Deromax
Level 1 (33 points)
Video

Q: Slow transfer from camcorder to FCE

Hello all!

 

I just got a brand new iMac, totally maxed out, hoping to speed-up imports, conversions, exports and encoding compared to my trusty Macbook Pro from 2009.

 

I find the transfer from my also brand new Canon XA20 camcorder to be awfully slow.  When transfering a big file, the transfer will start up fast and fine then will gradually slows to a crawl after about a minute or so of importing.  Short clips will transfer fast.

 

Transfering from the camcorder by USB or putting the SD card into the iMac SD slot won't change anything, that would seem to indicate that the camcorder and the USB bus are both fine.

 

Looking into Activity monitor indicate that the CPU and the disk traffic are both totally under-used for their capacity.  Processor at about 100% (should max out at 400% for a quad-core, see pic) and inbound traffic from the SD card have peaks at 2 or 3 MB/s with some idle time in between.

 

Infos :

 

iMac 27, bought in april 2014.  3.5 GHz i7, 16 GB ram, 4 GB video card, 1 TB fusion drive, latest Maverick OS, latest FCE 4.0.1

 

Canon XA20, two identical 64 GB SanDisk Extreme Class 10 SD XC 1 cards at 45 MB/s, AVCHD files, stock firmware in the camcorder.

 

Any ideas?

 

Screen Shot 2014-05-09 at 11.32.45.png

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2), 3.5GHz i7 16GB ram 4GB video 1TB HD

Posted on May 9, 2014 8:38 AM

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Deromax

Q: Slow transfer from camcorder to FCE

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Deromax,

    Deromax Deromax May 9, 2014 1:04 PM in response to Deromax
    Level 1 (33 points)
    Video
    May 9, 2014 1:04 PM in response to Deromax

    I did some more testing.  Disk speed test on the internal HD showed speed in the 700-800 MB/s range.  Speed test on the SD cards showed 33 MB/s write and 45 MB/s read.  CPU loading test with the "yes" Terminal command showed all cores maxing out well with the fan ramping up!

     

    I tried to unplug the second screen, quit all other apps, rebooted, passed a Disk Utility "Verify", repaired permissions and checked for updates.

  • by Alchroma,

    Alchroma Alchroma May 9, 2014 3:28 PM in response to Deromax
    Level 6 (19,086 points)
    Video
    May 9, 2014 3:28 PM in response to Deromax

    As mentioned if you are importing Progessive into FCE it's simply going to have to work a lot harder to get the job done.

     

    Footage should be interlaced from the camera and FCE>Easy Setup should be adjusted prior to import with the exact matching specs of the footage.

     

    Then she will sing.

     

    Al

  • by Deromax,

    Deromax Deromax May 9, 2014 10:15 PM in response to Alchroma
    Level 1 (33 points)
    Video
    May 9, 2014 10:15 PM in response to Alchroma

    Nobody talked about progressive.  For the record, my footage is 60i.

  • by Alchroma,

    Alchroma Alchroma May 10, 2014 3:48 AM in response to Deromax
    Level 6 (19,086 points)
    Video
    May 10, 2014 3:48 AM in response to Deromax

    My mistake.

     

    Is your footage matching the existing Project settings?

     

    Al

  • by Deromax,

    Deromax Deromax May 10, 2014 11:01 AM in response to Alchroma
    Level 1 (33 points)
    Video
    May 10, 2014 11:01 AM in response to Alchroma

    It is matched.  If it wasn't and the computer had to work harder, it would shows in CPU useage.  The Activity monitor app is showing that the system is just slightly above idle while transfering.

     

    There is something holding back the throughput, not a performance bottleneck affecting this system.

     

    The same transfer on my Macbook Pro is taking a long time but the CPU is maxed out while transfering, so you know it's doing something!

  • by Alchroma,

    Alchroma Alchroma May 10, 2014 4:43 PM in response to Deromax
    Level 6 (19,086 points)
    Video
    May 10, 2014 4:43 PM in response to Deromax

    Can you double check you have FCE version 4.0.1 on both machines?

     

    Al

  • by Deromax,

    Deromax Deromax May 10, 2014 6:03 PM in response to Alchroma
    Level 1 (33 points)
    Video
    May 10, 2014 6:03 PM in response to Alchroma

    The iMac is at my job, so I'll have to double check on monday.  What I do know is that both installation were from the same original Apple DVD installation disc, which is version 4.0.  The Macbook was updated to 4.0.1 by Software Update, but the iMac was updated by an update file that was made available by someone elsewhere in this forum, since it's my understanding that the updater is no longer available from Apple.

     

    I did bought Final Cut Pro-X and plan to eventually use it in my workflow, but there is some learning curve and I have two projects to finish before I have the chance to fully master FCPX! 

  • by Alchroma,

    Alchroma Alchroma May 10, 2014 6:11 PM in response to Deromax
    Level 6 (19,086 points)
    Video
    May 10, 2014 6:11 PM in response to Deromax

    The update to 4.0.1 is important as it has the AVCHD codecs.

     

    FCP X is vastly different as you say and the latest version of FCP X 10.1.1 have changed the way it manages media, it now uses Libraries, catching out many existing users.

     

    I've not used FCE for about 3 years since FCP X was released

    What I can say is, "I'm not switching back."

    FCP X has matured greatly since it was first released and the newer Library media management is another big step forward IMO.

     

    Al

  • by Deromax,

    Deromax Deromax May 13, 2014 10:37 AM in response to Alchroma
    Level 1 (33 points)
    Video
    May 13, 2014 10:37 AM in response to Alchroma

    Hi!

     

    I checked that this is version 4.0.1.  Actually, it wouldn't import without it, like you said.

     

    I let the thing import overnight and in the morning I found the process had stopped itself with a red ! on the file icon.

     

    I will contact Apple support.

  • by Deromax,

    Deromax Deromax May 24, 2014 1:51 PM in response to Deromax
    Level 1 (33 points)
    Video
    May 24, 2014 1:51 PM in response to Deromax

    The plot thickens.

     

    I'm no longer able to Log and transfer any long clips on my Macbook Pro, a system that has worked great for the last 5 years, including on long clips.

     

    I'm getting the same issues as on the new iMac : transfer slows to a crawl and abort with a red exclamation point after a couple of hours.

     

    Trying to assess if there is a problem with my SD card, I used Disk utility to create an image file from the card.  The copy went fast, about 20MB per second.  I then mounted the image and proceeded with the Log and transfer in FCE from the disk image, to no avail.

     

    It's like both my FCE installations have become lazy with long clips.  I can't understand for the life of me what the h*ll is going on!  I need this to work, I have projects in the queue and clients waiting! 

     

    This is the kind of shoddy app behavior you'd expect on Windows...

  • by Meg The Dog,

    Meg The Dog Meg The Dog May 24, 2014 3:10 PM in response to Deromax
    Level 6 (11,168 points)
    Video
    May 24, 2014 3:10 PM in response to Deromax

    Have you tried reinstalling your copy of FCE?

     

    MtD