DVCPro50 in FCP - playback requires eternal rendering
 

iMac 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / 1 GB 667 Hz DDR2 RAM / Mac Os X V 10.5.2
FCP V 5.0.1

I'm not wholly familiar with Mac hardware or FCP, but am using it to cut a short shot on DVCPro50.

Here's the problem: any amendment (even just trimming) to the clips on the timeline cause FCP to require rendering of not only the clip, but clips that are appended/prepended; above or below. It doesn't matter if they have effects on them or not, and no amount of fiddling with the playback or system settings makes a blind bit of difference - those lovely orange lines just keep coming back.

It's become almost unusable, especially when small adjustments are needed - it takes half a second to make the change, then between ten seconds and a few minutes to render everything, by which time the mental comparisons are long gone.

Can anyone explain whether it's user error, low system spec or bloody gremlins, before I tear my hair out, please?! Surely it can't be this painful to edit in FCP, because I'll just shell out for Raylight and cut it in good ole Vegas...

Thanks,

NR.

It sounds like you aren't editing in a DCVPro 50 timeline. Go to your Easy Setup menu, select DVCPro 50, create a new timeline, drop a clip into that and see if you still have the same problem.


-A

Pretty sure I've set it correctly but I'll try it tomorrow and report back.

Thanks again.

NR.

Ok, I followed your advice and still no luck. Checked the set up was 'DVCPRO Anamorphic 48KHz' (no mention of 50, but it's the only one of three DVCPRO setups that fits the bill). Dropped in a clip and still got an orange bar above it. Apple+R to render, plays fine.

However, it seems the FX have something to do with it. If I strip out any FX (even something as simple as a 2.35:1 matte) there are no more rendering problems.

Still, there remain two questions: first, why do even have to render in the first place? Just dropping a raw clip on the timeline requires rendering (orange line). Second, why can't FCP generate the FX in real time, like Vegas? If it gets too much, I should just be able to switch them off globally, but there doesn't seem any way to do this. It really is unusable in the state it's in.

Thanks again.

DVCPro and DVCPro 50 are two different codecs which is why you are getting the orange bar. Basically when you drop your DVCPro50 clip into the DVCPro timeline you are asking FCP to transcode the clip into a different codec in real time. If you go to the Easy Setup menu you should see a preset that says DV50 NTSC Anamorphic. Choose that preset, create a new sequence (because any current sequence won't have it's settings changed) drop the DV50 clip in and you shouldn't have to render it.

As far as rendering goes, FCP currently doesn't offer the same amount of RT playback that Vegas does. Some effects/filters are RT depending on fast your system but not all of them are RT.


-Andrew