multicam editting problems

[David Roth weiss]

[ken dallas] “I am using a Free Agent ext hard drive, i am wondering if this might be the problem.”

Yes, that’s a big problem Ken. USB drives are incapable of the sustained throughput necessary for video playback without dropping frames. Multicam exacerbates the problem, because you’re playing two or more video tracks simultaneously.

How many camera angles are you trying to play? You didn’t mention that, and it’s very important to know that before I can help you to determine what the hard drive requirements are for what you’re attempting.

David Roth Weiss
ProMax Systems
Burbank
DRW@ProMax.com
http://www.ProMax.com
Sales | Integration | Support

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Ken Dallas]

hi, im useing a 2TB goflex firewire drive.
my mac osx 10.6.8
293 GHz Intel core 7 with 8 gigs of ram

i would have thought that i had enough power and a fast enough drive for multi clip edits.
i was traying to do 9 clips witth this multi cam sequence.
do you think trying to edit the clips of my internal drive might help?
do you think less clips might help useing the go flex fire wire drive.

what would be the minimum requirements for editting 9 clips
thanks for your help

[Michael Gissing]

What codec, frame rate & firewire type? 400 or 800? The game is all about data transfer rates and all those things make a huge difference. For example, one stream of 10 bit uncompressed HD can’t be done from a firewire 800 drive but lots of streams of DV can.

You can get a free speed test from Blackmagic or AJA. Test your drive and you will get a chart of what codec and frame rates that your system can support.

Never use your system drive for media. Other internal sata drives, particularly if you RAID them will have a lot more speed than a firewire drive.

[Juha Västi]

Hey Ken!
I have MacPro 2 x 2,4 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon and 6Gt 1066mhz DDR3 and i had
the same problem.

First i read that my hard rive speed ain´t fast enough. So i bought
3x Western digital Green (2t each)S.M.A.R.T hardrives. Sata drives speed at 5400-7200rmp
I format my hardrives to Mac OS extended (case-sensitive & journaled) and but them to one raid as mirror…….well the result was same…still freezes

Then i bought 3x Samsung spinpoint hardrives Speed 7200rpm and no eco green smart drive. The i format my new drives to Mac OS Extended and but them to raid 0..

And now it works like charm.. so in the end it´s all about disk speed and the only way to rise it! is to use high speed hard drives and good raid setup… if you use raid0 remember to make backups

Soon i will buy Final cut pro X and hope that it can use more raw machine power with multi clips

To my problem i got help here from creative cow forum so i hope this helps you also

[David Roth weiss]

[ken dallas] “i was traying to do 9 clips witth this multi cam sequence.”

You never mentioned the codec you’re using, but 9 streams of video cannot play off a single drive.

It’s science that you should know Ken, and it’s very easy to calculate, but we have to know what the codec is in order to show you how the math is done.

David Roth Weiss
ProMax Systems
Burbank
DRW@ProMax.com
http://www.ProMax.com
Sales | Integration | Support

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Ken Dallas]

What you are say makes sense but i just need you to slow down and explain that a little better if you dont mind.
I am not sure about eco green drives or how to raid a drive.
sorry for being so stupid.