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4K video lags when imported to iPhoto's

finz4lyfe

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Can someone please help me. When I shoot in 4K the video is very laggy when I watch it on my MacBook. Why is this and how can I fix it? Thanks


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Firstly don't import into iPhoto, just grab the files.

Then, what macbook version/year/specs?
 
There are two kinds of video you need to think about.

* There's video that is original footage source material, like what the Mavic camera or a great DSLR can produce.

* There's video that is optimized for sharing and playback with all your final grading, sound, graphics, cuts, and other trimming completed.

In 2016, for 4K footage, unless you have quite a beefy machine, these two types of video will be very different. The first might be sluggish to view, laggy or frame-jumpy. There's just so much data in the raw footage that the average machine struggles to keep up.

In 2006, for 1080p footage, you had the same problem.

There's a third kind of video, actually. Most good video editors will make a temporary copy of the original footage source material, reduced in quality, designed for use while you're editing so you don't rage quit at dealing with all that lag. This is called proxy media. Then the editor will go back and process the original footage when rendering the final optimized output that you want to share.
 
I have a 2011 MacBook Pro. Not sure about the specs. This is my first drone and I am very excited to start making really good videos. Problem is I'm not really familiar with how to do that.


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Are you storing your media on an external hard drive?

Use iMovie
 
No I've been storing everything in iPhoto's. should I being storing on external hard drive and if so do you have any recommendations on what I should purchase?


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This is a big part of the problem. Your internal disk is doing double duty. accessing the software and trying to decode and play the 4k footage.
As a rule I do not store any media on my internal hard drive. If my hard drive crashes I have my media safely stored on external hard drives.

You have a laptop so I would get a portable drive no less than 1TB with Thunderbolt. To back up your media use a couple of cheap USB drives (these are just to store not play or edit from)
There are a few brands out there you can choose from at different prices.
 
No stupid question.
Thunderbolt is the fastest interphase between your drive and the computer, faster than USB.
You need it because 4K is a lot of data. You need to get it in and out of your drive as fast as you can for a stuttering free playback.
 
A 2011 laptop will not be powerful enough to play 4K footage. Shoot lower resolution.
 
you might be right.
Investing in FCPX ($300) takes care of it. On import you can create proxies and render at full res. That's what I use and it works great.
 
Maybe when I get more familiar with all this stuff I will invest in FCPX but for now I just want to be able to view my 4K videos without all the stuttering. Will the external hd with thunderbolt take care of that? Also, any cheaper editing software that you guys recommend for a newbie like me?


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I have a 2011 Macbook Pro. Like Kilrah said earlier, it won't play 4k smoothly. Our screen resolution is 800p max and our graphics card just won't handle it. It won't help either if you have the stock 4GB of RAM. I have a Thunderbolt drive and while it certainly helps tremendously when editing proxy footage (in FCPX), once you render/output it out to 4k, the 2011 MBP will still not play it smoothly. If purchasing a new laptop/desktop with quad core muscle, high-end graphics card, and 4k monitor is not an option (without a 4k display, you really can't see 4k results), then do as suggested earlier...shoot in a lower resolution. I shoot in 1080 and and i can edit and play back fine on my MBP, and quality still looks great.
 
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