[Ryan Holmes]

+1 to what Cody said….just nest it and move on.

Codec wise:
ProRes is a free download for your system (you have to be working on a Mac in order to write ProRes. Windows machines can only read ProRes, not write it).
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1396?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

If you’re on a WIndows box (or even a Mac), DNxHD is a comparable codec to ProRes:
https://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/en423319?popup=true&NewLang=en&DocType=1450&q=dnxhd%20download&site=kbase&filter=0

For archive DVCPRO HD is also an option for you. These codecs will maintain your quality level, but your file size footprint will increase substantially. Any of the above codecs will edit fine in PPro as well.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

Ceren – this an old thread (almost 1 year old). People don’t check old threads much.

Your problem is similar to the original poster. Your hardware is old and underpowered for editing and exporting tasks.

As for choppy playback….it’s also important to note what kind of hard drive your media is stored on (USB, firewire, internal drive, etc.). If your media is stored on the same hard drive that your operating system is (your boot drive), then that’s a big problem. You need dedicated drives to handle video playback.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

Vimeo has a good compression help section. Select the program you want to export from on their website and they will walk you through the settings. Their settings work for pretty much any video sharing website….it’s probably the easiest place to start.

https://vimeo.com/help/compression

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

The more power you can afford the better your experience will be in any software.

[robin chin] “2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 (could get 2.4GHz)
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM (could get 8GB)
512GB Flash Storage (could get 256GB)
Has: Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching “

If it were me….I’d upgrade the CPU to the i7 processor.
I would upgrade the RAM myself after I received the machine. Third party RAM is significantly cheaper than Apple RAM with no real difference. RAM is easy to install (plenty of videos online if you’re worried). You can purchase form places like crucial.com or macsales.com
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_1600MHz_SDRAM
The hard drive is a toss up. You won’t (or shouldn’t be) storing your video media there so that drive is really just to hold the OS, applications, your iTunes collection, etc. You should have a dedicated media drive (either a Thunderbolt drive or firewire) for editing.
The Nvidia graphics card is a huge must if you want to work in PPro or AE. Adobe has built it’s core playback engine around Nvidia graphics cards (while it does work with other cards from ATI, it’s not nearly as fast). The better Nvidia card you can get the happier the Adobe suite will be.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

[Bret Williams] “Spend the same cash (or less) for a better, faster 27″ iMac?”

Agreed….unless he/she needs portability.

Portability + power = MacBook Pro
Price + power = iMac

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

Get the Pro. It has more connections, a bigger screen, and more horsepower. An Air is not made for video editing…especially if you’re talking about running PPro, AE, or FCP X which all rely heavily on the graphics card. Air’s have integrated graphics card, meaning they aren’t nearly as powerful as what’s on a Pro.

Do yourself a favor and get the Pro. You’ll be far happier in the long run.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

Jumping off what Joseph said, it might also be your hard drive that you’re playing it from. To playback Animation encoded mov’s takes a pretty stout disk array due to its data rate. A single 7200RPM drive ain’t gonna cut it (especially if you’re using your boot drive as the media drive).

As mentioned FCP is probably dynamically dumbing it down to try and play it smoothly. You can do the same in PPro, you just have to set it yourself.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

HD –> SD conversion takes time. On your hardware I imagine it’ll take quite a bit of time. Laptops don’t have the same horsepower as desktops. Be prepared to wait.

You also may want to import your test clip into DVD Studio Pro (or whatever authoring software you intend on using) because 853×480 is not a NTSC supported resolution. It will likely look strange on a DVD. If you are doing widescreen on the web with a square pixel aspect ratio then 853×480 is the correct resolution. But SD-DVD’s use a 720×480 resolution with a 1.2121 pixel aspect ratio (meaning non-square pixels). You can set this in Compressor in the Geometry tab by selecting NTSC CCIP 601/DV (16:9) from the pixel aspect drop down menu. That will create a SD clip that is NTSC compatible.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

[Eddie Adams] “I may be a little late in the game, but what exactly are the compatibility issues you are worried about? I’ve been using FCP 7 on 10.7 for over a year now with no issues… but should I be concerned?”

The last fully supported OS for FCP 7 was 10.6.8. There is no longer any development for ensuring compatibility between FCP and newer OS versions. Any upgrade you perform now, you do so at your own risk. Apple does not support Legacy FCP. So if they release 10.9 this summer and it breaks compatibility with FCP then that’s that.

People in this thread are advising the “upgraders” accordingly. What’s it worth to have the latest iCloud features vs. a stable NLE. I am running FCP 7 on a 10.7.5 machine without problems. It should work. However, I’ve read stories on the COW of it not working for some (even 10.8 has had some quirks for FCPers).

Bottom line: Given that FCP 7 is no longer supported, then any upgrade you perform….yes, you should be concerned.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

Post in the FCP X forums. You’ll get a better response. This forum is aimed at FCP1-7 (i.e. Legacy FCP)

https://forums.creativecow.net/finalcutprox
https://forums.creativecow.net/fcpxtechnique

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes