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Kona LHe dropping frames on a 3 ghz Mac Pro
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I dont believe I am following you. When I play back just to the Mac desktop, or desktop cinema display, no frames are dropped. That is a FCP option, under user preferences, not a Kona card option. Only when the output is set to go through the Kona card, do any frames get dropped.
This is a brand new machine, with over 400 gigs free on both the system drive and the internal SATA raid drive also has over 400 gigs free. (the video and all my scratch drives are set to the RAID.)
When I play it off of the firewire drive, it is connected to the FW 800 port on the back of the machine.
My older machine is a Dual 2.0 G5 with a decklink HD card, and that has no problems playing the same stuff back consistently from both an internal raid and the exact same firewire 800 drive.
I am using Kona 3.2 software, with the latest OS upgrades, as well as Final Cut Pro upgrades installed.
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[artgug1] “When I play back just to the Mac desktop, or desktop cinema display, no frames are dropped. That is a FCP option, under user preferences, not a Kona card option. Only when the output is set to go through the Kona card, do any frames get dropped. “
The Kona card is considerably more sensitive to drop frames than FCP in “desktop” is- The card is telling you the frames are dropping because that is what will happen when you try to output to a deck. The other preview modes are not reliable for professional results – and you are working with a tool that forces FCP to respond in a professional manner. Just playing out the files is not the same, you Kona card is actually saving you should you output to a real deck at some point.[artgug1]
“with the latest OS upgrades,”
OUCH maybe that is part of the problem– 10.4.8 has some very weird glitches on every FCP machine I have seen it on especially when working with multiple monitors or the Kona card set to Mac Desktop.[artgug1] “When I play it off of the firewire drive, it is connected to the FW 800 port on the back of the machine.”
anything attached to the other FW ports at all? how much free space on the FW drive?[artgug1] “My older machine is a Dual 2.0 G5 with a decklink HD card,”
this machine is fully current also same OS/ QT/ FCP versions?How much RAM is installed on EACH Machine?
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
All software is up to date on both machines. There is about 80 gigs free on the firewire drive, but as I said, it does this when I move the project to an internal SATA Raid, with the whole drive free also.
Also, this is not a timeline thats even been edited. Just mark a 20 second clip with an in and out, throw it on the timline, and that cause problems. The G5 with the decklink card chews it up and spits it out for breakfast, the Mac Pro with the Kona card chokes almost immediately.
The Dual G5 has 2 gigs of ram, the new MacPro has 5 gigs of Ram.
The main differences are, the G5 has a decklink card, is loaded to the brim with programs and crap, but it runs the 1080i video perfectly.
The MacPro with a Kona card, with 5 gigs of ram, dual 3.0 ghz procs, and practically empty drives fails from ever playing the footage back without stoppage.
I’m not asking for the world here, DVCPro HD footage should not be difficult for this new machine to play back, considering my old G5 has been doing it for over a year now. If you look at my earlier posts, you will see the numbers that my disk array was reading with the Kona system test program. (115 – 120mb/sec)
Can the card be defective? Everything else seems to run fine, it shows no signs of other issues.
BTW, the card is plugged into slot 3, per AJA specs.
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[artgug1] “The Dual G5 has 2 gigs of ram, the new MacPro has 5 gigs of Ram.”
THAT’s IT !!!!!!!
Apple is still having issues with all 3rd party cards and more than 2 gigs of ram in the MP machines.
take it down to 2 gigs and all should work fine. I am not able to run my 3G MP machine with more than 2G ram and any 3rd party card.gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
Thanks, you read my mind. I pulled the second riser out with the extra 4 gigs of ram, and with 1 gig, all seems to be good so far.
I am going to try to ad another gig back in, and see how that goes.
Thanks for your continued help and suggestions. I really hope this is the solution. I will post updates as I get them to keep all new users up to date on the situation.
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I would like to add that according to AJA, the latest drivers (3.2) and the apple firmware update should have fixed this issue, but apparantly it hasn’t.
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WHat happens to your machine when you do ?
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The people that participate on this forum might comment “well, if you had read some of the recent posts, you would have known about the 2 Gig limit on the MAC Pro” – but I can fully appreciate that fact that this RAM limitation is still not worked out fully yet, and it is a shame that we have to suffer thru this. We can’t all read every post.
With this said, I am glad that Gary isolated this problem for you. And this reinforces the fact that the NEXT GENERATION MAC or the next generation OS (Elephant, Leopard, Warthog) will screw everything up all over again.
Bob Zelin
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I had heard of the 2 gig limit before, but this system was set up by Promax, so apparantly they didnt. I just assumed when they were going to be able to put 5 gigs in, that they knew what they were doing. Also, if you called AJA as of yesterday morning, they said there was no longer a 2 gig limit. So regardless of previous posts, there is some conflicting stories with what is actually the case. I am here to tell you, it hasnt been totally worked out yet.
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[artgug1] “I had heard of the 2 gig limit before, but this system was set up by Promax, so apparantly they didnt. I just assumed when they were going to be able to put 5 gigs in, that they knew what they were doing. Also, if you called AJA as of yesterday morning, they said there was no longer a 2 gig limit. So regardless of previous posts, there is some conflicting stories with what is actually the case. I am here to tell you, it hasnt been totally worked out yet.”
I can tell you for certain that 4GB works just fine in our Mac Pro Quad 3.0 without the ATTO 42ES card. With the ATTO is in there, we’re only running 2GB. But as far as I can see, AJA has definitely got the 2GB limit under control with their drivers.
A solution from ATTO is supposedly coming along and we should see updated drivers in the near future.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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