it was a hardware problem, so basic I feel a little embarrassed.

I have a working 1 TB raid disk and it was not close to be full, but it was more than a half full. I did some backups and cleanups and now it has more than a half free space. Not a big difference in space (free 442 GB vs free 627 GB) but the performance in AE is much better now.

Some time ago I read somewhere that hard disks performance could drop down when half of the disk is full, but I didn’t experienced it before. I’m not 100% sure of my diagnostic, but After Effects is working fine now.

You’re right about the codec issue. A year ago I had that problem, when a client asked me for a file in quicktime with DVCPRO HD. I didn’t have the codec then, but I have now (came with the camera).

I’m glad After Effects is running smoothly now. Just in time to start the week.

Thanks again for your time and your useful help, Dave.

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