FCPX Playback head slow in timeline? Using Proxies.

Question

Level 1

0 points

FCPX Playback head slow in timeline? Using Proxies.

Im editing 5k footage shot on the Red Epic. I have a interview laid out in my timeline (or project) and I am going through and setting my "IN" and "OUT" marks and cutting using "APPLE-X". Also using "J" on keyboard to rewind to certain points where I want to mark my "IN" points. The footage runs great until I start cutting frequently. My playhead starts to be slower than the actual video playing back. So when I make my "IN" and "OUTS" and then cut, my edit is about 6 or 7 frames off. It seems as if the playhead is lagging or it is slowed. Every clip is converted to the 1080 proxies. I am not mixing footage formats. Im editing with the proxy setting enabled. I am cutting from a GTECH Firewire 800 Drive. Here are my computer specs:

MAC PRO:

MAC OS X 10.6.8

Processor: 2 x 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon

Memory: 32 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

GFX: ATI Radeon HD 5870

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.6

Please let me know if you can help me.

Thanks

Elliot Pollaro

Final Cut Pro X, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Dec 7, 2012 2:40 PM

Reply

Answer 1

epollaro Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 9, 2012 4:06 PM in response to epollaro

bump

Reply

Answer 2

digibudII

Level 2

491 points

Dec 9, 2012 8:06 PM in response to epollaro

be sure there isn't anything else accessing your drive....file downloads....email auto checking...etc.

try seeing if the behaviour changes by alternating the preferences for playback, best performance vs high quality.

it's hard to understand why this would be an issue with proxy footage. enable the checkbox to warn you when drop frames occur. just to see...

does this only happen when editing 5k footage or can you reproduce it with other footage?

is it a fast 7200 rpm disk? might it be too full?

because you're using proxies, it sounds like something is slowing the hard drive down such that it's not accessing fast enough.

Reply

Answer 3

epollaro Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2012 10:33 AM in response to digibudII

Its been set to best performance. The drive is a 2 TB G Tech G Raid 7200 RPM drive. There is 100 GB free of 2 TB. I have no dropped frames during the edit when I converted Canon 7D footage to a proxy. I enabled the drop frame check box and I do indeed get dropped frames from the 5k footage when it is a proxy. What can I do to fix this?

Reply

Answer 4

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Dec 10, 2012 10:40 AM in response to epollaro

Just to point out that 100 GB means only 5% remains free on your RAID. So that may be a factor. Run one of the speed tests on the drive - like the AJA System Test.

Russ

Reply

Answer 5

epollaro Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2012 10:50 AM in response to Russ H

Testing it now. What read and write speeds should I be getting?

Reply

Answer 6

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Dec 10, 2012 11:01 AM in response to epollaro

Something greater than 70 MB/sec for 1080.

Russ

Reply

Answer 7

epollaro Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2012 11:39 AM in response to Russ H

Im getting 62 write and 62.2 read. Im going to move my proxies over to my XSAN server and edit from it. Is there a way to move my proxies without having to move the orginal RED files as well?

Reply

Answer 8

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Dec 10, 2012 11:54 AM in response to epollaro

I'd say close enough; it doesn't explain your lagging playhead.

It's odd to say the least with Proxy's light footprint. With your 5870 card, I would expect everything to be snappy.

In preferences, is playback set to Best Performance?

How full is the boot drive?

Russ

Reply

Answer 9

epollaro Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2012 11:58 AM in response to Russ H

It is set to best performance. My boot drive has 200 GB free of 500 GB. Is there any easy way of moving proxies from my firewire 800 drive to my XSAN and editing from there without having to move my original RED files from the Firewire 800 drive.

Reply

Answer 10

digibudII

Level 2

491 points

Dec 10, 2012 12:13 PM in response to epollaro

shouldn't need 70MB/sec for proxie...I wouldn't think. I get about 35MB/s from the external I use for FCPx. I don't do RED work but I also don't bother with proxies and edit directly in H264 on my 2011 iMac. The issue is either the graphics card or something quite odd with the HD transfer speed or something I'm entirely unaware of. Editing with a RED proxie....is that siginificantly more taxing than other proxies? I guess I don't know the answer to that question and have assumed that a proxie is a proxie...and if that's the case I'm also puzzled as to why a proxie would be hard for your system to deal with.

Reply

Answer 11

epollaro Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2012 12:21 PM in response to digibudII

Some proxies are larger than others. For example we shot interviews and some of them have longer clips than others. Our RED Proxies are in between 150mb-500mb, where as if we were editing for lets say Canon 7d footage converted to proxy it would be around 15-50mb. Im not sure whats causing it, but I believe the workaround would be for me to edit off my server with the proxies. I just dont see a easy way of doing that. I really dont want to move my orginal RED files to our server.

Reply

Answer 12

digibudII

Level 2

491 points

Dec 10, 2012 1:01 PM in response to epollaro

I'm thinking you need a RAID for those files and/or possibly a newer graphics card. The issue you describe could be either as far as I can tell.

Reply

Answer 13

epollaro Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2012 1:09 PM in response to digibudII

So you think the ATI Radeon HD 5870 is not powerful enough?

Reply

Answer 14

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Dec 10, 2012 3:17 PM in response to epollaro

I know you were not asking me, but all the reports I've heard about the 5870 and FCP have been positive.

On the other hand, I don't know enough about RED workflows to know whether the proxies and the card are a great match or just a fairly good match.

One thing that occurred to me is the project length could be an issue. Nearly everyone reports that after a certain point (say, >30 minutes) slows. It would be interesting to create a new test project (linked to the same event), select a ten minute section to paste into the new project and test whether FCP is more responsive.

Good luck.

Russ

Reply