FCPX playback problems

Hi There, Im running FCPX on a Intel quad core 2.66GHz mac pro, a Geforce GT120 graphics card with 512mb of vram and 6Gb of ram memory on OSX Lion.
It was a clean install on a separate 1TB internal drive, the footage is on a another separate internal drive, in theory the spec should work fine, but when I try and play back just 20 seconds of Pro res 422 footage the footage stutters and if I put a filter or two on it it drops frames and grinds to a halt, this also happens when I change it to Pro res proxy and when every thing is rendered which makes it impossible to work with, Iv been looking around but haven't found anything that helps yet, any thoughts would be apriciated, thanks.

Well that is a bummer.

I would first check out your graphics card. I'm not familiar with that model. Do you get any kind of warning when you open up FCP X? Here is a list of supported graphics cards:

support.apple.com/kb/HT4664

If you do have a supported card, then I would first try to repair permissions in Disk Utility. If you still have issues at that point I would contact Apple.

Also you on 10.0.1?

Hi tpayton, My first reply seems to have gone in to the aether?

I have checked my graphics card 'GeForce GT 120' and it is on this list: support.apple.com/kb/HT4728 so it should be ok.

Theres no warning of any kind when I open fcpx it seems to be opening fine.

I tried repair disk permissions but that didn't make a difference.

I gave Apple support a call and they were helpful but the problem hasn't been solved yet, they are getting back to me tomorrow, so Im still hopeful.

I am running 10.0.1

Thanks for your reply.

Hi
I have an 24" iMac with 2,93 Intel Core 2 Duo with 8GB of RAM and GeForce GT 120 with 256MB. I have a clean instal and my media is on external HDD on FireWire 800.

I have the same issues, plus the fact that sometimes the "playhead" is jumping on its own at the beginning of the timeline or freezes (the video still playing). The entire application is sluggish and freezes too many times.
I really love FCPX but sometimes is really hard to do just the basic stuff.

PS Background Rendering is off and my RAM is not the original one but with the same specifications. The RAM is working fine in Photoshop, Illustrator and other Apps.
I have also tried to remove perian but with no result.
I will try maybe to install Lion and FCPX only...

I think Iv sorted my playback problem out?

In my case the choppy playback seems to have been caused by importing Pro res 422 files that I had already transcoded in FCP 7. When I imported the original h264 files with FCPX using optimise media the Pro res files played ok. I mentioned this to Apple support and they said that there is a difference in flavour between Pro res transcoded in FCP7 and the new flavour Pro res transcoded in FCPX. Is it just me that didn't know that.

I haven't done much els with this footage, so its early days.

Grozea I don't know if this applies to your situation but if you are playing back files that were transcoded using FCP7 its worth going to the original files off your camera (if you still have them) and importing them with FCPX. Hope this helps.

By the way is there a bit of a bug in the info pane, where it says 'codec' it only seems to show the original file type in my case h264 so even when i had Pro res optimised media playing and (I had ejected the disk that the original h264 files were on) the info pane still had the original file name, any one els get this?

Apart from this initial hiccup I think FCPX is looking pretty good

Reinstalling the OS has never been a real solution to a Mac problem. Trash prefs first, then run Disk Utility, if not, FCP X is super easy to uninstall/reinstall with "Final Cut Remover" from Digital Rebellion (use their "Preference Manager" to trash prefs, too).

Yes, I've seen several reports that older ProRes files from FCP 7 are buggy. Before reincoding, be sure you have the QT codec update re-released in a 1.0.1 version the same day as the X.0.1 update was released.
support.apple.com/kb/DL1396

Beauty of ProRes, it was built so that you can reincoded several generations with no image quality loss at all.

BenB, reinstalling the OS may be a real solution at this moment because i have installed some programs that I am not sure if they are so friendly with FCPX (perian, mpegstreamclip, some adobe components, etc.). Yes, the apps from the Mac AppStore are easy to remove including FCPX but some "outside" programs have many files in many places, so you are never sure if the uninstall proces went well.

