[Damien Barnecutt]

I have just left a post at:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1012393

If this helps anyone I would be interested to know, with or with the same hardware.

Damien

[Damien Barnecutt]

hi Corey

I have just left a post at:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1012393

If this helps anyone I would be interested to know, with or with the same hardware.

many thanks

Damien

[Damien Barnecutt]

I have just left a post at:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1012393

But basically try a different / lower monitor screen resolution.

If this helps anyone I would be interested to know, with or with the same hardware.

Damien

[Damien Barnecutt]

Hi I won’t go into the full story right now, which brought me to this point.

But in the last two days I have discover something very interesting.

Both an older Decklink HD Extreme (NO HDMI) and a Multibridge Extreme have problems with the 2nd generation MacPros with certain desktop screen resolutions from my observations.

I have verified this on 3 MacPro 2.8.

Test 01

If a Samsung 24inch LCD Screen is set to the resolution of 1920 x 1200 via digital DVI or analog VGA.
FCP or the DeckControl programs will drop frames when capturing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But if the resolution of the display monitor is set to 1280 x 1024 via digital DVI, or if the resolution of the display monitor is set to 1600 x 1024 via analog VGA, I do not get the drop frame problems in FCP or DeckControl when capturing footage for 63min. it Works NO DROP FRAMES.

I used the Decklink and Multibridge installed separately on the 4 different tests to confirm that they both performed exactly the same way.

I previously tested the following examples before realising the problem.

Test 02

When I was testing Decklink HD Extreme on a MacPro 2.8 and a 2nd MacPro 2.8 both with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB connected to two CRTs, resolutions 1600 x 1200 on both of them. I did not get drop frame problems in FCP, it Works on both computers!!!!!!! Tested for 3 hours each!!!!!!!!!

Test 03

When I was testing Decklink HD Extreme on a MacPro 2.8 with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 and on a 2nd MacPro 2.8 with ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, connected to an Apple Cinema Display 20″ 1680 x 1050 + a second non apple display,( resolutions I can’t remember) FCP dropped frames on both computers.

As you can see some resolutions work and some don’t.

Also all of the tests were conducted using the same start up disk, the same x2 500GB apple raid0 capture disk and was fully tested to have adequate bandwidth for ProRes HD 720p 1280×720 59.94 at 27.5MB a second.

If anyone finds lowering or changing the resolution of your desktop display or using a different display works for you, could you please reply to this post to confirm this?
This would be very helpful to confirm it’s not just me having these problems.

Many thanks

Damien

Ps

In the previous post I mentioned glitches appearing in the Data Rate when testing 4 x 500GB Drives setup as a raid0.
It turns out that one of the drives was slower, making the glitches happen. So the program Diglloyd Disktester was completely correct and I have now eliminated this drive from the testing, so this has nothing to do with the problem above.

[Damien Barnecutt]

Hi Gary

VAR makes a lot of sense I’m going to find one.

Many thanks

Damien

[Damien Barnecutt]

Hi David

It maybe obvious to you, but what does the abbreviation VAR mean?

A professional video computer person of some sort I imagine.

Genius bar is booked and I will update what the problem is later.

Damien

[Damien Barnecutt]

I have done a drive speed test to compare the same hard drive in Mac pro 2.8 and Mac pro 2.6 and there pretty much the same, not the answer I was looking for.

Mac Pro 2.8

4x 500GB Seagate ST3500320AS drives In Bay 1 to 4 ——1.8TB Raid0 Striped Raid Set

Test disktester run-area-test –chunk-size 300MB –iterations 100 –delta-percent 33 –test-size 300MB raid0

Iteration 89: writing…309MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 90: writing…309MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 91: writing…315MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 92: writing…315MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 93: writing…312MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 94: writing…192MB/sec, reading…278MB/sec
Iteration 95: writing…312MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 96: writing…313MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 97: writing…313MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 98: writing…315MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 99: writing…315MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec

