MBP 17" (early 2009) and HD VIDEO

[skarinada]

Hey guys - first post the forum but active reader with the site and everything.

Hopefully someone can provide me with some good advice and counsel about my computer.

I own a 17" MBP (early 2009 - the first unibody model)
Here it is: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP503
I have the 2.66 - 4GB model with standard gfx and everything

I have Final Cut Studio installed on my computer and I have shot 1080p video on my Canon T2i.

Heres my problem: Whenever I play back the HD video in final cut it usually lags pretty bad - when I play a full 1080p movie thru quicktime with barely any programs open then it seems to lag or skip too.

I'm just surprised this machine can't seem to handle such video. I reinstalled my OS a month ago and noticed some improvement. Even with the "Better Performance" option checked in Energy under system pref. I still have these problems.

I feel like i shouldn't be getting any lag whatsoever because of the horsepower on this machine. My video playback is very sucky.

Any ideas or suggestions? Is this computer to obsolete to handle this sort of video?

Let me know if you have any ideas I would really appreciate it. Thanks for looking out!

 

[spinnerlys]

Use VideoSpec (I prefer that, though it hasn't been updated since 11/2009), MediaInfo Mac (10/2010) or MediaInfo (10/2010, there is a Mac OS X version to download, VideoSpec and MediaInfo Mac are using the same library as MediaInfo) to analyse the video and post the report in your reply.

I don't have problems playing back 1080p HD video encoded with H264 or any other MPEG-4 codec on my 2007 C2D iMac with 2GHz.

Also have a look at Activity Monitor ( Applications / Utilities / ) and select All Processes and sort by CPU during playback and see how much CPU is used.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

Btw, do you play the video while it is stored on the internal HDD or an external HDD, and if it is the latter, what connection interface doe you use (eSATA, FW800, FW400 or USB 2.0)?

 

[skarinada]

Thanks for the reply:

I tried your suggestions here are the screenshots

I have all the videos stored on my internal hard drive.

For VideoSpec Report though: All i did was scan one of the video files - anything else I should do? Not really familiar with the interface or what to do.

Let me know if this helps and if you have other suggestions

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

 

[spinnerlys]

Did you take the screenshot during playback of that video file?

***** First Analyzed File Results *****
*** General Parameters *** 
- Name: MyBodyIsACage-Full-2.mov 
- Container: MOV 
- QuickTime 
- Creation Date: 2010-07-12 2:46:51 PM 
- Size: 2077.5 MiB 
- Duration: 0:06:13 
- [B]Bitrate: 46.8 Mbps [/B]
- Encoding Library: Undefined 
- Encoding Application: Undefined

*** Video Track Parameters *** 
- Format: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC 
- Size: 1.96 GiB (97%) 
- FourCC: H264
- Track number(s): 0 
- Bitrate: Max.: Undefined
Average: 45.2 Mbps 
Min.: Undefined 
- Frame rate (fps): 
Max.: ---
Average: 29.970
Min.: --- 
- Bitrate mode: Variable 
- Encoding profile: Main@L4.0 
- Resolution: 24 bits 
- Width (Pixel number): 1920 
- Height (Pixel number): 1088 
- Pixel Aspect Ratio: Undefined 
- Display aspect ratio: 16:9 
- Chroma subsampling format: YUV420p 
- TV standard: Undefined 
- Interlacing: Progressive 
- Encoding library: Undefined 
- Additional Parameters: CABAC: No Reference Frames: 2 Bits/(Pixel*Frame) ratio: 0.727

*** Audio Track(s) Parameters *** 
- Format: Uncompressed PCM 
- Size: 68.2 MiB (3%) 
- FourCC: 0x1
- Number(s) and language(s): 2: English 
- Details: 16-bit, little endian, signed linear PCM 
- Profile: Undefined - Bitrate: 1 536 Kbps
- Bitrate mode: Constant 
- Resolution: 16 bits 
- Rate: 48.0 KHz 
- Channel(s): 2 (stereo) 
- Position: Undefined
- Encoding Library: Undefined 

- Additional Parameters: Not available
*** Miscellaneous *** 
- Subtitle(s): #1 : Apple text 
- English 
- Metadata: Album: Undefined
Part number: Undefined Track name: Undefined Track name number: Undefined Performer: Undefined Screenplayer/Writer: Undefined Genre: Undefined
Encoded date: UTC 2010-07-12 19:46:51 Comment: Undefined Album artist: Undefined Grouping: Undefined
Copyright: Undefined

The bitrate is very high though, it is around 45Mb/s, which is 5.625 MB/s, though the Mac should be able to play it.

What compression do you use in FCP? Have you properly converted the footage to ProRes and adjusted the sequence settings?