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montster Author

Level 1

15 points

10.0.3 DISASTEROUS

System -

Fastest MCP one can buy (with extra 2.5gz processor model 8gb ram 1.7core) Lacie THUNDERBOLT drives. 10.7.3 OS.

10.0.2 ran "relatively" fine. NOTHING changed except upgrading to 10.0.3

Re-renders everything everytime I restart the program - Even though it rendered to 100% on last shutdown.

And when it is rendering - it does it SLOWER than the last version 10.0.2!

Playback stutters. Beach ball is more present than 10.0.2 !

Titling of previous projects is messed up - baslines and tracking are changed!

To test - I reinstalled the previous version 10.0.2 and reloaded in those previous projects. All runs smoothly.

Reinstalled the 10.0.3 again - EVERYTHING THE SAME - and same issues!

WHO CARES ABOUT ALL THE NEW "FEATURES" WHEN IT DESTROYS MONTHS OF PREVIOUS WORK, AND EVERYTHING IS EVEN SLOWER THAN BEFORE??? Its so frustrating to read reviews by magazines etc who do not lay down feature length, complex movies and only talk about all the "great new features" and how performance is "improved" simply because they read that it SHOULD be improved!

Well it isnt - its WORSE! Doesnt Apple actually test things before releasing it ? Where has the trust gone???

And I have the most pimped out (portable) system one can get. Pity on those with less endowed systems!

EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED AND ANGRY!

Final Cut Pro X

Posted on Feb 2, 2012 4:53 AM

272 replies

Feb 4, 2012 11:00 AM in response to montster

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I will go through your procedure ASAP. Thanks so much for all the hard work on this!

I ordered a new ATI radeon HD 5770 card from the Apple store as it seemed to be the only one that was specifically built for a Mac.

On (yet another) side note: Suddenly within the last week my cooling fan has been engaging and it initially seemed to be bad RAM (the folks at OWC at least felt that's what it might be). They replaced the 24G with another matched batch (3 , 8G sticks) and yet it was still running and I was NOT getting the hoped for speed increase in FCP X (the slow renders have been driving me CRAZY!). So I took it all out and put the 7G of RAM that I had (3, 2G sticks and an original 1G stick). While the fan has been running less (once or twice a day) it NEVER ran before and it never stops unless I do a full shutdown. Any idea what could be causing this?

montster Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 4, 2012 11:27 AM in response to Andy Drefs

That is FANTASTIC news re. the new card on its way. No doubt this is going to make things rock and roll. Heck even on my MBP it flies with the latest cards. Not sure how your budget is, but if one really wants to see FCPX FLY - and one has the option - fast drives make a huge difference. I have the Thunderbolts and omigod I was SHOCKED what a difference it made to overall performance.

Re the fan issue I'm not at all an expert on this field (who really is an expert on any field computer related lol), but I can say that before I present to you the equivelent remedy that sounds like "trash your prefs", I should point out that the very nature of FCPX virtually taking over your machine guarantees a lot of fan engagement - no matter what the machine. Mine is runnning pretty much constantly as well - but keep in mind my projects are very very complex compared to your average user. More complexity - more computing - more heat - more fan.

It could also be that after you get the new card, this will power down more often as the machine wont be choked as often.

Having said all that, I have had fan issues in the past that were always solved by firmware updates, zapping PRAM and/or SMC. From what I know SMC is most connected with fan issues on MP's. Here are those options...

Fans

The computer’s fans speed up quickly and remain at high speed.

The computer’s fans run at high speed although the computer is not experiencing heavy usage and is properly ventilated.

To reset the SMC on a Mac Pro:

1. From the Apple menu, choose Shut Down (or if the computer is not responding, hold the power button until it turns off).

2. Unplug all cables from the computer, including the power cord and any display cables.

3. Wait at least fifteen seconds.

4. Plug the power cord back in, making sure the power button is not being pressed at the time. Then reconnect your keyboard and mouse to the computer.

5. Press the power button to start up your computer.

Another way to reset the SMC on a Mac Pro computer is:

1. From the Apple menu, choose Shut Down (or if the computer is not responding, hold the power button until it turns off).

2. Open and remove the metallic outer door.

3. Press the SMC_RST switch that is located slightly below and to the right of the row of diagnostic LEDs. Use a non-metallic, non-conductive object, such as a wooden pencil. Note: Mac Pro (Early 2008) does not have an SMC_RST switch, refer to the reset procedure steps in the previous section.

4. Replace the metallic outer door.

5. Press the power button to start up your computer.

As for PRAM

Shut down your machine. All the way down, not sleep or logging out.
Press the power button and then press command-option-p-r. You have to make sure you get those keys pressed before the gray screen comes up or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

When you log back in, you’ll probably will have to adjust your mouse speed, time and date/timezone, and a few other things, but otherwise you should be good to go.

