Q: FCE 4.01 how to speed up Rendering on 2008 8 core Mac Pro

I have jus checked and here is what I can see

all clips in use are 25fps

all sequences are set to 25fps

both are 1920x1080

Audio on the sequence is 32 bit floating where as the clips are 16 bit

both are 48khz

compressor is different, but there does not seem to be a way to change the sequence properties.  You can view via the CMD click menu and select Item properties

Sequence compressor is Apple Intermidiate Codec and the clips are H264

but there does not seem to be an option to change the sequence to H264

The only way seems to be by the Load Presets button where the options are a selection of DV PAL and NTSC or the Apple Intermediate

Would an older version of Final Cut Pro be able to deal with the FCE? project file?  I can get an old copy of FC Pro free as a mate has moved to FCP 10 and he has said I can have his original instal disks...if he can find them, as he no longer uses the older version of FC Pro  now he has FCPX

My edit to the above post was, in brief:

Now got to thining about Codecs since yo mentioned it.Found your other psots about converting BEFORE import using MPEG stream clip.

I cant do that without loosing 4-5 days work ...re importing and starting again not an option....unless.....

Can I convert the  raw clip footage where it stands  give the new converted files the same file names and store them in the same folders as the original Camera clips and will FCE then re connect to them and use them in their new format?

<Edited by Host>

Sorry about the poor spelling in that last post.

Sorry if it seems like I am writing lots of posts, but the moment I try and post either site maintenance warnings appear and my post disappears or the computer crashes.

I am now trying to write or edit this post for the third or fourth  time.

I seem to get half way then the OS freezes up. I installed Mavericks last week and now I don't have a usable computer. Notes gone, Contacts all scrambled between work and private..ruddy iCloud nonsence seems to have taken over, gmail account does not work properly.  constant freezes and crashes...should have stayed with 10.6.8, this Mavericks is a nightmare.

I am now posting this from another computer. Sorry about all previous posts and poor spelling, it is crazy an Apple forum yet we can't use the built in Apple OSX spell check facility and have to wait an age for the built in forum checker to work.

Anyway,

Thanks Al...Your tip on checking the properties enabled me to see the issue from another angle. 

I was trying to find the bottle neck in my system, and I'd  still like to do that of course. but that is for another day.

At  least I have got around the rendering issue by using MPEG Streamclip. and not havign to have FCE do it.

I have done a few test clips and it seems that I can convert the files externally in MPEGStreamslip and FCE does keeep all the relationships with them intact. I was worried that converting them..although they have the same name and path, woudl make FCE see them as different files but thankfully not.

I can covert externally and FCE is still happy with the clips.

All good.now   batch process under way.

I have been up most of the night.. mainly trying to write this post..Thanks Apple Mavericsk OSX   grrrr   ..it is 0620 here now..time for this batch convert to do its work while i catch up on some sleep

Nigth all

Apologies for my following waffling post...but I feel the need  to talk to someone    

Interesting you say FCE is not supported..working with no glitch part from the slow rendering on both this twin quad core Mac Pro with 10.9.2 AND my home built hac Mac on a HP4530 Core i5 HP4530 laptop running 10.8.4.

No warnings from either OS to say that FCE was not supported

What is depressing though is that the corei5 with 8GB ram is processing the MPEG StreamClip batch of files quicker than the 8Core 3.0Ghz machine with 18gb RAM.  To speed the job up, I thought I'd do half of the batch on another machine. 

MPEG Streamclip processing window is showing a data rate of between 45-50Mbps..is this a HDD bus speed issue?  All drives SATA 300. 

Think a PCI Express to SATA 600 SSD adapter card maybe the next purchase to put faster working / scratch drives on to .

Regarding clean install or an upgrade

I had thought of doing a clean install, but that was just too much to do.

Unlike MS Outlook and Windows, I have yet to find an easy way to just copy or migrate  the complete mail data archive over and have all old e-mails, settings etc preserved. I could do a clean install and then use the Apple Assistant Migrate feature..but that to me seems just as bad as it copies over the old OS issues too.

Plus the thought of having to go and find and download apps from over 5 years of computing,re/download and re-install , find serial numbers again, was just too horrendous. 

This just proves what I have said all along..most of the people that work in the Apple stores  are clueless sales persons that are full of Apple marketing BS. I went to speak to them about another matter (07 MBP with Nvidea GPU issue)  and we got on to the subject of upgrading to Mavericks.   They were happily assuring me that 'Apple is not like Windows"  you can just upgrade over the top and all will be well .  I said I did not believe it but took the plunge any way...

I used to do a clean Windows re install from an image every 6 months when I ran Windows on the main machine regularly, but Apple marketing got me to believe that OSX was so great and stable that I'd not need to do that...so i have not

I only moved to 10.9 because there were some Light Room features that I wanted.  But some of the issues are not upgrade or clean related...the abortion that is the new Contacts, the Notes 'upgrade' to a separate app. that loses all old notes during the process, iCloud  (s)crew ups .these are all common issues if one scans the other forums

Well FCE seems to work fine, if a bit slow n the rendering. it is great how Apple drop support so soon in to somethings life !  Look at Windows XP..still supported till this year, so 11 or 12 years,  and that may yet be expended..and that is an OS that came out it ...02? 03 ...Anyway rant over...

I'll try some of your suggestions Bengt and see what happens.

I have 5 internal HDD's on this machine,  the 4 that are in the internal bays plus one on SATA extensions from the main logic board extension plugs.  one I had already turned off .

Start up drive is SSD, with over 60gb free space.

Data project disk where clips are stored is a 4TB Hybrid with I think 80GB Solid state hybrid section

Scratch disk where clips are stored is the same type of 4TB Hybrid .

No external HDD's at all ..

External devices are :

Apple Keyboard and mouse

Digital Audio out

Line Audio in.

Network connection to the router.

Time machine is already turned off

No screen saver

Never used File Vault.

I did find that I had computer sleep set to 3 hrs and HDD to sleep where possible checked..so I have changed that ..but not optimistic that that will increase CPU efficiency and usage.

I do not have many desktop icons, there is:

Home folder shortcut

the 5 internal HDD's

and at present about 12 images waiting to be filed correctly or deleted.
But I have never understood why having desktop icons can slow the machine down.  I have heard this before..but the desktop is just another folder within the filing system...??  

I'll try disabling Spotlight for the disks and see what happens..but then I do know that when I take them out of privacy I'll have to wait a day again for the whole system to re -index.

The thought of using iMovie...no far to much footage for that and to scrap 4-5 days of work that has already been done in creating subclips and sorting them in to relevant bins for each sequence and then re creating the clips that have ben edited and mixed down with the audio tracks, so no that is not an option.

Thanks for the pointers