We have had reports in from a few sources that the top of the range iMac has had problems when running Final Cut Pro X and Motion. Surely the machine must have enough horsepower, what is going on?
We were interested when a few people sent us emails regarding their machines freezing when using either Final Cut Pro X or Motion 5. Interesting because we have been experiencing machine freezes on our brand new top of the range Retina Macbook Pro too.
It looks like we are not the only one as on the Apple Support Communities there is a long thread from a few disgruntled iMac owners who can show exactly how to lock up their machines.
One iMac user Surf City 1 can reproduce the freeze every time:
"If you want to reproduce the issue readily, add a Far, Far Away title to a new project, change text style to Dream. Snap. Done."
Another user NewMacForMe has a problem without touching anything:
"FCPX freezes on me every time I pull in the 'Pixie Dust' title. As soon as it starts to render, it freezes. Hard re-boot required. I have tried many other titles and I have not seen the issue. It seems to only be happening with 'Pixie Dust' so far."
If you take the time to read the whole thread, (all 7 pages!) it looks like it is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB graphics card that is causing the problems.
FCP.co forum contributor Tom Wolsky nailed it on the Apple page:
"This isn't strictly an export problem, and can easily be reproduced when working with the pixie dust title. I tested it in an Apple store. It worked correctly on all the iMacs except the 680MX where the machine twice froze and forced a hard reboot."
You will also read that the NVIDIA wasn't on the list of cards that were officially compatibe with FCPX. That list has now been updated with the GTX 680MX, but as you can see from the thread the issue hasn't been resolved.
Apple and the FCPX team are aware of the issue so hopefully we shall see a fix for this problem in the next update. If the problem only exists with cards with 2GB of VRAM, then why is our MBP freezing when it has the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with only 1024 MB?
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
