Lonewolf2Koc

Q: How to speed up FCP X 10.0.5 during initial launch

I have a 21 Tb RAID 50 single monster drive. Footage shot with P2 and h.264. The raw footage averages about 10K-15K individual clips.

I noticed FCP X takes a very long time to launch by having to load all of the events library. I have quite a few events.

Is it advisable to move some passive events to a folder beyond "Final Cut Events" in order for it to not detect and speed up the process?

It's quite absurd having to wait about 30-1 hr for all the events to load up where I just need to work on a little 3 Tb segment of the entire monster RAID 50 drive.

 

And lastly looking in the Activity Monitor, it shows as "Not Responding" but in fact it is doing its background processing. It behaves like it's crashing. Not a good realistic indicator in showing progess.

Posted on Sep 9, 2012 8:24 AM

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Q: How to speed up FCP X 10.0.5 during initial launch

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  • by andynick,Helpful

    andynick andynick Sep 9, 2012 8:48 AM in response to Lonewolf2Koc
    Level 5 (4,943 points)
    Video
    Sep 9, 2012 8:48 AM in response to Lonewolf2Koc

    This is my pet checklist for questions regarding FCP X performance - you may have already addressed some of the items but it's worth checking.

     

    Make sure you're using the latest version of the application - FCP X 10.0.5 runs very well on my 2009 MacPro 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 16 GB RAM and ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB. I run it with Lion 10.7.5.

     

    First, check that you have at least 20% free space on your system drive.

     

    For smooth playback without dropping frames, make sure 'Better Performance' is selected in the FCP X Preferences - Playback Tab.

     

    If you have not already done so, move your Projects and Events to a fast (Firewire 800 or faster) external HD. Make sure the drive's formatted OS Extended (journalling's not required for video). You should always keep at least 20% free space on the Hard Drives that your Media, Projects and Events are on.

     

    Check the spec of your Mac against the system requirements:

    http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs/

     

    Check the spec of your graphics card. If it's listed here, it's not suitable:

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4664

     

    If you are getting crashes, there is some conflict on the OS. Create a new (admin) user account on your system and use FCP X from there - if it runs a lot better, there's a conflict and a clean install would be recommended.

     

    Keep projects to 20 mins or less. If you have a long project, work on 20 min sections then paste these into a final project for export.

     

    If you ever experience dropped frames, I strongly recommend you use ProRes 422 Proxy - it edits and plays back like silk because the files are small but lightly compressed (not much packing and unpacking to do) - but remember to select 'Original or Optimised Media' (FCP X Preferences > Playback) just before you export your movie, otherwise it will be exported at low resolution.

     

    If you have plenty of processor power, for the ultimate editing experience, create Optimised Media - most camera native files are highly compressed and need a great deal of processor power to play back - particularly if you add titles, filters or effects. ProRes 422 takes up much more hard drive space but is very lightly compressed. It edits and plays back superbly.

     

    Hide Audio Waveforms at all times when you don't need them (both in Browser and Storyline / Timeline). They take up a lot of processor power. (Use the switch icon at the bottom-right of your timeline to select a format without waveforms if you don't need them at the moment, then switch back when you do).

     

    Create folders in the Project and Events libraries and put any projects you are not working on currently, in those folders. This will help a lot. There's a great application for this, called Event Manager X - for the tiny cost it's an invaluable application.

    http://assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com/EventManagerX/

     

    Unless you cannot edit and playback without it, turn off Background Rendering in Preferences (under Playback) - this will help general performance and you can always render when you need to by selecting the clip (or clips) and pressing Ctrl+R.

     

    The biggest single improvement I saw in performance was when I upgraded the RAM from 8 GB to 16.

    Andy

  • by Lonewolf2Koc,

    Lonewolf2Koc Lonewolf2Koc Sep 9, 2012 11:49 AM in response to andynick
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Quicktime
    Sep 9, 2012 11:49 AM in response to andynick

    The most useful is the Event Manager X util. It helps a lot in speeding up load time as I only need certain events to be load and not the entire monster 40 Tb of online footage.

     

    It appears that 2-3 Tb per event libary (or less than 3,500 clips) is a good limit otherwise it'll take more than an hr to load up. This is a much needed improvement in FCP X. In a big, enterprise wide production like broadcasting, the Events Libray is severly limited in terms of loading time. Otherwise it'll be a very good mini asset management app.

     

    All else on your list I already implemented.