[Mark Raudonis]

Michael,

There are plenty other reasons to upgrade besides just Media Manager. Has your specific issue been fixed?
If I were you, I’d spend the $299 and do your own testing. Regardless of what you may read here, what matters is how it works for you, with your specific workflow. Find out for yourself.

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

[Phillip Park] “Thank you again in advance for any helpful ideas or suggestions.”

I think you’ve already received several helpful suggestions. They all boil down to: Use the right tool for the job. FCP in the configuration you’re hoping for (read: cheap) is NOT gonna get the job done for you.
Period. There are plenty of options available for this kind of thing that use FCP as the core, but not in the config you’ve mentioned.

Get ready to cough up some cash to make this work.

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

Jurriaan,

It’s my understanding that most of the XDCAM softwware does NOT work with Snow Leopard yet.

mark

[Mark Raudonis]

I agree with BF.

We’re currently using the XDCAM HD codec for just about ALL of our work. (1 hr reality TV shows) While most of the material is shot XDCAM HD 50 , there’s a fair amount of material coming in from EX 3’s as well. Even with this mix of codecs, our workflow is the same. We work in an XDCAM timeline, but set rendering to PRORES.

I’m aware that plenty of people have had issues with XDCAM timelines, but we have been able to develop worklfows, practices, and procedures to minimize the pain. For example, we do a “proactive restart” at lunch time. We “Bake in” complex effects, speed changes etc.

It sounds like your systems are new enough and up to spec to handle this format.

Good luck.

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

Jesus,

I can confirm that I’ve seen this exact same behavior on many of our systems. The strange thing is it doesn’t happen on all systems, or all projects. You should certainly try all of the suggestions offered, but I’m not optimistic that you’ll see improvements.

The fact that it does resolve itself in less than a minute points to some kind of cacheing process.

Good luck.

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

eBay???

[Mark Raudonis]

Daryl,

First of all, multiclips with dual system audio DOES work. We’re currently doing Project Runway this way, approx 12 cameras and BWF audio from up to 24 individual mics, all sunk to TOD code.

I don’t think I can give you a detailed tutorial on how to do it here in a post. My best suggestion is find someone who knows this workflow and can walk you through it. There’s plenty of little steps that can trip you up along the way.

By the way, there’s a cool program available from singular software called “Pluraleyes” that will sync everything based on waveforms, NOT timecode. Here’s a link: https://www.singularsoftware.com/pluraleyes/

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

Brad,

Apple no longer makes this raid. I wouldn’t put any money into it trying to upgrade, since there are plenty of newer models that have connectivity speeds and through put speeds that the old Apple X-Raid will NEVER touch.

Check out “Activestorage”. THey have a forum here on the cow. or go to:

https://www.getactivestorage.com

Raid storage is one area that has been changing very rapidly. Anything more than a couple of years old will really be at a disadvantage compared to newer models available now. Bite the bullet on this one, and go for new.

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

[Michael Williams] “every knowledgeable person has said they should scrap it and get something new.”

I’d question that opinion. You can easily upgrade your components to have a current system.

Full disclosure: It’s no secret that I’m a HUGE x-SAN fan. We’ve been using them for about five years now. While there are many other economical options out there, few of them can scale the way X-SAN can. If you anticipate much growth in the future, then many of the choices discussed above would seriously limit your ability to add clients. X-SAN’s expansion capability is so high that chances are you’ll run out of real estate before you run out of space on the SAN.

If you’ve already got X-SAN in place, I’d take a careful look at which of the components you have are still viable. You should not underestimate the benefits of a file based system as opposed to a volume based system. The larger your work group, the more important this distinction becomes. I could go on and on, but I’m curious, what’s driving the decision to toss what you’ve got?

By the way, that software version is WAAAAY old now. The current version is 2.2.

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

You guys need to starting thinking OUTSIDE the box. Sure, editing in the car is fine… but what about distributed rendering? Just think, you could have the entire New York City taxi fleet working on rendering your output. What the heck, they’re just sitting there anyway… might as well put them to use!

Mark