Unique Render Problem

J

James Thayer

Active member
My problem is going to sound strange. FCP is rendering during playback. Where there used to be a blue screen that said "unrendered" and a "bing bing bing" noise going, it no longer does that. Instead, it tried to render as it is playing back. What ends up happening is it can't process it all and eventually gets hung up and stops playing all together.

I need to make it go back to the blue "unrendered screen."

Does anyone know what I should do?

Thank you,

James
 
No idea what the Bing sound is, besides your system error default sound. Or it's that the audio is a different sample rate than the Sequence and needs to be mixed down.

Tools > Render Manager, then delete all of your render files. Never delete render files manually in the Finder, cause then the FCP project file database looses track. Render Manager updates the data in your FCP project file so FCP doesn't keep looking for them.

Something is really weird, I've never seen this problem, where FCP plays back and renders at the same time. Never.

What are Sequence settings, format of audio and video being used, Mac model, RAM, and hard drive config.
 
Frame Size: 720x480 NTSC DV 3:2
Pixel Aspect Ration: NTSC - CCIR 601/ DV (720x480)
Field Dominance: Lower (Even)
Compressor H.264

Audio:
Rate: 48KHz
Depth: 16 bit
Config: Channel Grouped

Mac Pro
2x2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon (First gen Mac Pro)
Memory: 5 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

My scratch disk is set to a 1 Terabyte external hard drive.

I have never had this happen before either. Let me try the render files bit.
 
I'm betting it's the H.264 codec. Transcode to ProRes LT, you'll see your headaches go away.

BTW, what is your external drive? FW800? Barely enough for HD, or Long-GOP formats like H.264. Use a second internal drive for your scratch disk, you'll get WAY better performance. If needed, you can pull the 1TB drive from the external enclosure, and pop it into your tower, as is.

Yep, H.264 is a horrible codec to edit with, and if you HAVE to edit with it, use an internal drive, but it'll still stutter and choke up a lot.

And how did you get standard def footage as H.264?
 
That fixed it, thank you very much.

You're gonna choke because it's not even Fire Wire. I know, I need to invest. Fortunately I do have 3 more slots available inside my tower to put hard drives. I currently have the original 250 that Mac OS is on, then I have a 1 TB that Windows is on (bootcamp).

What's the difference between Prores LT and the other ProRes codecs?

Thanks once again!

- James
 
If you're using USB drives, you're in HUGE trouble, as any type of footage is going to choke. Get in internal drive, my friend. What's inside that USB enclosure? I bet it's a SATA drive you can just pop into your system. And, I wonder if it's even Mac formatted? Can you confirm that it is NOT FAT-32? The USB is bad enough, running H.264 off it is even worse, and if it's a FAT drive, well, I give up... Yep, you desperately need an internal drive. BTW, you only have TWO slots for drives. There's 4 in a Mac Pro, you have your Mac OS drive, your Windows drive, so you only have two slots left. Get a 2TB drive in there, use is as you Scratch/Media drive. You'll be very happy you did. I use this one in our Mac Pros, works like a dream.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/WD2002FAEX/

In a nutshell, here's a glossing over. More info is in the FCP users manual, and Apple has a whole white paper on ProRes if you want to geek out. Again, this is really overly simplified, but gets the point across.

ProRes 4444 (called 4 by 4) is high end, very large file sizes, supports full alpha channel, for high end effects work. Mega bit rate.
ProRes HQ is very large file sizes, resource hawg just like 4x4, used for stuff shot on RED, Arri type highest end cameras that are true 4:4:4 color sampling quality. High bit rate.
ProRes 444 (the original) is really good with color sampling (DVCPRO-HD) footage from HD cameras, and HDV. Medium bit rate.
ProRes LT is for stuff with a lower bit rate, more compressed originals like DSLR H.264 footage. Low bit rate.
ProRes Proxy was developed for Final Cut Server, but is used by other apps and devices, not as much pixel information, only for preview at full frame size. Miniscule bit rate.
 
Last edited:
BenB said:
If you're using USB drives, you're in HUGE trouble, as any type of footage is going to choke. Get in internal drive, my friend. What's inside that USB enclosure? I bet it's a SATA drive you can just pop into your system. And, I wonder if it's even Mac formatted? Can you confirm that it is NOT FAT-32? The USB is bad enough, running H.264 off it is even worse, and if it's a FAT drive, well, I give up... Yep, you desperately need an internal drive. BTW, you only have TWO slots for drives. There's 4 in a Mac Pro, you have your Mac OS drive, your Windows drive, so you only have two slots left. Get a 2TB drive in there, use is as you Scratch/Media drive. You'll be very happy you did. I use this one in our Mac Pros, works like a dream.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/WD2002FAEX/

In a nutshell, here's a glossing over. More info is in the FCP users manual, and Apple has a whole white paper on ProRes if you want to geek out. Again, this is really overly simplified, but gets the point across.

ProRes 4444 (called 4 by 4) is high end, very large file sizes, supports full alpha channel, for high end effects work. Mega bit rate.
ProRes HQ is very large file sizes, resource hawg just like 4x4, used for stuff shot on RED, Arri type highest end cameras that are true 4:4:4 color sampling quality. High bit rate.
ProRes 444 (the original) is really good with color sampling (DVCPRO-HD) footage from HD cameras, and HDV. Medium bit rate.
ProRes LT is for stuff with a lower bit rate, more compressed originals like DSLR H.264 footage. Low bit rate.
ProRes Proxy was developed for Final Cut Server, but is used by other apps and devices, not as much pixel information, only for preview at full frame size. Miniscule bit rate.
Click to expand...

Well, i've been using USB for 5 years now and it gets the job done. However, I know the benefit of firewire and would like to switch eventually. I do think my best best is to add a 2TB internal, and I thank you for the link!

The 1TB external is Fat-32 unfortunately. Basically, after I used up 100 gigs of it I figured out the 4gb limit of Fat-32, but decided it would be a pain to reformat it. I kept it. Interestingly enough, it kinda helps to have 10 minute slices (for DV footage) to edit with.

The 2 TB that I recently got is in a mac format and works well for capturing purposes.

My next camera will probably be an HPX170 which will increase the file sizes considerably and I figure it will be a good time to purchase a firewire external.

Thank you for the rundown of codecs, it is very helpful.

- James
 
So you're just shooting SD stuff, and nothing too long or intense. You'd still see performance increases with FCP on an internal SATA drive. FAT, ouch, gross, stay away!

We use an HPX170, love it, and you will want a 2TB SATA Mac formatted drive for sure. That USB will flat out fail with HD material.

Looking forward to hearing what differences you notice when you switch to a 2TB internal drive! "Rock those edits!"
 
BenB said:
So you're just shooting SD stuff, and nothing too long or intense. You'd still see performance increases with FCP on an internal SATA drive. FAT, ouch, gross, stay away!

We use an HPX170, love it, and you will want a 2TB SATA Mac formatted drive for sure. That USB will flat out fail with HD material.

Looking forward to hearing what differences you notice when you switch to a 2TB internal drive! "Rock those edits!"
Click to expand...

Thanks man, you're probably the most helpful person I've met on this forum.

Yeah, I do lots of short from stuff like weddings and short stories:

http://seekfirstproductions.com/Weddings/
http://seekfirstproductions.com/Home-Invasion/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top