-
Poor video playback in Mountain Lion (FCP, QT7, QT10)
I just upgraded to Mountain Lion 10.8.2. I did a clean install of Mountain Lion on a brand-new hard drive.
Everything seems to be in order except for playback of HD QuickTime files (in FCP7, via Quick Look in the Finder, and directly in QuickTime 7 & 10). The audio is fine, but video is choppy, as if it’s a variable framerate. The files in question are 1080p ProRes 422. Some are 23.98fps, others are 29.97, but all play equally poorly. The same files play just fine in MPEG Streamclip, which leads me to believe this is a QuickTime issue in Mountain Lion.
When the files are playing back in the Finder, the Activity Monitor shows the following, which doesn’t seem right to me:
46316 QTKitServer-(46314) Quick Look UI Helper 99% CPU 24 Threads 151 MB Intel
Unlike most of the other processes in the Activity Monitor, this is not a 64 bit process. I believe that is why the QTKitServer is launched.
In any case, I am unable to edit until I resolve this, so I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions, especially those that don’t involve downgrading to Snow Leopard.
Thanks in advance,
Ben
___________________________________________
MacPro4,1 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16GB RAM
OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 -
9 Replies
-
Hi Ben
There is no real reason why ML should slow you down, there are quite a few here editing with FCP7 quite happily. A clean install is the best way to go so I was wondering which type of drives and what speed (RPM) are the ones you are trying to play the media from ?
best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv -
Thanks for the response, Neil.
All the media is on a striped RAID set (2 drives, 7200rpm, SATA internal drives – I believe they are Seagate Barracudas). I’ve been editing successfully with this setup for years; the OS is the only change. As I said above, MPEG Streamclip plays the clips just fine, which led me to believe the problem was with QuickTime.
Since I made my last post, I’ve been able to log in as a different user and get acceptable playback, so now it appears to be a user issue. I just can’t figure out what that might be, since I did a clean install of everything.
___________________________________________
MacPro4,1 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16GB RAM
OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 -
After a clean install, the system is a real mess. Use DiskWarrior to optimize it.
Run it on your external HDs too.
rafael -
Rafael – Thank you, I’ll give that a try as well.
For now, I’ve discovered that logging out and logging back in to my main user solves the problem temporarily. I still don’t know what sequence of events – if any – causes playback to suffer. As soon as I have something more solid, I’ll post back here.
___________________________________________
MacPro4,1 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16GB RAM
OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 -
I am having the same problem, and logging out also seems to be the only solution. I did a re-install of FCP Studio and I’m still getting the stuttering in the viewer trying to playback ProRes files. Did you ever have any luck figuring out a solution?
-
This is what I have done, and so far the problem has not repeated itself:
- Created new user account.
Painstakingly re-created all my email & other other user settings.
Deleted old user account.
Cloned my hard drive (call it HD#1) to another empty internal volume (HD#2).
Erased HD#1, formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Fresh install of Mountain Lion on HD#1.
Transfered apps & user settings from HD#2.Honestly, I keep waiting for the poor playback to happen again, because I know the last item on that list is not recommended (fresh install of FCP is recommended). But so far this has worked for me. My best guess is that my user account had somehow become corrupted, and that was causing the problem. But I just don’t know.
I wish I could be of more help, or tell you with some degree of certainty that the problem is solved. I will certainly update this post if the problem resurfaces.
Best of luck,
Ben___________________________________________
MacPro4,1 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16GB RAM
OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 - Created new user account.
-
Ben, I noticed that I have the same graphics card as you do and that IT could be the problem:
Has your workaround been successful? I did a full system wipe and am STILL having problems in Mountain Lion so my plan is to go back to Snow Leopard until I can get a new graphics card.
-
Emma, I’m becoming more and more convinced that it’s a graphics card issue as well, especially after reading the link you provided. My workaround has not been totally successful: FCP doesn’t drop frames like it did before, but I get a strange black line through the frame here and there when viewing. An annoyance for sure, but it doesn’t keep me from working or from exporting clean video.
The other benefits of Mountain Lion have kept me from returning to Snow Leopard, and I’m hesitant to spend the money on a new graphics card when there’s a possibility of a new Mac Pro being released this year – I wish there was something definite to look forward to, but that’s what we get with Apple.
Thank you for the info, and please do post back here if you update your graphics card. I’d be very interested in the results.
___________________________________________
MacPro4,1 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16GB RAM
OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 -
Solved. The graphics card was indeed the culprit. I couldn’t stand dealing with it anymore, so I finally installed the Quadro FX 4800. Back in business. I’m guessing there are less expensive alternatives than the 4800, but the lesson for me is that the GT 120 is a pretty weak card.
___________________________________________
MacPro4,1 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16GB RAM
OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up