HDV in FCP 5 ...slow.......???

I have a 1.8G dual processor G5 w/ 1.5 G ram and I am running Tiger and FCP 5. After editing several projects in DV, I finally got to edit some of the material I shot in HDV with my Sony Z1U and I am amazed at how completely SLOW the process is. Simple cross disolves that would render in no time at all are taking 2 minutes in HDV. I am using the easy setup....Log and capture all seems to be happening normally, but when I start rendering simple transitions, I seem to be sitting around forever.

Any suggestions??? Am I missing something really simple?

Thanks for the help!

By the way....everything from Motion to Live type has worked GREAT while editing in DV with the upgrades.



Alan T

Hi Alan,

I've been editing HDV from an Z1 and haven't noticed that big a performance hit (G5 2.5Ghz x2, 2.5Ghz RAM). Does real time RT work for desolves? I notice that conforming befor printing to tape can take a while but just edits with transitions go fairly fast. Are you capturing with the 1080i easy setup?

Richard
2K-Plus
Atlanta

Thanks for the reply Richard. Hope I'm not duplicating myself....my last reply seemed to have disappeared!

I do use easy setup to capture.... 1080i HDV. While I don't belive that your faster processor would make that big of a difference in rendering time, could the extra gig of RAM make that significant of a difference?

As for RT... I do a lot of slow motion and I like to render frequently so that I can see the "real deal".

Finally, I did just complete my first two rough cuts with HDV and exported for iDVD to show my client with no problems. But when I tried to print to tape, after waiting for that tedious conformation process, I was not able to see my project back on the Z1U. I am not using the deck....just the camera for capture and printing to tape. Any suggestions? It was at the end of a 15 hour edit when I tried to do this, so I didn't spend much time trying to troubleshoot. I amsure I missed something easy.

Thanks again!



Alan T

Hi Alan,

I wouldn't think the processor difference would have that much effect either. I've always believed ram is a good way to speed things up and it's not to expensive so it may be worth a try. I've had no problem printing back to the Z1 but I found the device control settings on the (I think audio/device tab) in prefs has to be set to Sony and I've had it not switch over when I've changed fron SD projects to HDV. You might want to check that. Also if you had your camera set up for DV out you need to reboot (on/off/on) in VCR mode and the dialog on screen says re plug the firewire befor changing.

Hope some of that helps. Theres a Sony HDV forum at [www.sonyhdvinfo.com] and also <dvinfo.net> has a pretty active HDV group.

Richard
2K-Plus
Atlanta

Thanks again for the insight Richard!



Alan T