1st, re-encode any FCP 7 created ProRes, second make sure you have the latest QT codec update.

Nope, not how OS X works, reinstalling is almost never a solution. It's UNIX, I've been a UNIX engineer for close to 30 years.

Remove the app, not the OS. Usually a Spotlight search for the app name, that includes system files will show you everything. No Adobe software should be giving you any problems. Perian should be fine. MPEG Streamclip should be fine.

Third party add-ons for FCP X could be a culprit.

Again, re-installing OS X is usually a huge waste of time. It's too easy to remove an app or a filter and find a conflict. If there is one, it gets posted all over the 'net pretty fast.

Walk through this logically.
1- Verify hardware is compatible, all drives have min 15% free space.
support.apple.com/kb/HT4664
2- Verify all software is up to date via Software Update and the App Store.
3- Trash preferences.
4- Run Disk Utility.
5- Remove third party filters/templates.
6- Run Disk Warrior.
7- Fresh re-install the app.

Beyond that, FCP X is full of bugs at the moment. A fresh OS install won't solve that.

I have tried all the steps you described, with no good result. I am not questioning your expertise in UNIX but from my experience (14years of editing on different platforms) i know that I can spend much more time trying to find corrupted files, preferences, or conflictual applications then doing a clean install.

Anyway we are going off topic on this.

I am just wondering if anybody has the same issues especially this:

- When I try to play a project wich is rendered (so no slowing down) in the middle of the project, the playhead disappear at the beginning of the timeline.

- Sometimes the video freezes but audio plays

- Sometimes even if all the clips are rendered, it starts to drop frames

All my media is optimized

I've seen these. Seems to be from FCP 7 enocded ProRes files sometimes. From underpowered graphics cards sometimes. From media being on the OS drive, or drives no having a minimum of 15% free space. And sometimes it's just a bug we can't do anything about. My playhead disappears on certain Projects sometimes. I find using "S" to turn on/off Skimming a couple of times fixes it. I wonder if you have access to a Mac Pro with FCP X on it, you could test it out on. Again, could just be an FCP X bug we have to wait for Apple to patch.

Re: All my media is optimised: Even when I imported my FCP 7 Pro res 422 files and used the optimised media option in FCPX they still didn't play properly I had to go back and import from the original h264 files, before they would play back ok. I mention this just in case you haven't tried importing from your original files.

Ah yes, there is a hitch to that. FCP X, even if Optimize Media is checked, will NOT transcode media that does not need it. This includes ProRes files, DVCPRO-HD, and the like. So you need to take it through Compressor, or just let it optimize the original non-ProRes files from scratch.

I have noticed that sometimes the skimmer jumps away when i keep my fingers on the mouse more then a few seconds (I have a Magic Mouse). I don't move my fingers, but maybe FCPX believes that i am doing some gestures. I will try with a normal mouse

RE: Pro Res files from FCP 7
I am working with fresh files (just imported from Sony XDCAM)

Claudiu have you checked your 'optimised media folder'? if you have ticked 'create optimise media' when importing you should have a 'high quality media' folder in the 'transcoded media' folder if its not there it means your playing back from your none optimised xdcam files, I don't know if this would make a difference but it might be worth checking out.

I couldn't get fcpx to import 'optimised media' from my exdcam files which like BenB said must mean fcpx doesn't think it needs to.

robs, you are right
The "high quality media" its not there. This explains the strange behavior.
Thank you

Since XDCAM is a Long-GOP format, I'd assume FCP X would indeed create ProRes files. That's odd. I'm checking around with my colleagues to see what's up with XDCAM. Personally, I rarely get to work with it.

Native XDCAM footage needs to be converted from the BPAV folder into a QuickTime movie using XDCAM Transfer software. That converts it to QuickTime, but it is still an MPEG-2 XDCAM file.

Then import into FCP X using Optimize Meida, FCP X converts it to ProRes.

BenB the files I imported were converted using the XDCAM Transfer software but I couldn't get it to import them as high quality optimised media, but I could import them as proxy media, strange.