Compressor 3.5.3 Quickcluster still only uses 20%CPU. What gives?

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Level 1

5 points

Compressor 3.5.3 Quickcluster still only uses 20%CPU. What gives?

I'm using Final Cut Studio 7. Compressor 3.5.3. First i couldn't get clusters to work at all. So i uninstalled and reinstalled FCS7 and the Clusters seem to -set up- just fine. But when i submit a batch, Compressor STILL only uses about 20% of the CPU. What Gives? it would do that without a cluster anyway. It bugs me that Final Cut 7 only uses about 20% when rendering footage as well. I've thought about upgrading, but the reviews for fcpX and Compressor 4 have not been great.

Advice:

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 28, 2012 9:45 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 28, 2012 9:51 AM in response to evan.mcnair

do a test. turn qmaster off and see if the compression time is increased. FCP7 will never be able to address more than one core for rendering. It's just the nature of the beast.

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Answer 2

evan.mcnair Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 28, 2012 9:51 AM in response to evan.mcnair

Update: A few moments ago, Compressor started ranging 20-30% CPU. But it's still only captured ONE core. I'd like to see compressor using 70-90% CPU as it used to.

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Answer 3

evan.mcnair Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 28, 2012 9:53 AM in response to Michael Grenadier

Will FCPX address more than one core? That would be a huge selling point for me. I've downloaded the trial for FCPX and AVID Media Composer 6 and i'm going to start comparing sometime this month.

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Answer 4

Jun 28, 2012 9:54 AM in response to evan.mcnair

It would help if you gave us complete info. Are you saying that with qmaster enabled, you used to get 70-90% cpu? What's changed? Have you installed any new software or upgraded anything? Are your qmaster settings in system preferences the same as when you got better results?

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Answer 5

Jun 28, 2012 9:55 AM in response to evan.mcnair

my understanding is yes. Both fcpX and the latest version of Avid (and Premiere) are 64 bit apps which can address multiple cores.

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Answer 6

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jun 28, 2012 10:19 AM in response to evan.mcnair

In activity Monitor, what do you see for Compressord? If the cluster is being used it should be a high %.

Russ

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Answer 7

Jun 28, 2012 2:41 PM in response to evan.mcnair

What codec are you using and how long it the video? Quickcluster is a waste of time if you going to ProRes. If the video duration is short Quickclusters won't kick in with all cores running.

There nothing wrong with Compressor 4... Going to compressor 4 won't solve your problem.

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Answer 8

evan.mcnair Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 4, 2012 8:09 PM in response to evan.mcnair

I downloaded the trial of fcpX and bought the new motion and compressor apps. Problem pretty much solved. :]

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Answer 9

Jul 14, 2012 3:02 AM in response to evan.mcnair

Pse check this one:

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/compressor_multi_cores_stitzer.html

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