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Dropping frames w/ 2K footage on Mac Pro
Hi,
I’m working on a feature film that is in post production.
Our specs:
Mac Pro, 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16 GB of Ram
Mac OS X 10.6.8The footage is spread across four 2TB internal hard drives. Each drive has at least 100 GB free. The system drive has 54 GB free. The project file itself is on the system drive.
The footage Red 4K footage transcoded to ProRes 422 HQ at 2K; there is also some 5D footage transcoded to ProRes 422 HQ at 1080p.
Since it is a feature film, there is rarely more than one layer of video playing. Until recently the footage has been playing back with no dropped frames and no problems. Now, it has begun dropping frames during playback. No other apps are open on the machine during playback.
It does seem to drop frames on the same clip, but it is multiple clips throughout the timeline and from different hard drives. I thought it could be because it is a large project file (198mb) so I copied the timeline into a brand new project and it still drops frames in the same places.
Any ideas?
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13 Replies
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Are the drives raided together? I’m impressed it was playing before. But sounds like your drives are full as well. Was perhaps the “report dropped frames” checkbox not turned on before, and now someone turned it back on? And, does it really matter that it drops frames? You’re outputting to tape I suppose?
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Your main issue is that your media drives are way too full. If you acquire Disk Warrior and run it on all drives you might get some immediate relief, but 5% free space on those drives is simply not a good idea.
Above and beyond that, you really should have striped those drives together in a RAID 0 configuration.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’t miss my new Creative Cow Podcast: Bringing “The Whale” to the Big Screen:
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/Podcast-Series-2-MikeParfitandSuzanneChisholm/1POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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If there is only 100 gig per drive that is 5% free. !0% free space is considered a minumum. You can check your drives by running the free AJA or Decklink speed disk test software available from their websites.
Are the internal drives in a RAID configuration or just individual drives. If individual drives then they may be unable to keep up with 2K HQ footage. You might have been lucky in the past but with drives so full, your problems are not surprising.
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Need more coffee to keep up with Bret & David….
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[Michael Gissing] “Need more coffee to keep up with Bret & David….”
I’m impressed that you and I were both able to quickly and correctly calculate that Patrick had just 5% remaining. Senility has not set in just yet, no matter what the 20-somethings say about us.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’t miss my new Creative Cow Podcast: Bringing “The Whale” to the Big Screen:
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/Podcast-Series-2-MikeParfitandSuzanneChisholm/1POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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Senility has crept in David. The 20 somethings are out conquering the world, while we sit wisely answering like old sages. Crazy!
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Thanks for the quick responses.
It’s possible that someone had unchecked the dropped frames “Warn next time” box and it recently got re-enabled. And truth be told, dropping a frame here and there during playback probably isn’t an issue because so far we’re only exporting files, not outputting to tape. The filmmakers are just a little concerned at what appears to be a recent, new problem. And I’m curious if something did change since last week.
[Michael Gissing] “You can check your drives by running the free AJA or Decklink speed disk test software available from their websites.”
I’ll check it out.
What would Disk Warrior do? Does it free up space somehow?
[Michael Gissing] “Are the internal drives in a RAID configuration or just individual drives.”
They are individual drives. I only recently came on the project.
Ok, I’ve done a little more digging and here’s else I’ve gathered. The dropped frames only happen when moving to or from the timeline-native 2K footage to any kind of rendered footage (color corrected, rescaled 5D footage, or subtitles). If it’s playing a section of only rendered clips, there are no dropped frames (where it’s only going from rendered clip to rendered clip). So, it drops frames when going from a light-blue bar to gray bar on the timeline.
Could there be some issue with my Render Files folder?
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[Michael Gissing] “The 20 somethings are out conquering the world, while we sit wisely answering like old sages. Crazy!”
Well Michael, your tomatoes, goats, and sheep are a great way to conquer many of the world’s needs, and they’re good for your soul too.
BTW, I actually start conquering the world again on Monday, as I undertake a new job, which I’ll announce here soon.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’t miss my new Creative Cow Podcast: Bringing “The Whale” to the Big Screen:
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/Podcast-Series-2-MikeParfitandSuzanneChisholm/1POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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Step back a sec, and consider how the machine is working.
In the settings, you tell it where the Capture Scratch is and where the render files need to go. Then you have footage on two drives, plus render files.
Imagine how it has to pull data from all those places!
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I am the only goat on this farm. Beef cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, fruit and veg here.
Look forward to the new job announcement. Good luck
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