MacBook Pro and G-Raid Playback Issues

[Bob Zelin]

you can’t use a Mac Book Pro, an AJA I/O and a firewire drive all on one firewire buss ! You need a seperate buss to do this. This applies to the I/O HD as well. Buy a Sonnet FW card for your Slot34 in your MAC Book Pro, and stick your drives onto that buss.

Before you do anything, disconnect the AJA I/O, plug in your drives, and run AJA Sysetm test on your drive in the MAc Book Pro. If you don’t get 128Mb/sec, you are wasting your time, as you will get dropped frames at slower speeds.

bob Zelin

[Steven Hill]

Thank Bob.
I thought that I had posted my specs. Sorry about that.

MacBook Pro 2.33GHz Intel Core Duo.
10.5.6 OSX
2 Gig of Ram 667
FCP 6.05 Studio
Sonnet Fire 800 Express Card that hooks to the G-Raid (Mac Extended)

Like I said I did not have this problem on G5 Dual 1.8

I will try your suggestion and run the test.

Any other suggestions?

Steve

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[Steven Hill]

I ran the test and was getting about 38 MB/s Write and 66 MB/s Read from the G-Raid drive.

Now I have put two 500 gig FW 800 Drives together as a stripe drive and did the test again. AJA System test now is 45 MB/s Write and 84 MB/s Read. That is about 20 MB/s faster.

The initial results of a play back test look good. It seems to not have the same issues. Further test required.

I do not think you need 128 MB/s as you stated Bob.

If anyone has a similar setup, I would like to know your solutions to the drop frames of editing uncompressed 8 bit video.

Thanks,

Steve

[Bob Zelin]

Steve –
the worst piece of crap mail order single SATA drive in a MAC Pro will do over 65Mb/sec. If you want to do a professional 8 bit uncompressed project with an array that is operating at 45Mb/sec – well, good luck. Just wait until you put a second layer or a title up and you don’t render it.

Bob Zelin

[Steven Hill]

Bob, I realize that the MacBook is not the ideal system to edit uncompressed 8 bit Footage. It is not my primary Edit-bay system. It is one of many edit suites and is to be used for simple cut training videos and compressing files.

We have all had to work with less than the best equipment. Having to repurpose equipment is not only financially smart but green too.

I was looking and hoping for practical advise from someone with useful information. Information on how to optimize this described system and to get the best performance that the MacBook is capable of providing.

[Bob Zelin]

you want good advice –
you are doing a training video. YOU DO NOT NEED UNCOMPRESSED VIDEO.
Half the TV stations in the US are doing news at DV25. You can work at ProRes422 all day long with no issues. Stop this nonsense with uncompressed video, and start working with modern compression codecs that look teriffic.

If this is not an acceptable answer for you, then SPEND MORE MONEY. I know very well that everyone (including me) has budget limitations. This is why the ENTIRE WORLD is working with compressed HD – everyone from AVID (DNxHD) to Apple (ProRes422HQ) and of course DVCProHD. And for those guys that say “well, that just isn’t good enough for me – we want the absolute best quality” – you don’t work in uncompressed HD on a budget.

Just remember – CBS Network’s on air Unity ISIS system operates at DNxHD145 (145Mb/sec) – this is the same as ProRes422 (not HQ) – so don’t tell me that your training video must be uncompressed.

Bob Zelin

[Steven Hill]

Thanks Bob for the advise.

I am not opposed to working with Compressed files. I love ProRes HQ codec.
We shoot the footage on an Sony EX3 and am very pleased with the HD compression.

I am doing some tests now and trying some different workflows. It is just that this video series has been done uncompressed for about 15 years now and the client is expecting it be done that way.

I am just trying to figure out the best workflow, optimize the system and not spend money. I have AJA IoHD that is not being used to it potential and I may have to incorporate that instead of the older AJA Io.

Thanks for your time.

Steve

[Sean Donnelly]

Steven, if you are shooting with an EX3, are you using the footage from the cards? If so, just edit in native xdcam ex. You’re not making any new information by converting to uncompressed. If you want really great results, use your ioHD to capture the SDI out to ProRes 422 directly into final cut.

-Sean

[Steven Hill]

Thanks Sean,
We do our first rough edit using the native EX3 footage from the cards on a different edit bay and then convert to Standard definition uncompressed using Media Manager to add graphics and music to do the final edit on the Laptop System.

After running some tests I found the ProRes codec to be adequate for our needs. I have been using the Media Manager to convert to ProRes.

Do you think that the HDSDI out of a Kona Card into a IoHD box real-time capture would be better down conversion than the Media Manager software conversion? I will run the test and see if it is any better. I like the idea of a hardware conversion better but not sure the results are any better.
The advantage of the software conversion is that it can go overnight.

Thanks Again

[Gary Adcock]

[Steven Hill] “Do you think that the HDSDI out of a Kona Card into a IoHD box real-time capture would be better down conversion than the Media Manager software conversion?”

Yes
capturing ProRes in Hardware will be better than any software transcode currently is.

With hardware you will then be using Sony’s dedicated hardware to decompress that content from Mpeg2 long GOP into one of the finest intermediate codecs available to edit with.

Note that media manager created the WORST compression/ conversion in my testing of ProRes.

here is a link to the google search page for some of my comments on ProRes.

https://tinyurl.com/cj2yoo

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

Inside look at the IoHD
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php