[Erik Lindahl]

We’ve found instances where faulty media (at least how Adobe reads and writes it) can cause crazy render times. We’re talking 45 min render time for 15 seconds of footage where we only want to remove one frame of black. Should take seconds to export.

The solution in our case is changing the output format. We’ve had the issue happen with both ProRes 4444 to ProRes 444 and with ProRes 422HQ to ProRes 422HQ. It sounds like you’re using MFX as you source, however, if your render files in the sequence as ProRes and you’re outputing to the render format, you might have the same issue as we do.

What I’ve ended up doing is either:
a) Re-endcode my input source
b) Change output format

[Erik Lindahl]

I’m using a 2013 MacPro, 8-core, 64GB RAM, 1TB internal SSD, 1TB externa TB2 SSD + 24TB Raid-5 storeage over TB2. All disks clock at around 1000 MB/s. We’re using a UltraStudio 4K for playback. FCPX has a clear lag when playing / stopping in both the timeline and in the browser / library.

I’ve seen the same issue on a 2012 iMac and 2011 MacBook Pro with a smaller BlackMagic TB1 i/o device as well as a 2008 MacPro with a Kona 3 card. All this on everything from MacOS 10.8.x to 10.9.4 with a variety of FCPX releases.

It’s not the hardware, it’s FCPX that simply has some odd overhead / lag even when doing straight cuts / edits.

If I turn OFF A/V output there is zero lag on all the above machines. But then I’m looking at a computer screen preview not a reference monitor preview. Hard to do color critical or editorial decisions then.

[Erik Lindahl]

I’d be very happy if FCPX didn’t lag so damn much with playback via video interface. Premier Pro or FCP7 doesn’t have that issue.

[Erik Lindahl]

By far the best way to convert 25p to 24p is playing the entire feature 4% slow, keeping your “real” frames and also pitch-correcting the audio for this slow-down. The only negative side is that the length of the movie is extended.

[Erik Lindahl]

In the sequence settings you can choose something in the line of “render at maximum quality and bit depth”. It’s two seperate check-boxes.

In AE you set the project to 8 / 16 / 32 bpp.

[Erik Lindahl]

I don’t know the answer but have you set up both the premier sequence and AE comp to use 16-bit or greater depth?

Dynamic link would truly suck if limited to 8-bpp.

[Erik Lindahl]

What’s the original footage’s format / codec?

[Erik Lindahl]

11 years of slow, public, development and say 3 years in closed development it’s enough for some mature tasty wine…? 🙂

[Erik Lindahl]

In reality I’m often limited by the color-tools in FCP7 and FCPX has the up-side of being able to do static mattes but no keyframes or tracking options (yes there are some third party effects that sort of solve this). Almost every single project we do goes though a color pipeline, be that Apple Color or DaVinci Resolve, the built in tools in most NLE’s are vastly sub-par when it comes to detailed color work. Premiere Pro is going towards more advanced features given the mask-tracking soutions Adobe has chosen is idiotically implemented and pretty useless compared to doing a proper track / matte through Mocha (which takes times / is cumber sum) hence a tool like Resolve with this built in is amazing.

Do note we work in high-end commercials. I can spend a few days dealing with a few 30s spots. Most of our projects need a lot of color work. Most of our projects need the best quality for the job (with-in reason). Here for example doing title work takes a little longer in After Effects but you get it perfect here, the same goes for color in a tool like Resolve.

But it’s also a question of work-flow. Doing say reality TV or longer-form projects with a lot of changes and / or not as high requirements on color / grade / look I’d probably not leave my NLE. When we do case- or behind the scenes films we tend to stick to FCP7. When we do commercials or short-film work we always go through the proper tools for the job.

Resolve I would pretty much think kick everything Premiere has to offer out of the water except for the fact you do have effects built into your NLE and possibly the fact that Premiere has some interesting third-party tools. But for pure color-related work, there is no contest. This is where the question for me arrises how much of the NLE-part can Resolve handle vs how much color can my NLE-handel. The color board in FCPX is from my tests far better than the 3-way color corrector in Premiere Pro. FCPX however seem to lack a lot of standard tools I’d take for granted in a grade / finishing scenario – Hue / Sat Curves and RGB Curves to state a few.

Another part of finishing is conforming. Here FCPX is from my experience extremely poor and far to picky / buggy about formats and relinking procedures. The fact Apple seems to break internal project structures every other version doesn’t make it feel more “stable” in this regard. Premiere Pro has it’s quirks but it’s vastly better. I’d imagine Resolve is similar or better than Premiere Pro. The later does however have a decent link to After Effects for compositing work which again in some situations is a key / vital part of the finishing stage of a project.

So… My question remains really what Resolve can handle outside of hard core color work. IF the NLE-part of Resolve is more stable / fluid / solid compared to previous versions and it truly is a decent editor, it surely could become a very solid finish system.

[Erik Lindahl]

It really depends on what and how you do things. We “online” or “finish” in FCP7 but quite little is done in the actual app. Color Correction comes from Color primarily, visual effects and titles comes from After Effects.

In our case Resolve could potentially replace FCP7 and have a vastly more powerful color tool built in (it’s a color tool with an editor). Color is the no 1 change I see being done, other effects like skyreplacment or pure retouch / paint work requires more than any mentioned NLE hence we’d still round-trip to either After Effects or Nuke.

The keyframe tools in FCPX are sad as they limit the app for finishing work. One can’t do beizer based in/outs, some vital parameters can’t even be animated (color correction!!!). PrPro is vastly better on the keyframe side, though it has some terrible CC filters and GUI issues instead… Since Speed Grade still is a seperate app, the round-trip feature still has some limitations and performance concerns I’m not sure that’s they route for many either. Work with PrPro > AE > Speed Grade isn’t as transparent as one would hope.

So… Resolve does have some potential.