LHe output HD via Component

[Winston A. cely]

Thanks everyone for your support!!! Based on the feedback I have here and directly from AJA, I’m thinking that it’s the eSATA card I have is not fast enough for HD. I’ve got it on a x4 slot slot, but System Profiler is saying it’s maxed out at x1. The eSata card is a Sonnet E2P (I believe, it’s been a long time since I bought it). Typically, I only need two drives connected (rarely ever RAID’ed because each project is small enough to have it’s own 1.5 TB drive) at once. However, my main client is moving towards shooting everything in HD. I’ve got to get this external monitor situation solved so any help would be terrific!

I’m not sure if you need this info, but I do not do much system capture or ingest. Nor do I do final layback to tape. I get drives with the material already captured and send back a drive with the mastering materials on it.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
8 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | Aja Kona LHe

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

OK. So I’ve bought a new Sonnet E4P card to make sure I’m getting as much bandwidth as possible (note attached photo). I’ve now quadruple checked that my setting match between the AJA control panel and my sequence settings, and my footage settings. I’m still getting stuttered/progressively slower monitor playback.

Would this have anything to do with the footage being shot on a Canon D7?

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
8 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | Aja Kona LHe

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Shane Ross]

[Winston A. Cely] “Would this have anything to do with the footage being shot on a Canon D7?”

Depends. Did you convert the footage from H.264 to PRoRes? If not, then yes, that will be an issue.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Winston A. cely]

Hi Shane. OK, that’s it then. I had spoken with someone who had used D7 before and not had issues with the H.264 files. And yeah, if I turn off the external monitor, I get flawless playback in my canvas, but I have to have the external monitor in order to feel safe with my edit. Thanks. From now on, conversion is going to be my first step before editing.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
8 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | Aja Kona LHe

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

So I moved on to another project that was shot with XDCAM 1080i60, had my new Sonnet Tempo E4P eSATA card, and reset all my settings, and I was getting flawless playback! Well, I finish a rough cut, have to go back to an older SD project, use AJA Control Panel to switch to 525i29.97, finish that project up, and now I’m back to the HD project. I switched my settings back to the HD settings and it’s giving me the same issues I had with the other HD project. Stuttery, slowly getting slower, choppy audio etc. I’ve tried uninstalling, restarting, re-installing, restarting, shutting off, unplugging everything, using a voodoo doll etc, and still no joy. I give up, I’m just too stupid to work this machine properly and will now go become a hermit.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
8 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | Aja Kona LHe

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

I just wanted to do a quick followup, just incase someone else runs into this problem….

I finally called AJA on friday, and talked to one of their excellent support reps. He gave me LOTS of information on what I should try. Some of it I had tried, some it I hadn’t. After spending all friday night trying to get it to work, I gave up. Nothing worked and I figured my aging (though still fresh to me anyway) Mac Pro and peripherals couldn’t handle XDCAM EX footage. Not the end of the world since I don’t do final mastering (typically).

After feeling totally defeated, I turned off my system (absolutely everything including the dang monitor) friday night and didn’t turn anything on till this morning. Guess what, it’s working like a dream again. The ONLY thing I did was turn the system on, and then open the project. I’m getting perfect playback and have no idea what happened. It’s funny because I had tried turning everything off for a couple minutes here and there and it didn’t work. But this time, it was magic.

So, I guess if you have any symptoms like mine, having a few days to turn the system off may help.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
8 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | Aja Kona LHe

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick