[This article was first published at www.lafcpug.org,
March 8, 2004. Updated in April, 2004, with more optimizing
suggestions, July, 2005, with info for FCP 5, November, 2006 with info on utilities
and again in June, 2007 for Final Cut Pro 6.]
Final Cut is a reliable, high-performance editing system. However,
there are things you can do to both fix and prevent problems. This
article focuses on tips to keep your hardware, operating system and
project files up, running and optimized. (If I've left out something
you feel is important, let me know so I can update the article.)
There isn't enough space to provide the "why" behind all
these recommendations. Where possible, links are provided so you can
read more about it.
This article is divided into the following sections:
REGULAR MAINTENANCE
Safe Boot & Rebuild Permissions
The biggest consistent problem I've seen with OS X is confused disk directories.
Normally, directories get written to the disk when you shut down or restart.
And, normally, everything works fine. However, if a crash, or some other accident,
occurs these directories may not get properly updated. A good test as to whether
you need to run this procedure is when your Mac takes longer than about 30 seconds
to shut down.
Once a week, or whenever you upgrade an application, or whenever you upgrade
your operating system, or whenever you have a crash, or when your Mac takes longer
than about 30 seconds to shut down, do the following:
- Restart your computer holding the SHIFT key down.
- When the blue screen appears, let go of the Shift key (notice the words, "Safe
Boot" that appear on the screen)
- When your system boots, go to Applications -> Utilities -> Disk
Utility
- Open "Disk Utility"
- Select your boot disk
- Run "Repair Permissions"
- When done, restart your computer
For more information, click here [File Journaling]
Trash Preferences
Preference files get corrupted during normal operations, a crash, force quit,
or other natural disaster. There are five rules for trashing preferences:
- Never trash preferences with Final Cut Pro running
- Only trash preference files when Final Cut Pro is NOT working properly
- Trash all preference files as a group, not just one or two
- Only trash files, never trash folders
- After trashing preference files, empty the trash.
When preference files get hosed, Final Cut loses a great deal of its
stability. To regain it's equilibrium, do the following:
FCP 6.0
- Go to your Home directory then inside it to:Library > Preferences
- Drag "com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist" to the trash
- Scroll down to the Final Cut Pro User Data folder
- Drag "Final Cut Pro 6.0 Preferences" to the trash
- Drag "Final Cut Pro Obj Cache" to the trash
- Drag "Final Cut Pro Prof Cache" to the trash
- Empty the trash
FCP 5.x
- Go to your Home directory then inside it to:Library > Preferences
- Drag "com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist" to the trash
- Scroll down to the Final Cut Pro User Data folder
- Drag "Final Cut Pro 5.0 Preferences" to the trash
- Drag "Final Cut Pro Obj Cache" to the trash
- Drag "Final Cut Pro Prof Cache" to the trash
- Empty the trash.
FCP HD (4.5)
- Go to your Home directory then inside it to:Library > Preferences
- Drag, "com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist" to the trash
- Scroll down to the Final Cut Pro User Settings folder
- Drag "Final Cut Pro 4.5 Preferences" to the trash
- Drag "Final Cut Pro POA Cache" to the trash
- Empty the trash
FCP 4.0
- Go to your Home directory then inside it to:Library > Preferences
- Drag, "com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist" to the trash
- Scroll down to the Final Cut Pro User Settings folder
- Drag "Final Cut Pro 4.0 Preferences" to the trash
- Drag "Final Cut Pro POA Cache" to the trash
- Empty the trash
FCP 3.x
- Go to your Home directory then inside it to:Library > Preferences
- Drag, "com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist" to the trash
- Scroll down to the Final Cut Pro User Settings folder
- Drag "Final Cut Pro 3.0 Preferences" to the trash
- Drag "Final Cut Pro MOA Cache" to the trash
- Empty the trash
When you trash preferences, you will lose all Favorite motions, transitions
and effects; the list of your recent projects and any custom window, Browser,
Timeline, keyboard shortus, or button arrangements
that were not saved to disk. Note: you DON'T lose your project files, sequences,
edits, or any captured clips.
