Drop frames problem solving
by Matt Larson
on
Aug 20, 2008 at 8:37:58 pm
So over the last couple weeks I've started dropping frames pretty reguarly. I did a clean install to 10.5 several month ago and have had no problems capturing and playing back 10-bit 720p60 and 720p ProRes files until recently. I've done all the usual trouble shooting stuff but no luck. I ran the KONA system test and my drive will be going fine at 300+ MB/s and then it will completely stop. After a few seconds it resumes at about 150 MB/s.
Out of ideas, I rebooted my Mac off a clone of my Previous 10.4 system and I had ZERO problems with drop frames and the KONA System test ran at a steady 330 MB/s.
I would like to stay with Leopard, so I'm trying to figure out the best (read: fastest) way to get my main system up and running again.
I figure I have 3 options:
- Do a full re-install: 99% sure this will fix my issues, but time consuming.
- Remove FCS using FCS remover and re-install: I think the problem is system related if the KONA test is having problems though.
- Try to reinstall the System files from the Leopard disk and leave FCS in place: I think this is where my problem lies, but I feel like I'd be like trying to replace the first floor of a house without taking the second floor off first.
Any takers? Thanks-
Here's my system info:
Dual Quad core Mac Pro 3 Ghz
9GB RAM
Apple 4 GB fiber channel card
G-Speed XL 12 RAID
AJA KONA 3 (with 5.1 drivers)
Final Cut Studio 2 (with FCP 6.0.4)
Re: Drop frames problem solving by david bogie on Aug 20, 2008 at 9:34:29 pm
You seem to know what you're doing but you haven't actually stated that your media is not going to your system drive.
But this sounds suspiciously like a Kona issue. Are there drivers or FCP-specific doodads you must have to run the Kona appliance in Leopard?
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: "For crying out loud, read the freakin' manual."
Re: Drop frames problem solving by Matt Larson on Aug 20, 2008 at 9:47:17 pm
The media is definitely on the media drive... You did give me an idea to try uninstalling and re-installing the KONA driver though.
I see the AJA released new drivers for the KONA today, I think I'll stick to the 5.1 version though, no reason to through a brand new driver in to the mix too!
Re: Drop frames problem solving by Matt Larson on Aug 21, 2008 at 2:43:59 pm
Rich, Kona card is in Slot 3 and Fiber card is in Slot 4.
I did run the Expansion utility when I set up the Mac Pro and I just verified it is still set to "Option 2" (ATI Radeon X1900 is in Slot 1 using all 16 lanes)
Re: Drop frames problem solving by Matt Larson on Aug 21, 2008 at 3:38:43 pm
I think I've eliminated the Kona and FCS as the issues: I duplicated a media file in the Finder to the same folder on the RAID just now and I got the same issue where the Read/Write speeds drop to 0...
Re: Drop frames problem solving by C David Miller on Aug 24, 2008 at 7:37:35 am
Hi Matt,
I was plague with the same issues you are describing, dropping frames with Leopard 10.5.4 and FCP 6.x.x. I also tried using the Tiger version backup and it worked just fine also. I thought maybe it was QT, but that wasn't it either. I couldn't find anything in the log files etc.
I found the culpit to the drop frames during playback by complete accident. I had loaded the application Little Snitch for another reason, but left the Little Snitch Monitor running while running FCStudio 2. Since I have dual monitors, I had the real estate to leave it up and running on the 2nd screen.
Everytime the playback would bail out, with the drop frame message, the same network entry was logging in my little snatch window monitor. I thought that was kind of funny, so I turned off my Ethernet connection.
No more dropping frame problems. The final fix I performed to stop the problem was to go in and change the Ethernet connection from DHCP to DHCP manually and assign a DHCP IP address from my router 10.21.xx.xxx, using a high number for the fourth set of number. Like 10.xx.xx.200.
No longer does FCStudio 2, go out checking. No longer are these funny entries coming up on my Little Snatch monitor and all the drop frames during playback, no longer occurs. Now I enjoy using FCStudio 2
If there needs to be further discussion on this, feel free to call me at my office, after 8am EST during the week.
Hope it will help you, I have never seen this fix listed on any forum or board anywhere, so give it a whirl and see if it fixes your issue also. Good Luck
Re: Drop frames problem solving by Matt Larson on Aug 25, 2008 at 2:13:20 pm
Isn't it amazing that you pay thousands of dollars for a high end supercomputer, even more for a super fast disk array, and then the whole thing is brought to its knees by DHCP polling?
Thanks for the tip. I think I figured out what was causing my issue here: Spotlight. Looking at the Activity Window I saw "mds" spiking right before FCP would drop out and then I looked in the top right corner and saw that Spotlight was indexing. My guess is since I was using AutoRender (which I ususally don't use) it was creating some large files that Spotlight had to work to get through. I made my "Final Cut Pro Documents" folder private in the Spotlight preferences and was able to play back ok on Friday. If the issue pops up again, I'll look in to Little Snitch though.
Re: Drop frames problem solving by C David Miller on Aug 25, 2008 at 8:01:42 pm
Well Spotlight indexing has been known problem for good while. It is the DHCP Polling no one has ever written about, that is why I thought I'd better mention it. But I know one thing, FCStudio 2 is running like a champ since I assigned a manual DHCP IP address.
