Viewer lagging FCE 4.0

Question

Viewer lagging FCE 4.0

Hello!

Might seem like an outdated issue for some, but i need help resolving the lag when I play my clips in the viewer.

I am working off my internal Macintosh HD (750 gb) that has only 388 GB used.

Running OS X 10.8.5

2.8GHz Intel i7

4 GB RAM

I have double checked the item properties and made sure that my easy setup correlates with the clips, but here's a photo anyway.

All the clips for this project were shot on my iPhone, uploaded onto my computer through iPhoto and then dragged from there into a folder in my Finder for this project.

Never had this problem before, especially working with clips that were shot on an iPhone. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Posted on Jul 19, 2014 11:15 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 20, 2014 9:46 AM in response to jemiliochalit

Right off the bat you're doing two things incorrectly:

1. Importing H.264 files into FCE. FCE doesn't work natively with H.264 or any other MPEG-4 variation. It only works with QuickTime DV and AIC. You need to convert the H.264 files to AIC prior to importing them into your project.

2. Storing media for editing on the system hard drive. Media should be stored on another internal drive or an external Firewire or Thunderbolt drive. The system drive is busy enough trying to run the OS, FCE and all of th other background processes you don't see. Editing media stored on the system drive overtaxes it and bogs everything down.

-DH

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Answer 2

Dec 19, 2014 12:53 AM in response to David Harbsmeier

I've worked with H.264 in FCE in the past and haven't had issues, but that's good to know. I've converted my files into AIC and it works fine now.

However, I also just ran the file through a converter (MPEG Streamclip) and all I did was convert it into a quicktime movie (which it already was) with an H.264 compressor, and I've since imported the file, basically without changing much, and now works fine. Curious, but I've definitely taken note of not working with MPEG-4 variations since.

I have also taken your second suggestion and the system now operates much smoother.

Thanks for the help!

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