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Headless Final Cut Station ignores video memory – any workarounds?
Folks, I am using my Mac Pro that has FInal Cut Studio on it as network drives (over Cat 6 ethernet) mounted on my Mac Book Pro (2009). I basically just brought my machine home from work without the monitor with the I intent to use the machine remotely using screen sharing – just try to take home as few components as possible. When launching Final Cut or Compressor (using screen sharing from my Mac Book Pro) both apps say the machine doesn’t have enough video memory.
This is really annoying considering I have an ATI Radeon HD 4870 – plenty of memory. I think it’s ridiculous that the machine only acknowledges the memory if a monitor is connected. In any case, both apps won’t work without a monitor connected so I am forced to use my Mac Pro as just mounted drives on my Mac Book Pro and run my copy of Final Cut Studio on it. IT’s feasible, but not as fast as my Mac Book Pro.
Are you all familiar with this request from Final Cut Studio and know any workarounds to using a headless Final Cut Studio station?
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5 Replies
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[Tangier Clarke] “I think it’s ridiculous that the machine only acknowledges the memory if a monitor is connected”
Thats not ridiculous thats perfectly normal.
[Tangier Clarke] “I basically just brought my machine home from work without the monitor with the I intent to use the machine remotely using screen sharing”
Trying to edit via screen sharing is not going to be a pleasant experience for editing video, even if they are on the same network. You really should use a monitor hooked directly to the computer.
[Tangier Clarke] “In any case, both apps won’t work without a monitor connected”
Again that is they way they are built to work. The apps look for a usable video card when opening for a reason, and with out a display connected to a video card the card is unusable.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity! -
Thanks for the feedback. I am not doing much serious editing remotely. I am just nesting sequences and lining them up on one timeline. Since the project is spread over three internal terabyte drives, it was easier to bring the machine home since I have no way of connecting the three to my MacBook Pro otherwise. I don’t like that the apps ignore memory that is actually there just because a monitor is not connected; being that the memory is in the video card, but i understand why.
There is a workaround I found on macosxhints.com, but it may only acknowledge 64 MB of memory.
Tangier
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[Tangier Clarke] “I don’t like that the apps ignore memory that is actually there just because a monitor is not connected”
Some how your still not getting it, its not the apps, its the OS. it is the OS that tells an app what graphics cards are available and how much they can use.
Also the point of a good graphics card is to give the computer better capabilities when it comes to displaying a visual image. So if you are not connecting a display to that graphics card to display an image then the card becomes pointless. You want to view the image on another computer so it is the graphic card on that other computer that becomes the important factor.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity! -
Hi.
Why don’t you start the macpro in target mode. Connect it to the macbook pro and boot using alt? Choose macpro as boot disk. That is how i managed to downgrade from snow to old leopard with 4870 graphics. -
Good idea. I did that and although the hard drives were going crazy running the OS and apps from final cut studio, this method didn’t allow me to use the Blu-Ray burner in my mac pro.
Honestly the remote dvd sharing hasn’t worked very well for me over a network – its been flaky.
I got the project done though. Thanks everyone.
Tangier
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