Experiencing 'stuttering' & other issues with FCP 7.0.3 on MacBook Pro...please help!

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EyeGod

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Experiencing 'stuttering' & other issues with FCP 7.0.3 on MacBook Pro...please help!

Hi all

Man, I've been having SUCH frustrations with my MBP running FCP lately - and it used to be 100% no more than 6 months ago?

Basically what happens is that the Canvas window starts stuttering really badly after a while - it sometimes looks as if the external HDD can't keep up with FCP anymore, regardless of whether I use my Mac HD as scratch drive, or my external. And I've tried it across numerous externals... I'm beginning to wonder if it's my logic board or GPU, or perhaps even my FW800 port?

Also, when I'm editing on my timeline and add new clips to the edit, this behaviour picks up. Sometimes, when I'm scrubbing or skipping through clips on the timeline, the Canvas displays funky green frames, starts lagging, or the worst: the frames between one cut and another jump around like crazy, even if I just play back at normal speed.

I've done everything I could - cleared space on my Mac HD (it's now got more than 50% free), repaired and verified disk permissions, run AppleJack, etc. etc.

Does anyone know what it could be? I'm seriously considering a fresh install of Mac OS X 10.6 and FCS2, as well as upgrading from 4Gb to 8Gb RAM, but what bothers me most is how this used to never happen, and it's not like the work I'm doing is more intense or heavier than anything I've done before.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Here's my exact specs:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,3
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2,8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1,07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP53.00AC.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.48f2
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled
 
What sequence settings are you using, and what video codec, frame size and frame rate are you using?

Which FW800 external is the media stored on?
 
David: it varies, but mainly HDTV, XDCAM EX 1080/35 VBR, 1080p, 25 frames. FW800 external also varies between LaCie Quadras and G-Techs.

AdeKinect: it varies - the longer I edit on a project, the bigger they become, cos I add more sequences (I edit reality TV and need a lot of sequences to sift through a lot of streams of footage concurrently) and the project size increase, but anywhere fro 30Mb to 100Mb+. I try to keep them down, and I know that a lotta sequences kills FCP, but it used to never be as much of a problem as it is now.

emarciniak: at this point, I fear fresh install may be my only solutions... *sigh* Thought I left that behind with Windows...

THANKS FOR THE FEEDBACK GUYS - if you've got more to offer please do so!
 
Hmmm, no other thoughts? I've since decided to set RT to 'Safe' and playback video quality to 'Low Quality'... It's a little better, but the issue's still there...
 
I'm having similar issues as EyeGod described but this happens for me on every clip, not just when I have a lot of sequences. My macbook pro is similar but behind in the specs. Thinking about doing a clean install too as nothing else has helped.

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz

I''m using a WD mybook for FW800 and I have 1080pgh13 footage converted to 1080p prores LT. I just got my logic board replaced due to a macbook pro issue (http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377) and I think all my programs run slower ever since. Should I see what a clean install does? or o you think it'd be better to upgrade the RAM to 4gb? Ive even considered getting a better macbook pro all together, I can't afford a brand new one but is there a higher level that handles FCP more smoothly??
 
We have had the same problems with MBPRO and FCP 7.03. We tried allmost everything to fix it, because we thaught it was a hardware prblem. But now we have the suspect that it is a software problem that FCP 7.03 has. We will now try to install another version of FCP. (When we get one.)
What we did not try yet is to clean install everything. We also prefer to avoid that.
But has anybody of you fixed your problems by doing so?
 
A clean install will fix it but as a quick fix, create another user on your mac..(your probably admin so create another account) log out and log in on the new account and run FCP there
 
Do you guys have anything other than FCP running from your main internal HD? If any of your footage or render files are running off your internal drive this might be the problem. How much space do you have left on your external drives? Any other elements in your project other than XDCAM video?

I have been running FCP7.0.3 on a Core2Duo MBP for a while and have not had problems.
 
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