How many HDV streams should I get?

[Mark Maness]

The problem you are seeing is two fold.

One, you memory is of an odd size. You should have at least 8 gig with the new OctoCore systems to use FCP efficiently.

Second, HDV is extremely processor intensive and since your memory is at an odd size for FCP, you’ll have to render.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Stacy Rothwell]

Thanks for replying.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I just added the additional 2GB. It was doing the same thing with 4GB (even size).

Stacy

[Mark Maness]

Ok…

Here’s a tech document from Apple on this…. It was created for the quad Intel systems but the same thing still applies.

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

You should have bought all of the memory from the same resource. Same memory, same manufacturer, same sizes. It all matters to FCP for some reason.

I, too, had these same issues until ProMax cleared up the matter with me and settled me on 8 gig of Kensington memory.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Stacy Rothwell]

Thanks for the article.

Still seems strange. I had 4GB (spaced like they said) from the factory and I still could not do more than two HDV streams.

I just placed another order for another set of 2GB from the same vendor as the first additional set of 2GB.

That’ll make both risers exactly the same (2GB from Apple and 2GB from Kensington). According to the article it doesn’t matter that there is mixed memory (that meets the same specs) it just matters that memory pairs are matched — which always makes sense anyway.

FYI the Kensington memory for 8-core MacPro is KTA-MP677AK2/2G

[David Bogie]

[Stacy Rothwell] “How many HDV streams should I be able to use real time with FCP6? I am using standard native HDV editing. < HDV is not native, it's a delivery codec, a horrible monster created from the MPEG2 genetic material. It blows. It's not made up of frames so every time you hit play it must be decompressed and recreated. You're using the wrong format for editing and you're never going to be happy with MPEG2 in your FCP timelines no matter how many Apples you throw at it. > The most I can seem to use is two before it makes me render. This seems a little odd for Apples best machine.”

I’m surprised you can get two!

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Stacy Rothwell]

On a 8-core 3GHz machine? I should be able to do a lot more than two.

When I was on a PC (just three weeks ago), I was using Cineform with Premiere Pro on a 4-core 2.4Ghz and could do 5 streams standing on my head.

Something’s gotta be wrong here. Doesn’t make sense.

Stacy

[Tom Wolsky]

There’s a problem with your machine, either the processor or the RAM. Have it tested by an Apple service technician.

All the best,

Tom

Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy” DVDs

[Stacy Rothwell]

Tom,

How many streams can you do. And, please define how you use it. My test was simply taking a base video (worked fine), then adding another video layer and settig its opacity to 50%. that was fine. Then I did that again and that’s when it said it had to render.

[Tom Wolsky]

It probably depends what type of HDV you’re using and what devices you have connected. The length of the media may also be a factor. I can do three layers as you described on a laptop. A fourth layer makes the render bar go green. I still have real-time playback, but preview only. I can go to six layers without the bar going red. Seven layers and I need to render in Safe RT. An octocore with your RAM should do better.

All the best,

Tom

Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy” DVDs

[Walter Biscardi]

[Stacy Rothwell] ”
On a 8-core 3GHz machine? I should be able to do a lot more than two.”

Your computer has almost nothing to do with streams of video. It has everything to do with the speed of your storage and whether or not you have a card such as the Kona 3.

What are the speeds of your array?

HDV is an anamorphic format and the processors scale the video out in realtime for playback to an external monitor. The Kona 3 does this realtime scaling which allows the processors to either help with more RT filters or helping with more streams of playback, though again, your drive speed is much more important.

In our case we run MaxxDigital SAS/SATA arrays with speeds upwards of 480MB/s so we can run I believe 12 streams of DVCPro HD very easily on a Mac Pro Quad 3.0 and a G5 Quad 2.5. The computers aren’t doing this. The speed of the arrays and the Kona 3 doing the realtime scaling.

Also, HDV is a very processor intensive format so you do not get nearly as many streams of video as you would in something like DVCPro HD.

Don’t ask me how many streams of HDV we can run, we never edit in that format. We convert all HDV to DVCPro HD or ProRes for editing.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

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