Previewing P2 footage in FCP is choppy
- Thread starter FilmBoy77
- Start date
Steve Laramie
Veteran
whats your computer setup? probably just a small processor or little ram could be time for an upgrade.
Which computer and RAM?
What media drive?
What format did you shoot, ie 720 or 1080?
What media drive?
What format did you shoot, ie 720 or 1080?
my platform is a mac, iMac, 2.1 GHZ processor, 250 GB interal HDD with 2 external GDD that are about 320GB and 1.5 MB of ram, i've done several projects in the past two years and this problem just started like...as a matter of fact....it started not too long after downloading the latest version of quicktime....have anything to do with it?
the footage is only 720pn, not sure what you mean about media drive...but the footage is being imported from an external hard drive.
the footage is only 720pn, not sure what you mean about media drive...but the footage is being imported from an external hard drive.
Coldpizza
Active member
To the best of my recollection V5.1.4 didn't like 720 formats. I was unable to use the 720 formats on V5.1.4 when the HVX first came out, this may still be the case.
You have a rather slow processor and less than ideal ram, were the previous successful projects shot on 720pn and edited of the same media drives?
If not try using a different HDD as the media drive and or could be time for an upgrade to 6.3.
If yes could be that the local HDD in the Mac has less free space on it compared to when you last edited. The computer needs the free HDD space for virtual memory try freeing up at least 15% some would say even 25%, and see if that improves the performance.
Or just by an 8 core with 16GB ram and 15000rpm HDDs, I think that may also solve the problem...
You have a rather slow processor and less than ideal ram, were the previous successful projects shot on 720pn and edited of the same media drives?
If not try using a different HDD as the media drive and or could be time for an upgrade to 6.3.
If yes could be that the local HDD in the Mac has less free space on it compared to when you last edited. The computer needs the free HDD space for virtual memory try freeing up at least 15% some would say even 25%, and see if that improves the performance.
Or just by an 8 core with 16GB ram and 15000rpm HDDs, I think that may also solve the problem...
1.5 MBs of RAM is way to little in my view.
And I assume you are not daisy chaining those external HDDs.
A media drive is what you designate in FCP when starting a project. Also called a scratch drive.
And how much free space left on each of those drives?
Are you running Leopard and if so what version? What version of QT?
Finally, how are you "previewing" the footage?
And I assume you are not daisy chaining those external HDDs.
A media drive is what you designate in FCP when starting a project. Also called a scratch drive.
And how much free space left on each of those drives?
Are you running Leopard and if so what version? What version of QT?
Finally, how are you "previewing" the footage?
running the latest version of qt i think it's 7.5.
not on Leopard, i'm on the OS right before that (brain freeze right this sec)
there's about 130 GB free hdd space on the internal, and probably about 100 to 200GB left on each external drive.
i know the 1.5 GB processor speed is less than ideal, but i never had any issues until maybe a week or two ago.
what are the specs on you guys mac platform?
not on Leopard, i'm on the OS right before that (brain freeze right this sec)
there's about 130 GB free hdd space on the internal, and probably about 100 to 200GB left on each external drive.
i know the 1.5 GB processor speed is less than ideal, but i never had any issues until maybe a week or two ago.
what are the specs on you guys mac platform?
Batutta
Major Contributor
You might have to defrag your drive. Over time, data gets scattered over a hard disk into fragments, which means the read arm has to continuously scan back and forth all over the place to read data and that slows it down. There are many tools out there that will let you see if you drive is fragmented and defrag it for you, but backup your media before you do....You could also have some corrupt media. Dumb question but have you run Disk First Aid and repaired permissions lately?
How are you previewing the footage?
through the p2 import window in FCP that pops up before you actually import the mxf files to the scratch disk, but since it previews so choppy, i have to scrub through the footage. it's a pain. i'm not in post as of yet for the feature i'm working on, but i will be in another 2 months.
so luckily i haven't had to do much video editing yet.
so luckily i haven't had to do much video editing yet.
How does it play once transferred to a timeline/sequence
Then, what editing issue is concerning you?
well, there is no editing issue. i'm just not able to properly preview my p2 clips in FCP before actually importing.
i have to import each clip in order to see the footage instead of being able to preview each clip and import what i want.
last weekend i had about 40-60 clips. i have to manually scrub through the footage in the preview pane of the p2 import window without hearing audio for each clip. so, it may look good, but the audio may not be what i want, or maybe there was a loud noice in the bg on that take, etc.
so basically i had to import all of the p2 clips in order to preview my footage, filling up unnecessary space on my internal HDD, then go in the scratch disk and manually delete each quicktime file that i wasnt using.....instead of just previewing the clips in the p2 window and setting an in and out marker and just importing what i want from each clip.
this hadnt been happening until sometime this month.
i have to import each clip in order to see the footage instead of being able to preview each clip and import what i want.
last weekend i had about 40-60 clips. i have to manually scrub through the footage in the preview pane of the p2 import window without hearing audio for each clip. so, it may look good, but the audio may not be what i want, or maybe there was a loud noice in the bg on that take, etc.
so basically i had to import all of the p2 clips in order to preview my footage, filling up unnecessary space on my internal HDD, then go in the scratch disk and manually delete each quicktime file that i wasnt using.....instead of just previewing the clips in the p2 window and setting an in and out marker and just importing what i want from each clip.
this hadnt been happening until sometime this month.
Sounds reasonable.
But are you daisy chaining these externals?
But are you daisy chaining these externals?
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
Many Firewire devices have two Firewire plugs. Daisy Chaining them says you have one cable going to the computer, and a second cable going to the next drive, in a two drive "daisy chain".
I have had a lot of problems with external disk drives, so I have tended to capture to a drive that is connected to an internal IDE bus (I have a G4 silver tower) so I can have several disk drives inside and attached via PCI cards. Then once the capture has completed, I move the resulting Giga-Files out to external drives for editing.
During 'playback' if the drive is "slow", or "fragmented", ie there's lots of files and has been used over time, the free block list often contains just small sections of "free" space, and so your data goes all over the disk. This causes slow accesses by the computer, and the computer can not maintain the "playback" at 29.97 fps, and hence "jumps".
When I capture on my iBook the play back is almost un watchable... but once on the disk, it's ok for editing... Ok, a few dropped frames here and there... but since I'm not usually worried about making it 'Broadcast" as in real live TV broadcast safe, I'm not worried about the dropped frames and just adjust the audio of it is out of sync.