Edit Annoyances #1

Now that I have been editing for quite a while, I found a few little annoyances that slow the editing process down:

• Shuttle issues:
I am on my Mac Pro again down in the studio, and for the documentary film project I am working on at the moment, all data is stored on a LaCie 4Big Quadra (eSATA) running in Raid 5 configuration. According to Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test, the drive speed is around 250 MB/sec read and 210 MB/sec write. The files are XDCAM HD422 with 8 tracks of audio (50mbps). When shuttling through the material at more than realtime (x2 / x4 / x6), I am sometimes experiencing delays, which is not really comfortable and slows me down.

LaCie 4Big speed

• Let it calculate the waveforms or stay away from the Video tab:
The base material I am working with are dailies that include 4 audio tracks. Originally synced on location using Avid Media composer as MXF, they include reviewed material from each and every recording day, so the files are pretty huge (between 2 and 3 hours).
If the Audio tab is selected in the information panel, every time these source clips are accessed in the Event Browser, FCPX starts to calculate the audio waveforms, which makes shuttling almost impossible due to disk access.

Calculate those waveforms!

• Switching between Event Browser and Timeline:
When switching between the Event Browser and the Timeline (CMD+1 / CMD+2), the Viewer refuses to switch to the appropriate clip / image sometimes, for example still showing the image of the clip that has been selected in the Event Browser instead of showing the timeline position I have switched to. Changing multiple times back and forth helps in that situation.