Maybe start with the SMC because of the fact it is the controller of the fan usage.

But again - maybe you dont need to do any of this after getting your new card AND keep in mind, it is kind of normal for the fan to run a lot when working on FCPX with heavy timelines etc. I have 4 machines always whirling away 😉

Other than that, surely someone else has the magic trick buddy 🙂

Feb 4, 2012 12:17 PM in response to montster

Thanks again for the great advice! What I find frustrating with this though is the fact that I have also been unable to get Compressor 4 to properly upload a video to YouTube (it was always completely dropping the audio). After repeated calls to Apple Care Pro support I was bumped up to the senior guy in the department. While I had him on the phone I asked as well about the fan issue (which, again, hardly EVER ran before) and he had nothing of any value to say other than "It must be working harder". I said that that didn't make sense to me as I thought an increase in RAM would allow the system to work MORE efficiently, not less. He basically said "Oh Well!" and that was that. We never did get C4 resolved and now I just use the YT uploader via the Chrome browser.

Thanks for your advice though. The RAM is still sitting on my desk since I've been dealing with all these FCP issues I haven't gotten to the post office to send it back! I am going to try what you suggested and then re-install the RAM and see if by chance I get better results. I should have the new card in a few days so that will be a good test as well.

montster Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 4, 2012 12:33 PM in response to Andy Drefs

Brother Andy,

If any of this jabberwockey of advice actually helps - I'm thrilled.

Re. uploading to the web (ie. YouTube) best is just do it straight from FCPX. Or?

It cant be easier and the result is clean as can be since it just pipes it straight to thier server.

Have you given that a whirl. Even me the "great complainer of satan" has tried it and I think its ah inspiringly AWESOME 😉

Lets hear back from ya after getting that smoker of a card soon - you must be like a kid waitin' for Santa 🙂

Feb 4, 2012 12:53 PM in response to montster

Yes I have done that but it seemed to slow FCP X down (along with everthing else)!

Just completed a brief and un-scientific test with the different RAM. I moved a title enough to cause a re-render and then timed it with a stopwatch. (ALL other programs were off and the project was otherwise fully rendered)

FCP X was NO DIFFERENT with the 24G of RAM as opposed to the 7G! By the way, it took fully 56 seconds each time to render a phone number (using the "Energetic" title generator, title is 4:12 in length) that was laid over the "Underwater" FCP background.

Is it just me or does almost a minute to render a 4 and a half second long title clip seem like a looooonnnnggggg time?

And I wish I was excited about getting that card, but after reading that people were getting "astonishing" results with just 16G of RAM and I got bupkis with 24 leaves me more than a bit peeved, and very aprehensive at yet another expense. I use all this techno wizardy to MAKE money, not spend it.

montster Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 4, 2012 1:13 PM in response to Andy Drefs

I'm seriously hopin this card is gonna shift the gears for you.

Like I said, I had a 2009/10 basic MBP that was pretty sluggish - and 8gb ram.

Then I did the following and experienced ASTONISHING speed improvement (and keep in mind I am the Great Satan Complainer lol).

I am using as my main machine so you can get a sort of comparison

MBP Thunderbolt 8gb ram

Processor 2,5 GHz Intel Core i7

Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6770M 1024 MB

Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D50)

Thunderbolt HD's

With this configuration my most complex (and I mean lotos of compound clips - tons of full track audio plus effects, filters, colour corrections) truly operate in virtual real time. For further comparison I can tell you for sure its faster than FCPlegacy was - and that was pretty snappy. But I only got this kind of performance after this upgrade.

I run always in PROXY and optimize all files on ingestion. Only run full res playback when necessary to see clarity at full screen but this isnt necessary when laying out and editing the films. At the end, I switch to full res.

Now all this info is not to say "see look at me - i'm running fast nah nah nah etc" its only to help you compare your performance with my hardware and the results I am getting (really great - update issues aside). For your MP, and new card, these similar settings, and all that ram its got to scream? Perhaps an update of the OS is one differing factor from mine. But theoretically I think your machine will run even FASTER than mine after the card or darn close to it 🙂

One thing ... what about your HD setup? You wouldnt believe the HUGE difference this makes - even more important than other things like processor and ram in some cases. You dont have built in TBolt but you can def run SatA drives (or are you doing that)

Because again I really think you should have a better experience than you are getting with your kit. Thats got to be good news? Lets see what the card does then go from there.

Feb 4, 2012 1:51 PM in response to montster

I have 3 drives, all sata. Main Mac drive plus a 1.5 TB and a 2 TB drive for all the media, all internal.

