Processing Cores not up to par while working in FCP 7?

R

RobbySonic

Active member
Hey there.

I've been editing an HD project at the same time trying to troubleshoot an issue with my mac pro.
Have the 2009 2.26 8 core Macpro 12gbs ram-GT-120 video card....and (was running FCP 6.06) Now running FCP 7.

Issue is my mac has been extremely slow with editing this HD project shot with 7D material (transcoded footage-Apple ProRes 422--1080/24P footage)

Everytime i would move a clip or two...my system would render for 3 minutes + at a time.

I have ran an activity monitor....and its showing barely cores processing while running FCP 7. My macdealer contact is telling me something is not right there.

Any suggestions would greatly help
 
Id say there's something up - thats plenty of machine to work with prores in FCP7. Hows your edit drive space? Are you editing from the same drive as the operating system? Those would def. slow you down. Also you may want to do a verify disk through disk utility on your edit drive to see if somethings going wrong there. If those are all clear, may want to start working through your RAM, removing pairs to see if the issue goes away.

Couple of things to start you off.
 
How exactly did you transcode to ProRes 422? This sounds like a typical Long-GOP format issue in FCP 7.
 
well I'm working off external LaCie drive. there's about 30gb left from the 500gb capacity. Now it is an older drive. I haven't formatted it yet. But I'll try those options this eve
 
BenB said:
How exactly did you transcode to ProRes 422? This sounds like a typical Long-GOP format issue in FCP 7.
Click to expand...

i transcoded the (7D footage that was shot 1080/24P) as follows:
Mpeg streamclip: Apple ProRes 422-quality 100%. frame rate-selected frame blending.

Btw i just upgraded to FCP 7. The issue was present while using FCP 6.06 as well
 
1- Canon EOS plugin makes Mpeg Streamclip unnecessary, as it retains metadata Mpeg doesn't. Use Log & Transfer. Also use ProRes LT for that 7D footage, save some bandwidth and drive space.

No, legacy FCP is not multicore aware, not GPU aware, will only access a max of 4GB RAM (if ever at all that much). FCP X introduced "Grand Central" awareness for multicore processing, OpenCL for GPU access, and 64-bit for unlimited RAM access.
 
I second the Canon plugin. We used it all the time and the metadata was valuable (for us).

FCP is not multi processor aware. What you get is FCP using as much of one core as it can manage and the rest of the system using other cores where needed. You won't see more than around 100% usage from one core.

I'm assuming you transcoded to ProRes 422 and not 422 HQ which is going to cause bandwidth problems on older systems.

You may want to consider transcoding to proxy files for editing them replace with full res files once you are ready for grading. However, we ran FCP 6 & 7 on an 8 core 2009 Mac Pro (with RAID 0 drives) without any problems. Rendering was required for anything out of the ordinary though - like adding Colorista.

Make sure your play back prefs (RT) are set correctly. I usually had it set to dynamic and allowed it to drop frames if needed on un rendered footage. It's no big deal to drop frames here and there when editing, as long as you can render and get all the frames later.
 
BenB said:
1- Canon EOS plugin makes Mpeg Streamclip unnecessary, as it retains metadata Mpeg doesn't. Use Log & Transfer. Also use ProRes LT for that 7D footage, save some bandwidth and drive space.

No, legacy FCP is not multicore aware, not GPU aware, will only access a max of 4GB RAM (if ever at all that much). FCP X introduced "Grand Central" awareness for multicore processing, OpenCL for GPU access, and 64-bit for unlimited RAM access.
Click to expand...

Finally the answer that I needed! Thanks so much........ I was actually testing last night with that Canon EOS plug-in I was also advised by my Apple tech to try it. SO only thing is That in the Log & Transfer preferences.....There is (Apple Pro Res 422-AVC-HD & ProRes 4444-Canon) Im assuming these settings are the 2 options?

I transcoded 2 hours worth using Pro Res 4444 setting and set my sequence settings in FCP 7 to Apple ProRes 422 (HQ).
Now the only trouble is preserving the original work from the previous timeline and re-connect with the newly transcoded footage in a new project.

Hopefully this will work properly. My client is waiting.
Please verify if I'm on the right track?
 
RobbySonic said:
I transcoded 2 hours worth using Pro Res 4444 setting and set my sequence settings in FCP 7 to Apple ProRes 422 (HQ).
Now the only trouble is preserving the original work from the previous timeline and re-connect with the newly transcoded footage in a new project.

Hopefully this will work properly. My client is waiting.
Please verify if I'm on the right track?
Click to expand...

ProRes 4444 and HQ are total over kill for your footage. 7D footage is going to be perfectly fine in regular ProRes 422 (my preference) with a great many people saying they are happy with ProRes 422 (LT) for DSLR.

Personally, I think regular ProRes 422 is a good compromise of file size and quality. HQ and 4444 will add nothing but bloat, slow your system down and fill your hard disks faster than you can record more video ;)
 
Exact said:
ProRes 4444 and HQ are total over kill for your footage. 7D footage is going to be perfectly fine in regular ProRes 422 (my preference) with a great many people saying they are happy with ProRes 422 (LT) for DSLR.

Personally, I think regular ProRes 422 is a good compromise of file size and quality. HQ and 4444 will add nothing but bloat, slow your system down and fill your hard disks faster than you can record more video ;)
Click to expand...

OK well I've only just started to re-construct my project -----But I might just do that. I'll set my sequence to Apple Pro Res LT-Based on the chart i don't see too much difference. That way the transcoding wii go I'm assuming alot faster as well......The only annoying part is bringing the old edited timeline into the new project. And then reconnecting with the new media.
Long night ahead lol

I will Set Preferences in Log & Transfer and choose the ProRes 422-AVC HD. And set my FCP 7 Sequence settings to Apple ProRes 422 LT.

thanks for the advice!
 
Nooo.......

The sequence settings should match the source footage where ever possible. You should be transcoding the 7D footage to 422 or 422 LT, not to 4444 or HQ and then dumping an an LT sequence. 4444 and HQ will still cause some over load on your computer when it decodes then, regardless of the sequence type you have.

As I said, we typically transcode 1080p footage to 422. 720p is OK to 422 LT but there is a small (usually very small) perceptible difference for 1080p in LT.

BTW - I have no idea what you mean by ProRes 422-AVC HD - there is no such codec.
 
Regarding FCP7's inability to 'see' multiple processors or cores, what about so-called "multi-threading" - where one core is (more or less) able to do the work of two. Does that affect/improve FCP7's performance?

Also, does Compressor 3.5.3 (part of FCS3) utilize multiple processors/cores? Seems to me that it does, based on my use of it on various systems...

Thanks for the helpful info!
 
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Yes, on parts of the software that spawn threads..... you can see the number of threads i the activity monitor, but as I said, that's still not as efficient as being written for multicore (each of which can also spawn more threads).
 
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