churchillstudios

Q: Final Cut Pro X Spinning Beachball

Hi folks outside of noticing all the missing features everyone's discussing, my first experience with Final Cut Pro X has also been plagued with slow, unresponsive hang-ups, usually accompanied by the spinning beach ball.  Most of the time the app recovers... takes about 30 seconds or so ... but other times the ball keeps spinning and will freeze the app, crash the app, or in rare circumstances freeze my whole workstation.

 

This is counter to the "no wait while rendering" I keep hearing about and is certainly not like what I saw from the NAB demo. So I have to wonder if it's something to do with my system, a brand-new Mac Pro - not a month old - with dual 2.93GHz 6-Core Xeons, 32MB RAM, and Nvidea Quadro 4000 graphics card.  All drivers are updated and I'm running on OSX 10.6.7.  Meanwhile all my other apps (CS5.5 Production Premium, Boris CC, Colorista II, Lightwave 10) are extremely stable and practically scream with speed.  None of these were open in the background when testing Final Cut, by the way.

 

I've researched the spinning ball even more by manually pausing the background renders.  When I do the app seems to free up and I can move around ... That is until I apply another effect that requires a render... then processing kicks back up, and I get more beach balls.

 

As for crashes, here are two quick observations: The app seems to consistently crash when I try to change the curve style of a clip’s opacity.  The other (more sinister) computer freeze has happened twice as I recall while simply accessing a pull-down menu.

 

Any thoughts?  I suspect it could be conflicting software or my Quadro graphics card?  Any help is appreciated.

 

- BC

Final Cut Pro X, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Mac Pro w/ Dual 2.93GHz 6-Core Xeon

Posted on Jun 22, 2011 11:59 AM

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Q: Final Cut Pro X Spinning Beachball

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  • by Lydia Robertson,

    Lydia Robertson Lydia Robertson Jul 4, 2011 5:37 AM in response to montywent
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 4, 2011 5:37 AM in response to montywent

    The system I am testing FCPX on is a MacBook Pro mid 2010 i7 2.8Ghz with 8gig of ram and 2 500GB SSD drives (one installed where the DVD should go.)  It is not fast and does crash whenever I apply an effect or try to adjust a previously applied effect.  However, it was much worse at the beginning of the test while importing all the files during transcode and analyzation.  I decided to stop editing and let it sit over night to do it's thing and it crashes less and is much faster, though not as responsive as FCP7.

     

    My biggest frustration is the audio ghosting I have where I can still hear deleted audio, even after closing and reopening the software.  I am guessing it is playing back the render of the former file and will not be able to play the audio back clean until it has completed a new render.  Just a guess.

     

    This is frustrating but it is a version one software.  I always run into strange bugs like these with every new release which is why I never switch, (for professional purposes,) to new software or UPDATED software until the forums and my tests reflect the stability.

     

    I am really hoping these bugs or workflow errors can be ironed out in the next few months, especially with the release of Lion.  It will be difficult to tell wether the bugs are Lions fault or FCPX in the mean time.

  • by el jeffe,

    el jeffe el jeffe Jul 4, 2011 12:50 PM in response to churchillstudios
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Jul 4, 2011 12:50 PM in response to churchillstudios

    You did not mention the format of your video?

    Has it been converted during import? Compressed video is very demanding on the cpu so performance should be much better if clips are copied and converted during import.

  • by el jeffe,

    el jeffe el jeffe Jul 4, 2011 1:16 PM in response to el jeffe
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Jul 4, 2011 1:16 PM in response to el jeffe

    Sorry, Don't know how to edit my own post.

    Another thought...

    Take a look at the Activity Monitor utility to see what else is going on? I once found a PPC app using 99% of my cpu!!

  • by montywent,

    montywent montywent Jul 4, 2011 3:23 PM in response to el jeffe
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 4, 2011 3:23 PM in response to el jeffe

    The footage is large, 1920 x 1080 24p and no it was not converted. Conversion was one of the things we were'nt supposed to have to do anymore? So I should go ahead and convert it as I did for fcp 7? It's a pain but if it will get me rolling again that will be a price I'll have to pay for now.

     

    Do others find if you convert the footage you can use fcpx without it slowing down or is that just a small improvement?

     

    Monty

  • by el jeffe,

    el jeffe el jeffe Jul 4, 2011 4:17 PM in response to montywent
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Jul 4, 2011 4:17 PM in response to montywent

    Without conversion we can get to work with simple timeline cuts, but when using effects and transitions things will slow down.

    Remember that playing back compressed files puts a strain on the system let alone trying to process it in real time. That's the nature of compressed video. It is possible to convert the files after importing them so do so when you go to lunch or whatever.

    FCE, iMovie, and FCP would not play any of my files at all without conversion so this is an improvement.

  • by montywent,

    montywent montywent Jul 4, 2011 4:39 PM in response to el jeffe
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 4, 2011 4:39 PM in response to el jeffe

    You just discribed what happens without converting the footage. It starts out fine but after about 3/4 minutes of video it just starts crawling real slow.

