Playback delay 10.1.1

That old playback delay playing timeline now back in 10.1 don't know where it came from. Its a delay of up to 3-4 sec before timeline starts playing showing the famous beach ball. Not on all clips. Playing the clip in browser starts immediately. Playing the clip directly in finder plays OK. Copy the clip to a new empty timeline plays OK. Copying all clips in my project to a new timeline, same problem. Move the clip to end of timeline plays well ! Replaced the clip, same problem. Turned of AV/out same problem. Restarted, same problem.
Light a candle and pray, no result.

I solved the problem or I found what caused it. After the clip that didn't start playing immediately there was a clip that I had speeded up. It was rendered. Tested remove that and now my trouble clip starts playing at once. Quite mysterious. Just now I do not have time to dig deeper, will return when I know more.

I was having the same issue and this helped isolate the problem. I have a project where a large portion of it has retimed (sped up) video clips for a timelapse effect. When I would try to play the project, it would lag up to 7 seconds. Then I realized everything after this clip would play immediately. So, I've taken the retimed clips out temporarily. Not a solution at all, but at least now I know.

I have the same problem, but with footage without any effects. Even with proxy file. Delay is about 2sec. Can't find the reason yet.

I'm having same issue with 10.2.1, with clips with any effects.
I rebuilt the hard drive's directory (where original files are allocated) with disk warrior and now the projects plays fine.
It seems that fcpx is very dependant on hard drive performance. I don't have these issues with Premiere Pro and the same hard drive.

Give me some 4K or 5K clips and I can make PPro do it... again...

You know one thing that I've learned about X is that it sometimes likes to just go at it's own pace.

Even from the time I launch the app, I will let it sit open for a minute or so just to "organize" itself. I take edits a bit more slowly and patiently. I will also render a few clips at a time as I work. Not beautiful, but it has been working for me. I also try to notice the sound my computer is making, that clickity-click of all things trying to do everything. And kind of wait for it to catch up. This to shall pass I'm guessing as we get into 10.3 and beyond, as well as hardware improvements when our current machines just won't cooperate.

Goodbye $$$$....

JL

ilyas wrote: I have the same problem, but with footage without any effects. Even with proxy file. Delay is about 2sec. Can't find the reason yet.

Likewise here. This is using a top-spec 2013 iMac and 8TB Pegasus R4 thunderbolt array. On mine it is intermittent and restarting FCP X usually makes it go away for a while. I haven't isolated it further because it's usually not that bad, just irritating.

On mine it is not always 2 sec -- usually there's instant response to UI input, but then lag periodically and intermittently creeps in, sometimes 1-2 sec, sometimes goes away by itself, sometimes not.

On Premiere CS6 it felt like steel rods connected the edit controls the to UI. There was almost never any lag or delay. FCP X sometimes feels like a series of rubber bands and pulleys are connecting the edit controls to the UI -- a sloppy decoupled feel. At other times FCP X feels lightning fast; it's just not consistent.

[/quote] ... but then lag periodically and intermittently creeps in, sometimes 1-2 sec, sometimes goes away by itself, sometimes not.

FCP X sometimes feels like a series of rubber bands and pulleys are connecting the edit controls to the UI -- a sloppy decoupled feel. At other times FCP X feels lightning fast; it's just not consistent.[/quote]

Good description joema: that's what happens to me too. A new project is always fast to respond but as it grows it gets slower - sometimes. That's the puzzling part, the inconsistency.

I run Memory Clean in the background and have noticed that when mine slows down it usually coincides with Memory Clean showing me that my RAM is mostly used up. Sometimes running that app will help but the most reliable "fix" is to quit FCPX and restart. Then Memory Clean indicates about 70-80% of RAM is available and FCPX responds properly again.

Late 2012 iMac, i7, 32 Gb Ram,several TB of available storage.

I've had this issue where retimed clips have a delay of a a few seconds before playing and it seems to be related to the way FCPX handles audio, since audio is not rendered it seems to have to read the audio from the hard drive much faster than usual, the length of the delay appears to be relative to the hard drive speed and how much the clips have been speed up, I resolved the issue (sort of) for myself by detaching and deleting the audio instead of muting it. this has completely removed the delay for me and i am able to play my time-lapse clips instantly from any point.
I hope this can be of help to anyone with the same issue.
-Mark

I've had 'delay' problems in FCPX for some time now. At first i thought it was the mixture of codecs on the timeline. I was editing with ProRes proxies, HD H264 footage and 4K H264 footage. I'm running 10.2.1 now and for this edit decided to transcode everything to ProRes proxies for an offline edit. It seems to work a lot better as I didn't really encounter any issues till the end of the project at the 50min mark. Its chugging a bit now when I add lower third graphics. My machine is a late 2012 iMac, i7, 32GB Ram and running 2x 24TB OWC ThunderBays.

I'm planning on doing the next edit in Premiere CC to see if I run into this issue.

Yes in my case it is audio related. I was having this delay - but it depended where on the timeline I was playing from. Some clips had a deal, others not despite every frame on the timeline being rendered. Turns out it I turned off the dialog roles, the problem disappeared.