Do large projects make FCP run out of memory?

[Andrew Kimery]

I’d definitely check out Shane’s DVD.

https://store.creativecow.net/p/63/getting_organized_in_final_cut_pro

He talks about how to use multiple projects to keep FCP from choking on long form pieces.

-A

[Shane Ross]

I have completed three long form documentaries with Final Cut Pro, with between 1.4Tb and 4TB of footage, DVCPRO HD, Uncompressed SD, DV, mixed footage timelines…between 2000 and 8600 clips. All using a Dual 2.0Ghz G5 or 2.7Ghz G5. Project files between 25MB and 120MB in size. So it isn’t a limitation of the application, but a combination of a LOT of factors.

With all of those docs, they were stored on ONE Raid array, or two smaller raids. The first on two 1TB G-Raids, the second on a 4TB Fibrechannel Raid, and the last on one eSATA Raid. Too many drives and media spread out too far can cause issues.

Can you tell us specifically what setup you have?

Shane

Littlefrog Post

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD now for sale!
http://www.lfhd.net

[Chris Elley]

We’re using a 4TB RAID 0 eSATA Port Multiplier tower with 8 bays. The (8) 500GB drives are striped into (4) 1TB partitions (A, B, C, D). Currently, the footage resides on Partition C (with 40 GB still available) and on Partition D (with 25 GB still available). The eSATA box is from Sonnet. The SATA controller card is CalDigit FASTA-4e 4 port PCIe Host Adapter.

I do notice that the SATA drives almost “go to sleep” sometimes after not used for several minutes. Give them 10 seconds or so, and they wake up and work perfectly until I leave them unattended for awhile. “Work perfectly” that is, with smaller projects.

I’m happy to provide additional information.

Thanks,
Chris Elley
Electro-Fish Media LLC
Austin, TX

[Dan Sparks]

I’m running 6GB RAM. Two 1GB’s and two 512K’s in Riser A. Same configuration in Riser B. In other words, pairs of everything. Is this not approved? I don’t seem to be having any issues and have been running this way for months. Is the system not running at full real-time potential?

Thanks,

Dan Sparks

Tricom Video

[Don Greening]

[Chris Elley] “Give them 10 seconds or so, and they wake up and work perfectly until I leave them unattended for awhile.”

Geez, it couldn’t be that simple, could it? Do you have “Put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible” checked in the energy saver control panel? If it is then UNcheck it. And while you’re at it check to make sure that Spotlight isn’t trying to index your media arrays while you’re trying to edit. Open the Spotlight control panel and drag your array icon from the desktop into the privacy window.

– Don

[Chris Borjis]

To add to what Don said, also check in the power saver area that the cpu is set for HIGH use and not allowed to sleep.

That wrecked havoc on my pro tools g5 systems.

[Jaap Verdenius]

Shane,

There’s only one media drive, a Lacie 1TB FW800, so it’s a fairly simple setup (see also first message in the thread).
I suspected this LaCie, so I cloned this drive to a GTech Raid, reconnected media; the same things happened. The GTech is really brand new.
I took the LaCie to another CPU; same things happened, more or less (see earlier in this thread). I seemed my Octomac did a bit better than the 2×2.66Dual, but not flawless to say the least.

I have been doing longform for years, HDV, SD (all PAL) but I never had a project with so many media files and I never ran into this kind of problem. That’s why I am really curious this made be run into a limitation of the software of any kind.

You say it could be a lot of factors, can you mention a few? Perhaps I could check some more things. This project still has to be finished, anything that could prevent the crashes and speed up the process would be worth exploring

Oh yes, I do have the project file on my media disk. I thought it was bad practice to put it on your system disk. Or did I get this wrong? Anyway, it never brought me into a problem in the last 4 years.

Jaap

[Mark Maness]

If you’re running a Mac Pro system, 6 gig of memory will cause you many many headaches. It is an issue with the Intel chips, not directly Apple. Apple did write a paper on a solution that definitely works.

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

This is an absolute must. I went thru these same issues when we got our Mac Pro last year. Trust me… I saw the same wierdness that everyone is talking about. But let me also add that memory SHOULD be from the same manufacturer. Apple doesn’t say this but I found this to cause problems, too.

Spread the word around to anyone. Maybe we can stomp out the fires.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Chris Elley]

I confirmed that my hard disks are not allowed to sleep, however they ‘were’ accessible to Finder, so that has been corrected.

This brings me to Borjis’ point to set the processor to “High” in the “power saver area.”

I cannot find such a setting. I’ve looked through all the system prefs. “Power saver” sounds like “energy saver” but energy saver does not appear to offer me such an option.

Am I looking in the wrong place? Could this be a setting only available in older versions of the OS or older systems?

Thanks,
Chris

[Jack Bibbo]

Did you resolve your problem? If so how? I am getting “out of Memory” Issues all over the place.

would love to find a solution soon.

jack