[Tony Silanskas]

I guess the issue is the pulldown in Final Cut. Is it still considered “wrong” and is it unacceptable for broadcast? It’s mostly for cases where I don’t have access to an HD deck and need to make a self-contained export for broadcast. And it would be much more convenient in some cases to just edit the 23.98 footage in a 29.97 timeline since that’s the final frame rate I need. Saves exporting to After Effects.

Another issue would be the multiple frame rates in one 59.94 sequence for broadcast. Once again, is the Final Cut pulldown OK (I still see cadence issues)? And if not, what’s the best way to deal with it.

tony

[Tony Silanskas]

Thanks so much for chiming in Steve. I have tried three different drive configurations with the same issue; The Final Share Ethernet Raid, External OWC Firewire Raid (AJA system test 70MBs/sec), and the internal MacPro Drives. Are these still not fast enough? The mystery remains as to why the MacBook Pro works with all three of these configurations which leads us to believe it’s still a graphics card issue. And having Overlays on in the Final Cut Canvas definitely adds to the problem.

tony

[Tony Silanskas]

Walter,

Thanks so much for sharing your answer to that problem. I believe all the boxes here have that card but it’s worth checking into. Are you using Final Cut exclusively for your 1080p edits and if so are you happy with it’s performance?

tony

[Tony Silanskas]

We looked through all the processes in Activity Monitor and nothing was out of the ordinary. The stutterness is not an issue laying off to tape (we export a self contained file and use that) but an issue when editing with the clients and having it drop frames constantly. Very annoying. And having the Canvas window Overlays on makes it stutter even with the new graphics card. I’m just curious if anyone else who is editing 1080p with Final Cut is having issues.

tony

[Tony Silanskas]

I noticed today that having the Overlays on in the Canvas or Image+Wireframe selected makes it stutter whether it is 1080p footage or 720p. I know this issue has been around for eons so maybe that is part of the problem.

tony

[Tony Silanskas]

The Kona is set to output 1080psf 23.98 but the stuttering happens in the Final Cut Canvas on a system without the KONA installed as we have been trying to get rid of all possible variables. I noticed today that having the Overlays on in the Canvas or Image+Wireframe selected makes it stutter whether it is 1080p footage or 720p. I know this issue has been around for eons so maybe that is part of the problem.

tony

[Tony Silanskas]

Bob,

Thanks for throwing that out as I thought I linked to my other forum question here. I consolidated the project (got rid of all the long sequences) before I tried it on the MacBook Pro so that is still an unknown variable that is on a list to try this week but yes, it works on the MacBook Pro. As you know, we are punting and trying everything and since I remembered reading Walter’s blog about the long sequences, figured it may be an issue, but yes, the stutter happens when 720p material in a 1080p sequence, not in a 720p sequence.

As of late last night, here is where we are:

I got an email from another colleague that said he had issues with a Nvidia driver at some point. It got me thinking about what graphic cards have been installed in our two MacPros and I found a common variable that I missed. Right now we have a GT 120 in one and the 8800 in another. But they both had used the same Nvidia 8800 card at some point (we upgraded one and switched it to another with a clean install) so those drivers were on the both towers. Tonight, we reformatted the 2008 MacPro and installed a brand new Nvidia 4800 that we recently purchased but have been waiting to install because of these issues. As of this moment we have not been able to replicate the problem so it could be that 8800 card and driver.

tony

[Tony Silanskas]

I believe problem was with the Nvidia 8800 graphics card and driver with the ProRes 1080p material. We are doing more tests this week to confirm it but after the clean install and the new Quadro FX 4800 installed, all seems well.

1) Just one stream, no effects
2) Yes
3) Visual thing
4) No
5) Playing natively works fine. Only stuttering with 720p clips in a 1080p timeline.
6) The clips average about 5mins a piece but I did not some very long sequences (1-5 hours long). I have heard that long sequences might be a problem with our Final Share Ethernet Raid so I deleted all the long sequences. Was still having the problem after that but could be I still have a few long sequences in there that I missed. Checking that this morning.
7) Plays in viewer fine.
8) Canvas and Viewer are Fit To Window and not overlapping any windows
9) No, which has lead me to believe it’s a 1080p issue

tony

[Tony Silanskas]

We are using a Promise RAID with Final Share but the problem occurs using the internal drives, firewire drives, or the raid.

:: Update and possible solution ::

I got an email from another colleague that said he had issues with a Nvidia driver at some point. It got me thinking about what graphic cards have been installed in our two MacPros and I found a common variable that I missed. Right now we have a GT 120 in one and the 8800 in another. But they both had used the same Nvidia 8800 card at some point (we upgraded one and switched it to another with a clean install) so those drivers were on the both towers. Tonight, we reformatted the 2008 MacPro and installed a brand new Nvidia 4800 that we recently purchased but have been waiting to install because of these issues. As of this moment we have not been able to replicate the problem so it could be that 8800 driver. Tomorrow’s deadlines will be the true test.

tony

[Tony Silanskas]

The 720p footage is both Varicam and Canon 7D that was shot at 59.94 and then conformed to 23.98 with cinema tools. We have done a bunch of exports and they all play fine outside of Final Cut in the finder or Quicktime but will start stuttering in Final Cut once the first stutter happens with the 720p footage. Also, all the 720p footage plays outside Final Cut just fine so the culprit seems to be Final Cut.

We have done some tests with converting the 720p to 1080p and it seems to work. Just a minimum of three days to convert everything and we’re trying to avoid that as it will push us past our deadlines but might need to go that route. We are doing a fresh install of the OS now and installing a new Nvidia 4800 graphics card since that is the last one we haven’t tried.

tony