FCP hangs when speeding up AVCHD video.

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FCP hangs when speeding up AVCHD video.

Just what the title says. I import a large MTS file and start a new project. Everything is fine until I try to speed the video up whether that be 2x, 4x, 8x, etc. If I remove the audio it all works again. So it seems the audio is really causing issues when trying to speed up the video. What I am trying to do is speed the video up and maintain the audio pitch and I do have that checked, but my late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro i7 quad 2.6GHz 16GB 512GB SSD laptop gets very upset. Also, I have noticed by using the Activity Monitor that the process that speeds video up only uses one thread to do so which is highly disappointing since this is a very intensive operation. Is this a bug and is anyone else experiencing this?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 25, 2015 6:44 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

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Mar 25, 2015 7:31 PM in response to jennjun

TTry optimizing the media.

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Answer 2

jennjun Author

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Mar 26, 2015 9:22 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

If you mean in the transcoding options, I've done that. I will add, this is AVCHD video in 60p 28M from a Sony a7 generation 1 camera. (not the new a7 II)

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

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Mar 26, 2015 10:09 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

.

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Answer 4

Tom Wolsky

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Mar 26, 2015 10:10 AM in response to jennjun

IS this really .mts? Use reveal in finder and see if the original media is .mts or .mov.

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Answer 5

jennjun Author

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Mar 26, 2015 1:28 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Only Sony knows that for sure. I have been shooting with this camera for a year now in AVCHD 60p 28M (the camera's highest video quality) and all video files on the SD card are stored with a .MTS extension which I directly import into FCP.

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky

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Mar 26, 2015 3:30 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

.

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Answer 7

Tom Wolsky

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Mar 26, 2015 3:31 PM in response to jennjun

SSorry, I'm not clear from your answer, does the FCP original media folder contain .mto files or .mov files?

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Answer 8

jennjun Author

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Mar 26, 2015 4:38 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

The Original Media folder definitely has the .mts file and the Transcoded Media has the .mov files.

Tracked it down and it was me not being patient. If I try to accelerate the video right after I import the video and not wait for the background tasks to complete (I am guessing the transcoding of the video after the import in this case) FCPX hangs pretty hard. Sometimes it recovers after a long wait, but never fully acts normal after that. If I wait for the background tasks to complete and the meter reaches 100% all is good. I can understand my MacBook Pro being upset when the Activity Monitor looks like this and I am trying to load more on top of it.

I would say this is taking full use of my late 2013 MacBook Pro's quad core i7 2.6GHz CPU. 8 threads screaming and on-board fans whistling. Poor little guy.

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Answer 9

Tom Wolsky

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Mar 26, 2015 4:45 PM in response to jennjun

I Would suggest that if you're importing AVCHD you import from the folder structure using the import window so the files are rewrapped to QuickTime. You probably won't even need optimized media then.

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Answer 10

jennjun Author

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Mar 26, 2015 5:10 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Sorry, could you clarify that last post. I copy all my .mts files to a folder on my SSD from the SD card. In FCP I import from that SSD folder. Appreciate your advice.

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Answer 11

Tom Wolsky

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Mar 26, 2015 5:30 PM in response to jennjun

TThe standard procedure for AVCHD media is to backup or archive the whole card. You can then import from the archive using the FCP import window selecting the clips or the segments of the clips you want. When you use this procedure FCP rewraps the MPEG files to QuickTime. The format functions much better in a production environment, especially with multiple layers of video and audio. Most users don't not need to optimize their media when it's imported like this.

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Answer 12

jennjun Author

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Mar 26, 2015 5:43 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

This must be what you are talking about. How strange... definitely a different approach. Thanks for the tip. I will try.

http://www.photographybay.com/2011/08/14/how-to-import-avchd-files-from-a-memory -card-or-hard-drive-in-final-cut-pro-x/

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Answer 13

jennjun Author

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Mar 26, 2015 6:36 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Well, tried what you said. Unfortunately the video I am working with I have only the .mts files and not the file structure. On future imports from the SD card I will do the archive instead. In the meantime it looks like I am stuck using optimized video because as soon as I turn off the transcoding checkboxes and try to speed up the video even after all the background tasks/renders are done FCPX hangs hard and never recovers fully operational when I hit the play button in the preview pane. Just a spinning pinwheel. I am not sure why that is, but the only way I can get any kind of decent editing performance is using optimized video with my .mts files.

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Answer 14

jennjun Author

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Mar 26, 2015 6:49 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

WOW!!! What a difference!!! Thank you for all your help. I did a test run and recorded a few video clips on the Sony a7. I did as you instructed and archived the SD card and imported from the archive. Now the editing without optimized video is working lightning fast. I just learned something very valuable to my workflow and I really appreciate it. My only question is why can't .mts files be imported directly rather than this archive procedure? Once again, thank you!

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Answer 15

Tom Wolsky

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Mar 26, 2015 7:04 PM in response to jennjun

YYou can use .mts; it just doesn't work very well in production. It's designed for acquisition, compressing quickly, packing information on a small card. The format's compression scheme makes it very difficult to decode in realtime, lousy for editing, especially multiple streams of content. QuckTime is extraordinarily more efficient for playback.

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