Sean Lander
Forum Replies Created
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Ok so I figured it out for myself.
Even after clean installs of Snow Leopard, FCS3 and Decklink drivers the problem remained.
Every time you captured to pro res you would get intermittent flashes of black.Then I thought I would check out the Expansion Slot Utility which lives in the Core Services folder in your System Library.
BINGO!
This MacPro uses Apple Fibre channel and it was hogging all the bandwidth. Decklink card was only set to “1X”. So changed it to configuration “2” where Fibre and Decklink both run at “4X” and the problem is solved.
I guess this is only an issue for the MacPro pre 2008
R E D N A I L – M E D I A
web: http://www.rednail.com.au
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Very accurate description about Avid. The other thing that Avid does differently to FCP is when it makes Motion FX it renders the clips at that speed. So effectively it is still running at your native frame rate, while Final Cut Pro just applies a speed change to the clip. No new media is created, until you render the timeline. This I feel was one of the reasons for some of the problems with MM. The other major difference was that with Avid clips, subclips, freeze frames and sequences were much more logically linked together. You could for example match frame to a freeze frame in your sequence, then match frame from the freeze frame to your subclip from there match frame to your master clip.
Final Cut Pro 6 made Freeze frames and sub clips as MASTER CLIPS! This was really stupid IMHO.
The good news is FCP 7 has fixed all of these issues and it now behaves a lot more like Avid.Personally now that I’m used to it I much prefer FCPs method of media management. I hate the fact that Avid has to convert everything to it own format especially if you need to share your assets with other workflows such as audio compositing and graphics.
My two cents.
To your original question, so far I’ve found FCS3 to be very stable. The media manager workflow is definitely different to the old version. Now I find that it even separates unused audio and video files from each other. (Not so sure about this yet)
Just about to embark on a large project that will have lots of media management so will try out as many options as are available.
R E D N A I L – M E D I A
web: http://www.rednail.com.au
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Best thing about FCP is that you can re-map so much more than Avid. I bit the bullet and now try to copy fcp with Avid instead as I edit much less on Media Composer nowadays. So it’s SHIFT up and down arrow for zooming now and I’ve mapped fastforward rewind to up and down on Avid.
As for timeline zooming I use a Logitech Revolution. Side wheel zooms in and out. Top wheel scrolls side to side, up and down. Side buttons lock/unlock all video and audio tracks, centre button does Save All.
I love this mouse to death and take it with me on all jobs.
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Mate! What can I say?
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
You just saved me hours and hours of trouble shooting. I was fearing my weekend was about to consist of a clean install of OS 10.6 followed by FCS3. But now it’s absolutely perfect.
Cheers. I owe you a beer.
R E D N A I L – M E D I A
web: http://www.rednail.com.au
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Funny I came here in the off chance I would see something like this as I’m having similar issues.
Last year finished a TV series and all was good. Now they want to do international versions so it needs a remix.I have since upgraded to FCS3, but didn’t think it would affect this job.
I exported the Masters as DV reference files for the audio mixer, who did his work.
Sent back the new WAV files and I placed them on new tracks.Just like you they start off ok but very quickly begin to drift out of sync to the point where I reckon
it must be close to two seconds by the time I reach the end of the show. (24 minutes)What’s even weirder is that the waveforms are drifting out a bit but nothing like what I’m hearing.
Maybe 4 frames difference.Bizarre.
R E D N A I L – M E D I A
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Yeah thanks for the advice I did actually add the whole media drive and add it to the exclusion list.
I’ll rebuild permissions and see if that helps. Failing that I’ll just ditch all the media and start again. It’s funny how one project works perfectly and the other won’t even play the clips in the viewer properly.R E D N A I L – M E D I A
web: http://www.rednail.com.au
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Well I took the plunge as I have a month until my next job comes to my home edit suite. (Currently cutting on Avid……Ew!)
Anyway. All seemed to have gone well but there are issues. I had two jobs left on my system.
Both were shot with the Canon 5D. (Man I love this camera!) Both jobs took the original files and converted them to ProRes422 though on the second job they were converted to ProRes422 HQ.The job that was normal ProRes422 plays fine the HQ job drops frames all over the place.
Tried reinstalling FCS 3 after SL but no difference. The media files are just on an external drive inside the MacPro so it’s not stellar fast but I had no problems with the footage before the upgrade.Not sure if it’s the QuickTIme FCS3 or Snow Leopard. Will try the whole process from scratch and see if the problem remains.
Apart from that I can not really see much difference in speed with Snow Leopard though I haven’t done any big renders yet.
R E D N A I L – M E D I A
web: http://www.rednail.com.au
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You are right. FCP will add timecode. This is why I suggest creating a REEL no. It seems to be the key. I just imported an animation file. Selected only 1 second of it. Made a subclip. Selected Copy and delete unused media. NO CHANGE. Added a reel no to the clip. Selected the same sub clip in the bin, went to Media Manger with the same setting and there is a dramatic difference in the length of the clip.
Try that.
R E D N A I L – M E D I A
web: http://www.rednail.com.au
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Ahhhh Yes TIMECODE and the lack of a REEL number is your problem. Nothing for Final Cut Pro to use as a reference for calculating the clips. Can you try and add a REEL no. to the clip and see if that makes any difference?
R E D N A I L – M E D I A
web: http://www.rednail.com.au
email: rednail@me.com -
No need to delete anything. Try this: Edit the subclips into a sequence and then media mange that sequence using delete unused media. Turn off affiliates and all references. Since version 6 I’ve never had any issues with Media Manager. But I do hate the way Final Cut Pro handles Sub Clips.
R E D N A I L – M E D I A
web: http://www.rednail.com.au
email: rednail@me.com