[Michael Brown]

Hi Nick,

Q1: silly me! I tried, that’s it of course! I’m sure I’d been there before, just didn’t pay attention in setting up my user prefs 😉 Great!

Q2: I remember reading a rather old thread response in which one of you guys claimed dividing media over 2 drives helped solve that problem. So last night I cleared some unneeded footage from my media drive (it was pretty full – almost 3-1/2 TB out of 4), and that seemed to help this morning when I rebooted the whole gizmo.

Later today I realized that when the viewer is set to 4 angles, it ran very smoothly! All 4 angles had a camera applied. When I switched to 9 angles in the same sequence (hence with only 4 angles occupied), it started bogging again. I wondered whether FCP maybe couldn’t handle the information conflict of not having all angles used, so I created a multiclip with 6 angles and opened it in 9-angle view, but unfortunately it bogs as well. Now my Lacie 4TB via USB 3 has 850 Gb available. I have been told that USB3 is just as stable and faster than FW 800. Should I try running on FW via Thunderbolt instead? Is there a difference? And if I do, I sacrifice one display, since both externals use up the TB ports.

Does that make any sense? Any ideas?

Best greetings from Hamburg 😉

Michael Brown

[Michael Brown]

Thanks Christopher!

That’s more or less exactly what I wanted to hear, and if I read more such statements, I would feel safer in the choice I am making: I’ve decided to go for the more affordable iMac solution, and am getting the previous 5K model that was just replaced a couple of months ago by the new one with its advantages of still running on Yosemite and the option to upgrade to El Cap, should FCP7 turn out to run better on the latter. The difference between this system and what I’m using now is more than overwhelming enough, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be satisfied. My current project is a music doc (the making of a contemporary jazz album), for which I shot hours of live, studio and interviews, usually combining up to 7 different cameras, so I have a shit load of work ahead of me.

To whom it may concern, knowing that I may be taking a risky dive, I’m hanging on to my current MBP on the reliable Snow Leopard, so if all hell breaks loose, I can always go back to that for this project, but I hope I don’t have to and I’ll keep you folks posted on his thread.

Anyone out there who can tell me that if I migrate my FCP7 to the iMac, will I still have the license on the former MBP set-up?

Best from Hamburg (f**g rainy these days) 😉

Michael Brown

[Michael Brown]

I folks, so to sum up what I remaorked on Roger’s and Ernie’s comments earlier in the thread:

I NEED a new computer to handle the large project I’m tackling, because my otherwise very dependable MBP 15″ ist just plain to slow to accommodate so much footage, an additional external monitor, and drive multiclip editing …
I CANNOT move to FCPX because I don’t have the time to adapt to it on this project
and DON’T really have the moolah for a $7.000 MacPro set up (that would open on Yosemite, if need be).

Hence the question: FCP 7 on a 27″ iMac 5K, yes or no?

Thanks folks 😀

Michael Brown

[Michael Brown]

Hi Roger, I can in fact: I am tackling a big doc project that will take me months to edit, and I doubt my current (and beloved) MacBook Pro with it’s limited RAM and processor can handle it; besides, I want to (exceptionally) make use of multi-clip editing in this project (primarily to gain time on various aspects of it), and the MB Pro just won’t handle playback in multiclip, and I also need to use 3 monitors, which the MBP won’t deliver to. So I have no choice but to buy a decent new machine, and there I am: stuck with El Cap for an iMac (affordable and decent solution for my needs), or Maverick on a MacPro (NOT affordable!). Switching to FCPX is out of the question because I don’t have the time to adapt to it on this project. In a nutshell.

So I’d be glad for a simple answer from users who have taken the dive.

Thanks to all for so many interesting posts. It’s good to feel you’re not alone 😉

Michael Brown

[Michael Brown]

Many thanks Shane, as dependable as always 😉 But…

[Shane Ross] ” Why? Compressor has Presets for ProRes and works just fine. And you can enable QMaster to get all the processors working.”

