Random crashing with XDCAM HD

[Christopher Travis]

Hello all,

Just thought I’d chip in to add to see if anyone had any updates on this situation with XDCAM and FCP6.4 crashing all the time.

We have been having the same problem where I work. We are running 2 MacPro 3Ghz 8-Core, with 8Gb Ram and have been tearing our hair out over these constant crashes.
We have been using DW on all of our internal and external HDs as well as our 8TB RAID and things seem to be a bit better but not great. I seem to be able to use the suites without too much bother but when other editors come in they get crashes within five minutes and carry on getting them all day. I think I’ve just learned to be gentle with it.

Now, when I work at home on my iMac, running Tiger, I don’t get any problems at all, nor do any of the other editors running Tiger. So I wondered if, as a temporary measure, it would be worth running the MacPros from a boot disc with Tiger on it (since you can’t install Tiger on a MacPro). Has anyone tried this? If so what were the results?

Anyway, just wanted to keep this thread alive in case someone has recently found a fool-proof fix for this problem and felt like sharing.

Cheers,
Chris

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Chris,
“By default” I recommend DW or TechTools when things like that happens. let my just point that after running DW you should open again the Graphic to make sure that the directories have “0” errors.
If there are some errors remaining I repair permissions and check files (within DW) and rebuild the directories again. Some times I have to run it tree or even four times.
Cheers,
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Matt Slocum]

A few weeks ago I called Sony about the issue. The guy I talked to was very interested and wanted to help. He even called back twice to get more details of the problem. He said he would talk to his team about it. He indicated that they had not heard anything about the problem.

It seems like this forum is the only place talking about this. Other people on other forums are having the problem but haven’t figured out that its XDCAM. I need to call them back and follow up. I wonder if a couple other calls might confirm to them that I wasn’t an isolated incident.

I still say its a Sony codec problem. There is no way that a fragmented drive should cause FCP to crash. I don’t know how the codec works, but it seems like it has some sort of a memory (stack) problem when it looks up a large number of lookups at one time. A random guess wonders if the codec uses multi-threads across multi-processors, and there is a memory mixup on the intel chip. I wonder if there’s a way to limit everything to one processor core to test this?

~Matt

[Andy Mees]

Matt

If there is a specific XDCAM related issue at play here then it is certainly also hardware/software conflict specific, as we work with XDCAM HD on dozens of MBP’s every day of the week, 52 weeks a year without any of these problems.

I know thats not the corroboration you were looking for, but its probably worth knowing.

Cheers
Andy

[Matt Slocum]

Andy,
That’s interesting. I’m glad you’re not having problems. Maybe you could help us figure out a better workflow. Maybe I’m using the transfer software incorrectly?

What I know so far (or at least seems true):
1. Only a problem for Leopard (I’m running Mac OS 10.5.5)
2. Only a problem for Intel Macs (I have a 2×3.2 GHz Quad-Core intel Xeon)
3. It seems to be only XDCAM HD

People have reported that turning off thumbnails helps. That makes me think it has to do with the codec getting data confused while looking up a lot of files. The fragmentation thing confuses me a lot because file lookups are done only on the OS level. It makes me think that a memory location gets corrupted by another piece of code if it doesn’t get the data fast enough, that is why I was thinking multi-thread isues. (I only know enough to ask questions)

I am using a dual fiber channel RAID.

Anyone can feel free to give corrections or additions.

I have not worked on an XDCAM HD project in a couple weeks, so I have not been able to test some people’s recommendations. I have been using mainly HDV and ProRes with no problems. I’m still very interested because I have a project on the near horizon that will be XDCAM HD again. I’m not ruling out that it could be a configuration problem on my end.

Sorry for the long post.

PS. I have a AJA Kona LHe

~Matt

[Jason Gillet]

Hi All,

I took some time to read through this thread and I’m sure we’re having similar problems but I have something new to add.