Click here for more info: [Trashing
preferences]
Allow your Unix background utilities to run
The foundation for OS X is Unix and Unix was invented specifically to run servers;
systems that needed to stay on for long periods of time.
Because of this, a variety of system utilities were developed to run in the background
to keep the operating system running at peak efficiency. However, as these utilities
should not interfere with the normal operation of the server, they were programmed
to run in the wee small hours of the weekend night.
Which means that if you regularly shut your system down each night, these utilities
don't get the opportunity to run.
To solve this, you have a number of options:
- Let your system stay on over the weekend at least once a month.
- Or, install a utility program that will run these programs for you
automatically. I personally like Macaroni (www.atomicbird.com), but others
also like Mac Janitor
(http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill/macjanitor.html). There are others
to choose from, as well.
In any case, give your Mac a chance to stay healthy.
Setting Ownership Permissions on External Drives
Ownership permissions play an important role in helping OS X figure out who has
permission to do what on your computer. However, when it comes to editing video,
permissions can get in the way.
To keep things running smoothly,
- In the Finder, select every hard drive EXCEPT your boot drive.
- Go to File -> Get Info
- Twirl down "Ownership and Permissions"
- Select the checkbox next to "Ignore ownership on this volume."
- Close the Get Info box.
This means that OS X will no longer worry about whether a user has the right
to access the information contained on your media drives. This prevents problems
where one user can record to, or playback from, a drive and other users can't.
Set all non-boot media drives to "Not Journaled."
Journaling is a feature that began in OS 10.3.x that helps your Mac
to recover after a crash. (See: OS X Journaling
Explained.)
However, it can also decrease the performance of your media drives.
My recommendation is to leave journaling ON for your boot disk, which is the
default, then go to Disk Utility and select all your media drives. Go to File
-> Disable Journaling and turn Journaling OFF for all media drives.
Also, in the past, in OS 9, we worried a lot about file fragmentation.
In OS X, with large hard disks, this is not something to worry about.
So, don't.
[ Go to top of page ]
- - -
Picking the Right Utilities
Andre D. Ficklin writes:
I was wondering about extra utilities for the Power Mac. I am a recent switcher.
I have used the Mac for about a year now and have heard that the diagnostics
tools in Mac OS X 10.4.7 are not really enough to keep a drive healthy.
Coming from the PC side, its easy to select which utilities tool to use,
but for the Mac I am having a hard time selecting the right one. I am looking
for a good utility tool to defragment, and possibly repair damaged files
if needed. I don't have to have an all in one package, but it would be nice.
Currently I Have nothing.
What do you use? Do you have several different utilities: Disk Warrior,
Drive Genius, Tech Tool Pro, or just one? What do you recommend? Or, do I
even need any of it?
Larry replies: Andre, my absolute, number one best utility for the
Mac is Alsoft's Disk
Warrior X. I recommend it to all my clients. It is, essentially, a one-trick
pony -- it repairs blown disk directories. However, that seems to be the number
one problem that all Macs running OS X suffer from.
Second, I recommend Micromat's
Tech Tool Pro. It is an excellent, all-around utility.
However, and this is important, I strongly urge you NOT to defragment your
drives. We used to do this all the time in OS 9 - and Windows users still do
it today. However, Final Cut intentionally stores your files in a fragmented
state -- because, when you think about it, we never play a file from beginning
to end, we are always playing our clips from the middle to the middle. Final
Cut stores video files in a fragmented, what Apple calls "optimized",
way. If you then defragment your media drive, everything slows down.
Let Final Cut store media how it wants. Don't defragment your drive and don't
worry about it.
SIMPLE THINGS TO CHECK
This list could actually be hundreds of items long, but here are four favorites,
based on how often I hear them.
- You can't see video on your external NTSC monitor. Make sure BOTH
the Viewer and Canvas windows are set to Fit to Window. Then, if you are
using DV, make
sure View -> External Video is set to "All."
- You've imported a still image, but can't see it on the timeline. Make
sure all imported images are RGB. CMYK images (frequently used in graphic
design and
printing) won't display in Final Cut.
