[Mike Weber]

Yes, Full is checked. In fact if I render out an anamorphic stand alone movie, using current settings, and reimport the movie back into FCP, it looks fine. Only when I letterbox that movie, either using FCP or Compressor, does text start to degrade.

[Mike Weber]

Try downloading Andy’s Region Blur 3 plugin filter for this:

https://web.mac.com/andymees/Free_and_Easy/main/Entries/2008/3/19_Andy’s_Region_Blur_3.html

Free and very easy to use. After downloading, put it in your Library>>Application Support>>Final Cut Pro System Support>>Plugins folder. It will show up in the Blur folder in your FCP effects.

[Mike Weber]

I am currently using memory all made by the same manufacturer. The backstory is:

My MacPro originally came with 2GB RAM preinstalled, and then I added 4GB from crucial.com, to make a total of 6 GB. But my performance was lousy – I had to render stuff I didn’t even have to render on my iMac, which had way less RAM.

I tried removing the crucial.com RAM, so that it had only the original Apple 2GB RAM, and it got better, but not great. Then tried just installing only the 4GB from crucial. Same thing.

After reading this document:

https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1957?viewlocale=en_US

I realized that its critical that I had the right configuration of RAM. The Mac Pros have 2 “risers” inside, and Apple is recommending that each riser has either 2 or 4 DIMMs, for a total of 4 or 8 DIMMS, all of equal size.

I bought another 4GB (2x2GB) from crucial, installed them along with the other 4GB (2x2GB) from crucial, so that I had a total of four 2GB DIMMS installed, two on each riser, for a total of 8GB, and suddenly it’s like my hands were untied, and my performance improved immensely.

Hope that answers your question. I don’t know how critical it is to be using the same manufacturer for all RAM, though I think that is the prevailing wisdom. I gave the original Apple 2GB RAM that came with my computer to someone else in the office. He’s using a mixed bag of RAM in his computer, and it seems fine, though he doesn’t use FCP.

[Mike Weber]

I had similar problems, until I read this on the Apple site:

https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1957?viewlocale=en_US

Once I had my RAM installed in the correct configuration, all was well…

[Mike Weber]

I was experiencing performance problems with my brand new Mac Pro where I was having to render things that I didn’t on my G5 or iMac even.

I began to suspect my RAM. As it turned out, I had enough RAM (Two 2 GIg modules = 4 GB total), but this did not match Apple’s recommended configuration. Take a quick look at this Apple document:

https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1957?viewlocale=en_US

The Mac Pros have 2 “risers” inside, and Apple is recommending that each riser has either 2 or 4 DIMMs, for a total of 4 or 8 DIMMS, all of equal size. I installed four 2 DIMMS, two on each riser, and suddenly it’s like my hands were untied, and my performance improved immensely. I now have 8 Gig of RAM, though I suspect if I had four 1 Gig modules installed, for a total of 4 Gig, my problem would’ve gone away as well.

So I don’t know if this helps your situation, but something to look at.

Mike

[Mike Weber]

For the longest time I assumed FAQ referred to questions about using the forum or Creative Cow, not about the FCP application itself. Maybe if it said “Final Cut Pro FAQs” or something similar it might direct more people there? Just a suggestion. I do find the search feature very useful and easy to use.

Mike

[Mike Weber]

Are your Viewer and Canvas windows set to 100% size?

[Mike Weber]

Dale –
This is a long shot, but it could be a RAM issue. I was experiencing performance problems with my brand new Mac Pro where I was having to render things that I didn’t on my G5 or iMac even.

I began to suspect my RAM. As it turned out, I had enough RAM (Two 2 GIg modules = 4 GB total), but this did not match Apple’s recommended configuration. Take a quick look at this Apple document:

https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1957?viewlocale=en_US

The Mac Pros have 2 “risers” inside, and Apple is recommending that each riser has either 2 or 4 DIMMs, for a total of 4 or 8 DIMMS, all of equal size. I installed four 2 DIMMS, two on each riser, and suddenly it’s like my hands were untied, and my performance improved immensely. I now have 8 Gig of RAM, though I suspect if I had four 1 Gig modules installed, for a total of 4 Gig, my problem would’ve gone away as well.

So I don’t know if this helps your situation, but something to look at.

Mike

[Mike Weber]

Yeah, I checked, the text is on an even line, both vertically and horizontally. The culprit is definitely Final Cut Pro. It does the letterboxing of my nested sequence by changing the Distort value to -33.33 in the FCP Motion tab. Doesn’t appear to affect camera or photo image quality, but the text is definitely not holding up.

[Mike Weber]

The Mac Pro has 3 internal SATA drives. One drive contains the OS and applications, system files, etc. The other two internal SATA drives are striped together RAID level 0. The media lives on the RAID.

On the G5, the media is stored on an external G-SATA drive.

On my Intel iMac, the media is on the internal drive, same place as the OS and Apps. (I normally don’t work this way, but was just doing this as a test to see if it’s an Intel vs. G5 thing.)

These are just standard DV files I’m trying to playback, and not filtered or anything. We’re talking only two streams of DV video here, so I’m 99.99% sure my drives are adequate!

thanks
Mike