EX1080p drop frames with new eSpeed array?

[David Roth weiss]

I hate to ask such a basic question, however, is “Full checked in the dropdown menu when you go to Sequence>>Render All? If not, do so without passing go and re-render. That might fix everything, otherwise, if that’s not relevant then proceed…

Next, enabling the audio waveform monitor is not the problem. When people began cutting uncompressed and HD on underpowered systems that was a nice trick for lowering required overhead for playback, but those days are gone. You have some other issue(s).

First, and most important of all, you need to test the throughput of your raid. You can’t just assume that because you have a nice G-Tech raid and controller that they are providing adequate throughput. There is science involved, so download the Kona drivers and install them on your system and run the AJA System Test to see precisely what throughput you’re getting. One way or another, the number you get will either point out a problem or rule out your raid as the problem.

Do that and then report back…

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[David Roth weiss]

Did you follow the installation instructions precisely?

Did you install your controller card in the proper slot?

Does that older model MacPro require configuring the slot properly, and did you do that?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Paul Strilka]

Thanks-

I ran the test:

DISK READ DATA RATE in MB/s 196.5

8 bit 4:2:2
HDTV 1080 fps
Disk Read 49
Disk Write 45

Do those numbers look correct?

I installed in the top slot as instructed.
I also called G-Tech and they told me with the G-tech controller it’s a simple plug and play- no drivers needed.

[David Roth weiss]

Paul,

Are those numbers from a G-Tech speed test? They certainly don’t look like they come from a AJA Speed Test.

And, if the the numbers are accurate and you’re only getting Disk Read 49 MB/s,
Disk Write 45 MB/s, then you definitely have issues. Those numbers are not even up to snuff for a single drive.

[paul strilka] “I also called G-Tech and they told me with the G-tech controller it’s a simple plug and play- no drivers needed.”

My question to you was not about drivers, but whether rather that earlier MacPro machine is one of those that requires the slots to be configured using the Apple utility. I honestly don’t know which were the last machines built before Apple went to auto configuration.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Paul Strilka]

No- I used the Black magic test- since that’s my capture card.
And after more research I realize those numbers are bad.
But i went ahead and downloaded the AJA system test and ran it.
This is what I got:

128.0 MB

write 181.7 MB/s
read: 199.5 MB/s

I did not do anything to configure the slot other than install the controller and plug in the esata cable.
I rebooted and the array was on my desktop.

[David Roth weiss]

[paul strilka] “write 181.7 MB/s
read: 199.5 MB/s “

Okay, that more like it Paul. Those aren’t outstanding numbers, but they are acceptable for a 4-drive raid-0 setup, and certainly should be able to handle video that’s only 35MB/s, which I believe is what your camera shoots. Right?

So, we can rule out your raid, but that leaves us with something else more difficult to diagnose. Let me suggest that you uninstall and reinstall the BM drivers for whatever device you have from them.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Kevin Hamm]

[paul strilka] “Cutting my first project- a live event- shot in EX 1080pHQ.
I captured (log and transfer through FCP) and my sequence is set to same- EXCAM EX 1080p”

This could be part of the problem. And actually, when you really get into editing the footage, leaving the rendering set to EX will cause you to have to deal with it’s particular ordering bug, which will cause random rerenders on seemingly unrelated edits. Because of their long GOP there is a trick recommended to do all renders in ProRes422, and if you open the sequence settings (command-0) and go to Render Control, you can change the rendering from “same as sequence” to “ProRes 422 for…” and see the list of codecs you need.

You’ll also want to set this as the standard preference for your system so that going forward, all clips using EXCAM will render to 422. Saves time and brain cells.

I would guess this is what is causing your issues as it was what was causing mine. The GOP is fairly complex and ugly, and long sequences of it drop for me as well, unless I render them out using 422. Which, with the filters you’ve put on, should be needed once you make the change. And ProRes422 plays clean for me.

Hope this helps.

kev~!

Kevin Hamm
Video, Web, Print, coloring books, jam and socks.

[Alan Okey]

[David Roth Weiss] “certainly should be able to handle video that’s only 35MB/s”

Actually, XDCAM EX is 35Mb/s, as in Megabits per second, not Megabytes per second, so there should not be any disk speed issues.

Just for kicks, try switching your sequence render settings to ProRes instead of XDCAM, re-render and see if the problem persists.

[Paul Strilka]

Thanks for the help.
I tried the render to prores and the timeline plays fine. (so far)
So for future-
I should capture through FCP log and transfer as EXCAM and then create a prores sequence and cut in that sequence? when FCP prompts me to keep everything the same I select “no”.

Does it make sense to capture as pro res? Can I do that through log and transfer?

Trying to learn the correct work flow.