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New G-RAID and Final Cut System Files
Hi All,
Long time lurker at school. Thanks for all of the indirect help… I’ve taught my teachers a few things based off of your knowledge here.
I recently purchased my own system which I feel is an upgrade from what the school had in terms of just power (correct me if I am wrong).
School Setup (I believe about 2-3 years old):
iMac 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo 867bus 2Gb RAM
1TB LaCie external running FW800
OSX 10.4New personal setup:
Current 13″MBP from Apple website (2.66Ghz, C2D, 1067bus)
8GB RAM
Apple Cinema Display
2TB G-RAID running FW800
OSX 10.6.3This setup is meant for me to still use the laptop as its meant to be used, while still having a decent setup for home editing of student projects and web videos.
I have everything setup the same way I had it at school, yet I am having dropped frames and incredibly slow render times. Both are running FCS3, both running the same prores footage from an external drive (FW800), all of the A/V settings the same, sequence settings the same, preferences the same, and so on. My work-flow is the same as well. Something just doesn’t seem right.
The only thing I can think of is that the external drive was not hooked up when I originally installed the FCS suite onto the MBP…. It was only after installation did I receive the G-RAID, hook it up, and transfer my final cut docs. I’m wondering if maybe final cut has system files still referencing/using the internal hard disk? Would a fresh install of FCS with the G-RAID hooked up help?
Another idea: OSX 10.4 vs 10.6? Could this be the culprit?
Seeing as how I am running both systems in exactly the same manner/footage/workflow, I don’t feel it is necessary to share this info (let me know otherwise).
Future Thanks,
Leon Lewis
“Standing on the shoulders of giants.”
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8 Replies
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Well for starters, the Macbook Pro really isn’t a lot faster than the School’s iMac… it’s close to the same speeds when talking render times.
But that said, what are you rendering? Some effects take a lot longer than others for example…
It makes no difference at all about your install not having the G-Raid hooked up. But you DO want to make sure the media files are connected to it and not your internal drive. Your project file should be on the internal, and you can keep waveforms, autosaves and thumbnails there without a drop in speed.
Check to see where the media is connected to by right clicking on a column header in the Browser and selecting “Show Source”. This will show where the files are that are connected to the clips… reconnect to the G-Raid if need be, and set your render files to go there as well. That’s as fast as you can setup your system.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski.
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX Cinema Displays
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Hi Jerry,
Would have mentioned this earlier but being my first post on CC I was placed in ‘moderation’ so I could not update my post. I had done as you proposed already once I hooked up the new external drive. Moved all of my media files to the new drive and started final cut from scratch (trashed plist&docs). Slightly better results, but still having a dropped frame issue.
Still trying to figure this out though…. still no luck. I’m rendering 10 second sample clip as a test for this whole issue. Originally it came from a T2i, tranferred from card to G-RAID, converted to prores 422, imported to final cut…. I then get a dropped frame warning on the new MBP, but not the school computer. This is without any effects, just the clip alone.
Currently I am searching around on a possible QuicktimeX vs. 7PRO issue (underlying codecs/system performance?). Also checking to see if there is an issue with the new MBP running the latest verion of Snow Leopard over the old school computer just using OSX10.5.
Leon Lewis
“Standing on the shoulders of giants.”
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Select a clip and type “cmd+9”. Tell me what it says for codec, frame size and frame rate exactly. If you want you can turn off the warning, and may not even notice the dropped frames, they don’t really matter that much if your delivery isn’t videotape.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski.
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX Cinema Displays
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There is no listing for codec… but maybe you meant ‘compressor’?
compressor: Apple ProRes 422
Vid rate: 59.94
frame size: 1280×720
data rate: 16.2 MB/sec
Pixel Aspect: Square
size: 138.0MBCurrently I have RT in safe.
Sequence settings:
Frame Size: 1280×720 (aspect ratio HDTV 720p 16:9)
Pixel Aspect: square
quicktime video settings: Prores422 100% quality
render control: 100%
codec: same as sequence codecAnother thing to note… school computer is running QT PRO and OSX 10.5, my computer is running QTX and OSX 10.6
*again, sorry for the delay (still in ‘moderation’ by CC admins for being a new user).
Leon Lewis
“Standing on the shoulders of giants.”
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Try setting the RT menu to unlimited not safe.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski.
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX Cinema Displays
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Do you have anything else plugged into the FW800 ports besides your G-Raid?
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RT is set to unlimited.
Nothing else is running from the external drive. No other programs are running. Activity monitor says FC is using about 120% of the CPU. Still getting choppy playback/Freezing Video/extra long render time.
There are a few of the new quad-core imacs at the school that ran into this problem as well. The teacher was talking them up about how fast they would be but they ended up having these same issues. Those were both running Snow Leopard and QTX as well.
About to nuke and pave….
Leon Lewis
“Standing on the shoulders of giants.”
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My thoughts on your problems here are the same as in the other thread…
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski.
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX Cinema Displays
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