Dropped frames in FCP when playing back Prores proxies of 4K rushes...

[Willem Grobler]

Hi all

I'm currently doing the data management side and prepping for post on a feature film we are shooting. We review the rushes/dailes a day in delay, and things have been going smoothly.

One concern from my side, however, is that FCP reports dropped frames from time to time. I'm assuming that this could be because we're doing the rushes viewing on a new MacBook Pro 15" 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 (4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3) running FCP 7 which is connected to a G-Tech 2Tb external drive that acts as scratch disk and contains all the proxy media, but I can't help but feel a little concerned.

We have to hand the project over to the director after wrap, and I just wanna make sure that the integrity of the R3D files is 100% and that nothing's gonna come and bite me in the ass when we're all done.

One extra note: the sound files we get and sync for rushes viewings are layered .wavs (I thikn bww?) and sometimes one file contains up to 8 audio tracks... Surely this also has an effect?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Gunleik Groven]

What size/format are your rushes?

Cheers!

G

 

[Willem Grobler]

Hi Gunleik

Proxies are Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy) with a data rate of between 1.5 and 4.3 MB/sec according to FCP. Is that what you need to know?

 

[Gunleik Groven]

@ 1080?

 

[Willem Grobler]

That's correct!

 

[Ben Brainerd]

The big question is how is your Gtech connected? FW800? FW400? USB? It's obviously not ESATA, not on that MBP.

Do you have any other programs running in the background?

 

[Gunleik Groven]

I'd have run AJA system test on the disk...

it's free from aja


to see what speeds it does. Your laptop should do this without a hitch...

 

[Willem Grobler]

Ben - G-Tech connected via FW800. No other programs running in the background.

Gunleik - just ran the AJA System Test, Video Frame Size set to 1920x1080 10-bit, File Size set to 1.0 GB:

Disk Read/Write = 63.4 MB/s / 67.2 Mb/s
Disk Read Existing File = 63.4 MB/s
Sweep Video Frame Sizes = Write: 67.5 MB/s / Read: 79.1 MB/s
Sweep Binary Frame Sizes = Write: 67.1 MB/s / Read: 58.6 MB/s

With today's viewings we had no issues... Any other thoughts?

Thanks guys!

 

[Ben Brainerd]

Huh. If you're connected via FW800 and with those drive stats you shouldn't have any trouble with basic playback.

To be honest, you might just have to chalk it up as Anomalous Behavior, especially if you haven't had any problems since then.

 

[Willem Grobler]

That's great, thanks Ben. As long as I can rest assured that there's nothing wrong with our R3D files it's all good...

I must say that this laptop feels a bit sluggish from time to time... Could it be because we're doing viewings with FCP Video Playback set to Digital Cinema Desktop Preview - Full Screen?

 

[Gunleik Groven]

That's great, thanks Ben. As long as I can rest assured that there's nothing wrong with our R3D files it's all good...

I must say that this laptop feels a bit sluggish from time to time... Could it be because we're doing viewings with FCP Video Playback set to Digital Cinema Desktop Preview - Full Screen?

Could be -

Edit:
Sorry, you allready answered that, sorry...

G