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Is FCP ever going to sort out the “large project file” crash problem?
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I work on projects that are 100MB…thereabouts. DVCPRO HD…ProRes. No issues with crashing. Multi-seat environment on a SAN, or stand alone system.
Having a STABLE system is a balancing act. There are so many things that can interfere with FCP…third party apps, mail, web surfing, games, widgets. Stable systems have ONLY the software that comes with the system, and FCS and a few other side apps. Tons of tiny apps (even Perian, which is a tool I use) interfere with smooth operation of FCP.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Daniel Frome] “Whether you’re editing dvcproHD, XDCAM, whatever, we found that the bigger the .fcp file the more frequent your crashes will be. Having lots of RAM won’t solve the issue, since FCP is a 32bit application and will only use/see about 3.5GB of RAM.”
Just about every one of our projects is a large project. Having extra RAM definitely helps in loading up a large project, particularly if you have the thumbnails turned on. If you’re getting a lot of crashing, then you either have something interfering with FCP as Shane notes, or you have a stability issue somewhere in your hardware pipeline.
Across 5 systems we might see two crashes per month on a bad month. Two feature documentaries and three series in production each day.
[Daniel Frome] ” The issue is somewhat unavoidable due to the nature of how fcp stores its information.”
The issue is almost completely avoidable with the correct FCP setup. When I find systems that are crashing a lot, I find people who are surfing the internet while capturing, doing log and transfer, reading email while the system is rendering, playing music in the background while editing, etc… In other words, doing things other than letting FCP work. Most people treat their FCP systems as just another computer that they’ll do all sorts of multi-tasking while a very processor heavy application is trying to do its work.
We treat our FCP systems as production machines. That is they are workhorses that simply edit, create graphics, create animations, etc… If you want to surf the internet, check emails, follow up on the Cow, etc… then you use the iMac that’s also in every edit suite. Allow the FCP machine to simply do what it needs to do to make you money and do all the “other stuff” on a separate computer.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative MediaRegister now for our Open House March 5
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I completely agree with FCP sitting on an edit machine. We’ve got (god forbid) PCs to do email, surf the web, and “produce” with. Our Edit suites have FCP, After Effects, Photoshop, MPEG Steamclip. I know I’m forgetting something, but you know what I mean.
But for all that, crashing. 3 different suites, all during thumbnail loading of bins or sequences. Project sizes range from small to about 50Mg. XDCAM.
Very few crashes if you turn off thumbs everywhere, but then hell, I should go back to editing tape to tape if I just want to see a list of what shots I have.
No crashes if in a project entirely of ProRes.But I want to emphasize. This is a NEW problem. We went years without these problems, so please don’t fault the workflow or format choice.
Praise to the COW
BrAd Steiner
ImageWorks Media Group -
[BrAd Steiner] “We went years without these problems, so please don’t fault the workflow or format choice.”
How full and / or fragmented is your RAID? I try to clean off our RAIDs every 3 to 6 months to keep them running clean.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative MediaRegister now for our Open House March 5
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Yes, there is also the upconvert issue, that crashes every other time, I use it, makes you want to consider moving over to adobe at least they have their ducks in a row over there, at least part of the time.
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Anything changed with Leo? I’m just asking as I suffer from crashes with xdcam he 422 footage as well.
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