[Joseph Hung]

How is the RAID connected to the Mac Pro? Have you done any speed tests such as AJA and Blackmagic apps? Which ProRes? How long is the timeline? More info please.

http://www.tulpapictures.com
Twitter: @tulpapictures
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tulpapictures

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Canon 5DMKII, 7D, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A

[Joseph Hung]

Ah yes I see I forgot about that feature.
Sounds like you are experiencing other systematic issues that may not be completely related to BD authoring. Have you tried dumping your prefs, dumping your render files and rerendering, new project, reintalling FCS, etc.? the usual first steps? Are you using very large stills? Is it only one specific project or all of your projects since 2 months ago? Some more info would be helpful.

http://www.tulpapictures.com
Twitter: @tulpapictures
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tulpapictures

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Canon 5DMKII, 7D, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A

[Joseph Hung]

I don’t understand, how are you burning BD disks through FCP? Do you mean transcoding your m2v program streams in compressor to drop into an authoring app like Encore or Toast?

I tend to avoid the FCP to Compressor route it’s buggy and unreliable. I output full res current setting quicktime file with compression markers from FCP. Then I drop that into Compressor and do the transcode.

http://www.tulpapictures.com
Twitter: @tulpapictures
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tulpapictures

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Canon 5DMKII, 7D, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A

[Joseph Hung]

Indeed. Too many times have I wished I could turn back time…

[Joseph Hung]

Everyone’s got their way of working. You can also check out FCPX’s feature Sync N Link X. Batch syncing sounds great.

https://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/in-action/electric/

http://www.tulpapictures.com
Twitter: @tulpapictures
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tulpapictures

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Canon 5DMKII, 7D, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A

[Joseph Hung]

I’m sorry I misread your OP, you were thinking 422 not HQ. It’s not only space that matters for the different levels of ProRes, it’s also bandwidth. HQ needs about 200 Mb/s and 422 needs about 130 Mb/s (check the white paper).

Also, 5DMKII footage doesn’t require HQ, it’s a bit overkill for a an acquisition codec that doesn’t even have the headroom that HQ can handle, so stick with 422.

When you use Media Manager, how much space does it say it will take up? If space is an issue, You could media manage, then move all related media off of your capture scratch to a secure HDD for safe keeping in case something goes wrong. HDDs are cheap. Since you are already going to turn the clips in the new media managed sequence as “offline” keeping them on the capture scratch isn’t essential, so you could literally dump them off to another drive. Repopulate the capture scratch with the new ProRes 422 clips and reconnect. this should give you enough space right?

http://www.tulpapictures.com
Twitter: @tulpapictures
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tulpapictures

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Canon 5DMKII, 7D, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A

[Joseph Hung]

I’m not on AJA, I’m using Blackmagic, but I get that problem sometimes too. Sometimes it just takes a Refresh A/V, turning each on and off, restarting FCP, restarting the system, closing and reopening the canvas window, even turning the monitor on and off or unplugging and replugging the connection. Sometimes it’s just one of these, or a combo, but I’ve been able to get it back, usually after a reboot.

http://www.tulpapictures.com
Twitter: @tulpapictures
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tulpapictures

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Canon 5DMKII, 7D, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A

[Joseph Hung]

First ProRes is compressed media, just much better at it. It’s meant to give you higher bitrates than H.264, thus better quality, but at relatively small file sizes (as oppose to uncompressed 8/10bit for instance).
H.264 is not an editing codec and FCP7 doesn’t like using them, so I wouldn’t import those into your project, consider them as your “raw” files that you go back to if something goes wrong with your ProRes transcodes. Thus these should be kept in a safe place separate from your capture scratch.
In terms of onlining your project, there are several ways to do it. The best way I think, is to media manage the locked edit, so you have a new project with just locked sequence and the associated clips. Add handles top and tail to the clips through Media Manager. Make the clips “offline.” Assuming you used a simple logging/naming method, you have to now gather the original H.264 “raw” files and transcode them to the final codec, which I think you said is ProRes 422 HQ. I would use Compressor because you can retain timecode and retain or change logging info. As long as the timecode and naming scheme is the same, reconnecting the new clips in your new project should be relatively easy.

http://www.tulpapictures.com
Twitter: @tulpapictures
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tulpapictures

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Canon 5DMKII, 7D, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A

[Joseph Hung]

ProRes is a higher quality codec (requiring higher bitrates, so bigger sizes) than the very compressed native H.264 straight out of the camera, so everyone is correct, your file sizes are within reason.
What I do for the short term is media manage the locked edits so that I’m only keeping the parts of ProRes clips I actually used in the edits (including all other media used), you can add handles if you like, or choose to keep the entire clip instead of deleting parts not used, whatever makes you comfortable, and save that as it’s own new project, for each video. Move this to the external for safe keeping, INCLUDING, and you should always do this for acquisition workflows anyways, the entire native H.264 footage, because this is your “rawest” footage. This way, in the short term if the client comes back, you have the edits ready to go and your project’s linked media already exists and you haven’t unlinked anything. And if you need to add anything, you can pick and choose, or transcode all, of the H.264 clips as you need to. This will save you time and effort later on. When a good amount of time passes and it’s obvious the client isn’t coming back, then you can keep the project and H.264 files and delete all of the ProRes clips, thereby unlinking them in the project. However the problem with this is if you gave the ProRes special logging info in the transcoding process then you will have to replicate that later in order to relink efficiently. I only do this if I REALLY need to save space. Media managing will save you some space already, H.264 doesn’t take up that much space, and in most cases I can hold on to the media managed ProRes files because like Juan says, HDD is cheap these days. In Media Manager, it will show you the space differences between keeping all the media as oppose to managed media. And you can customize to your needs.

http://www.tulpapictures.com
Twitter: @tulpapictures
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tulpapictures

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Canon 5DMKII, 7D, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A

[Joseph Hung]

It’s amazing that FCP has been around for quite sometime, and I’ve been a user for the same amount of time, and yet I still learn something new everyday. Thanks for that link.

It’s funny, I always set my sequence settings to my workflow, but when you have to, inevitably, multiple times throughout the years, trash your prefs because of some system error or bug, it sets it back to DV NTSC. The last time I did this, I forgot to check that again, and have been working this way for a short while now. Bummer.

http://www.tulpapictures.com
Twitter: @tulpapictures
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tulpapictures

Mac 2.66 GHz Quad Intel Xeon
OSX 10.6.8
FCS2
CS5
8GB RAM
ProAvio 8TB RAID 5 Dual Mini-SAS
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
ATI Radeon X1900
RocketRAID 4322 via dual MiniSAS
Panasonic Lumix GH2, Canon 5DMKII, 7D, Panasonic HVX200A, Panasonic DVX100A