Sluggish eSata/Macbook Pro/XDCAM

[Kang Stathroy]

Thanks for the reply Jason, I have done those steps to no avail…I just don’t get it. However I’m using a brand new MacPro at work, not sure of the exact specs right now and I’ve still had problems with things like playing simple titles on black. Yesterday I threw a couple of stills in and put a quick dip to white on both of them, plus a simple move on each. The stills were 800x something, just placeholders, and I was dropping frames on that as well. So the consensus among those with more knowledge than I is that it’s codec related, there were quite a few people who thought using the ProRes codec would be better but because of the larger storage sizes required that was rejected. On the Macbook other than the titles not playing and the stills I’ve done some fairly complex things, like 5 box P in Ps and stuff like that and it’s been fine. Do you have any experience with this codec? (XDCAM EX)

[Jason Porthouse]

Hi Kang,

I’ve done lots of work with XDCAM EX, and whilst mine’s been on a MacPro 2.66, my colleague does sync pulls using his 12″ G4 Macbook Pro running XDCAM EX 35VBR off a firewire 400 drive. It’s fine, even with some FX.

So I really can’t understand what’s bugging your system. Double check the sequence settings, make sure everything is the same – you’re not getting a render bar on the timeline are you? For basic FX you shouldn’t be. You’re sure the render is set to the SATA rather than the Macbook HD? In fact, make sure everything is on the SATA (save for the project). I really can’t offer any more advice – other than I’d suspect a setting somwhere being out. Take heart from the fact it should work OK… it at least narrows down your options.

I’ll come back to you if I have a eureka moment.

Jason

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