- You don't have any audio. Go to Final Cut Pro -> Audio/Video
settings and make sure the Audio playback
menu is sending audio out the right port
for your
monitor.
- Audio and video are out of sync. If there are red flags at the start
of your
clip, control click on the red flag of your video and select "Move into
sync." If there are no red flags at the start of your clip, go to Final
Cut Pro -> Audio/Video settings and make sure the Video playback and Audio
playback are both set to the same point. For instance, monitoring video via Firewire
and audio via Built-in audio will automatically be out of sync by around 6 frames.
Click here for more "simple things" to check: [
FCP
FAQ ]
[ Go to top of page ]
- - -
SIMPLE WAYS TO PREVENT PROBLEMS
There are a number of things you can do that will keep your system running smoothly.
- Make sure your hard disks are never more than 85% full. Hard disks
need lots of room to create temporary files. If a hard disk gets too full,
it can lock
up and prevent both writing and reading data. Go to Final
Cut Pro -> System
Settings -> Scratch disks and set the "Minimum Allowable Free
Space On Scratch Disks" equal to 10,000.
- For larger projects that will take longer than a day or two to edit,
make
a point of doing a "Save as..." at the end of editing every day. Doing
a "Save as..." will automatically clean up any potential problems in
your project file, before they become serious. This also has the added benefit
of giving you reliable back-ups every night for your project.
In naming my projects,
I use version numbers ("My Project v1, v2, v3... and so on.) You can also
use dates ("My Project 0315, 0316, 0317...). Save as... is better than duplicating
the project in the Finder because duplicating a project doesn't fix problems.
Save as... does.
- Avoid creating Browser nests which are too deep. Although the Browser
allows you to put files up to eight levels deep, try to avoid going much
more than 4
or 5 layers. Sometimes, the Browser can get too complex for it's own good.
- Don't have too many sequences open in the Timeline at the same time.
Sequences require memory when they are opened in the Timeline. Sequences
in the Browser
don't use memory. So, if you are limited in the memory you have on your system,
keep the number of Sequences open in the Timeline to a minimum.
- If you have a sequence that is acting flakey:
a) Create a new project
b) Go back to the flakey sequence and Edit -> Select
All
c) Copy the entire selected sequence to the clipboard (Edit
-> Copy)
d) Go to the newly created project and create a new sequence
e) Move your Playhead to the start of the
new sequence
f) Paste (Edit -> Paste)
Often, moving clips from one sequence to another fixes problems.
[ Go to top of page ]
- - -
OPTIMIZING YOUR SYSTEM
Normally, on a reasonably fast computer, the default installation of OS X and
Final Cut Pro works perfectly. If your system is working fine now, you can ignore
these suggestions. If not, try these suggestions to see if things improve. (This
list has been modeled on one supplied by Pinnacle Systems for it's Cinewave card.)
These are not necessarily listed in any particular order.
Optimize Your System Preferences
- In the “Login Items” System Preference Pane, remove any items
that automatically start when you log in.
- In the “Screen Effects” System Preference Pane, set “Time
until screen effects start” to “Never.”
- In the “Display” System Preference Pane, set the “Colors” to “Millions.”
- In the Energy Saver System Preference Pane, set “Put the computer to
sleep when it has been inactive” to “Never;” and “Put
the hard disk to sleep when possible” should not be checked.
- In the Sound System Preference Pane, select the “Sound Effects” tab.
Turn the “Output volume” all the way up, then back up one notch,
and lower the “Alert volume” to the desired level.
- In the QuickTime System Preference Pane, select the “Update” tab,
and deselect “check for updates automatically.”
- In the “Sharing” System Preference Pane, disable all services.
The Firewall should be off. Internet sharing should be off.
- In the Software Update System Preference Pane, “Automatically check
for updates when you have a network connection" should be unchecked.
- If you have OS X 10.3.x, go to the Security Preference Pane and turn
OFF File Vault. While having the extra security is nice, your Mac can't
decrypt
FCP Project,
or other
files, fast enough to ensure smooth playback.
