Jittery Video with Canon 5D Footage

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

Jittery Video with Canon 5D Footage

Posted by Edward Neary on September 16, 2011 at 2:37 pm

Hello,

I have been filming with the Canon 5D MK II for video at 30P. I’ve imported the footage via Log & Transfer as Apple Pro Res 422 and the footage looks good.

The trouble I’m having seems to be with playback on my timeline, in the canvas or the viewer. If I try to play a clip as short as 10 seconds the video gets jittery, pauses and jumps forward a few seconds. I can edit the clips but I have to constantly stop the clip and then start again until it pauses. It’s a pain and I’m certain hours are being wasted.

I am editing on two Macs: Mac Pro & Mac Book Pro

1. Mac Pro:

Version: 10.6.8

Processor 2 X 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 10GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
4 Cores
L2 Cache (per processor) 4MB
Bus Speed 1.33 GHz
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
Type: GPU
Bus: PCle
VRAM (Total) 16384 MB

2. Mac Book Pro 5,2:

Version: 10.6.8

Processor 3.06 GHzCore Intel Core Duo
Memory 8GB 1067 MHz DDR3
2 Cores
L2 Cache 6MB
Bus Speed 1.07 GHz
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCle
VRAM (Total) 256 MB

I edit with FCP 70.4 and use external hard drives with a substantial amount of free space on the drives. Speed of external drives is 7200.

Do I need a faster processor and is that even possible?

Thanks,
Ed

Steve Eisen replied 14 years, 8 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
3 Replies

Shane Ross
September 16, 2011 at 4:32 pm

He said he used Log and Transfer to convert to ProRes 422…so that is done.

But my question is, what SORT of external hard drives are you using? How are they connected? How are they formatted? They need to be at least Firewire 800.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def
Edward Neary
September 16, 2011 at 10:14 pm

Thanks Shane,

I’m using several kinds and all connected via Firewire 800.

LaCie 1TB Rugged Triple Interface USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive
* Capacity of 1TB
* USB 3.0 for Windows & Mac Computers
* Max Data Transfer Rate of Up to 80MB/s
* FireWire 800 & 400
* 5400rpm Disk Speed
* AES 256-Bit Encryption
* LaCie Backup Software
* 10GB of Online Storage

Mac OS Extended Journaled is the formatting

Ed

LACIE: 500GB Rugged Triple Interface Portable Hard Drive

* FireWire-800
* FireWire-400
* USB 2.0
* 7200rpm

G-Technology 2TB G-Drive External Hard Drive

2TB
Interface 1x eSATA
1x USB 2.0 (mini-B)
2x 9-Pin FireWire-800
Drive Speed 7200rpm
Buffer ≤ 32MB
Average Seek Time Not Specified by Manufacturer
Sustained Data Transfer Rate eSATA: 85MB/sec
USB 2.0: 33MB/sec
FireWire-400: 38MB/sec
FireWire-800: 61MB/sec

Drobo 4-Bay Hard Drive Array Enclosure
Product Highlights

* FireWire 800 Interface
* USB 2.0 Interface
* Write Transfer Rates Up to 34MB/s
* Read Transfer Rates Up to 52MB/s
* BeyondRAID Data Protection
* Single Drive Redundancy
* Supports Drives Up to 2TB in Size
* Drobo Dashboard 2.0 via Update

Those are the main drives I use. It’s happened with all of them.
Steve Eisen
September 17, 2011 at 2:45 am

Get an esta RAID and you won’t skip frames. FW800 is bare minimum. Daisy chain them and you just choked your system.

Don’t use Drobo for editing

G-Tech drive conected via esata is your best option.

Get an Express34 esata card for your Mac Book Pro and install a good esata card in your Mac Pro.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

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