First this is the system they are running:

The system installed is a new 8 core 3.2 Ghz Mac Pro running 8 gig’s of Ram Leopard OS, FCP Studio (current release) AJA Kona Lhe with Driver 5.1( it was 6.1 now it’s back 5.1) The client is editing XDCAM EX HD footage at 1080p. Current sequence is the same as footage. To monitor the footage they do not have 1080p monitor so they are running 1080i so they can see the image. Storage is the 8TB EVO Maxx drive (Raid 5)

They are having the same type crashing except what I haven’t heard in the thread yet is that usually they will get a green screen in the canvas prior to the crash. They had told me when they turn the viewer off it was working fine when working in 1080p mode but it seems that that is not that case now.

I did a house call checked the system out and found that it was not crashing in 1080p but was in 1080i.

The client has 1 other system with the same set up except the CPU is an older machines. We tried to make the machine crash in 1080p and we couldn’t. We tried to make it crash in 1080i and it did but after banging on the machine for about 15 – 20 minutes.

I was also informed that another client of mine is experiencing similar issues. I built about 3-4 systems for them I’m not sure if it’s just one machine or all of them.

I will see if I can get a copy of Disk warrior for them to try. Any other suggestions?

Jason Gillet
Editor Engineer
Gillet Productions

[Roger Lansing]

I have been dealing with this same issue for a week now and am at my wits end. Good to hear that I am not the only one. I have two nearly identical, brand new edit suites and both are having the random crash problem as noted by all of you.

Here is what I have:
Edit One:
2×2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
10GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-Dimm
OSX 10.5.5
FCStudio latest release
QT 7.5.5

Edit Two:
2×2.8 Ghz Quad Core Intel Xeon
6GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-Dimm
OSX 10.5.5
FCStudio latest release
QT 7.5.5

both suites sharing a 3.64 TB Apple XServe Raid controlled by a Dual 2.3 Ghz Power PC G5 and Xsan Admin 2.1.1

Neither machine will remain stable in any project using the XDCam footage. Sequences have been set to match the footage exactly, yet this hasn’t helped. I have tried creating new projects and starting from scratch by reimporting using the XDCam import within FC and the computer locks up while setting inpoints for subclips, it locks up while opening new clips, it locks up while scrubbing through clips. I have also tried importing the footage using only the Sony XDCam software without using FC and the same issues happen. When editing within FC, crashes happen while scrubbing, while rendering, when dragging clips to the timeline, at random times and on random clips.

I have completed three projects on both of these brand new edit suites in the past two weeks that did not involve any XDCam footage. The suites ran beautifully while ingesting, editing, exporting, etc.

It puts my mind at ease (a bit) to know that I may not have gotten two identically bad Intel Macs, but I hope that we can get some answers to these problems soon. I have a rapidly approaching deadline on the current project that I cannot even keep open.

Roger C. Lansing

Multi-Media Production Coordinator
National Baseball Hall of Fame

Cooperstown, NY

[Christine Stewart]

I have been tracking this exact problem for some time now. Our systems are crippled, for all intents and purposes of the current project. Other media edits fine. Frustrating, to say the least.

3.2 quad core, 4 gb, internal raid, external 5tb Sonnet d500p raid, Sonnet e4p controller
6.0.4, 10.5.5, 7.5.5

2.4 gh macbook pro, 4bg, external 5tb Sonnet d500p raid, Sonnet express34. Driver issues with controller seem to have been resolved – newly engineered fix obtained from Sonnet. May have stabilized this box tonight.

Same media is editing without issue on two other macbook pros of comparable specs.

XDCam EX, 1080i24p35vbr. Thanks Jason, for noting your specifics and testing 1080 vs 1080i.

Crashing/ hangs/kernal panics during mundane tasks, invoking trim window, scrolling timeline, tabbing edit point. Frequently preceded by green frame in canvas, flashing green frames during playback. Exhaustive troubleshooting.

thanks all,
Christine

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Christine,
Here there is a more recent thread about the same issue:
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1011917
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com