Editing AVCHD with Final Cut

[Dan Leniczek]

I recently imported footage shot with the HMC-150 into Final Cut. The AVCHD was converted to PRORES upon log and transfer. Editing the 'footage only' requires no rendering but when you add a simple lower third matte accompanied by text with a drop shadow, Final Cut is unable to achieve smooth playback. It chokes on the matte/text region of the timeline . Rendering is required in order for the timeline to play smoothly. What's interesting is that the 'drop shadow' added to the text is the deal breaker, requiring the render. I've tried every potential setting in the RT selection pulldown. All to no avail.
What have everyone's experiences been regarding editing AVCHD that's been converted to PRORES? I'm utilizing the latest release of Final Cut Studio 2 and running a MacPro 8 core with 10gb ram.

Thanks everyone.

[thrillcat editorial]

What is your storage drive situation?

[Dan Leniczek]

I'm capturing to an internal 7200rpm/750gb hard drive

[thrillcat editorial]

Could just be your drive throughput. ProRes can be fairly demanding. I'm using a 2 drive internal RAID and just tested the FCP Lower 3rd v2 generator, put a black background and text on it, with a drop shadow, and I'm able to playback. It's a reduced frame rate, however it's not stuttering or choking, and is very usable for editing previews. I'd guess the 1080p30 is playing at about 24 or 25 fps for the preview.

Oh, and I'm also running a MacPro 8-core, but with only 2GB of RAM, latest FCS updates.

[Dan Leniczek]

Thank you for the feedback Travis.

[David Saraceno]

You must use a fast, dedicated SATA drive for pro res.

Or use Toast 9 to convert to DVCProHD. But do not edit off a boot/system drive -- especially for prores.

[Dan Leniczek]

David,
I am editing off a dedicated SATA drive. 7200rpm/750gb. Any thoughts?

[David Saraceno]

Drop shadow might be the issue.

I can do just about anything with a quad core 2.66 with 5 GBs of RAM and a couple of Seagate 720.11s - 105 MB/s read write with DVCProHD footage.

I use Toast 9 to convert. Or the AVCHD encoder to convert to p2 folders in windows

To me, the efficiency of the DVCProHD codec is a better approach.

But drop shadows always cause issues

[Fotojorno]

Im by no means a expert with FCP, ProRes or the AVCHD format but I read a interesting article on ProRes that might be of help.

http://newsletters.creativecow.net/newsletters/more_news/index.php?p=2007/05-30/6.php

[NoahK]

I would think the drive speed is not the bottleneck here. It's the drop shadow which has always made playback speed choppy. Not sure if RAM or video card would fix it. I'd just leave it off until your done editing then turn it on and render everything out once.

Noah

[thrillcat editorial]

Very cool! I did not know that. But I just tested it, and for going through the edit, I really don't notice a difference. I'm sure I would upon critical monitoring, but for working through the timeline and putting it together, VERY NICE!

[Dan Leniczek]

Noah...
The video card I have is the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT in a MacPro with 10GB ram. I'm struggling with the reality that AVCHD footage combined with text that has drop shadowing is causing my playback to stop in the timeline. Are other people experiencing this same 'drop shadow' effect? Is this related strictly to AVCHD footage? How would DVCPROHD perform under the same circumstances. Thanks in advance for your feedback everyone.

[David Saraceno]

Hey Dan:

I don't think you are editing AVCHD footage. Aren't you editing pro res?

Regardless, drop shadows are miserable for RT playback.

[Dan Leniczek]

That's correct David. At the end of the day I am editing PRORES as that is what Final Cut does with AVCHD footage from the HMC-150 after log and transfer. Are you saying that drop shadows create problems on a general broad brush basis when working with HD footage in all codecs? I am just now migrating to a HD workflow, and drop shadows have never been a problem when working in the standard def world. Thanks for taking my question and Happy Thanksgiving day.

[Walter]

Drop shadows have always made my Final Cut RT struggle, even with DV footage.

[shrigg]

Try making your titles in photoshop as a rasterized and flattened .psd file with transparent background

[Dan Leniczek]

Thanks for the suggestion Darren. On a side note, thank you for all of your contributions to this board regarding the HMC-150. We all owe you a big thank you for the information and footage you have provided. Many thanks.

[jscheib]

I'm confused... so the FCP 6.0.5 update DOES or DOESN'T allow native AVCHD editing on Intel-based Macs (such as a top-tier iMac)? At first I thought the update meant it now supports it natively, but upon second-glance and reading more of the posts here, it sounds like it just now transcodes the footage to ProRes and handles metadata better, while still not editing natively. Can someone throw me a bone here? Thanks everybody!

[Dan Leniczek]

You are absolutely correct in your assumptions jscheib. You answered your own question. Native support is rumored to be due out with the next release of FCP Studio.

[NewspaperVideo]

I can confirm that a lower third with motion/drop shadow redlines HDV as well as HD in Final Cut. It's not an AVCHD problem. Too much math, I guess.

[shrigg]

Thanks for the suggestion Darren. On a side note, thank you for all of your contributions to this board regarding the HMC-150. We all owe you a big thank you for the information and footage you have provided. Many thanks.

Awww, shucks.... (blushes) I'm glad to help. Being an early adopter is sometimes a scary experience but with the HMC150 everything has been great. I owe all my braveness to Barry Green's early reports which gave me the confidence to buy early.

I'd love to see the transfer stats for my server, I'm sure they are pretty staggering at over 1.4Gb per download for the footage. I imagine it's been downloaded hundreds of times if not more!! Never heard anything from my host though... :D

[Justyn]

I tell you what... that Pro res stuff looks awesome. Better than when transferred to dvcpro... and it doesn't cripple my system like HDV stuff has in the past...