     

    Any rumors of a fix, a fast fix.

     

    How can a first class company like Snaple not know this?

     

    Monty

  • by Jim Ewing,

    Jim Ewing Jim Ewing Jul 4, 2011 4:54 PM in response to churchillstudios
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jul 4, 2011 4:54 PM in response to churchillstudios

    Am having similar problems with my MB Pro. Working with the Ripple Training materials. I had a couple of FCP crashes early on, then they went away. Now that I’m into the later work with looks, generators and titles, FCP is crashing and taking my machine with it. What is repeatable is trying to audition a lower third title with different fonts. Scanning the title thumbnail puts the title on screen but not composited over the movie. And it takes everything away when I try to scan over other fonts.

     

    I’ve been with FCP since 1.0. It is pretty much always the same. Wait til the point one or point 2 release. Why Apple insists of releasing things to serious people as good to go when they are really mid term betas escapes me. Adobe got that right with Lightroom. Would that Steve get this bit of it.

  • by lievenfromlovenjoel,

    lievenfromlovenjoel lievenfromlovenjoel Jul 22, 2011 2:07 PM in response to churchillstudios
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 22, 2011 2:07 PM in response to churchillstudios

    Hello all, after installing Lion, I experienced the same problems you all described... Very slow reactions, ( a little bit faster when you put off the background rendering), multiple crashes, (for example when you change the transformation-parameters on a text effect it crashes over and over again when you try to render the effect...)

     

    This last 30 days have been realy disapointing for me as for you all I guess... I don t want my money back, I just want it to work like it shoud do... Let's hope Apple isn t only interested in ipad and iphones...

     

    My Mac is an Imac 24" 3.06GHz intel core 2 Duo, 4Gb Ram, 4850 Ati Radeon version (feb 2009)

  • by montywent,

    montywent montywent Jul 22, 2011 2:35 PM in response to lievenfromlovenjoel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 22, 2011 2:35 PM in response to lievenfromlovenjoel

    This has got to stop, very few people have a fcp x that is working properly, are there any rumors of an emergency fix. This is such a big deal.

  • by Pancenter,

    Pancenter Pancenter Jul 23, 2011 1:29 AM in response to Jim Ewing
    Level 6 (9,928 points)
    Audio
    Jul 23, 2011 1:29 AM in response to Jim Ewing

    Jim Ewing wrote:

     

    Why Apple insists of releasing things to serious people as good to go when they are really mid term betas escapes me.

     

    Because you are "paying" beta testers, not a bad deal... eh? (for Apple)

    Also, they know that most people will stick with them... no matter what.

     

    pancenter-

  • by montywent,

    montywent montywent Jul 23, 2011 7:47 AM in response to montywent
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 23, 2011 7:47 AM in response to montywent

    Forgive me, I may have had an out-of-body experience thinking that Apple realized the error of there way and was stopping everything so all their energies could be focused on fcp x...

     

    But that is going to happen isn't it. lol...

  • by rhjph,

    rhjph rhjph Jul 23, 2011 3:45 PM in response to montywent
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Jul 23, 2011 3:45 PM in response to montywent

    This seems to be be mainly a Lion problem. Ever since the upgrade my MacPro 12-Core 2.93GHz 6 GB RAM has been brought to a stuttering halt in FCPX by a Timeline and a couple of audio tracks on a 5 minute project. It is almost uneditable. If you look at the stats you see the CPU is usually less than 5% enaged but the whole of the RAM is in use, and stays that way even when nothing is rendering and no other apps are busy. It looks to me like a memory utilization/release bug.

  • by alicanlondon,

    alicanlondon alicanlondon Jul 23, 2011 9:09 PM in response to montywent
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Jul 23, 2011 9:09 PM in response to montywent

    montywent wrote:

     

    This has got to stop, very few people have a fcp x that is working properly,


    How do you know?

  • by montywent,

    montywent montywent Jul 24, 2011 7:41 AM in response to alicanlondon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 24, 2011 7:41 AM in response to alicanlondon

    The posts on this forum, artical's, other websites, competing manufacturer forums, the Conan O'Brien's TV show even chimed in, google searches. The petition sign-in site, just to name a few.

     

    I don't know. I would say the sum of the complaints equate to a problem beyond normal.

     

    I do know mine doesn't work and no one has offered a confirmed fix.

  • by davemasters,

    davemasters davemasters Aug 1, 2011 6:47 PM in response to churchillstudios
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2011 6:47 PM in response to churchillstudios

    I am running a Mac Pro 12 core with 48Gb ram on OS 10.6.8

    FCP X is unusable for a simple 30 minute project. I get the spinning beachball for ages at random times and rendering stops at 50% - then nothing. The synchronise clip is totally random and useless.

     

    I had only recently moved from FC Express to FC Studio at great expense (inc. buying this Mac) and now I have had to buy  FCP X as there was no upgrade.

     

    Not good enough by a country mile Apple - I plan to crossgrade to Avid - how do I claim my money back?

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