[Matt Lyon]

Hi Robb,

Did you try changing your “cluster options” in the compressor prefs to “never copy source to cluster”?

That will ensure that Compressor doesn’t try to copy your source files to your “virtual cluster storage,” and you shouldn’t get that message. (Not to mention it’ll be faster).

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Michael, maybe you already know this, but you can also mark an ‘in and out’ in the timeline, deselect all, then hit ‘command-r’ to render just that section. You may need to change what is checked off in the “sequence>render selection” pulldown menu to force the render though.

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Hi Wayne, in what situations are you getting a speed improvement? I didn’t get much of a difference doing a couple tests with either “normal” exports or “using quicktime conversion.” I’m on FCP 6 though … not sure if it matters.

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Did I understand this test correctly? They downloaded some h264 half res HD footage and re-compressed it to h264 HD DVD?

Also, they only did one trial for each test?

Sorry to be a grump, but these results aren’t really scientific. I’d be more interested on seeing some tests encoding pro res or uncompressed footage to h264. Also, there is lots of overhead that compressor has to do when encoding on a virtual cluster (splitting up clips and re-combining), so running tests on such a short clip (2min) is problematic. I’d be interested in seeing come comparisons of batches of longer materials (10 minutes and above).

I’m not saying these numbers aren’t alarming … but these tests are a little sloppy, imho.

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

cool, thanks for the clarification. I have to say, I’m stumped though 🙂

If this odd behavior happens in other projects, with different media, I’d say the problem is with your machine or install of FCP.

If the problem is confined to just this project, I’d say the issue is more likely something to do with some bad media (be it camera footage or render files or cache files).

Anyway, please let us know if you manage to solve it!
Thanks,

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

“Does HD just take a lot longer?”

Absolutely it does, especially on a G5 (that’s the machine you are using, I think).

More info in your original post would have helped … like the fact you are exporting HD. You also didn’t mention any of the specs of your timeline (codec, frame rate, etc).

Because you are using the “best” setting in the h264 options, FCP is doing a two pass encode, which also adds significant time to the process. Were you using different settings when you did your earlier, faster exports?

The RAM usage you mentioned is normal, FCP never uses more then 2.5 gigs … as has been mentioned many, many times on the forum 🙂 But that shouldn’t matter, exporting video is mostly a processor intensive tasks, not a RAM intensive task. Unless: sometimes I see the out of memory error if I have an insanely huge still graphic in the timeline, or PSD file with tons of layers. Could that be the culprit? Maybe FCP is having trouble caching too many layers of graphic files at once. A little cleanup/flattening/optimization of you graphic layers might be in order, if its possible.

A workaround might be to export a self contained quicktime using “current sequence settings,” then open that in QT player or compressor and then do the h264 encode. Compressor can do the de-interlacing you require. But at the end of the day you can’t get around the fact that h264 is computationally intensive and you have an older machine.

Hope this helps,

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

copying your sequence into a new project is not the same as copying the CONTENTS of your timeline into a new timeline. Try that and see if it makes a difference.

Also, do you know what clip(s) is causing the “searching for data in movie file”? Do you have quicktime files that contain references to other media?

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Maybe you’ve already tried this, but what about doing the following:

-make a new sequence, with settings that match the problem sequence
-select all the clips in your problem timeline, then copy and paste them into your new timeline.

Sometimes I find a sequence gets corrupt and doing the above wipes the slate clean, so to speak. Might not help in your situation, but it’s worked for me in the past when there seem to be gremlins creeping into the timeline.

Hope this helps,

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Hi Deborah, if I’m following you correctly, you are exporting your video in two steps? Why don’t you export directly from your timeline using “File>Export>Using Quicktime Conversion…” (Or use Compressor, for that matter).

But if you are getting out of memory errors, there could also be an issue with some of the clips or render files in your timeline. Have you tried deleting your render cache? Are there lots of graphics in your timeline? Could one of them be corrupt? Do you have any other projects on the go that you can do a test export with? If you can export other materials without trouble, then that would point to an issue with the one specific timeline.

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto

[Matt Lyon]

Hi Jim,

Although audio files are sample rate based, not frame rate based, Final Cut will assign a frame rate to AIFF files when you import them, based on the default sequence preset you have selected in the Audio/Video Settings. My hunch is you had a 25 fps sequence set as your default when you imported your file, which caused problems when you tried to put it in a 23.98 sequence.

Next time you import AIFF files, make sure you set your default sequence preset (or your “easy setup” for that matter) to match your working timeline settings and you should be good to go. Here’s some other threads on this with more info:

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/986611#986644
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1070161#1070182

Hope this helps,

Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto