Playback with ProRes 422 sluggish with several stacked clips..workaround

H

Humanoid Typhoon

Well-known member
Hey guys.

Just wanted to share something that worked for me while editing a wedding. When having several ProRes 422 clips stacked, my 2.2ghz c2d macbook pro would stutter on playback, even set on low quality playback. Couldn't deal with that for very long and it made cutting 3 angles a pain in the ass. The easiest way I found to play thru the top clip to see if I wanted to keep it was turn off the underlying clips from view. Top clip now plays smoothly and I can cut it and then turn on the clip underneath it to view what content it has.

Simple tip but hopefully it helps someone who is editing on a not so powerful machine.

Cheers.
 
With ProRes your bottleneck is likely your HD. At least with my Macbook Pro it is.

I couldn't do a multicam edit because reading 2x ProRes feeds from my Macbook HD was too much.

I just got 2x 1TB 7.2K 32MB Cache eSATA drives... We'll see how that works out ;)
 
Cool, let me know :).

On another note, I found that if I turn on video scopes, all of my footage has to be rendered when using ProRes. Weird :/.
 
First off my Macbook Specs.

Macbook Pro 17"
Core 2 Duo 2.5Ghz
GeForce 8600M GT 512MB
4GB Ram
200GB 7.2K Internal Drive

When trying do a multicam edit (2x ProRes 1920 x 1080 30p) my system would stumble playback no matter what settings. I actually asked on DVINFO and they explained it was the hard drive that was bottlenecking.

My solution...

2x 1TB 7.2K 32MB Cache WD SATA II Drives
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
1x Icy Dock Hard Drive Enclosure (Capable of RAIDs, 2x SATA IIs, eSATA & USB Out)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198032
1x Rosewell Express 34 Sata II Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839200006

I bought all these yesterday and had them overnighted. Installation of the HDs was incredibly simple. You lower them into the bay and close the lid, done. Installed the drivers for the enclosure and the express 34 card and both drives were instantly recognized. I've tested 2x camera multicam edit and it played perfectly. I'll do a test of 3 and 4 now.

3 and 4 multicam edits work flawlessly. Playback quality is lowered though to keep up.
 
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Hey thanks for the update Jordan! I actually said screw the prores for now and went with AIC (HDV from toast). When I have some available cash I'll look more into your solution.
 
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