Q: Final Cut Pro Renders Choppy?

TCOLL150 wrote:

The video consists of many different clips from different sources.

 

Different types of footage will make your Mac work harder.

e.g.  AVCHD without creating Optimised clips will tax an older Mac during playback.

Note: the settings for playback can also influence the playback.

Usually switching to Better Performance is wise:

Creating Proxy media will also help if payback is bad.

Also the type of storage drive in use needs to be fast enough for the footage.

USB2 or firewire 400 is not recommended for HD footage like AVCHD. USB 3, thunderbolt or a raid system is the ticket.

The sync issues could well be you have some clips that do not match the Project Properties.

Al

With the Inspector open click a Project icon in the Browser.

You will see this:

If your clips match the Project settings all is well.

If not your system has work to do, meaning slower.

The first clip entered to a default Project determines the Project Properties.

If other clips are added with differing properties, then the Mac is working overtime to keep up.

You need to Render or make Optimised or Proxy clips to prevent playback issues.

Al

You should see an Orange bar above a"misfit" clip.

Select the clip and hit Shift-R this will render it and the bar will slowly go away.

Once gone FCP X will have a rendered conforming to Project file to use rather than struggling with the misfit.

Al