Notice that our goal is to minimize processes that run in the background, or
that call out to the network. You probably won't need to use all these settings.
Experiment to see which ones work best for you.
Also, once you stop editing, you can turn on those features that you
need (with the exception of File Vault). If you need to use File Vault be
sure that NONE of the files used in your project are stored in it. Then,
you can leave it on, just not access it during editing.
Finally, after making these changes, quit out of the System Preferences utility
before launching any application -- especially Final Cut.
Optimize Your Final Cut System
Here are some additional steps you can take to improve the performance of
your Final Cut system.
Turn off audio waveforms (Option-Command-W). If you
aren't actually editing audio, displaying these will slow your system down.
- If you have FCP 4.x and you have more than 512 MB
of RAM and are using still images (say, to create a "Ken Burns" effect)
go to Final Cut Pro -> System
settings -> Memory and Cache tab and
set the still image cache to between 100 MB and 120 MB.
- If you have FCP 4.x and if you have more than a gigabyte
of RAM on your system, also set the Memory allocation to 90%.
- If you have FCP 5, the minimum memory you should have is 1 GB. I've
seen serious slowdowns with less memory installed.
[ Go to top of page ]
- - -
MORE ADVANCED WAYS YOU CAN PREVENT PROBLEMS
- Add more RAM to your system. Final Cut requires a minimum of 384 MB. However,
I strongly suggest you have at least one gigabyte in your system. I have 2.5
GB in mine. Adding more RAM beyond 2 GB won't make a material difference, because
FCP is disk-based, not RAM based. However, you will notice a significant performance
increase by increasing your RAM from a base level of 512 MB to 1 GB.
- If playback is stalling, try disconnecting some, or all, of your Firewire
drives. Although the Firewire spec allows up to 63 devices to be connected to
your computer, after about five or six drives, there's so much "talking" on
the Firewire bus that performance really starts to degrade. Where possible, limit
the number of Firewire drives you are using. Worst case, buy bigger drivers and
copy data from smaller drives to bigger drives so you total storage remains the
same, but the number of devices decreases.
- If you are constantly getting dropped frames on playback, it may be
easier
to export the sequence than to try to fix it. In this case:
a) Export your timeline to a QuickTime movie (which happens at computer speeds
as opposed to real-time). Be sure to set the export to "Current Settings."
b) Create a new project
c) Import your QuickTime movie into the new project
d) Play out the new movie
- Sometimes errors creep into the User file. In this case, creating a
New User
will solve it.
a) Save your project file OUTSIDE of your User folder and NOT on the desktop
b) Go to System Preferences
c) Go to Accounts
d) Click the "+" key to add a new user
e) Fill out the rest of the screen
f) Log out as your current user and log in as the new user
g) Open your project and see if things are better
- Reinstall the Final Cut application. Like I said, these last three
suggestions require a fair amount of time. On the other hand, if you are
still having problems,
they are the next thing to check.
- Reinstall all upgrades by downloading FIRST, then updating using the
package.
Don't use Software Update.
- Do a clean install of the Operating System -- be sure to run all updates
afterward. The best versions of OS X to use for Final Cut Pro are 10.2.8
and 10.3.2.
[ Go to top of page ]
- - -
UPGRADES
It used to be that when a new upgrade rolled out, all we needed to do was upgrade
the affected application. With video editing this is absolutely the WRONG thing
to do.
Video editing requires a complete system level approach to upgrading.
For instance, when 10.2.6 came out, there were so many "under-the-hood" changes
that a very popular RAID vendor needed to upgrade its drivers. When 10.2.8 came
out, the drivers needed to be updated again, for the same reason. When 10.3 came
out, the drivers needed to be updated, again.
For this reason, you can no longer assume that the only thing needing to be upgraded
is FCP itself.
Here is a list of what needs to be considered when upgrading.
