ProRes CPU Speed Error

[Wickham Strub]

Hey Jason,

I’ve been using that codec almost exclusively on my system leading up to the 12.6 release, and that was off the internal drive. So…we know it’s not some fundamental problem with that codec.

However, I don’t have your exact set-up either.

Questions:
– What slot is the AJA card in?
– What slot is the G-Tech card in?
– Does it play back off the internal drive?

Shots in the dark ideas:
– What if you pull the G-Tech card out and play from an internal drive?
– Try putting the G-Tech card in Slot 2
– Try pulling ram down to 2GBs

I’ll try a few things on one of the 8-Core Macs when I get in tomorrow.

~Wick

[Jason Tower]

Thanks for the reply Wick!

To answer some of your questions, the AJA card is in slot #3 and the G-Tech card is in slot #4, there is no card in slot #2. When I copied the media file to the internal drive, I got the same result. Along with the ProRes clip playing fine in QuickTime player, it also plays fine through AJA TV on my monitors. It’s only when I try to play the ProRes clip in Media 100 that I have the CPU error problem.

I only started this HD test after upgrading to Media 100 12.6 using the AJA driver. I never got to try it out on 12.5 with the Media 100 provided internal AJA drivers to see if I got the same result. Would a downgrade to 12.5 with the internal drivers be worth a shot? I don’t cut anything with Final Cut, so I don’t need the AJA drivers for that.

I’d rather wait on moving or removing the G-Tech card or removing RAM until you’ve gotten to check it out on your systems if you don’t mind 😉

Thanks so much for spending the time to help me on this, look forward to hearing what kind of results you get!

[Chris Clephane]

– Mac Pro dual dual 2.66 (4 proc)
– 9GB Ram
– ATTO SCSI UL5D
— 10 drive RAID-0 SCSI array (external)
— 3 drive RAID0 SATA (internal)
— Atto Express Stripe
– OSX 10.5.3
– AJA Kona 3
– NVIDIA GeForce7300 GT
——
We have also used Pro-res (HQ) as our production codec for quite some time.

No issues on this system however.
We uninstalled 12.5 and installed 12.6 according to the directions.
FCP Studio (FCP 6.0.3) is installed. Everything works (GREAT!)

Sorry to say…no issues.

P.S. Wick/M100 you can probably remove the “dual boot” instructions from the install guide at this point.

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.

[Jason Tower]

I did actually originally have Media 100 12.5.1 installed on the system, but never got to do any media tests with it, since 12.6 came out the day after I got the new system and I installed it right away. I did follow all of the instructions for uninstalling 12.5 as stated in the 12.6 installation instructions.

The amazing Wick from Media 100 was in touch with me this past friday (June 6) and had me try some things on the system like removing the extra RAM and going back to the base 2GB, removing my G-Tech RAID card, and moving the ProRes clip to the internal drive and then sending log files to him for the Media 100 engineers to check out. After doing those things, however, I still had the problem with playing back the ProRes clips. I should be hearing back from him on Monday to see what they suggest. I really do have to give props to Wick and the guys over at Media 100 for their outstanding customer service and attempts to help out so quickly!!!

Steve, since you have pretty much the same system as me, would you mind taking one of the DVCProHD clips you have and rendering it out as a short 50% slo-mo? Although I have no problem playing back the DVCProHD clips, when I render them out as slo-mo, they appear as all black clips. Just curious if you’ll have the same problem. Could be something weird with these early 2008 Mac Pro’s, since Chris doesn’t seem to be having the problem on his 4-core system.

[Jason Tower]

Haha, no rush on the slo-mo clip, just if you get the chance to do it, I’m curious if you have the same issue as me! I can relate to you on having the system torn apart, I still have to pop the RAID card and RAM back into my system, as I have to start an edit tomorrow. Thank goodness it’s only an SD edit and the client wont be there!

I’ll keep you posted tomorrow as to what I hear from Wick and the engineers at Media 100 regarding the data I sent them on Friday. I did find one interesting support document from Apple regarding AJA cards and optimal setups for them with the early 2008 MacPro’s. Sounds like some interesting info…

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1942?viewlocale=en_US?sr=xlr8yourmac

[Jason Tower]

Well, I fixed my issue with the Media 100 not wanting to play ProRes clips! Apparently, Apple really changed things around with the PCI configurations on the early 2008 MacPro’s. Original instructions (at least the ones I got) for previous MacPro’s stated that the AJA card should be placed in slot 3 and the RAID card should be placed in slot 4. After doing a little reasearch and coming across the Apple support article, along with a posting in the AJA Kona Cow forum, it was suggested that in early 2008 MacPro’s, the AJA card should be placed in the x16 slot #2 and the RAID card should be placed in x4 slot #3 or #4.

So this morning, I popped the AJA LHe card into slot #2, placed the G-Tech RAID card into slot #4 and replaced all of my RAM back into the system. Sure enough, Media 100 played the 1080i ProRes HQ clips without a hitch! Along with that, I am now able to render 1080i DVCPro HD clips in slo-mo without ending up with black video clips!

Try this out Steve, hopefully it will fix your system problems too!

Jason W. Tower
Fiddler Films

https://www.fiddlerfilms.com

[Wickham Strub]

ahhh…you guys beat me to it.

I’ve been tearing down and building up one of our testing systems today and was just coming to the same conclusion when an email alert about your posts came in…

This is great news guys!

Do me (and everyone else) a favor and repost your configs.
Then I’ll get busy re-writing that install guide!

Hardware and Peripherals
– Mac Computer:
– AJA card:
– Host Adapter (SCSI, Fibre, eSata, etc.) card:

Software and Driver(s)
– Mac OS version:
– QuickTime version:
– AJA Driver version:
– Media 100 version:
– Host Adapter Driver version:

Slot assignments (top to bottom)
– Slot 4:
– Slot 3:
– Slot 2:
– Slot 1:

[Jason Tower]

Sorry for the delay in posting this. I first wanted to publicly thank Wick and Steve for all their help in this! It’s so nice to have a site like the Cow for all this collaborative help and a company like Media 100 with their outstanding customer service.

Now, after I’ve wiped the brown off my nose, here’s my configuration!

Hardware and Peripherals
– Mac Computer: MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz Xeon 5400
– AJA card: Kona LHe
– Host Adapter (SCSI, Fibre, eSata, etc.) card: None – G-Tech eSata RAID card

Software and Driver(s)
– Mac OS version: 10.5.2
– QuickTime version: 7.4.5
– AJA Driver version: 5.1 NDD
– Media 100 version: 12.6
– Host Adapter Driver version: G-Speed eS 1.6.4

Slot assignments (top to bottom)
– Slot 4: G-Tech eSATA RAID
– Slot 3:
– Slot 2: AJA Kona LHe
– Slot 1: ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB

Jason W. Tower
Fiddler Films

https://www.fiddlerfilms.com