Is this Share/Export Speed Normal?

Hi all,

So i'm currently trying to share a video i created in FCP X to youtube. The video is approximately 16 minutes long. It has basic effects and transitions but there are quite a few in total through the entire video and a lot of key frames.

My machine isn't brilliant. It's a Macbook Pro mid-2012 running Yosemite 10.10.4, processor is 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7, graphics is NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512 MB, and memory is upgraded to 16GB RAM.

Earlier i tried to share the video in 1080p and it took around 5 hours for about 40%. Now i'm doing in 720p and it's taken about 20-30 minutes for 5%. Are these speeds normal? If so, how can i speed this up?

Thanks,

That seems very long for sure and I doubt normal. I don't use FCPX share to YouTube but I have heard from other forum members that this method takes longer than sharing to YouTube from Compressor or other third party apps.

Having said that, there are some things worth checking. It's best to have your media and library on an external fast drive rather than the MacBook system drive. This may be part of the slowdown and may be further complicated if the drive does not have sufficient space for the export (including some overhead free space -about 15% of the drive capacity).

You may also have a particular transition or effect that is a problem causing the render to hang. Try to render the project in the timeline to see if it gets through that in a reasonable amount of time. If it doesn't, note the progress and see where it begins to hang. Again, having the library on an external drive is much better.

If you have compressor, try sharing to YouTube from there.

You can also select the library and then "delete generated library files" choosing ALL render files. A corrupt render file can cause a hanging render share as well.
Post back with what you try and if it helps. There may be some other suggestions based on what you tell us.

You could also try to export a master ProRes file first. This will take much less time.
When done, import the master ProRes in Compressor and export to YouTube from there.
If you don't have Compressor you could use MPEG Streamclip (free) or you can import the master ProRes in FCP and use the share menu for sharing to YouTube. Since it is now a pre-rendered self-contained movie, the export to YouTube will go faster.

discussions.apple.com/thread/7174813

darkuser_999 wrote: ...trying to share a video i created in FCP X to youtube. The video is approximately 16 minutes long...Macbook Pro mid-2012 running Yosemite 10.10.4...Earlier i tried to share the video in 1080p and it took around 5 hours for about 40%...how can i speed this up?...

Your MacBook has an Ivy Bridge CPU which supports Intel's Quick Sync. By far the fastest way to export is use single-pass H.264 from FCP X, not Compressor. Except for certain effects (see below), it should export 16 minutes of 1080p within a few min, and 720p even faster.

I would recommend exporting to a master file for evaluation, then uploading to Youtube in a separate step.

Procedure:

- Share to Master File
- Format: Computer
- Video codec: H.264 Faster Encode
- Resolution: 720p

The only uncertainty is effects. Some (like stabilization or Digital Anarchy's Deflicker) can be very time consuming to run. If you didn't render the timeline they must be rendered during export. This doesn't mean you should render in the timeline, simply that there is no way around eventually rendering them.

The above export settings should run very quickly, even on your MacBook Pro. If they do not, as a diagnostic step try rendering everything (Modify>Render All) before exporting. That will help isolate whether the slowdown is rendering or exporting.

Even though the latest Compressor has been improved with GPU processing for exporting, in my experience it can sometimes be slower than exporting from FCP X -- even if both are using single-pass H.264.

Hello all,

Sorry for the late response. If that's the case than it isn't normal. I am very new to FCP X so please bear with me. The video in question is long but fairly basic in terms of effects. The effects basically come from FCP X existing list. Thing is, even when i export to a master file, it's not very quick. I guess it will still take an hour as previous uploads for a video with fewer effects have taken this. Yes, my library is currently on my internal drive as i have not worked out how to move it yet. I haven't used Compressor (or know what it is) and have about 110GB of the 500GB drive free.

What codec is your original footage? Let me be more specific, what camera are you shooting/importing from, and are you optimizing? If it is any highly compressed format, yes, your laptop could end up being this slow with exports and such.

To move a Library to an external drive, you just copy it over, simple as that.

As long as your project has finished rendering when you begin sharing, the controlling factor is how fast your internet provider will accept the material. Have seen many stories where the only time you have much speed is with Verizon FIOS. I have a TW service which is supposed to be at the high end of what is available to consumers and it can easily take two to three hours for 10 to 15 min. 720 video . My Mac Pro isn't doing much at all besides waiting for the TW network to accept what it is trying to upload. Apparently most networks in Europe are more advanced that what we have in the States.

TonyBSyr wrote: As long as your project has finished rendering when you begin sharing, the controlling factor is how fast your internet provider will accept the material...

That is why I suggested as the first diagnostic step he export to a file vs straight to Youtube. Share/Export to Youtube has three main phases: (1) Rendering, (2) Export/encoding, (3) Uploading. Without doing these as separate discrete steps it's difficult to assess where the slowdown is.

If he completely renders the timeline before export, we can see how long that phase takes. Then if he exports to a single-pass H.264 file, that will use Quick Sync and give a best case timing of that phase. Then the file can be assessed for quality before uploading to Youtube, which can be timed separately.

He reported that sharing a 16 minute 720p video to Youtube took 30 min to reach 5% complete. A typical 720p bitrate is 5 megabits/sec, so 16 minutes would be about 600 megabytes. If his upload rate is 10 megabits/sec, it should only take about 500 sec (8.3 min) to upload a 600 megabyte file. If it's 5 megabits/sec upload rate, it would take about 17 min to complete. It is taking way longer than that, so either his upload rate is extremely slow or it's taking a long time to render or export. Running those as separate steps will show where the problem is.