Mac Pro 2.6

4x 500GB Seagate ST3500320AS drives In Bay 1 to 4 ——1.8TB Raid0 Striped Raid Set

Test disktester run-area-test –chunk-size 300MB –iterations 100 –delta-percent 33 –test-size 300MB raid0

Iteration 58: writing…308MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 59: writing…312MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 60: writing…202MB/sec, reading…268MB/sec
Iteration 61: writing…309MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 62: writing…188MB/sec, reading…278MB/sec
Iteration 63: writing…309MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 64: writing…313MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 65: writing…313MB/sec, reading…187MB/sec
Iteration 66: writing…310MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 67: writing…312MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec
Iteration 68: writing…313MB/sec, reading…270MB/sec

I am assuming this is a natural behavior with this Test as the Hardware Raid also showed similar results on both computers.

But more importantly the 4x 500GB Raid 0 drives using the apple built-in sata and 10 x 250 GB Raid 0 drives using Areca Raid Card which could not capture uncompressed 720p or HR ProRes on the Mac pro 2.8!!!!! Worked with out problems on the Mac Pro 2.6!!!!!!

I will leave the Tec Thinking to the Genius Bar.

Hope this help’s someone.

Damien

[Damien Barnecutt]

I have been having similar problems, which has been driving me mad to track them down.

I can’t capture the footage in FCP or Blackmagic Deck Control with out getting dropped frames using 720p 60 Uncompressed or ProRes or Blackmagic JPEG Ect.

I also tried duplicate hardware for every thing accepted the Mac Pro 2.8 but still it would not capture, drop frames message would appear.

But now I tested the same Drive hardware + raid card and the boot drive on an older Mac pro 2.6 and no drop frames are happening IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like your verdict the Blackmagic disk speed test, passed??????????

I then did a more advanced custom drive speed tests on the Mac Pro 2.8 using Diglloyd Disktester 2.

https://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/software/disktester/

Test used was: disktester run-area-test –chunk-size 64MB –iterations 300 –delta-percent 10 –test-size 64MB raid0

Apple onboard Sata controller

4x 500GB Seagate ST3500320AS drive In Bay 1 to 4 ——1.8TB Raid0 Striped Raid Set

Iteration 219: writing…350MB/sec, reading…244MB/sec
Iteration 220: writing…350MB/sec, reading…233MB/sec
Iteration 221: writing…335MB/sec, reading…244MB/sec
Iteration 222: writing…335MB/sec, reading…244MB/sec
Iteration 223: writing…335MB/sec, reading…117MB/sec
Iteration 224: writing…90.1MB/sec, reading…273MB/sec
Iteration 225: writing…343MB/sec, reading…244MB/sec
Iteration 226: writing…351MB/sec, reading…244MB/sec

Areca Raid Card
4x 250GB Seagate ST3250624AS (Areca Raid Card) ——931.0GB Hardware Raid 0 Striped

Iteration 263: writing…341MB/sec, reading…246MB/sec
Iteration 264: writing…334MB/sec, reading…246MB/sec
Iteration 265: writing…144MB/sec, reading…267MB/sec
Iteration 266: writing…334MB/sec, reading…246MB/sec
Iteration 267: writing…334MB/sec, reading…246MB/sec
Iteration 268: writing…334MB/sec, reading…246MB/sec
Iteration 269: writing…334MB/sec, reading…132MB/sec
Iteration 270: writing…328MB/sec, reading…246MB/sec
Iteration 271: writing…328MB/sec, reading…246MB/sec
Iteration 272: writing…335MB/sec, reading…246MB/sec

On average you will see glitches appearing every 50 Iteration in the Data Rate.

As you can see this happens regardless if I use the onboard Sata controller or an Areca Raid Card.

I am about to do a drive speed test with the same hardware on a Mac pro 2.6.

So if the Mac Pro 2.6 keeps a constant Data Rate with in reason, the problem must lie with the MacPro 2.8

Genesis bar hear I come.

Damien