FCP 7 on Macbook Air 11" (canvas playback & sequence/render)

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FCP 7 on Macbook Air 11" (canvas playback & sequence/render)

My high school students are using FCP 7 on Macbook Airs. One problem a few of them are encountering is playback in the Canvas-- the resolution is very low and when I go to their Playback Video Quality setting in the Timeline, the only options are Dynamic or Low. Why are Medium and High greyed out?

Also, sometimes the video 'stutters' in the Canvas. The footage we are currently working with has all been transcoded into ProRes LT.

Also, when I match the settings to the clips formats, the students all still need to render. Yet, on my computer (also a Macbook Air with FCP 7), when I do the same thing (match the settings to the clip), I do not need to render.

All of these problems seem to be related to format/compression....the only one I've experienced on my computer is the stutter. The Playback and Render issues are not happening to me, nor to all of the students.

I've looked through all the possible settings everywhere and I can't see what is different about the macbooks that work vs. the ones that do not.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

MacBook Air, iOS 7.0.3

Posted on Oct 26, 2013 9:53 AM

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Answer 1

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,567 points

Oct 26, 2013 10:08 AM in response to elisenew

The timeline is set to Unlimited RT and Playback Video Quality to Dynamic?

MtD

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Answer 2

elisenew Author

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Oct 26, 2013 10:17 AM in response to Meg The Dog

One student with the playback in canvas problem emailed this screenshot to me. I went through all of my settings, and even when on "Safe RT", I can still adjust the Playback Settings to Medium or High.

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Answer 3

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,567 points

Oct 26, 2013 10:24 AM in response to elisenew

There are two issues here, the suggestion to switch to Dynamic is to address the "stuttering" issue.

On a problematic machine, click on a source clip in the FCP browser to select it, and once selected, type Command + 9 to see the item properties for the clip. Either report those properties, or post a screen shot of those properties.

Next, click anywhere on the timeline, and then type Command + 0 {zero} to see the sequence setttings for the timeline. Either report the sequence settings or take a screen shot and post that here.

MtD

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Answer 4

Oct 26, 2013 11:04 AM in response to elisenew

Not sure if this could be the problem, but worth a shot

where is your media stored? Storing media on the internal drive is not recommended. Also, there should be a minimum of 10% free space on all drives and 20% on your internal (start up) drive.

If the material is stored on an external drive, you may have a hardware problem with the drive or some sort of corruption on the drive. First step is to run applications: Utilities: Disk Utility and do a "Repair Disk" on the external drive. I'd also recommend getting and running DiskWarrior on all drives

http://alsoft.com/

Not sure if there are any issues running diskwarrior on the internal drive of a macbookair. Not even sure how you'd do it.

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Answer 5

Oct 28, 2013 11:02 AM in response to elisenew

Are you using current/last gen macbook airs? There seems to be an issue where FCP limits the RT performance based on clock speed. Obviously this is no longer relevant, and you simply need to modify a plist the FCP bundle to get around it. i will post details of how I did it if anyone wants to get into it, just ask, in the meantime, i gleened most of what I know from this thread.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=755629&page=2

Like I say, I will post a succinct how to if anyone fancys it. I have done real work using Pro Res 4444 from the internal SSD outputting to a Blackmagic Thunderbolt SDI box with nothing but regular supported FCP problems. :-)

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Answer 6

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,567 points

Oct 28, 2013 11:36 AM in response to Paul E Jones

Well, this is certainly be valuable to know. I use a MacBook Air for location camera/sound file transfer via ShotPut Pro, and have had a copy of FCP-7 on it that I occasionally open just to take a peek at the files. I could not replicate the OP's problem on my mid 2012 5,1 Air.

MtD

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Answer 7

elisenew Author

Level 1

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Oct 28, 2013 4:34 PM in response to Meg The Dog

I don't have the MB Air at hand right this minute, but I think I remember all the details. I converted Flip Camera files using Compressor with these settings: 1280 x 720, ProRes(LT), SQ, 30 fps, No Field dominance. And I set the Sequence settings to match exactly.

The odd thing is, on some of the MB Airs (these are from this summer, so a recent iteration), there is no playback issue. But, on all of them, even when I set the Sequence to match the clip formats, they all require Renders. My "teacher" macbook Air is basically the same configuration yet mine does not require a Render when I match the footage to the sequence. Also, I have no Playback issues (except the occasional stutter, which I can solve usually), while some of my students do. Why is their High & Medium Playback greyed out regardless of Safe RT or not?

Thanks!

p.s. : All being store on the internal drive.

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Answer 8

elisenew Author

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Oct 28, 2013 4:38 PM in response to Paul E Jones

Thanks, I will see if my tech dept. at school can sink their teeth into this!

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Answer 9

Mar 26, 2014 5:42 PM in response to Paul E Jones

Hi Paul,

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but is there any chance you could post a how to? I've had a look at the MacRumours thread, an I'm unable to get my head around it.

I'm using the low-end current generationMacbook Air 11".

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Answer 10

Apr 6, 2014 2:35 PM in response to AndrewRJCherry

Hello.

The quick answer, and the one that worked for me is to open

/Applications/Final\ Cut\ Pro\ 7.app/Contents/Resources/Non-Localized\ Settings/FXScripts/Enablers/RT\ Software\ Enabler.txt

and replace every insance of cpuspeed to cpuspeed >= 1200 (by MBA is 1.3 (current gen) so this covers all bases.) You will get a warning on every startup about an unsupported enabler file, but it's worth that to not have to render, and it works like a charm.

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