FCP Unreliable Regularly Crashing

[Andrew Gurney]

I’ve run into similar problems with big multiclip projects – over 250 mb. We’ve never been able to figure out why but when working with multiclips, Final Cut hides a bunch of data in the project file.

Our quick fix is to copy all of the necessary sequences and Bins into a new project and than save that as your new project thereby eliminating any hidden files and hopefully causing your project file to run smoother.

Hope this helps.

andrew

[John Fishback]

I’ve read some threads that say stressed drives can cause this kind of issue. What kind of drives are you using and how are they connected – FW, SCSI, SATA, etc?

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Walter Biscardi]

[Jon Collins] “Currently I’m working with DV-PAL footage and two streams of multicam all in 16×9 to produce a 25min DVD. We do this project regularly normally in 4×3 without multicam but this time decided to step up.

I’m getting crashes occasionally (not all the time) when I unlink multicam clips (video + audio) but sometimes its just when I move the playhead. “

What type of media array are you using, how full is it and when was the last time you cleaned it up? Playback issues always lead me to look at the media array first to see how big, fast and fragmented it is.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Biscardi Creative Media

Creative Cow Forum Host:
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[Harry Bromley-davenport]

You say this is a huge project. So maybe you have loads and loads of sequences in your browser

Try this:

Make a NEW project.

Move only one or two of the sequences over into your new project’s browser – just drag them over.

Close the huge project and save the new project.

Quit FCP

Shut down your Mac and wait for 3 minutes before restarting. I know that sounds crazy, but I have tested this issue and the 3 minute thing actually does make the Mac clear it’s poor brain out.

Start up etc.

This worked for me on a massive project when I started to experience slow downs and multiple crashes.

Harry

[Jon Collins]

Sorry when I said huge I was somewhat over exaggerating. I mean more as a project in whole as opposed to FCP project. We’re/our machines are used to dealing with much larger projects on a whole without problem.

We don’t currently use arrays. Too much extra expense/problems. I’m using a second internal SATA drive to work from archiving off to external eSATA drives when necessary. The SATA drive is 3 months old and I empty it after every project. I disconnect the eSATA drives when I’m not using them as well to limit issues.

Thanks guys for your help. Much appreciated.

Jon

2x 3Ghz 4GB G5 || 1.67 Ghz 2GB PowerBook || OSX 10.5.5 – FCP Studio 2 – Adobe CS3 Master Collection

[Jason Porthouse]

My own experiences with FCP crashing have lead me to conclude that there is a big difference between the ‘theoretical’ capabilities of any given hard drive and the reality. My problems with running XDcam from a FW800 drive would seem to uphold that – theoretically it should be fine, but in practice things get funky.

If you can RAID a couple of SATA drives (RAID0 would be fine if you have a good backup strategy in place) you may well see a marked difference in stability.

Having said all that, I’ve spent the last 5 years cutting for a cilent on a Dual G5 with a mix of G-SATAs and Lacie FW400 drives and honestly cannot remember when we had a crash, so there is obviously some voodoo going on there…

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jon Collins]

I agree with voodoo to some degree! Well I moved from FW800 to eSATA 3 months ago (thats when I had an upgrade!) to speed up transfer times and although this did happen, all the drives (inc internal sata) would pause for 30 seconds – work for 20 secs repetitively during renders and transfers. Eventually I figured if I only plugged the drives in when I needed them, everything would run fine.

Jon

2x 3Ghz 4GB G5 || 1.67 Ghz 2GB PowerBook || OSX 10.5.5 – FCP Studio 2 – Adobe CS3 Master Collection

[Walter Biscardi]

[Jon Collins] “We don’t currently use arrays. Too much extra expense/problems. I’m using a second internal SATA drive to work from archiving off to external eSATA drives when necessary. The SATA drive is 3 months old and I empty it after every project. I disconnect the eSATA drives when I’m not using them as well to limit issues.
“

A single drive is much much slower than even a two drive media array. Unless you’re working in DV only, I would suggest at least a two drive media array. I generally don’t recommend single drives for any work on FCP.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Biscardi Creative Media

Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital.

Read my Blog!

Twitter!

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Jon,
Before starting to seek any hardware/software problem, make sure your System is optimized.
A fresh installed System/FC doesn’t warrants that things will work.
Run DiskWarrior, ThechTools or so.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Jon Collins]

This problem has cropped up again! I’m amazed other people haven’t come into this. I am still on FCP 6 and haven’t done multicam clip stuff for a while.

Its not a strain on the drives. Its SD DVPAL footage, running 2 camera streams. I’ve been happily editing without a problem for pretty much a year now on this setup pretty much without single FCP crash. As I said before the crashes occur not when I’m running, but when I’m linking and unlinking video + audio and occasionally when I move the playhead.

I don’t know if anyone else uses FCP multicam feature and has any input? If someone can say the FCP 7 multicam has been improved then we can consider updating in the near future.

Cheers,
Jon

2x 3Ghz 12GB MacPro || 2.33Ghz Core Duo 2GB MacBook Pro || OSX 10.5.7 – FCP Studio 2 – Adobe CS4 Master Collection