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Multiclip sequencing, running out of horsepower. Solution?
An issue.
I’ve gradually been increasing cameras on a multicam event shoot (motorsport) and have been creating 15mins 9 camera DV multiclips, using a single drive for a capture scratch and the project file.
Of late though, I’ve been noticing a warning message about dropped frames and consider turning down the quality etc, or increasing the bandwith. These seemed to be occurring on only one of my 4 hard drives, and not another, but my latest project it seems to be occurring on all of them. I thought it was I was mixing a High Def QT file from an onboard camera (converted to DV PAL in Compressor) but it seems to occur in 7 stream DV PAL only multiclip. Which has got me thinking what can I do to improve the situation? I prefer multiclip’s because the file output is presented “as live” and for workflow multclip editing is (usually) so much quicker.
I’m running 14Gb ram in a Mac Pro 3Ghz Quad core, ATI HD 4870, so I didn’t think I’d be lacking horsepower. I’ve selected Dynamic in the sequence drop down and unlimited RT, and I’ve reduced audio channels to only 4, and selected rendering only the current sequence, yet after 5 or 6secs of play the sequence starts dropping frames and grinds to a halt. I can hear ticking and clicking of the drive, which to my non tech head suggests it’s running out of memory or it’s struggling to suck all the video off the drive to the memory.
Anyway anyone with a experience of multclip sequencing and optimising a Mac for it, care to share some wisdom?
I don’t really understand raids so if thats the solution, talk to me like an idiot then I’ll understand…
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5 Replies
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[Chris Simpson] “play the sequence starts dropping frames and grinds to a halt. I can hear ticking and clicking of the drive, which to my non tech head suggests it’s running out of memory or it’s struggling to suck all the video off the drive to the memory”
Sounds more like the drive is beginning to fail. Lots of clicking noises are NEVER a good sound to hear from a hard drive.
You never did tell us what type of drives you are using. How are they connected to the computer? How full are the drives are are editing from? Are they single drives or is it a raid?
Most multiclip problems come from not uses fast enough hard drive or slow hard drive connections.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity! -
Thanks for taking an interest Zane.
I have 4 internal Seagate SATA hard drives (I think they spin at 7200rpm), 1 250 Gb (boot drive), 1 500Gb and 2 x 750Gb. All the drives are just drives not set up as any kind of RAID, as I can never figure which kind of RAID type I might need or how to set it up, even assuming that’s the issue.
The clicking ticking doesn’t sound a drive failing, just the drive being accessed, not sure if thats struggling to access some many files on or creating virtual extra memory on the drive.
The 750 Gb drive I’m working from has 160Gb free, the project will be creating a double dvd of about 3 hours, so there’s 150Gb of video, I’ll be hopefully turning out a dozen or so multiclips.
I was wondering if I should move the project file to another drive, while the program file resides on the boot drive, I once had Adobe Premiere Pro, and read that the optimal way to organize that was in that way.
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It’s not a memory issue, it’s a throughput issue. Your drive can’t keep up with the demand of playing all the video streams simultaneously. A RAID would definitely benefit you for this. The other option that might work, using what you have now, is to divide the source clips amongst your 3 internal drives. I know you have 4, but don’t use the system drive for media. If each drive can handle 3 streams, then your 9 camera multi-clip should work. Definitely lower the playback quality and frame rate to help as well. Good luck!
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Do you think as a temporary measure, for the current project, I could move some of the video clips from the drive 4 capture scratch to drive 2 & 3, reconnect media (if necessary). As it’s going to be a long 3 or 4 days editing 5 secs at a time? Adding commentary is going to necessitate outputting a QT file and copying the audio back to the original sequence for rendering out for dvd.
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Well I’ve copied 4 or 5 video clips from the capture scratch to another drive, reconnected media, and I’m back in business, working fine. cheers!
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