playback starts fine, then begins dropping frames…finally halts playback

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

playback starts fine, then begins dropping frames…finally halts playback

Posted by Jason Brown on June 23, 2010 at 8:17 pm

I’m a fairly experienced FCP editor and I can’t figure this out.

FCP7 – Matrox MXO2 – Snow Leopard – XDCAM 420SP (wrapped in Apple HDV 30p 1440×1080 container)

I’ve ran speed test – average read/write of 230 MB/s

Running on internal software RAID-0 (3TB, 300GB free)

Everything seems to be up to date regarding MXO2 firmware. I’ve rebooted, running no other programs. It seems to run faster if I let FCP sit idle for a couple minutes…it will play longer without issues than if I keep trying to play over and over. I’m wondering as I’m typing this…how much space do you need free on a RAID? It seems to be a bottleneck issue.

I’ve had this issue before, and it’s resolved itself. I’m hoping someone has some insight.

-Jason

Jason Brown replied 15 years, 10 months ago 4 Members · 7 Replies
7 Replies

David Roth weiss
June 23, 2010 at 8:20 pm

Your RAID is simply too overloaded.

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

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
Steve Eisen
June 23, 2010 at 8:21 pm

Only 300GB free on a 3TB Raid? That’s not much room left.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group
Francois Stark
June 24, 2010 at 6:39 pm

I don’t think it is your raid array. You did not specify your CPU or RAM. Are you on a g5?
HDV takes a lot of CPU power to decode and play in real time. I would suspect your CPU of not being fast enough – even the newer Inter machines battle to do HDV.

XCDAM 420 wrapped in a HDV container…

What is your timeline settings? HDV is always a bugger… I would suggest converting all your HDV to Apple Prores or DVCPRO HD for far better playback performance.

Or place your HDV clips on a Apple Prores timeline and render.

Regards
Francois

Regards
Francois
Jason Brown
June 24, 2010 at 7:37 pm

16 gig of ram…not sure of g5…but it’s 8 core, purchased highest end Mac u could buy 1 year ago. Regarding codec, that is the container I get when I rewrap the mxf files off the xdcam disc with the 420sp setting on a PDW700.
Jason Brown
June 24, 2010 at 7:38 pm

And…sequence settings match clip.
Francois Stark
June 25, 2010 at 12:08 pm

Hi Jason

No, then it is definitely not your CPU or ram….

How did you bring the footage into FCP? Log-and-transfer would normally transcode incoming footage into Apple Prores. If you used the Sony import program you are stuck in their codec. HDV sucks. I would try to transcode overnight – use Media Manager to go to Prores.

Hope it helps

Regards
Francois
Jason Brown
June 25, 2010 at 5:38 pm

[Francois Stark] “Log-and-transfer would normally transcode incoming footage into Apple Prores.”

I use the XDCAM transfer import function…which does NOT transcode, but wraps the video in a different container than the native MXF format from the disc. I can shoot in 3 formats on the disc – 422 50 / 420 HQ / and 420 SP. The 422 50 comes in with an “Apple XDCAM HD codec” but the 420 SP comes in with that HDV codec.

I need to figure out how to come off the xdcam disc with a less compressed codec, but there aren’t any options coming through XDCAM transfer.

-Jason

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