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FCP dropping frames on playback over RAID
I am getting dropped frames very often while playing back the timeline. I am editing 720p24 DVCPRO HD and HDV together in this timeline. The media is on an Xserve RAID, which I understand is supposed to eliminate these kinds of problems for HD. I’ve have premium support contract for the RAID and spent 2 hours on the phone with them, making sure all my settings are right. They said I should probably talk to “Pro Application Support” folks for FCP, but I’m hoping to avoid buying that support. Any ideas where I should start? I think it’s somewhere beyond the obvious like RT settings or anything else the app suggests. The G5 has plenty of power.
Thanks!
-Paul
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10 Replies
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Did you try to MIXDOWN the audio?
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Mixing down the audio every time I want to watch my timeline doesn’t seem to be very efficient. Am I not understanding you?
Thanks
-Paul
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Paul
If you come from an Avid background, then mixdown sounds like the wrong thing to do, because it replaces all your audio tracks with a mixed down stereo pair. But in FCP all it does is create a temp audio file for playback. Try it, it usually gets rid of 90 percent of dropped frame issues, especially if you know your storage speed isn’t an issue.
Cheers
John Christie
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I’m familiar with mixing down in FCP. I did try and it helped, but still got some dropped frames. I can’t say that it is not a RAID problem, but the high-end tech support basically said if everything is okay in RAID Admin, then it’s not that.
-Paul
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Is your RAID full or nearly full? When they are nearly full, the transfer slows down.
Ernie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
The RAID is not even close to full.
-Paul
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[pkdumas] “I am getting dropped frames very often while playing back the timeline. I am editing 720p24 DVCPRO HD and HDV together in this timeline. “
This is your problem. You need to capture everything to the same codec. FCP does not handle mixed codecs/resolutions in the same timeline well at all. i would suggest capturing/transcoding your HDV material to 720p24 DVCPRO HD.
Jeremy
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Do you have “Report dropped frames on playback” selected in User Prefs/General?
If yes, are you getting dropped frame warnings or just seeing skips or stutters?
George
Light Images
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When I uncheck or deselect the “Report Dropped Frames” warning it has moments where it plays back very clunky, but obviously no warning. Obviously, when I have the warning option selected, it gives me a warning message about dropped frames. Whether it’s noticeable or not, I can’t have dropped frames.
Thanks
-Paul
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Are you sure that all of the footage is on the raid? Often, when I’ve had to trash preferences, the scratch disks will get reverted to the internal computer hard drive. I’ve accidently digitized to the computer drive.
pxlmvr
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