MBP performance with camera files

I started using my MBP to check camera files on location and am finding the performance disappointing, to say the least.

It's an early 2009 MBP, 2.53 Core 2 Duo, with the dual graphics cards, set to use the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT. 8GB RAM (max for this model) and a Crucial 500GB SSD system drive, running 10.10.5.

Playback of camera 1080p files from my Canon 70D and GoPro 4 cameras is very choppy and sticky, virtually useless for checking the footage. This is after transferring the footage to the SSD. Only after letting FCPX transcode to ProRes Proxy does the footage become viewable, which takes too long to be useful on location.

Am I missing something or is it time to get a new MBP?

Are you seeing the choppiness only in FCP X or also when opening the files in QT player? If it's only in FCP X, what version?

- Ronny

Thanks for your response, Ronny.

No it's on any player, Quicklook, QT7, FCPX.

Actually the GoPro footage is 2.7k, the Canon is 1080. Both at 25fps. The canon footage is smoother but still not anything like fluid. ProRes Proxy is fine

I suppose I'm just wondering if I'm expecting too much of my 7.5 year old MBP?

It's quite normal. Canon and GoPro footage is H.264, which can barely be played natively on this computer in full HD. Let alone in 2.7K. Optimizing the footage in FCP X or converting it to Poxy media should do the trick, but of course that's not always an option when you just need to check files on location.

I don't think there's much you can do, except get a faster MBP or wait until someone here should confirm that they can play these media natively on their early 2009 MacBookPro. In which case we can try and find out why your computer cannot. But IMO the machine is not really up to this task.

- Ronny

I know on a 2008 with fast ext drive, we had to use proxies for GoPro and 7D footage. Then my editor just started to Optimize it all, since we had lots of ext drive space available. That ran fine, but couldn't do much multicam with it at all. DVCPRO-HD clips were slightly better, but still no multicam was going to happen.

ffg wrote: .... Playback of camera 1080p files from my Canon 70D and GoPro 4 cameras is very choppy and sticky, ...

You transfer the files onto the MBs interal drive first, I hope...

Or do you playback via usb? That is on your MB just usb2...

I think 2009 still had Firewire, and only USB 1 or 2. Neither is fast enough, though. What connections does a 2007 have?

You"re right Ben
Fw800 (both cams don't have) and usv2 ...

Would place my chips on this cazse for lagging.

The OP said: "This is after transferring the footage to the SSD."

So I don't think the issue is due to FiWi or USB connections. Native H.264playback in full HD or 2K seems to be too much for this computer to handle.

- Ronny

Sorry, been out all day.

yes, it's still a problem when playing back from the SSD, which clearly has the necessary speed.

Is it the CPU or graphics card which isn't coping?

Anyone with a newish rMBP care to say how good it is for playing back 4k H.264 camera files?

ffg wrote: ...Is it the CPU or graphics card which isn't coping?
...
Anyone with a newish rMBP care to say how good it is for playing back 4k H.264 camera files?

It is likely the CPU. Encoding/decoding of long-GOP formats like H.264 is inherently sequential and is not amenable to GPU-style acceleration. An Intel CPU of Sandy Bridge generation or newer has Quick Sync, which can accelerate the core algorithm -- if the software harnesses this feature. Fortunately FCP X does; I don't know about various players.

GoPro files in particular are highly compressed can be sluggish to edit natively, even on a higher-end iMac.

I have a top-spec 2015 rMBP, and it does OK on 4k file playback. However 4k is challenging on most most computers. Even on my 2015 iMac 27 with 4Ghz CPU and SSD, I have to transcode to proxy media if editing 4k multicam.

4k is just plain hard, especially when applying computational effects such as noise reduction, stabilization, etc.

I have edited on a 2010 mac mini with a core 2 duo that cpu just isn't powerful enough/optimized to edit 1080 60p AVCHD,
However the 2.8 i5 2014 model can edit at least 3 streams in multi-cam, the specs are very similar to the 13" rMBP so if anyone wants to post/send me some 4K footage I'll be glad to test it and post the results.

For playing back a single stream of footage the number of cores don't seem to make a difference, as 'joema' said the 'quick sync' seems to make a big difference. Because of FCPXs GPU rendering a newer graphics card seems to be important for real time color grading/effects.