Feb 4, 2012 2:56 PM in response to montster

Montster - It appears that I have been blocked from the latter part of this discussion since (I'm guessing) I referenced innoidiots "Sword of Damacles" (this was from a really dumb post of his some time ago). I'm still getting e-mail updates but I can't log into them at the moment. Apparently Big-Brother is watching me...

crh24

Level 3

930 points

Feb 4, 2012 3:57 PM in response to montster

montster wrote:

After a lot of fiddling, it seems something has actually worked to eliminate the constant re-rendering after trying all the other (much appreciated) suggestions that unfortunately did not do the trick 100% (for my situation).

<...>

I tried your method--twice--and the re-rendering problem did not go away but otherwise I can confirm some of your findings--at least for my installation of FCPX.

As I stated in an earlier post, I'm using the Ripple Training basic FCPX course and along the way several project duplications are performed so I have a few 'earlier in the training process' to test.

I started re-creating the 'next' project from a point where re-rendering did not occur on startup and this preliminary project worked fine, re-rendering only when it should. At this point in the rebuild of the final project it contains only a few holds and some slow motion so it is not very complex.

Something must be amiss in the converted project. Perhaps it is a carryover from a prior version and perhaps it is a problem created by the project conversion routines in 10.0.3. Either way, the only procedure that has worked for me to remove the re-render problem is to rebuild the timeline from a point where the re-rendering didn't occur. That is fine for me, I'm just getting started with FCPX and only have two projects that I'm working on and as they are both part of Ripple Training I'm only out a bit of 'hobbiest' time. I'd not be so understanding if my livelihood depended even slightly upon FCPX.

Let's hope Apple figures out what is wrong and fixes it very soon. I like FCPX and I'd hate to see it completely fail as a viable video editor.

Feb 5, 2012 1:55 PM in response to montster

Montster - just letting you know I'm in the exact same boat as you. My projects are done so it's not an emergency but any changes require re-rendering of all parts of the project with text. My projects are 15-minute videos with literally hundreds of titles, many of them animated, per project.

One thing I can add is that when 10.0.3 was launching the first time, it was "frozen" for several minutes - I probably should have been more patient but I force-quit and re-opened it. I wonder if that screwed everything up!! I'm going to clear out these projects/events and replace them with the backups (and let it do its job this time) to see if that helps at all.

Just wondering, has anybody talked to Apple on the phone about the re-rendering? We have a support contract through my work so I could but unfortunately don't have the several hours available that would take.

Unlike you, though, my performace seems to be normal - no beachballs or sluggishness here. I'm on the 3.4GHz i7 iMac w/ 16GB RAM.

zwimpy

Level 1

0 points

Feb 5, 2012 3:09 PM in response to Andrew Aspaas

I'm not able to export my project, FCPX crashes after 2 minutes !!!

And I've the same problem, it's always re-rendering everything, at each launch of FCPX.

crh24

Level 3

930 points

Feb 6, 2012 3:24 AM in response to crh24

crh24 wrote:

montster wrote:

After a lot of fiddling, it seems something has actually worked to eliminate the constant re-rendering after trying all the other (much appreciated) suggestions that unfortunately did not do the trick 100% (for my situation).

<...>

I tried your method--twice--and the re-rendering problem did not go away but otherwise I can confirm some of your findings--at least for my installation of FCPX.

<...>

A data point update.

I thought it was time to clean my system. I've had minor unexplained problems with other software recently, too.

I performed a format/clean install of OS X and performed all Apple updates including OS X 10.0.3. I re-installed all of my day-to-day apps, which includes FCPX, Compressor 4 and Motion 5. All app installs executed without a single error or warning.

The re-rendering problem is still there on converted projects. I think the clean/new install pretty well eliminates my system being the source the problem.

bill33

Level 1

48 points

Feb 6, 2012 5:37 AM in response to montster

Dude, (montster)

I'm in exaclty the same boat as you. Exactly, except I'm a videographer.

(i'm at the moment struggling to spit out a project from .2 -> .3, when I'm done with this I'll try one more project, on a cleanly installed system - I mean lean and mean OSX, FCPX, with a newly installed SSD, and only the bare minimus. If this doesn't work I'm, with a great amount of difficulty, going to cs5.5)😐

Feb 6, 2012 7:31 AM in response to bill33

I chimed in on the other thread. I am having the same problem with re-rendering. I have a project that was made in .2 and yesterday, I added to my video. Shut it down, and restarted, and guess what. Some of the new material (on the old project) is re-rendering and some is not??? All of the old material re-renders. Very frustrating😠

Feb 6, 2012 9:08 AM in response to TheBigPicture

Struggling with this issue (requires re-rendering every 10.0.2 project after quitting FCPX).

I have found something interesting and don't know if anyone else is seeing this. Projects that I was working on in 10.0.2 that didn't have titles/text applied are not requiring re-rendering once they have renedered. But those projects with text/titles do always require the re-rendering. (Have filed feedback on this.)

Tried deleting render folders. Tried Duplicating project within FCPX w/o render files. None of that works. Will next try copy/pasting all content to a new project.

10.0.3 DISASTEROUS