Need Advice: How to speed Export

[Jeff Meyer]

Warning: you have to jump through hoops to install FCP6 on a Lion system. I have no idea if it installs on Mountain Lion – which a new iMac would ship with.

Warning: new iMacs lack an optical drive. Make sure you buy an external drive – someday it’ll fiend you if you don’t.

Suspicion: I highly doubt you’re looking at 1/4 on the export time. I did this very thing with a 12 core MacPro moving files from one RAID-5 drive to another RAID-5 drive. New iMacs are faster, but my experience with a very well speced MacPro suggests that it’s Final Cut Pro that’s really dragging you down. This is why they made FCX, which probably lacks a timecode reader. If you go the iMac route make sure you get fast Thunderbolt storage, such as a G-Tech G-RAID – half the cost of the computer.

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It sounds like you’re simply adding timecode to a talking head? Maybe talking heads?
• Consider using Final Cut’s Batch Export function to convert all your clips to ProRes/DVCPRO HD in one shot. Build a sequence for each clip/person, add the filter, then batch export the sequences while you go to lunch/leave for the night. Batch Export (by default) exports to the Render Files in your scratch folder. After you have QT movies with a timecode burn, the $100 Matrox card will make H.264 encodes in real time.

• Consider using Compressor’s Time Code Generator to add a timecode burn and compress your raw clips in a single step. The Timecode Generator is in the Filters -> Video area of the Inspector window. If you have fast storage and a lot of RAM, a QuickCluster might be helpful here. Google is your friend. Bear in mind this is a timecode generator, not a timecode reader.

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Just as new iMacs have happened, a new generation of professional Mac is supposedly in the pipeline for the next calendar year. Perhaps one of the two workflow suggestions above can hold you over until Apple has a current, professional product on the market – hardware and software.

[Michael Gissing]

Step one export a self contained QuickTime using current settings.

Open file in Compressor and make the h264 using the time code burn in option. Compressor uses all cores and will compress at a much faster speed than QuickTime conversion from FCP.

Making the file smaller can take longer as the file has to scale down. You can keep working while the file converts in the background. Yes accelerators like Elgato or Matrox will further speed things up.