Big problem render time and crashing

Hi everybody,

I normally edit 30 second and 60 second spots and I really never care about format that much. Normally I choose the format for the timeline the live action was shot it which is DVCProHD 720 30p most of the time.
For backgrounds I use FCP and Motion, for the Graphics Motion. I pile different formats on top of each other and let my Mac Pro 8Core 3,1 take care of it. Never a problem.

But NOW I'm editing this 15 min infomercial with the same method and the render times are killing me. And not only that. FCP crashes all the time and I have to re-render. I'm behind schedule.

What's the thing I have to change right away?
How do I change a clip format BEFORE I drop it in the timeline?
What about ProRes?
Is there a quick solution?
I want good quality for putting it on Vimeo and other sites but for TV it's going to be hardware-converted into SD

If it crashes all the time on render, it suggests to me you either don't have enough RAM, or your storage drives aren't fast (or free) enough to handle the load. I edit Uncompressed 10-bit HD pretty regularly and I don't have that kind of crash issue, even back when I was using a five-year-old PowerPC G5 and only a RAID0.

If your system can't even handle DVCPro HD 720p30 -- which is a pretty light format in terms of processor and drive load -- and only a 15-minute timeline, I suspect you have something pretty serious wrong with your setup. How full are your drives -- including all your internal system drives? If your system drive is too full, you'll see problems like you're seeing now. Or if you're trying to stick non-editing formats (such as H.264) into your editing timeline.

> How do I change a clip format BEFORE I drop it in the timeline?

Convert it first to one general editing format, like ProRes or DVCPro HD. Usually you choose the format that is optimal for the majority of your footage.

Unfortunately, it's also not desireable to try to conform and change formats mid-edit.


www.derekmok.com

Thanks for your quick response Derek,

RAM is okay, I checked the system monitor. My System drive is about 90% full.

I have to admit I'm a self taught editor, and I wrote, directed, produced that infomercial so I try to be on top of everything which is hard if not impossible. The budget is too low to hire an editor.

I'm assuming having different formats in the timeline might be my main issue, since my MAC should be strong enough.

Let me you tell you about the different formats in every layer:

1st layer dropped in jpeg as background and color corrected it in Looks.

2nd layer: live action video was imported through log and transfer in it's original format DVCproHD 720p

3rdLayer created in Motion consisting of text, shapes and imported video and jpegs

4thLayer created in Motion with just text

5thLayer created in Motion to frame everything with text and some imported video that's originaly 1080p

Sequence Settings:

HD (960x720)
Field Dominance: None
timebase 29.97
Compressor DVCPro 720p60

Motion Preset: DVCProHD 720p30

> My System drive is about 90% full.

Boom. Clear out space right away. Until you do, all bets are off. Your system drive, in my view, should have at least 20 per cent space. Ten per cent is the absolute minimum for any drive, and for a system drive I don't believe in "absolute minimums".

And please don't respond with "RAM is okay". Tell us how much you actually have. Some people actually think 512MB of RAM is "fine", so it doesn't tell us anything.


www.derekmok.com

4GB of RAM, normally 6 but I had to exchange the 2GB.
Otherwise 2008 Mac Pro 8Core, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT.

I'm going to move some stuff off the systemdrive immediately.

Okay Derek - thanks so much.
Rendertime is now down from 9 hours to 1 1/2 hours and I'm 50% through. No crash yet.

Just from moving 60GB from my System drive!

I'm pretty sure it could go faster if I would know more about perfect system setup and media organizing as well as everything about timlineformats.

Could you recommend some tutorials/books/websites?

All I have access to just gives me a very superficial introduction into those topics.

Thanks again,

Jan

> Rendertime is now down from 9 hours to 1 1/2 hours and I'm 50% through. No crash yet.
> Just from moving 60GB from my System drive!

You're not using your system drive as the Scratch Disk for capture and rendering, are you? That's another enormous no-no.


www.derekmok.com

I did. Not anymore.

I think those enormous no-nos are my daily routine.

It's working much better now, thank you.

Would you mind sharing with me what the most important things are when I set up everything before I start my next project, or maybe point me towards a good resource for that?

I would be very grateful (which I already am)

Jan