FCP x running way to slow, what is the problem?

Hi Guys,

Quick question, I've been editing a lot of AVCHD footage from my Sony FS700 cinema camera and its so damn slow when I edit it in Final Cut Pro X.

Is it ideal to transcode the AVCHD footage to Proress 422 first than import the Proress 422? I've just been importing the AVCHD footage from my Sony FS700 and letting Final Cut Pro X transcode the media, but its still way to slow. Am I doing something wrong? Should I be converting and transcoding all the AVCHD footage to Proress first?

I just want final cut pro x to run as fast and smooth as possible with minimal delays and there any other settings in FCPx that I can change to make in run as fast as possible? I am also running a pretty fast Macbook Pro with maxed out 16GB of RAM. And as far as footage, should I keep the original on my internal drive, or run it off an external hard drive?

Also is Proress 422 the optimum and fastest codec for FCPx?

1- Never put Libraries or media on the system drive.
2- The drive connection type will make the most difference, as drives are the slowest component of a system (Thunderbolt is fastest, USB 3, FireWire, never use USB 1 or 2).
3- Laptops are not the fastest computers in the world.
4- ProRes will perform better than pretty much any other codec.

I've been doing some tests and these things really slow down FCPX. On any system no matter how fast.

Markers. If you have lots of them, delete them from your projects.
Inspector. Close it!
Cache. Don't have your cache on a RAID. Keep it local, especially if it's an SSD.
BIG Libraries with lots of Projects. Break them down into smaller libraries. Consider backup libraries that contain your Snapshots.
Also I recommend keeping media external. It keeps things easy to manage and stops FCPX from constantly duplicating items.

Sadly in an effort to 'simplify' things Apple has made the whole workflow in FCPX one giant mess.

Have to totally disagree. Ran some tests, the first three or four suggestions, I'm not getting those results on a Pegasus T2 RAID 5.

@ Andre:

What Ben said, plus

- Background rendering can slow down your system. So always turn it OFF if you experience slowdowns. You can render manually whenever you want.

- If your project runs slow, even with optimized footage, you can create proxy media and work in Proxy playback mode. Edit using proxy media, export using original media. It's a seamless workflow that many people use.


@ Sean:

Apple has expanded the library asset location options because many professionals asked for this. I don't agree at all that it's a mess, in fact I think it is the best developed media management structure you can find in any NLE.

- If you want to keep things really simple keep your Libraries managed. This works great for most FCP X editors who simply need to ingest/edit/export on a project-by-project basis.

- For easy media sharing you can keep the Libraries managed and the Original Media external.

- If you want to collaborate over big shared storage networks, share media across different productions, take proxy-only projects on the road, edit live with growing files etc... you have full control over how you organize every aspect of your Library to achieve the best performance for any specific workflow.

FCP X is intended to be easily accessible for any novice or prosumer editor while also offering advanced features and controls for professional and enterprise workflows. The new options in the media management structure perfectly fit in this picture.


- Ronny

Agree all the ingredients are there. (Apart from proper project sharing)

Yes there is a learning process, but saying it is easy or intuitive isn't really accurate in my opinion.
I'm spending way too much time explaining to producers and assistant editors as to where their media has gone and why things aren't working as they expect.

It is more intuitive and more capable than any other NLE out there.

BTW, I teach old, seasoned pro editors couple times a month. Not a single one, in a formal Apple authorized training, has had any trouble learning FCPX. Not a single one has any desire to go back to v.7 or PPro or MC.

Getting folks to understand is not just the application itself, but how you communicate that information. Thus to say it is not intuitive is an open ended statement that glosses over a LOT of reality.

I've been doing technical software training for almost 3 decades now. Nothing, absolutely nothing, has been easier to teach and get folks to understand than FCPX.

I'd say it is more intuitive than anything else on the market. Intuitive meaning easy to learn, not that you're psychic and just know it.

Taking too much time explaining, well, not to sound mean or anything, and all due respect... But maybe rethink how you're explaining such an easy media management system. It is the easiest to learn NLE ever.

Managed vs External vs Hybrid, very easy, my students get it right away.

On the original point of high speed fs700 footage, I have to say I have cut quite a bit of this on an older MacBook pro off the system drive and had it cut perfectly smoothly, so it is possible. There are a few things you can do to improve matters though.

I would say number one is dont transcode to prores. I know this seems counter intuitive but prores, while optimised from the processors point of view, has a far higher data rate than avchd, which means your drive has to be faster to keep up. On a laptop particularly, the drive speed can be a bottleneck so keeping it avchd is the way to go.

Second make sure your playback preference are switched from better quality to better performance. This will go some way to compensate for the fact that your processor has to work harder to unwind avchd.

I reckon if you do these two things you will find fcpx behaving a lot better, and hopefully fast enough for you to cut smoothly.

Another thing I've noticed also is that every machine I've used that exhibits this kind of behaviour had Final Cut Studio still installed. One even had virtual clusters running in the background. Not sure if this affects FCP X but wouldn't surprise me if it did.

This should not effect FCP X directly, but it could affect your overall system's speed. If FCP was installed long time ago and OSes has been updated over older OSes on a computer this certainly can have an influence on your overall performance.

At the studio we always keep our systems as lean and clean as possible. Our production machines only have the bare necessities installed, there is a weekly drive maintenance and system backup schedule and every month the system drives of all our production computers are wiped clean. We also have very strict guidelines for dealing with specific workflows and formats. May sound a bit fanatic, but we hardly ever experience any issues while some of our machines run 24/7.

- Ronny

Definitely the way to go. I have an old iMac from 2011 that I use at home and I swear it's often faster and more stable than a lot of the 2012-2013 MacPros that I come across as a freelancer.