New Macbook Pro (not retina display) with Seagate Thunderbolt 1 TB HD, still dropped frames

[Andrew Richards]

Thunderbolt is only as fast as the drive(s) behind it. I’m guessing the 1TB in your GoFlex is a typical 7200 RPM SATA HDD, and thus prone to dropping frames on multi-cam. Since multi-cam plays multiple streams at the same time, the HDD must seek, cache, and stream and if its cache can’t buffer enough to meet demand you will drop frames, especially with high-bitrate media like Pro Res. The only way to guarantee multi-cam performance is with a RAID or SSD since they can both sustain much higher random read performance than a single 7200 RPM HDD (regardless of how it is connected).

Best,
Andy

[Olof Ekbergh]

Try proxy media, always a good idea in multicam.

Olof Ekbergh

[Shane Mcgee]

Yeah, sort of like buying a V6 Mustang…Its the same car, but the V8 version will still be much faster because it has the hardware power to back it up, not just the same body.

15″ MacBook Pro Quad Core i7 2.0GHz
1TB G-RAID
Final Cut Pro X
Canon T2i

[Roel Bus]

Thanks Andy,
The biggest reason why I wrote is that it happened with this Thunderbolt drive, and you’re right, it’s a 7200 RPM drive, but I haven’t had this issue with a firewire 800 drive before. I knew I couldn’t push it too much, but it could handle two streams. And that is all I’m throwing at this drive.
But the drive speed and lack of RAID makes sense. A bigger hose doesn’t make the pump run faster….

[Craig Alan]

was the 800 drive a single or raid?

MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170, Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Roel Bus]

It’s a single drive in this case. I wanted it to be portable. I have an eternal RAID (SATA) inside my MacPro, but the computer is the one needing upgrading in that case…

[Craig Alan]

So a single sata 7200 rpm 800 firewire drive can handle two streams of video but a single sata 7200 rpm thunderbolt can’t? That doesn’t make sense. Are you sure its 7200 https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/858956-REG/Seagate_1TB_GoFlex_for_Mac.html
says its 5400 but maybe different model?

and no mention of buffer.

My guess is there are single thunderbolt drives that can handle 2 streams of video.

I notice cal digit makes a portable one that can swap out drives and can accept ssd drives as well.

looks pretty cool but I’m sure its more money.

MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170, Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Simeon Pines]

Funnily enough I think I asked about this drive the other day at an Apple Store in Orlando. If it IS the same one I looked at https://store.apple.com/us/product/H8683ZM/A then it’s 5,400. The rep told me the thunderbolt doesn’t make the drive work any faster and pointed me towards the https://store.apple.com/us/product/H7114ZM/A/lacie-little-big-disk-thunderbolt-series-hard-drive?fnode=MTY1NDA0Nwwhich, of course, is much more expensive and needs mains power.

[Craig Alan]

what’s the model #. google will find the specs. some go flex are 7200 but I still see no mention of buffer. It kind of smells of not being up to editing specs. you can always use it as a back up drive.

MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170, Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Paul Szilard]

Don’t want to change the thread, but it looks relevant to my own question, so perhaps someone could help.

Using 2012 MBP 15″ non-retina, with 16GB ram, 480GB Intel SSD (swapped out original HDD), and TB connected LaCie 2Big Disk which has 2x2TB in RAID 0.

I can’t figure out how to get FCPX to use the space on the TB drive. It insists on importing everything to the internal drive, which is space limited at 480GB total capacity.

Your help would be MUCH appreciated…

paul
-apprentice-
joined 25 Nov 2012
platform OS X 10.8.2, MBP 15″ late 2012, 16GB ram, 480GB SSD, TB Cinema Display, TB 2Big Disk 4TB