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FCP slower on faster system?
I spent a few hours yesterday cutting a short film on a Dual 2.3 Mhz G5, running 10.4.5 and FCP 5.0.4
Everything went fine, no dropped frames, great performance. All footage is HD 720 24/59.94 from P2 cards.I took the USB drive I was working from to my own rig, which is a Quad 2.5 G5, with more memory and a faster video card, running 10.4.6 and FCP 5.11.
On the faster machine, I can’t play back any of the projects without dropped frames and really bad performance. FCP shows all real time for the clips, but on playback, the image freezes as the sound track continues. (This is using the same drive and the same footage I was used successfully with the slower G5 yesterday.)I’ve gone over the config both systems, and the only difference seems to be 10.4.5 & FCP 5.04 vs 10.4.6 and FCP 5.11 on the faster computer.
How do I fix this? It seems ridiculous that I’m getting inferior performance from a faster machine.
Thanks.
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5 Replies
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USB is most likely your issue. USB drives are never recommended for use as media drives. They not typically fast enough to be used as media drives, and USB is also typically unreliable because it is subject to speed variations based on processor load. The fact that it works okay on your slower machine is a bit strange, but strange things happen when you use USB drives as media drives.
DRW
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[popcornflix] “I took the USB drive I”
That’s your problem. NEVER use USB drives for media storage and playback. Firewire 400 minimum for video storage and playback.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Thank you both for your replies. Unfortunately, you did not answer my question.
I’m fully aware of the superiority of FW over USB. My rig has all FW drives, no USB. It was not my choice to use USB drives on this project. I just work here.
The issue I’d like help with is about system performance.
It seems very counterintuitive that a G5 2.5 Quad with more memory and a faster video card would have inferior performance to a G5 Dual Quad.
The only differences we could find was in OS and FCP. The Dual runs 10.4.5 and FCP 5.0.4, while the Quad runs 10.4.6 and FCP 5.11.Is it possible that this has something to do with the P2 importing bug in FCP 5.0.4? Could the footage be out of whack, and only 5.0.4 can play it back properly?
I took the drive back to the Dual yesterday, and spent hours cutting without incident. It would be very nice if I could work on this project on my own rig, so please offer what help you can.
(And please concentrate on helping me solve the problem with the Quad G5. That is the point of my inquiry. Thank you! ;-D )
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What about USB 2? I have a client that just bought me a GForce USB2 Hard drive. are these faster than regular USB?
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Makes no difference. USB or USB2 are simply not reliable for video throughput.
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