PLEASE HELP SERIOUS PROBLEM!!!

So I've been using FCPX for a couple years now and always using Gopro Footage 1080p 30fps, but I just bought a Canon Vixia HF G30 and I recorded a lot of film in a continuous shot. I was filming in 28 Mbps AVCHD and LPCM audio. I put a file that was 30GB into the FCPX where you edit it after I started a new project. I never had an issue with the GoPro, now once I placed this down on the editing part it went extremely slow and then "not responding".... I had to force quit, now everytime I try to open FCP it literally freezes and "not responding". So I keep force quitting and it keeps doing the same thing. It freezes as soon as it goes to "Restoring Window Layout". Someone PLEASE HELP!

Ok so I managed to figure it out finally. Deleted the project in my movies folder so it had nothing to remember upon load up. Now every time I try to import a 30GB AVCHD video with LPCM audio, it freezes immediately and I have to force quit or it will stay frozen? Can anyone please help me here.

My computer specs below....
2 GHz Intel Core i7
8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB

Hello Dane, welcome to the forum.

That's a 2011 MBP, correct? And are you storing your FCP X media on your system drive? How much space do you have left on your system drive?

- Ronny

ronny courtens wrote: Hello Dane, welcome to the forum.

That's a 2011 MBP, correct? And are you storing your FCP X media on your system drive? How much space do you have left on your system drive?

- Ronny

Early 2011 correct! I have a SSD as my hard drive and its only 256GB (yes i know very little, but at the time I was only thinking about speed!) I have 140GB Free out of 256GB. Yes my Media is all on that SSD.

Should I get an external hard drive and put all the media on there? If so, Do you have any recommendations as to how fast of an external Hard Drive I should get? Thank you for your help.

Theoretically you have enough space left to import this footage. But of course it's always better to keep your FCP X media out of your system drive. Are you importing straight from the camera or have you copied the card folder to your MBP?

- Ronny

ronny courtens wrote: Theoretically you have enough space left to import this footage. But of course it's always better to keep your FCP X media out of your system drive. Are you importing straight from the camera or have you copied the card folder to your MBP?

- Ronny

I am importing right from my SSD on my Mac. I already copied the files from my Camcorder to my computer.

Okay, have you copied the complete card structure to your SSD or only the MTS files?

- Ronny

ronny courtens wrote: Okay, have you copied the complete card structure to your SSD or only the MTS files?

- Ronny

I use "Data Import Utility", not sure if you are familiar, a small little program from canon which only sucks the MTS files off the card.

I also may add I have 4 MTS files. They are (approx) 50MB, 250MB, 300MB, and then the big 30GB. The smaller ones import fine and as soon as I go to import the 30GB, it freezes...

Thank you, that's important information.

I think your MBP chokes when caching the 30 GB MTS file. The 30 GB MTS file is on your system drive, your system needs to create temp files on that same drive to rewrap the MTS and then it also needs to save the rewrapped file again on that drive. That's a lot of work for a small SSD. Plus you might get out of memory fast with only 8 GB RAM when you are doing all this with FCP X opened.

You can try to convert the 30 GB MTS file to ProRes 422 or LT using MPEG Streamclip, then delete the MTS files from your SSD and import the Prores files in FCP X. I'm sure that will work, but ProRes will take more drive space. So the best thing you can do is to consider a decent external drive for your FCP X media. Any decent Thunderbolt or FW 800 drive will do, but NOT USB2. Then you can import from the MTS files on your SSD to the FCP X Library on your external drive.

- Ronny

ronny courtens wrote: Thank you, that's important information.

I think your MBP chokes when caching the 30 GB MTS file. The 30 GB MTS file is on your system drive, your system needs to create temp files on that same drive to rewrap the MTS and then it also needs to save the rewrapped file again on that drive. That's a lot of work for a small SSD. Plus you might get out of memory fast with only 8 GB RAM when you are doing all this with FCP X opened.

You can try to convert the 30 GB MTS file to ProRes 422 or LT using MPEG Streamclip, then delete the MTS files from your SSD and import the Prores files in FCP X. I'm sure that will work, but ProRes will take more drive space. So the best thing you can do is to consider a decent external drive for your FCP X media. Any decent Thunderbolt or FW 800 drive will do, but NOT USB2. Then you can import from the MTS files on your SSD to the FCP X Library on your external drive.

- Ronny

Thanks a lot, really appreciate the help. ill definitely buy an external hard drive. One last question. From what I've read AVCHD has a superior codec over MP4 and has better quality, by a little. My Camcorder records in AVCHD (.mts) 28Mbps and also MP4 35Mbps..... I've also read AVCHD has a little trouble in editing programs. So basically my question is, does Final Cut Pro have a hard time using AVCHD, as in, importing, editing, etc. Should I be using MP4 to help out with all of this or do you not think it matters. Thanks again!

FCP X handles AVCHD without any issues, and AVCHD is better than MP4. There has been an interesting discussion here lately, dealing with the differences between AVCHD and MP4 for editing: www.fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/19305-avchd-vs-mp4

On a basic specced system like yours you might find it better to optimize AVCHD or any other high compressed format to ProRes to improve your editing experience. You definitely will enjoy having a good external drive instead of doing everything from your system drive.

- Ronny

dlajoy1122 wrote: .... I use "Data Import Utility", not sure if you are familiar, a small little program from canon which only sucks the MTS files off the card.

Just meant as an addendum to Ronny's advice:

No good workflow... 'orphanizing' mts from its natural packaging, the whole AVCHD structure, is of no use = it doesn't safe any disk-space, plus can create trouble due to the 'other' files contain valuable info, such as how longer recordings are distributed around several mts.

So, the usual, and easier workflow is, to let FCPX import the material; plus, from an intact AVCHD-structure, you're allowed to select parts of longer clips = no need to 'suck in' the full 30GBs, just parts you need.

Thank you guys, once again your help is appreciated. Im learning quite a bit.

Lastly, I notice thunderbolt external hard drives are quite pricey, which is a bummer. I see normal usb 2.0 and 3.0 that go for $100 for 4TB (unfortunately my mac is only equipped with usb 2.0), and I can only find 2TB thunderbolt for $300.

Would this one suffice as a good, fast external to use?
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1043039-R...my_passport_pro.html

That WD Passport should be okay. Here is a quote from a review:

"Blackmagic's test suite indicated that the drive should be suitable for professional, uncompressed video work up to 1080p (10-bit YUV 4:2:2, if you care about such things) and we had no problems using it as a primary drive when working."

Here is a link to the complete review: www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-comp...iew/2#articleContent

Karsten Schlüter wrote:

dlajoy1122 wrote: .... I use "Data Import Utility", not sure if you are familiar, a small little program from canon which only sucks the MTS files off the card.

Just meant as an addendum to Ronny's advice:

No good workflow... 'orphanizing' mts from its natural packaging, the whole AVCHD structure, is of no use = it doesn't safe any disk-space, plus can create trouble due to the 'other' files contain valuable info, such as how longer recordings are distributed around several mts.

So, the usual, and easier workflow is, to let FCPX import the material; plus, from an intact AVCHD-structure, you're allowed to select parts of longer clips = no need to 'suck in' the full 30GBs, just parts you need.

I tried deleting the .mts files off my macbook and then importing them again but this time via FCPX like you said and it did work! It didn't freeze at all and I managed to edit a clip and export successfully! Thank you