Ways to reduce render times

[Robb Harriss]

we’d need some more information, because what you’re describing is not necessarily out of the norm.
What are you trying to render to? What format, what codec? And what frame size? There are a number of things you might do. And are you talking a MacPro with 8 cores? That’s what I took for 2×2.8 quad. And 14 GB is a lot of ram, but it will let you use Qmaster quite nicely.

Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.

[Anthony Faulkner]

Im rendering for playback.
its an 8 core mac.

its a 1920×1080 XD cam sequence.

Thanks for any help

[Robb Harriss]

Playback? You mean to play it back within Final cut at full resolution with all the effects and transitions rendered? Or playback to lay it off to tape? Or playback as some file type off a computer, or playback off the web?

Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.

[Anthony Faulkner]

within FCP. I am not trying to output it, i am mid edit.

[Robb Harriss]

ah, that’s different then. The “render bars” come up with you have too much going on for the system to handle. Starting at the begging it’s best to work with one of the “offline” formats, like ProRes Proxy. And make sure all your footage is the “same.” that is the same format. If you mix formats you’re much more likely to have to render a section. Audio coming in should be the same as your timeline (sequence) settings. I always forget that and drag 44.1 audio into my 48K timelines. Just a small pain.
Does that explain anything?

Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.

[Rafael Amador]

Anthony,
Set your sequence to Prores or “Render Prores”.
As long as you continue rendering to XDCAM (MPEG-2) the render will always take LONG.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Mark Maness]

Either way you go, FCP has had issues with long render times using the 1440×1080 frame size. Whether you’re rendering in XDCAM HD or ProRes422, it still takes a long time to render.

By the way, as an aside to all of this, ProRes422 is a full raster 1920×1080 codec. When using it with XDCAM HD, FCP has to render in 1440×1080. Basically a non-standard ProRes422 render. I think this throws FCP for a loop and takes a long time for renders.

The reason I say this is because, when I’m working with ProRes422 from the beginning (capture and edit), my render times aren’t near as long as with the XDCAM HD to ProRes422 rendering.

But, all in all, the output looks absolutely stunning.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
schazamproductions@mac.com

[Rafael Amador]

[Wayne Carey] “By the way, as an aside to all of this, ProRes422 is a full raster 1920×1080 codec. When using it with XDCAM HD, FCP has to render in 1440×1080. Basically a non-standard ProRes422 render”
1440×1080 is fully supported by Prores.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Mark Maness]

[Rafael Amador] “1440×1080 is fully supported by Prores.”

Well… Sort of….

Just try a test. Import in some XDCAM HD footage, place a couple of filters on top and render to ProRes422. Now… Take that footage and capture using ProRes422 (1920×1080), place the same filter package on it and render.

Take notice of the render times. The XDCAM HD to ProRes422 should be longer render times (much longer on our systems).

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
schazamproductions@mac.com

[Anthony Faulkner]

Thanks guys,

so I have a new 5.20min sequence(1920×1080). now set to pro res (QT settings and render settings.) I made a copy of the timeline and placed it in an XD cam sequence of the same size.

the footage has nothing but color smoother, chroma keyer and 8pt garbage matte.

BOTH are telling me the entire render for playback will be 27/28 minutes.

Im not sure by what you mean by capture as prores422. I use sony’s XDcam transfer tool and it doesnt seem to have any options for changing codecs.

Thanks again for any help.