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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

My MBP is... pissing me off

Tanner Stauss

Tanner Stauss

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This is kind of more a Mac question than a RED question but...

I'm having blatant playback issues with some RED footage. When viewing my proxies in QT the playback framerate will drop to 12fps or lower after 5-10 seconds or so of playing the clip. Same thing with them loaded up into FCP. Latest versions of everything. FCP 6.0.6. This is with old build 16 footage.

Same type of problems in FCP. Sequence settings: 2048x1024, 23.98fps, pixel aspect square, Apple ProRes 422(HQ), unlimited RT, scrub high quality unchecked. I need to render everything just to watch it with out stuttering or freezing up.

Here's what I notice happening. I will run the activity monitor that shows the CPU usage while I am playing proxies, or playing the FCP sequence or whatever. When it starts to stutter and get worse, I notice the "CPU usage" drops down to almost nothing. Like the computer is idle. So, I am assuming this is a processing problem.

I have used older MBP's, doing all the same stuff, and not had this problem.

I have the 15", previous generation MBP, 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP51.0074.B01
SMC Version (system): 1.33f8


Anybody with similar problems/solutions?
 
I just have some stuff on the system drive right now. And yeah, the R3D files are all present. What exactly do you mean by virtual memory?
 
The memory that you allow your system to use, you can do this by changing the percentage of Memory used by the system software, as you do with Photoshop and other programs, in order to allow for better faster performance.

However this is only good for Memory based program action and not for CPU accelerated actions.

ciao
 
also some of the newer macbookpro machine have a dual videocard.
perhaps the fast videocard is disabled = check in systempreferences ,
energy saver: set it on higher performance.
also check out in system preferences what the setting of the REDcode are.
 
Tanner Stauss said:
This is kind of more a Mac question than a RED question but...
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Anybody with similar problems/solutions?
Click to expand...

Your description sounds like a disk speed issue/memory full. If your disk is close to full OSX has trouble keeping it optimized, so the suggestion of running a utility to optimize it would make sense. If it is a problem of lack of memory, remember that VM is the OS using the disk for additional program memory. Once your real memory is full, the system will start to page the VM to/from disk which will conflict with the disk bandwidth requirements for playing the video. QT is a little odd in that when it can't play at 23.98 (24) it will almost always drop down to half speed. So you watch a stuttering video on an idle machine.

Watch how much VM is used by QT, make sure nothing else could be using memory. I would strongly suggest upgrading to 4GB
 
Could also be a read write problem as your using the local HDD for VM and for the R3D storage. The computer has to read and write VM info and then quickly move the HDD head to read the data from your footage. Try playing of a different HDD to the local one.
 
2K Proxies off the system drive is asking a *lot* for an older MacBook Pro to do. As in- a system that's not up to the task you're wanting it to do. You know that right?

Noah
 
Filip Vandoorne said:
also some of the newer macbookpro machine have a dual videocard.
perhaps the fast videocard is disabled = check in systempreferences ,
energy saver: set it on higher performance.
also check out in system preferences what the setting of the REDcode are.
Click to expand...

I've had the energy saver set to higher performance for a while. And what is the better setting to have the REDCODE preference set to? I've had it set to Half Standard.

KETCH ROSSI said:
you can do this by changing the percentage of Memory used by the system software, as you do with Photoshop and other programs, in order to allow for better faster performance.
Click to expand...

How do I do that? I know how to do that in FCP, but I've done that. Also, it's not only in FCP, it's quicktime in general.

Noah Kadner said:
2K Proxies off the system drive is asking a *lot* for an older MacBook Pro to do. As in- a system that's not up to the task you're wanting it to do. You know that right?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know, but it's not an older MacBook Pro. I got this six months ago, it's the newest generation before the brand new current one. I've used older MacBook Pro's than mine, doing the same thing, without these problems.
 
Well ok I mean any MacBook Pro- especially off the system drives. I'd suggest using 1K proxies or converting to ProRes, or switching to a desktop Mac Pro. A laptop is fine for data wrangling and for quick on set corrections but as your primary editor- arguably not enough power there.

Noah
 
Tanner Stauss said:
Yeah, I know, but it's not an older MacBook Pro. I got this six months ago, it's the newest generation before the brand new current one. I've used older MacBook Pro's than mine, doing the same thing, without these problems.
Click to expand...

The problem is diagnosing your current problem when your impressions are based on previous systems you can't tell us about. Were those systems modified? 4GB RAM? Upgraded 7200rpm HD? Strictly used for DIT work, or other work as well? Background programs running? Way too many variables to recommend a way to mimic the performance of those other systems, so let's focus on yours.

Your MBP is 6 months old. How many jobs has it done so far? How much data have you moved to and from it? How many programs have you installed and removed, updated or otherwise modified?

If your CPU activity is dropping while playing back and the system is stuttering video, makes me think your hard drive(s) can't keep up with playback. Do you have the stock HD Apple sold you in the machine? 4200rpm drive? Standard SATA I, or an upgraded SATAII with 3.0Gbps data speed? Was there a point in time in the past when you could play these files without issue?

Apple would like you to believe it isn't necessary, but even Mac OS Extended hard drives get fragmented. After 6 months, if you've moved a lot of data across the drives, chances are the drive looks like hell. If you're trying to play back large files that require huge throughput, and do it non-sequentially, you're going to run into problems. Like Noah says, it is a laptop after all and not a workstation. Great for data wrangling, bit for bit copying or whatever. You get into playback and you start exposing all the performance loopholes.

This might sound like a huge pain in the ass, but I recommend you always wipe your drive and start fresh at the beginning of any shoot. Wipe your MBP and do an OS installation of bare essentials for getting your job done. Install all the apps you need as well. Then, get yourself a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner and create an image of that drive for storage elsewhere. Anytime you start a new job, format the MBP, restore from the cloned image and boot back up. Takes you back to square one, and as far as the drive is concerned, all the OS and apps are sequentially next to each other. Free space everywhere for your large video files.
 
K, thanks for the all the info guys.

Noah and William, that all makes perfect sense. One little side thing I forgot to mention(that may or may not be important): At the times I experience the playback stuttering and CPU activity drop I have tried the even smaller proxies. Even with the 1K and the 1/2K proxies, same thing. No difference in playback from the 2K.

I understand that a workstation is better all around. I am just doing some personal editing on the road right now and this is what I have. I have no external drives to test with, just my laptop and my footage. Like I said, it's my personal laptop, so it does a lot more than just workflow and editing. Not a LOT more, just internet browsing when there's WIFI, storing some photos/music/other personal files, etc.

In the end, after what you guys have said, I'm sure it's not a "problem" with the computer. I guess I was just hoping it was and that I could fix it. I just assumed that a newer MBP could playback some lowly little 2K REDCODE proxies. Especially when it can playback some other 2K and 1080p quicktime files I have, with higher bit rates, on the same drive just fine.

If you guys have any other comments or suggestions I would be happy to receive them. Thanks again.

Cheers
 
Give it at least another drive for media
 
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