1 hour to export!!!

I am exporting a sequnece 1:30 min in total. everything is rendered and it is a very straight through video not spfx or anything. i am exporting as a quicktime and not even making it self contained. Export time is 1:00 hour exact. that is wayyyyyyyyyyy to long.
i am running a dual 2.7 and 2.5 gig of ram

Where are you directing the export? Make sure the target drive has enough space. Render everything before exporting, mixdown audio, and make sure you're using Export - QuickTime Movie rather than Export - Using QuickTime Conversion.

Nine times out of 10, it's also much more worth it to export self-contained.

Exporting what codec? To same or different codec? From timeline or browser? From what drive to where? Need more info.

I'm with the "drive filling up" crowd. INFO everything. System Drive, Media Drives, everything Final Cut can see.

No drive over 90% full and there should be at least one drive on your machine that can handle the whole self-contained show.

Koz

what version of FCP are you using? i have (as well as have others here) seen significant slowdowns in exporting in version 5 as compared to 4.5...

im considering going back to 4.5 myself, as i dont use any of the new features of 5

fcp 5
i have 107 gb free
exporting right from the time line.
same hd

i am exporting just the way i have loged the footage
this is really wierd....

> i have 107 gb free
> exporting right from the time line.
> same hd

Jigsun, it would help if you don't write in shorthand. Which drive has 107GB free -- your system drive, internal drive, or external drive? Same hard drive as what? Or are you using your system drive as your Scratch Disk for capture/render/export? That's a big no-no. Also, as Koz says, it's often not enough to just check the target or media drive -- you should check all drives connected to your computer during the session.

> i am exporting just the way i have loged the footage

Come again? Do you mean you're using the same settings? If so, what are they? Write in detail please -- don't just say "it's dv". We need to know specific details about the codec, data rate, frame size etc.

Also, tell us what external peripherals (that includes modems, printers, scanners, capture cards, decks, DSL lines, hubs, everything) you have hooked up to the computer, and what connections they use.

ok sorry guys..
I am capturing and editing to my system drive. it is about 250 GB I dont understand why is it a NONO to do this!

i don't have any drives or anything external connected to the computer.
I have captured the footage in DV and am going out on DV 720x480 29.97 the footage was shot on my Z1 in DV mode.

I just edited the piece however i turned up the bars in the sound controll to make the soun louder to 12db since it was kinda low.

a few simple dissolves and thats it i have set the in an out and exporting as a quick time movie no change into settings and exporting to my desktop and am not making it self contained to save space

Now it's harder.

How much memory do you have what is the machine?

People jump up and down about editing from the System Drive, but for a minute and a half worth of show, that should have worked.

If you're doing all this on a laptop and only have 128M of memory or something llike that, then yes, it might have troubles executing the work.

Still. An hour of export time means the System is having to work dreadfully hard to deal. Do you get the Spinning Beach Ball Of Death?


Wait a minute. You did say. It's a dualing 2.7 with 2.5G of RAM. And it's not a minute and a half, is it? It's 90 minutes.

Now you're in second drive territory. That flat out is not going to work all on one drive--unless you're willing to wait for it.

Did you mix down your sound and render everything? This still doesn't sound quite right, but I can't put my finger on it......

Koz

whatevere needed to be rendered was rendered but i dont know how to mix down the audio

Audio Mixdown: OPTION-APPLE-R.

But it's impossible that an audio mixdown would cause 90 seconds of video to take an hour. Come to think of it, I'm starting to think Koz is right -- do you really mean 90 minutes, ie. an hour and a half? Even Adobe Premiere 4 doesn't take an hour to export 90 seconds of video. If your computer does, then something is dreadfully wrong with your hardware or software, or both. What other applications are you running at the same time? Have you already turned off all firewalls, antivirus etc.?

> I just edited the piece however i turned up the bars in the sound controll to
> make the soun louder to 12db since it was kinda low.

12dB!? Get ready for some bleeding ears...for DV material, the sound levels should be between -6 and -12dB on your sound meter. If your sound isn't loud enough to your ears at -6dB (which, by the way, is already in the yellow), you need to turn up your computer speakers. And if you're using the in-computer speakers (hello, tinny sound with no muscle), you need to get some external speakers. A cheap pair is only around $20 to $30.

oh i'm soooo sorry it is 90 min I should have written it as 1:30 hour my bad.

as far as the sound i have allready checked the meters and i have external speakers as well. i have checked the audio after exporting and it is ok.

back to the main problem still the export should go at least 4x real time 1 hour to 90 min of footage is still a lot.

> oh i'm soooo sorry it is 90 min
> still the export should go at least 4x real time

Not necessarily. Shorter timelines go fast; with longer timelines, exports times grow at a geometric rate.

One hour to export 90 minutes is long, but not unheard-of. I've had 20-minute films take 6-8 minutes to export, which is getting close to your ratio. Bear in mind that 90 minutes of DV footage will require over 20GB of storage, and that is something you should definitely not export to the system drive.

Buy an external drive. You should also look into getting a second internal non-system drive. Very useful for video-editing purposes. And with such a long movie file, I'd definitely not recommend making a reference rather than self-contained file. If you make a reference movie file, you're asking it to be accessing several hundred clips and even more render files while it's trying to play back. It will probably end up costing you time rather than saving it.

how come on premiere it is so fast to export?
exporting in avi is at least 4x real time.

i have actually ordered a 300gb seagate sata 1 8mb buffer from outpost.com ($100)

so will all said and done i have nothing to worry about right?
its normal

> how come on premiere it is so fast to export?
> exporting in avi is at least 4x real time.

Usually in FCP that's also the ballpark speed, but have you exported anything this long before? It depends on your processor speed, the health of your drives, how many operations you have going at the same time, the location of your media, the codec you've chosen, the complexity of your edit, everything.

Unfortunately, there's no way to find out the "ultimate" solution. Getting your media files, render files and exports off your system drive eliminates one variable in the equation. But either way, you won't regret having more legitimate drive space. System drives are where your applications, preferences, the "brain" of the computer rest. If you constantly send massive chunks of information (such as video media files, some of the largest files you'll ever see) to it, you'll start having problems sooner or later.