Help needed: FCP freezing up, project file size too big with HVX footage?

[Martin Landsburg]

Hello everyone,

my editor works on an IMac G5 bought last year, not sure about processor speed, with 1.5 GB ram.
Our editing and rendering of HVX footage went fine until yesterday, when suddenly FCP froze, or started responding sluggish, even crashing etc. :badputer: We tried reinstalling FCP, nothing seemed to work, couldn't copy the timeline etc.
My editor is convinced that it's because the FCP filesize is too big. He said the squences with problems were 4 and 11 megabytes. So he output the sequence that was giving us trouble to a DVCPROHD 720p60 quicktime file, which he will then import again in a new project which also has the previous work saved. I'm worried about major generation loss issues this way, esp. when exporting again.
I read about the preferences dump and FCP repair, but the editor is convinced it's nothing to do with the program.
Please advise!
Martin

 

[bbalser]

I think your editor is misinformed. Trashing the prefs would do the trick. FCP Preferences Attic and FCP Rescue are both "must have" software for any FCP editor.

It's not the file size, that has nothing to do with anything.

It's going to be a regular maintenance issue, I believe. I also believe your editor needs to spend a day with someone teaching him how to take care of his machine.

Yes, recompressing will loose a generation of quality, it will not "fix" anything, he needs to just get one of the free apps I mentioned and trash his prefs. Also, bump that baby up to a full 2+Gigs of RAM. He could be running out of RAM, very possible. Especially using DVCPRO-HD footage, it's going to eat up RAM like crazy.

 

[Martin Landsburg]

thanks!

thanks!

Thank you BenB,
I referred my editor to this and all the other posts detailing the procedure. I guess it's in mine and his interest to learn from this!
Martin

 

[bbalser]

I highly recommend the book "Apple Pro Training Series; Optimizing Your Final Cut Pro System" as it covers all things technical about FCP, makes a great reference, and has a great trouble shooting section. As well as tips for setting up and maintaining your FCP system. Very well done book! I highly recommend you guys get a copy.

 

[janghos]

Yes, recompressing will loose a generation of quality,

Hey BenB,

I just don't understand why that will effect the quality of the video. It's not that the guy compressed, but just exported using the same codec with which the footage was imported in. In other words, it will maintain the exact same data rate, won't it?
Unless there was any color correction or something that requires rendering, I'm in a position to doubt that there would be any quality loss.

Nook

 

[bbalser]

When you "Export" anything, you "recompress" the image data. Every step of "compression" strips away more image data per pixel, to "compress" the size of the image file to be as small as possible. In video, this being each and every frame. Export anything, you "recompress" it and strip away more image data per pixel.

Export = digital generational loss

Myth #1 - Because it's digital, it never loses quality. False, everything loses quality through generational recompression.

Not exactly sure what we're trying to trouble shoot here, but, getting something like FCP 5 Rescue and trashing the prefs files with it would go a long way to solving some of what I "understand" to be some of your issues.

 

[Martin Landsburg]

thanks but..

thanks but..

Thank you, BenB.

I understand the generation loss part, I was trying to explain that to my editor in the first place. He has used FCP rescue, but to no avail, the project still freezes. We did alot of cropping, overlapping layers and some color correction. This might have added to the size of the project files (11 megabytes), and may be the cause of all this. Am I thinking in the right direction? If so, should we only do all the cropping and cc'ing when we are close to a final cut or rough cut? What else can we do to save our editing efforts, without having to export and re-import? We already tried the FCP rescue program.
Thanks,
Martin

 

[bbalser]

Ok, the iMac may not have a graphics card that can keep up. I'd really recommend bumping up the RAM to a full 2.5 MB or more for DVCPRO-HD work, FOR SURE! I'd also want to know some details of your hardware set up, and software versions. I'll be in touch with you soon. What are the RT Settings? Several things can effect this. I'll be in touch off board, as this will take a bit of questioning.

Also, did you TRASH the prefs with FCP Rescue BEFORE you did anything else? You can't back up and restore with FCP Rescue in your situation, only trash the prefs files. You can't back up or restore with FCP Rescue until your FCP system is running fine.