Log and Transfer/clip browse slowness in FCE4

[M.Ford]

Hi all

I am a fledgling/home video editor (this will be my first edit). In FCE, I am using the Log and Transfer to import the clips but it seems really slow to browse the clips in order to choose the ones that I want to transfer. Is there something that I am missing or is this just the way that it is. The camera compression is AVCHD.

Camera:
Model: Panasonic HDC-SD5

Application:
Application: FCE 4.0.1

Mac:
Apple: Mac Pro
RAM: 6GB
CPU: Standard Xeon,
System Drive: 150GB Raptor
Movie Drive: WD750 SATA 16MB cache
Transfer type: USB 2.0 (firewire is not possible because the camera does not have it).
notes: The Mac is SATA based. Though it has a firewire port, I have no drives that are firewire.

 

[Courtaj]

I'm yet to start using my SD9 with FCE4 (it's in the mail) but you might improve the experience a little by copying the contents of the SDHC card to a disk image on your (preferably firewire-driven) harddrive first, rather than browsing directly from the camera or a card reader (am I right to assume you're doing the latter?). While I realise the workflow is a bit different with FCE, the import process is noticeably less stodgy under iMovie when I use a disk image rather than the card itself.

Andrew.

 

[NeoMayhem]

I have seen it take up to a minute to load 50+ clips on my iMac. I dont know why it would take so long on a mac pro. How many clips do you have?

 

[M.Ford]

I have 91 clips on the camera and I browse directly on the camera because I thought that you got a better import if you went from the camera directly than if you were to copy the files over first. Is this so?

I would imagine that copying the files over first would improve performance. My problem is not with the loading of the clips into a project, it is browsing of the clips on the camera.

Yes, there is much that I do not know and a lot of what I do think I know will probably be wrong. I would hope that it is not the Mac because it is only a few months old.

My camera does not have firewire by the way or I would use that. It is memory card based.

 

[Courtaj]

I thought that you got a better import if you went from the camera directly than if you were to copy the files over first. Is this so?

No, it's not a quality issue. Using Disk Utility to make a disk image of the same capacity as the camera's flash memory card and then copying the entire, intact folder structure of the card into the mounted disk image means that whenever you mount the disk image in the future your machine will treat it just as it would treat a direct connection with the camera or a USB card reader with the camera's flash memory card in it, except data rates will be faster because it's reading from the harddrive rather than the card itself - and this improved speed should enhance your browsing experience in log & transfer, at least a little.

Andrew.

 

[NeoMayhem]

No, it's not a quality issue. Using Disk Utility to make a disk image of the same capacity as the camera's flash memory card and then copying the entire, intact folder structure of the card into the mounted disk image means that whenever you mount the disk image in the future your machine will treat it just as it would treat a direct connection with the camera or a USB card reader with the camera's flash memory card in it, except data rates will be faster because it's reading from the harddrive rather than the card itself - and this improved speed should enhance your browsing experience in log & transfer, at least a little.

Andrew.

This does help, but you dont need to make an image first, just pick "New Disk Image from Device" and it will make one the perfect size.

I have 91 clips on the camera and I browse directly on the camera because I thought that you got a better import if you went from the camera directly than if you were to copy the files over first. Is this so?

I have never had more then about 50 clips at a time, but I know it does get laggy. I just press command-a and then transfer, and wait for it to finish. I usually delete clips I know I dont want on the camera first. The one time I did try the disk image trick, it did speed up browsing quite a bit, but still took longer overall.

 

[Courtaj]

This does help, but you dont need to make an image first, just pick "New Disk Image from Device" and it will make one the perfect size.

Cheers - I'll try this next time.

The one time I did try the disk image trick, it did speed up browsing quite a bit, but still took longer overall.

Good point. But if you use the disk image as your archive (it's how I archive my AVCHD clips) you'll soon break even when revisiting archived footage.

Andrew.

 

[M.Ford]

I am trying the image trick now. I would copy all the clips over at once but they are from different events so I do not want everything in the same project. I want to pick and choose the clips for the project so I am sorta stuck unless there is a way that I can have a library from which to choose but I have not read about anything like that. Thanks for all the great information!

Just a little bit of information about me, I am a fresh convert from Windows. I have only had the MP for about 6 month or less and I bought it mainly for the video power to go with my HD camera. I do home movies with it. I have learned alot about Mac and will continue to do so and am learning the tricks like making a disk image to speed things up. I would not have thought of that. Thanks again.

 

[NeoMayhem]

I am trying the image trick now. I would copy all the clips over at once but they are from different events so I do not want everything in the same project. I want to pick and choose the clips for the project so I am sorta stuck unless there is a way that I can have a library from which to choose but I have not read about anything like that. Thanks for all the great information!

You can make as many disk images as you want. And once you mount the image, you only need to import the clips that you want, just like you can off the camera.