Mitch Ives
Forum Replies Created
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Walter,
I’m not having that exact same problem, but I am having a related issue. This is a 1 month old 8-core, so it had Leopard on it when it came. It has been upgraded to 10.5.2 and has QT 7.4.1.
The problem I have is that if I try to render out something longer, say a 28 minute sequence, it makes it around 1/2-3/4 of the way, then FCP unexpectedly quits. If I render it a third at a time, there is no problem. I can always tell when it is going to happen as the progress bar stops moving… then several minutes later, boom… FCP is gone.
This was not happening initially, so it is something recent… either QT 7.4.1 or one of the more recent patches to Pro Apps, security etc. I’ve zapped the pram, rebuilt permissions, etc.– all to no avail.
This machine has 10GBs of ram (and a Kona 3), so naturally it’s frustrating that the G5 running Tiger and 5 gb’s of ram (Kona LH) doesn’t have this issue…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com -
Armed with a tip from AJA tech that the K3 syncs differently and uses much tighter tolerances, I obtained an AJA GEN10 HD/SD Sync Generator. As soon as a replaced our sync generator with this one, the 1500 DVcam deck stopped having the problem. Unfortunately, the 2000 HDcam deck isn’t here at the moment, so I can’t test it.
It seems that even though our sync generator has worked for years, and still works with the Kona LH just fine, that the Kona 3 is perhaps a bit fussier as to sync. The GEN10 is nice as you can configure some of the outputs to standard 2 level sync for SD, and some of the other outputs to tri-level sync for HD. We’re hoping that this solves the problem with the 2000 HDcam deck on the K3 as well. If it does, then it seems that anyone buying a Kona 3, should probably get a GEN10 as well…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Take your deck out of EE and you should get a black signal out of the deck and close the loop. “
Both the decks have EE off. The 2000 HDcam you can check from the front panel display. In the 1500 DVCam the menus all have EE disabled.
[Jeremy Garchow] “Also, if you have the screen space, keep the Kona control panel visible when you open the log and cap window. What happens when you do? Does the format change?”
Have done that actually. The only change is that the Kona switches from “free-run” genlock to “SDI in”, which is normal on the K3 and the LH…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com -
Launching FCP causes no problem… there is some garbage (for lack of a better term) on the SDI monitor connected to SDI out 2. Where it becomes noticeable is when you open the Log & Capture window. That’s when the images on the monitors become unstable (even in pause mode). The SDI HD monitor has a vertical sort of jump to the image (with a violent sort of double imaging). The Plasma connected to the YUV out of the Kbox has more of a horizontal instability (some intermittent venetian blind effect of colored bands as well). The odd thing is that in the case of DVcam it captures fine, even with the monitors all a twitter. I didn’t get a chance to try the HDcam capture today to see if it results in a successful capture in spite of what the monitors show.
When attempting to use ETT, the DVcam works, the HDcam 2000 won’t function, as we discovered that it acts as though there is a frequency mismatch. These decks tend to sit down and quit when it perceives a mismatch.
The odd thing is that the Kona Control panel displays the color bars very stable with FCP closed. The problem seems to be when the Log & Capture window opens… then FCP switches the Kona card to Input mode. AJA tech thinks that both the deck and the K3 are both trying to lock on the sync, causing the disturbance. Closing the L&C window switches the K3 back to output mode and it stops.
If you connect only the deck SDI output cable to capture… all is fine. Connecting only the input SDI cable when recording back to tape, and all is fine.
All of these decks work fine on the Kona LH, but it has analog capabilty. I’m told the IoHD also works with these decks, but it also has analog capability. The K3 is all digital (save the YUV out for monitoring). This seems to be at the heart of the matter. AJA tech confirms that the K3 develops sync differently… they use the term “more precisely”.
Tomorrow we are going to try a more sophisticated Blackburst/sync option.
In the meantime, if anyone is using an HDcam deck with a K3, can they confirm that they are able to have both SDI cables connected to the deck and the Kbox? If they are able to capture and lay back to tape with the cables permanently connected, that would be helpful to know. If they can do this, I would like to know if they are using a sync generator, what kind, and how they have it cabled.
Thanks for any help that anyone can provide…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com -
Put the two 4gb modules in slots 1&2 on the upper card, and put the two original 1gb modules in slots 1&2 on the lower card…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.comApple Certified Trainer: Final Cut Pro
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I also have a new machine. I find that after installing 10.5.2, that both the 8-core and the MB Pro take a lot longer to boot up… it’s way slower than 10.5.1 was… and that was before I put in the 3rd party ram, so it isn’t the ram…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.comApple Certified Trainer: Final Cut Pro
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Shane,
I have the same machine. The Apple RAID card is in slot 4, and the Kona 3 is in slot 3. We’re saving slot 2 for the HD Pro, as it can benefit from the faster bus speed. I spoke at length with AJA and they confirmed that the Kona card only needs the 4X slot…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.comApple Certified Trainer: Final Cut Pro
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[walter biscardi] “No perceived bias. Silicon Color highly recommended the ATI cards when they were a separate company and the ATI cards are still recommended over nVidia for use today. ATI has always worked more closely with the Silicon Color team and even though on paper you say “well the nVidia is just better” it’s not better at the tasks required in apps like Color. “
Actually, I don’t recall saying nVidia was better. I said it has a faster processor and more ram, which is factual. I also said that I have one in the new machine because Apple didn’t offer us a 512mb version of the ATI card. As far as the ATI being faster, we (and others) are seeing reports to the contrary. The new graphics update for leopard seems to be doubling the speed of the 8800. It may improve even more over time. Who knows.
Now that Silicon Color no longer has Motion, but Apple does, is there any proof that ATI is still a better choice? I’m just curious, and I certainly don’t have a problem with people buying whatever they want… as my previous post stated.
In the meantime, I’m betting the best results in Color still come from the piano player, not the piano…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.comApple Certified Trainer: Final Cut Pro
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[Shane Ross] “Wow…I hadn’t seen that. So, if you want a gaming machine, get the 8800GT. If you want MOtion to work better…a LOT better, get the stock ATI 2600.
Settles that. “
No it doesn’t. First, if you read the entire post and the other related posts, you’ll see that they are still recommending the 8800 over the stock 2600.
[Shane Ross] “Well, then there are people in the Motion forum desputing these findings.”
Not surprising.
[walter biscardi] “ATI cards are recommended for Color. They work better than the nVidia cards. “
Walter, I know you have a perceived bias against the nVidia cards, but where did you get this info?
BTW, this may all be moot. as there are a lot of posts reporting display artifacts and problems with the stock 2600. Check the Apple boards. Apple seems to be aware of this. The solution is for people to buy the 8800 and install it instead.
FWIW, I have an 8800 in my 8 core. I’ve used ATI cards for many years and have been happy, but I can remember when they were crap in the past. It goes back and forth. In the end, you choose what you want. If you’re unhappy, it’s cheap to replace these days. In the end, many of us will go with the faster processor and 512 ram… your mileage may vary.
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.comApple Certified Trainer: Final Cut Pro