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slow video in FCP, not matching audio
Hello folks. I’m editing a movie in FCP 6.0.1 on a Macbook Pro. The video has been imported from a Sony HD camcorder (1920×1080). Interestingly, the clips show as 2560×1080 when imported into FCP (using Log & Transfer). Not sure why that is, but when burned to DVD they look fine to me. Clips are imported using the Apple ProRes 422 encoder. This is our 2nd movie with this setup
We had been editing the movie fine, looked pretty good, but for some reason now the video clips seem to play “stuttered” (almost like in slow-motion). The audio plays fine but the video does not match, it’s like frames are being dropped. Possibly this is related to the “RT” tab at the top-left of the timeline (choices: Full Quality, Playback settings). We modified this and I think this is when the problem started. But no matter what we change it to we can’t get the video fixed. Something fundamental seems to have changed the clips because opening up an older project file (referencing same clips) I get the same weird effects.
One other thing – when opening the project file in FCP it states that some of the render files are missing so we need to either Reconnect or work Offline. I don’t know what caused this to happen and not sure if it’s related to the video issue. But one time when opening the project I selected “Reconnect” and then “Quit” and then played some clips from the timeline – no problem with the audio/video! But now it is broken and the above sequence does nothing.
Would greatly appreciate any help!
Thanks!
-Jason -
4 Replies
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Jason,
More than anything it sounds like a playback issue. The log & transfer clips at 2560×1080 take a lot more processing power for playback as FCP has to process real-time rendering to play back the 1920×1080 timeline. The clips which playback fine were also 2560×1080 or were they 1920×1080? That’s where I’d start, but the stuttering is a dead give away that the processor just can’t keep up with the playback speed.
Josh
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The 2560×1080 clips played fine before. Note: I think this is a FCP bug where the size shows 2560 instead of 1920, see note here that says FCP 6.0.4 fixed this issue: https://seansense.net/2008/03/26/sony-hdr-sr11-first-impressions-review
It’s possible the issue is processor thruput, but since the last movie we did worked fine (and lots more clips and audio streams) I’m having a hard time believing that. I did run across the FCP 6.0.6 release note that says:
Improved Real-Time Playback on Certain Mac Pro and Xserve Models
Final Cut Pro 6.0.6 improves real-time playback capabilities with Mac Pro (Early 2009) models and Xserve (Early 2009) models when working with complex sequences or high-bandwidth media formats.but I’m using a Macbook Pro, not a Mac Pro.
We imported the 4 clips again for this movie into a new project and all is well, but if it happens again I’ll be really frustrated because I don’t know how to recover.
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yeah, might just be a bug of some kind. Did you check your auto-save vault? Maybe there’s a file in there that isn’t corrupted, or even a “save as” command. I’m not sure. I don’t know where you’re pulling the media from, but if it’s on an external drive that could also be related. I know that drives like to function with 20% free capacity so as they move data around to deliver it, they don’t start tripping over themselves. Not sure, but something to keep in mind for the dreaded “next time.”
Good luck Jason.
Josh
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Thanks Josh. The external drive with all the footage is about 83% full (1TB Seagate Freeagent using FW800) so possibly that is a factor. But so far no issues after 3 days of editing using the re-imported clips (crossing fingers!).
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