Sluggish Timeline in FCP 6.0

[Jerry Hofmann]

Post your Mac’s configuration. CPU, RAM, OS, QT… and how many edits are in this sequence.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

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 MXO, CD’s

[Arnie Schlissel]

[Chris Bryan] “Quicktime: 960X540 uncompressed”

That’s not a standard size for any film or video use, and is not native to any format that FCP supports.

[Chris Bryan] “WMV – any size.”

WMV is not really a supported format for FCP. You should try to convert those to some standard size QT file.

Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/

[Chris Bryan]

I’m running FCP 6 on an Imac
2.4 ghz intl core 2 duo
2 gb ram.

960×540 is commonly used on the web for “hd” quality videos, it’s half resolution of 1920×1080.

My understanding is that FCP supports wmv use. I know it’s not the best source to use, but that’s what the client gave me. Converting the wmv source file to quicktime will add another layer of encoding, and I’d rather not do that.

I realized that I had a sequence with both .avi and .wmv in it. It seems that mixing the two formats was most of what was making the playback slugggish.

[Mark Maness]

What is the original codecs used?

I ask because if the video is already half scale – another compression isn’t going to hurt it much if you use something like ProRes422.

FCP doesn’t play well with WMV and AVI files. They can be made to import but not good for editing entirely. Convert to something more friendly and every will run much better.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[David Bogie]

[Chris Bryan] “960×540 is commonly used on the web for “hd” quality videos, it’s half resolution of 1920×1080. “

You shouldn’t be doing your scaling in FCP. work in the native format and do your frame conversions at the output stage using Compressor or some other transocder.

[Chris Bryan] “My understanding is that FCP supports wmv use. I know it’s not the best source to use, but that’s what the client gave me. Converting the wmv source file to quicktime will add another layer of encoding, and I’d rather not do that. “

You were misinformed. QT can transcode WMV on the fly with a plugin from Flip4Mac but it is not recommended that you mix formats in a timeline and expect realtime performance, too much computation happening.

The marketing hype behind the open-timeline capabilities of FCP are totally dependent on the speed of your machine. For most of us, it’s easier to convert all weird footage to a common format for assembly, even if we have to recapture or uprez later.

[Chris Bryan] “I realized that I had a sequence with both .avi and .wmv in it. It seems that mixing the two formats was most of what was making the playback slugggish.
“

Lots of things can impact your timeline performance including stuff you can’t see or find. Sometimes a simple restart will fix it, sometimes you need more in the way of help.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Jerry Hofmann]

Ditto… don’t resize until the last.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

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 MXO, CD’s

[Chris Bryan]

Thanks for all the advice, but I think my point is being missed. I am editing footage that is from the web. So my source footage is 960×540. There is no scaling being done in fcp. I work with a ton of footage from the web so it is always in abnormal formats. For me there is no getting around that. My initial question was asking if there is some setting I should look at changing within final cut so that it doesn’t have to work so hard to play the footage back within the timeline?

In a perfect world all footage would be optimized for use in FCP, but that’s not the case.

My issue was resolved by not mixing formats within one timeline.