Final Cut question.

[Sweeney Jet]

So I've been using FCP 7 for 3 years now. My question is about rendering. So most of my films, the rendering is good especially for shots with filters and grading. On my 1TB hard drive. With my latest film, the footage is stored on an older (2008) 500gb hard drive. When I render shots w/ filters and slowed down footage, it comes out either choppy or with little colored lines like its interlaced or whatever it's called. I'm not sure if they FCP system settings are different for each hard drive or what it is. If I can get some input, that'd be cool.

Check out my reel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbeMJ57cMr8

 

[knightly]

At what point in the clip does the issue happen? Or is it a clip unrelated to the question?

Which drive are you using as your scratch disk? What speed is that disk (5400rpm, 7200rpm)? What are your project settings (1080p, 720p)? What are your export settings? Through the export or export using quicktime?

 

[Sweeney Jet]

An example is at 1:38 --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bzdHnDOZ3w

Whenever I'd open the certain FCP project, I'd reset the scratch disk to the 500gb hard drive. Export settings: best encoding, high quality compressor, 24fps. 1080p. Sometimes I'd do 1920x816 and crop for that widescreen look.

 

[knightly]

I didn't see that problem in the video at all… nothing there that stood out as wrong. It's possible that there's something with your setup that is causing playback issues rather than export issues. Do you have access to a different computer you could check the playback on?

What are the specs of the machine you're working on and the 500Gb drive?

 

[knightly]

Oh, and USB or Firewire.. and which version of whichever you're using.

 

[Sweeney Jet]

Oh, and USB or Firewire.. and which version of whichever you're using.

USB. For both.

Maybe its my old SD monitor? My HD monitor died so this old monitor is my temp backup. When I play it on QuickTime, I see it clearly. Like it hadn't rendered yet. On YT, not as bad.

I'm using a 2009 Mac Mini with 4GB of RAM. I think it maybe playback issue setups. On the 1TB drive, when I add a contrast filter to different projects, it needs no rendering. Plays fine. On the 500gb one and in the Punch Me Hard FCP project file, when I add contrast filter -- it needs rendering. Any other ideas?

Thanks a lot for your help btw.

 

[knightly]

Under the Apple Menu, go to "About this Mac"
Now "More Info…" > "System Report"

Now find info on the Storage devices you've got… In your case, it'll be under the USB section. This info will have the speed of the drives and may illuminate your issue in part… amount of free storage on the disk may come into play as well.