If you are using DV (MiniDV, DVCAM, or DVCPRO-25 gear) upgrade in this order
ONLY:
- Upgrade the operating system
- Upgrade QuickTime
- Upgrade Final Cut Pro
- Upgrade the other applications in the FCP suite
If you are working with SCSI cards, RAIDs, uncompressed video and a capture card,
upgrade in THIS order:
- Upgrade your SCSI card FLASH ROM (if necessary)
- Upgrade your SCSI card driver (if necessary)
- Upgrade your RAID driver (if necessary)
- Upgrade your operating system
- Use Software Update to install any operating system updates
- Do a Safe Boot and Rebuild Permissions (see the beginning of this article)
- Restart
- Upgrade QuickTime
- Upgrade Final Cut
- Upgrade any additional applications
- Upgrade any drivers you are using for machine control
- Run Software Update to install any new versions of the applications
- Do a Safe Boot and Rebuild Permissions
- Run Software Update one more time. Frequently, one update needs to
be installed before a second update can be installed. This process checks
for both.
I got myself in a serious mess recently by not updating the SCSI drivers for
a couple of my clients. I was at a complete loss to explain why, after I updated
the system, performance slowed to a crawl. When I realized I had done an incomplete
update, then installed the correct SCSI drivers, performance was restored and
everything worked great. (Whew!)
If possible, doing a clean install of the operating system is the best. (That
means erasing your hard disk and installing everything fresh.) However, that
is not always possible. Nor is it always required. By following these steps,
in this order, you can save yourself a lot of problems down the road.
[ Go to top of page ]
- - -
HELPFUL REPAIR UTILITIES
System utilities have always been a significant cottage industry for the Macintosh
and today is no exception.
Here are three that I recommend:
- Disk Warrior X (version 3.1) This utility is indispensable for restoring
corrupted disk directories. It is a one trick pony, but nobody does it
better. I carry
this CD with me everywhere. Run it once a month on your system to keep things
working the way you expect. (If you have OS X 10.3, be sure to get version 3.0.1.)
- Tech Tool Pro (version 4.01). This system test and maintenance tool
can help you spot trouble before it occurs. While I do have a quibble about
how it's video
display test works (it seems to find a great number of false positives) overall
it has earned the right to be in my daily repair kit. Only run this when you
need it. But keep it close at hand.
- Macaroni. I use this for all my support clients to make sure key background
Unix utilities run in a timely fashion. This is from the "install it once
and forget it" school of thought, but I like it and use it on both my client
and personal systems.
CONCLUSION
Two other quick thoughts. While religious wars continue to be fought on both
these issues, I wanted to weigh in on both:
- Partitioning
- De-fragmenting
Based on talking with drive vendors, partitioning is not necessary. If it helps
you stay organized -- use it. But there is, generally, no performance benefit
to partitioning. If, on the other hand, you want to have two different boot disks
using two different operating systems, partitioning is the way to go. However,
partitioning is often wasteful of hard disk space. The short answer is, if you
are looking for speed, you don't need to partition. If you are looking for organization,
partitioning is OK.
However, NEVER store media files on a partitioned disk. Media should always be
stored on a second drive.
De-fragmenting was necessary when hard disks were smaller and systems were slower.
With today's technology, if it makes you feel better to de-frag, then by all
means, go-ahead. However, you will not see a significant performance boost. Nor
is it necessary. Nor does Final Cut particularly care. Because when FCP is playing
video back, the hard drive heads are bouncing all over the place anyway. Decreasing
the fragmentation won't help a whole lot.
Well, that's about it. These are procedures you can use to keep your system running
at peak performance. If I've omitted one of your favorites, let me know so
I can periodically update this article.
In the meantime, it's time to stop trouble-shooting and start editing.
This article is from the March issue of "Larry's
FCP Newsletter," a
very cool FREE monthly Final Cut Pro newsletter -- subscribe at Larry's web
site: www.larryjordan.biz. Larry Jordan
is a post-production consultant and an Apple-Certified Trainer in Digital Media
with over 25 years experience as producer, director and editor with network,
local and corporate credits. Based in Los Angeles, he's a member of both the
Directors Guild and Producers Guild.
Text copyright 2004 - 2007 by Larry Jordan & Associates Inc.
All rights reserved.