Compressor accepts neither the BPAV folder that I copied from the SxS card, nor the MP4 File included therein. I get a warning to the affect of ‘corrupt or missing data’ or whatever it was (don’t remember by heart), but I looked into your workflow tutorial and I may have not properly copied the said folder or it may not have been copied properly (Finder procedure as you described, but not with that tool you mentioned that enables a double check). So I don’t get far enough to choose ProRes 422 LT at all. And afraid to say: no, I did NOT back it up, so the one file I have is the only one. I have to admit that I am not comfy with Compressor – for me it’s as awkward vs. other apps as is Dropbox vs. Wetransfer. Or maybe I’m doing something wrong, but what?

[Shane Ross] ” [Michael Brown] “Do you know of a software that will work on my machine and convert these files to ProRes 422LT? None of my other options accept the files (file alone or folders): Compressor, Streamclip, ClipWrap etc…””

Like I mentioned, I’m on 10.6.8 for a number of reasons, especially to maintain my workflow with FCP7 that I know well enough and wouldn’t like to lose. Or how far can I upgrade my OS without having to go for FCPX? I’ve been reading various threads that dated up to 2013 and for the most part claim FCP7 will run fine on Mountain Lion, which in turn will enable me to go for EditReady which sounds appealing.

Thanks again, looking forward to your comments 😉

Michael Brown

[Michael Brown]

Hey thanks Shane, I suspected so much, But it might be interesting to note that I found a rather simple solution: I got curious as to whether specific items on my timeline were giving me trouble, and just out of curiosity I shut off a music track and bingo! Sound seems to be a major issue! When playback begins to stutter, all I have to do is render audio (which goes a lot faster than video of course), and playback is then smooth. My video sometimes asks for rendering (green) because I also mix frame rates (25/50) and I’m working on 50 fps sequences (intentionally for much smoother results due to shutter speeds & fixed focal lenses etc).

Maybe you have an idea as to why the sound is so relevant. I do import it @ 48 KHz 32-bit floating point, and the timeline doesn’t appear to require audio rendering, but when I do so anyway, audio indeed renders.

I’ll have learned from this experience. If you get around to giving this sound thing a second thought, I’d be interested.

Take care and many thanks!

Michael Brown

[Michael Brown]

I might add that the only noticeable difference was the bitrate @ 2000 kbps (instead of formerly by default 1500).

Michael Brown

[Michael Brown]

Just FYI: I solved the problem by doing 2 things:

1) I extended my RAM to the max 8 GB possible on this MBP.
2) I realized that you absolutely MUST work in ProRes sequences with adequate ProRes files, no matter how complicated the transferring to ProRes may be, depending on what footage you get.

The “lines” are gone. Quite simple, actually.

All the best 😉

Michael Brown

[Michael Brown]

Hi Jeffrey,

Thanks for your post, although no one has replied yet. I have a similar problem, working with a bit more humble 15″ MBP on 2.4 Ghz, FW 800 (1 Tb) and also Apple ProRes 422 HQ footage @ 25 fps (1080p). Another difference may be that I only have 2×2 Gb Ram for the time being, am off in an hour or so to boost that up to 8 or maybe even 16. I’ve been told that that may be an issue and should by all means provide visible results. And I have a GT 330M graphics card that apparently cannot be replaced.

I have noticed the horizontal lines occasionally too (somewhat like video tape damage in the old days), but that has never bothered me as much as choppy playback, regardless of the playback settings I have tried, usually during fast camera moves or around edits, especially if they are fast (in this case I’m editing a rock concert with 3 cams).

I’ve also considered replacing

Michael Brown

[Michael Brown]

Hi Jeffrey,

Thanks for your post, although no one has replied yet. I have a similar problem, working with a bit more humble 15″ MBP on 2.4 Ghz, FW 800 (1 Tb) and also Apple ProRes 422 HQ footage @ 25 fps (1080p). Another difference may be that I only have 2×2 Gb Ram for the time being, am off in an hour or so to boost that up to 8 or maybe even 16. I’ve been told that that may be an issue and should by all means provide visible results. And I have a GT 330M graphics card that apparently cannot be replaced.

I have noticed the horizontal lines occasionally too (somewhat like video tape damage in the old days), but that has never bothered me as much as choppy playback, regardless of the playback settings I have tried, usually during fast camera moves or around edits, especially if they are fast (in this case I’m editing a rock concert with 3 cams).

I hope you get some feedback that might be helpful. Or we spend money and go for Thunderbolt drives. Is that the solution?

In the meantime, best from Michael.

Michael Brown