Performance tips for FCP7?

[Philipp Hampl]

Have you tried Sequence settings: prores (not hq), sequence rendering prores and 8bit.

[Chris Tompkins]

Work with lesser quality media (I know, not an option)
Work on a Faster computer (Not your question)

You can add more ram…

If a new computer is in your thoughts, hang on to Spring to see what Apple is going to do with their Pro line…

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Tony Brittan]

HQ is overkill and will only make things miserable most of the time. It’s intended for RED (or other) types…2k-4k…of footage.

Just use plain ol Prores. It’s awesome. If you’re worried about graphics, it handles them perfectly. Your render times will always be high if you export graphics as the animation codec and then put them into an FCP timeline that doesn’t match. Try exporting them as Prores so that they match your sequence. If you’re using transparency in them, you’ll wanna use Prores 4444 or whatever it’s so that you can keep the alpha channel you’ll have to render those but it willbe much quicker than animation codec.

[Jerry Hofmann]

The animation likely will look the same in any flavor of ProRes other than Proxy… so turn those into ProRes 422 or even try LT (might look just fine actually). But judge it externally for sure. The only thing that HQ improves is fast action shots, where the camera is moving a lot or the subject is. Otherwise it’s just a larger file. LT is broadcast quality video BTW… That would speed things up a lot if you can use it, but even going to ProRes 4:2:2 would speed things up. Animations are usually easier to compress because they don’t have all that much detail in them typically.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann

Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup

8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.

[Joseph Hung]

I agree with everyone here. Animation codec is so hugely cumbersome. It’s antiquated, use ProRes 4444 if you can. Dropping to ProRes 422 should speed things up too. Another factor could be the scratch disk. Are you working directly off your SSDs within the tower? That could be the problem too. If you can, an external RAID5 array via high speeed interfaces, meaning a hardware RAID card could really help. Striping internally via Disk Utility means it’s a software based RAID and that eats up alot of your CPU power. A hardware RAID card takes alot of computing off of your computer CPU and does it on the card, and will likely speed things up a little bit. But of course, our computers can only be pushed so far.
If your scratch where you keep all of your files is external, but connected eSATA or FW800, still may not be the most optimal. I was able to stretch out my MacPro power by building a DIY RAID 5 via Mini SAS and a RocketRaid card. Works incredibly well for me so far, under heavy loads, for real time editing. I think it definitely sped things up a little bit in the rendering department, but rendering still falls alot onto the MP CPUs. Eventually I’m going to upgrade to a much faster MP, as long as Apple doesn’t kill it altogether.

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A, Canon 5DMKII, 7D

[Rob Ainscough]

Thanks for the posts all.

Ran some testing: when from ProRes 422 HQ to ProRes 422 LT and (RGB and 10bit YUV) here are my results (timed on with stopwatch)

22 second sequence (min:secs)
ProRes 422 LT = 13:12.7
ProRes 422 LT RGB = 13:09.5
ProRes 422 HQ = 13.24.2
ProRes 422 HQ RGB = 13.19.6

5 second sequence
ProRes 422 LT = 6:04.9
ProRes 422 LT RGB = 6:03.1
ProRes 422 HQ = 6:08.3
ProRes 422 HQ RGB = 6:06.2

Test sequence has 24 video tracks. It might be that I need to move this sequence over to Motion and do it from there … but I’m not sure Motion will do it any faster and it adds a layer in my workflow.

As far as RAID — I ran the same 5 second sequence tests onto SSD, software RAID HD’s, and a single standard HD and the difference across them was 1-2% variance … so obviously the rendering isn’t HD dependent, seems to be purely CPU dependent.

Future of the MacPro line is definitely “in doubt” and hence why I’m trying to push thru with what I have right now, but it’s painfully slow (especially when compared to Adobe on a my Windows 7 box running on a i7 4 core processor). Can’t really “wait until spring” for a “possible” new MacPro lineup from Apple or lack there of a MacPro lineup — I know how Apple operate when it comes to providing future information … someone needs to give the Apple execs a hint that their paranoia is NOT what made them return to success 😉

Rob

[Jerry Hofmann]

Hang in there, and thanks for the test results!

24 layers of video isn’t going render faster in much of any codec… LOL… Motion is likely not a ton faster, but maybe…

Render time depends on what filters/compositing we’re talking about using which codec. I see it doesn’t matter much with file size when it comes to ProRes. Thanks for that info. But I don’t think that any other codec will render faster than ProRes most likely…

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann

Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup

8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.

[Joseph Hung]

Software RAID control is still being administered by the computer’s CPUs. A hardware based card will have it’s own CPU to administer the RAID control and throughput, so in my case, I think it sped things up a little in rendering (I keep everything on the scratch, render files, capture, etc, and the project file on my startup disk), but I never tested it, just noticing the difference through usage.
I think if you moved your scratch externally and connecting via card and high speed interface you might see an improvement. Of course this costs $$$ to do, and based on a hunch? I don’t have hard numbers, I just have observations.
The difference in times seems negligible, and something you might just have to live with. My only question is why 22 video tracks? Not sure if this would make a difference, but maybe collapsing down to as few video tracks as possible? Coupled with codec change, and there might be a bigger difference? The more video tracks being used also dictates throughput and real time editing.
In the end, faster CPUs, cores, etc is the answer I think. I’m toying with the plan of upgrading to the fastest tower that I can afford and let that ride for as long as possible. My current setup is dependent on compatibility, and I’m afraid that I’ll have to rebuild the RAID, cards, etc. if anything changes with the MP, whether it be form factor rumors or a complete halt to the line. I’m hoping that I can hold out with the rumored “last” MP compatible with my current setup and by the time I need to upgrade I’ll be in a position to do a complete hardware rebuild.

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Canon 5DMKII, 7D, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A

[Rob Ainscough]

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for response. I have a Matrox HD H.264 card installed and a Black Magic Intensity card installed. If I select the Matrox H.264 as the codec and try to render it just flashes an error and returns me to the timeline … the Matrox H.264 seems to only work on Exporting of sequence.

However, if I select the Black Magic 10bit RGB for codec I get 22 second sequence down to 8:05, about a 25% improvement. However output is not as good but can live with it and then switch to final codec once the sequence is complete.

Oh yeah, nothing to fancy, Boris Vector Shape and Boris Title 3D, some 3D world animation done in Cinema 4D imported as QT and some basic transitions.

Rob

[Jerry Hofmann]

It’s amazing the render time difference between X and FCP 7. Even on a fast machine X smokes 7… background rendering isn’t all the story either don’t think. I believe it actually renders about twice as fast.

That said, you’re plan looks like it will get you through even though the render times are painful.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann

Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup

8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.