Out of Memory Because of Too Much Footage?

[Chris Elley]

After trashing prefs, I get a new error message when trying to play clips in the large project:

“Could not open handler. System memory is probably very low.”

Chris Elley
Electro-Fish Media LLC
Austin, Texas

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Chris,
The projet I’m working with are 43 hours of DV. I’m working with external Firewire 400 in an old G5 and when dowloading I chop the footage in 15 minutes pieces. Not problem at all. I know this is not 100 hours DVCProHD. But I’m not using a Sata Raid neither a 8 cores.
Chris, have you set your processor Performance to “highest”?
What kind of maintenance do you make to your Mac?
I would recommendo you to optimice your System and HDs instead of looking for malfunctions in FCS. Run DiskWarrior and probably your Mac will change actitude.
rafael

[Chris Elley]

The Mac Pro is very new, so there has not been opportunity for maintenance.

Rafael, I am not familiar with setting a processor to “high.” What do you mean by this and how would one do it?

I have learned that all OS X applications are currently limited to 4GB of RAM. In the case of FCP, 1.5 is used in the background and only 2.5 is user settable. This current limitation seems to mean that very large projects (such as 100 hours DVCPRO HD) have to be split into smaller multiple projects. Can anyone else confirm this?

Thanks,
Chris

[Dean Evans]

I am editing a 13 part documentary series and I’m in the early stages. I’ve cut using DV NTSC media before with no problems but this show is all shot in DVCPRO HD 720p60 @ 23.98 fps.

Just the other day I added more reels to the project and I got the exact same problem as you where I’m playing footage then get the “Out of Memory” message and shortly thereafter the screen goes green and I have to quit and restart the project.

I have 4.5GB DDR SDRAM and am using a Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5, running Mac OS X version 10.5.2. The media is all on external FW800 drives (mostly Lacie). I have many timelines that I create to sync the 2 cameras and they sometimes run as long as 3 hours. Like I said this is the first time I’ve run across this problem.

To cut to the chase – have you found a solution to your problem? If so please tell me what worked for you.

DE Productions Inc.

[Chris Elley]

Dean,

We did not find an ideal solution to this problem. The only effective route was to break the project into a number of smaller projects.

On principle, I do not like doing this, however it is a feasible workaround. In this endeavor, we’ve begun to think of project files as very large bins or folders, so we keep our scenics in one project, our music in another, etc. Rarely do we need many projects open at the same time. Regardless, it’s still a bummer.

If anyone has resolved this issue, please let us all know.

Best,
Chris Elley
Electro-Fish Media
Austin, Texas
electro-fish.com

[Andrea Stewart]

I have also had this problem, but finished the project with workarounds.

However, I’m attempting a post mortem now. Some culprits I’m suspecting include a) mixed codecs (I had DV, animation files, DVCPro and Uncompressed 10 bit in my sequence), b) plugins (recently added Magic Bullet Looks), c) too many audio tracks (15 in my case), or d) just bad mojo.

My project file on this one got very huge, nearly 800MB at one point, and only peeled back to 400MB when I deleted old timelines. I have heard that large project files don’t bode well for stability. But can’t find what is causing the project to become some large.

Please keep sharing what you find out.

Andrea Stewart
Producer/Editor/Director – Owner
Germane Creative LLC

[Larry Mondi]

I’m having too-large project file issues as well in FCP v5.4.1. (Out of Memory messages, long save times, etc).
It was suggested to me that I split my project into two files, which I did in the following way: I made two duplicates of the original 300MB project file, and retained the original. Then, I opened each duplicate in FCP. In duplicate A, I deleted half of my sequences in the browser. In duplicate B, I deleted the other half of the sequences. But, even though each of the duplicates now only had half of the material of the original, they each stayed at 300MB! How the heck can this be?

Larry Mondi
Larry Mondi Productions
Brookline, MA

[David Roth weiss]

[Larry Mondi] “I opened each duplicate in FCP. In duplicate A, I deleted half of my sequences in the browser. In duplicate B, I deleted the other half of the sequences. But, even though each of the duplicates now only had half of the material of the original, they each stayed at 300MB! How the heck can this be?”

Pardon the terminology Larry, but you did it slightly “bassakwards.”

The best way to split the job is to create two entirely new projects and then drag half the stuff to one and half to the other. That method tends to create two cleaner projects. Remember, you’re dealing with a database, not a container full of physical stuff. When you delete metadata from a database its similar to deleting files from a hard drive–it deletes the header information, but leaves lots of 0s and 1s behind.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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[Larry Mondi]

David,

The method you recommend for splitting my large project into two was suggested to me by a colleague, but I couldn’t make that work… When I create a new project and try to drag any element from the offending large project’s browser into the new project’s browser, it won’t copy over- I get spinning beach ball ad infinitum, leaving me no option but to force quit out of FCP. The force quit window confirms that FCP is “not responding”. I tried the same exercise with another project that has a small, nonproblematic project file size, and your scenario worked with no problem. My frustration with this is extreme. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Larry Mondi