Tip for Sparse Bundle workflows

[Daniel Bernard]

Have you been working for a while with FCPX and Sparse bundles?

I was the first workflow we worked on at my job but we ended up changing how we manage things around. Quick test with Harddrive test speed software (like the one from blackmagic) showed us that the Read/Write speed on Sparse Bundles was dramatically slower than on the disk itself, therefore making FCPX runs much much slower.

I am curious about your experience with such a workflow since space bundles seems like a good solution to manage Events within FCPX.

Thanks

EDIT: Maybe I shoud mention we’re often working on pretty big project with hundreds of clips, effects, overlays, etc…

[John Davidson]

Andreas Kiel is kind of the expert of SDI’s, in my humble opinion. He weighed in on the speed loss you’re referring to here:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/344/19457

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[Brett Sherman]

I have been working for awhile with Sparse Bundles. I haven’t noticed a big difference in speed. When I measure it, disk speed might go from 100 MB/s to 93 MB/s. For me that’s not a big deal. Management of projects is so much easier with Sparse Bundles and FCP X launching speed is A LOT faster. So I’m willing to trade off some speed. We’re also moving to centralized storage where Sparse Bundles will be necessary until Apple comes up with a better collaborative workflow.

I tend to have projects that primarily use one Event. However, I’m currently working on a Year in Review video that will pull from dozens of bundles. I don’t know if having multiple Sparse Bundles on the same drive negatively impacts performance.

[Daniel Bernard]

Thanks to you both, I find it interesting to hear about other’s experience with such a workflow.

Andreas Kiel says it’s only a little slower, when the test speed from HDD speed test from Black magic gave me results which were around 30% slower. I’ve read that those test software aren,t always right, i guess it’s a clear case here.

And you write
“I tend to have projects that primarily use one Event. However, I’m currently working on a Year in Review video that will pull from dozens of bundles. I don’t know if having multiple Sparse Bundles on the same drive negatively impacts performance.”

That is VERY interesting. The project the editor was working on had 5 bundles from the same drive, with each contained a certain numbers of events. It may be that more than the sparse bundle themselves that slowed things down.

I find it odd though that it took twice of thrice as much times with the sparse bundle solution than the one we use right one. Does the software used to generate sparse bundle could make the difference?

Thanks

[Andreas Kiel]

sparse bundles are kind of directories like any app is
so read/write doesn’t differ that much from from that read/write speed of the volume/drive they reside on.
having multiple sparse bundles on the drive and all are mounted (and used) is kind of the same thing like multiple streams in fcpx. accessing media (or in this case files inside a sparse bundle folder) do have the same limitations as any file/folder on a drive.
the big advantage of sparse bundles is that organizing events/projects in fcpx is way easier — and that will make fcpx faster since there is less memory/resources needed while fcpx is running.
i will post some screen shots from the bmd speed test tomorrow when i got access to a real computer.

-andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

[Daniel Bernard]

Thank you, I’d be curious. What HDD speed test software do you use to make those tests?
I may try my tests again with the Blackmagic one and post the results.

[Andreas Kiel]

i used the blackmagic speed test.

-andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

[Andreas Kiel]

I made some tests this morning in my “not state of the art” home office.

-Andreas

https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/DMGs/DMG%20Speed.pdf

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

[Jason Jenkins]

I noticed the speed difference before, but I just did a quick test again:

AJA System Test

Volume: Promise Pegasus R6
Video Frame Size: 1920×1080
File Size: 1.0 GB
Write: 317.7 MB/s
Read: 446.8 MB/s

Volume: 20 GB Sparse Bundle on Promise Pegasus R6
Video Frame Size: 1920×1080
File Size: 1.0 GB
Write: 266.0 MB/s
Read: 236.7 MB/s

Quite a bit slower, but for my work I don’t think it’s a performance factor. I edit mostly native AVCHD and render out to ProRes LT or H.264.

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

Check out my Mormon.org profile.