Macbook Pro Crashing on set

[Harky Jewett]

I have a Macbook Pro with a 2.33 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 3 GB of memory. I'm running the latest version of leopard.

On set I'm using R3D Data manager (great program by the way) to copy files from cf card to a Sonnet Fusion F2.

And I'll check certain shots in Red Alert. Along with opening the proxies to do a quick check of a shot.

So I'm having problems with the computer crashing and the screen just going black. This usually happens when I'm playing through the proxies (which never really play smoothly, I assume it's just too much for the processor to handle) and have another program (usually Red Alert) open. This is especially true if the footage has sound.

We also tried doing some log and transfer to prores in Final cut. This was working fine at first, but now it just crashes.

My question is, will this just happen on a laptop given the large files (shooting 4K 2:1 23.98). Or is there something wrong with my macbook.

 

[Anthony S. Pratt]

Hi Harky, if you're trying to look at the 4k QT Proxies (_F.movs) you will hit some fairly serious problems - try using the 2k proxies instead (_H.mov).

 

[Shawn Booth]

Also, try not running RED programs with others open. Have you tried REDCine? I think you might have more luck with it when reviewing shots. True, there's no sound, but you can still review footage. (Hopefully, you have sound recorded on another format as well.)

 

[Harky Jewett]

try using the 2k proxies instead (_H.mov).

We only use the lowest res P proxies to review the footage. My computer doesn't handle the H's too well. And I know what you mean about the F's, can't get any playback at all with those.

Also, try not running RED programs with others open. Have you tried REDCine? I think you might have more luck with it when reviewing shots.

I haven't tried using redcine. That said I don't think we've really had problems with Red Alert. It's mainly when dealing with the proxies (or trying to open stuff up in final cut) that crashes occur.

We did have the restart screen come up (the one that tells you to power down the comp in 50 different languages), during a copy through R3D Data Manager. Luckily the program doesn't erase the files on the cf card until it has checked and verified the copy.

 

[Miltos Pilalitos]

I was always a PC guy and only recently, because of RED, i purchased a MacBook Pro (2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM). I have to say that i can edit the _M proxies in Final Cut with out any problem and it's realy amazing if you think about it. Quicktime doesn't play smoothly any other than the _P proxies but i can't complain about it.

Yesterday it was the first time REDCINE crashed on set while it was working for 7 hours+. I was feeding it footage from CF cards non stop to check the footage and export HQ snapshots of various shots. After reloading it i continued working without problems.

Overall i have to say that a MacBook Pro is a realistic alternative to a Mac pro for serious work. Right now i am editing a TV commercial from the comfort of my bed and you can't beat that.

Miltos

 

[Ivan Cortazar]

Miltos,

How are your rendering times from your Macbook? I am just curios.

Thanks,

IC.

 

[Harky Jewett]

I was always a PC guy and only recently, because of RED, i purchased a MacBook Pro (2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM). I have to say that i can edit the _M proxies in Final Cut with out any problem and it's realy amazing if you think about it. Quicktime doesn't play smoothly any other than the _P proxies but i can't complain about it.

Yesterday it was the first time REDCINE crashed on set while it was working for 7 hours+. I was feeding it footage from CF cards non stop to check the footage and export HQ snapshots of various shots. After reloading it i continued working without problems.

Overall i have to say that a MacBook Pro is a realistic alternative to a Mac pro for serious work. Right now i am editing a TV commercial from the comfort of my bed and you can't beat that.

Miltos

Since these programs will push the comp to its edge I wonder if the fact that your using a slightly faster processor that can handle more memory can account for you not really experiencing crashes. .33 Ghz more processing power along with 1GB more RAM might not sound like a lot, but it could be making the difference.

 

[hanselblat]

Hi guys and gals (are there any women here?),
I hope this is the right place to bring up some of my doubts. When I ordered my red this is what I had in mind: shoot red material in 4k, proxy in 720p or 1k, make first edits on the newest and fastest macbook I can get coming december, do first color correction by means of my jvc pal video monitor, when all's finished, have final color correction done by a post production company.
However: when I saw the actual filesizes of 1k proxies I realised these are never selfcontained qt movies; which means your computer can never edit without your macbook being disconnected from the 4-6terabyte storage (which was interesting to me because I travel a lot); in which case a macbook is not such a good choice, and the 8 core mac pro is the way to go. Or am I misunderstanding something? On top of that, I started wondering whether editing color of 4k material with a pal monitor may not be such a good idea.
Any thoughts here?
thanks in advance,
Hans

 

[Shawn Booth]

in which case a macbook is not such a good choice, and the 8 core mac pro is the way to go. Or am I misunderstanding something?
Hans

(Yes, there are some ladies here) If you're talking about having one computer only, then sure, it's probably better to have the desktop - if you're the one doing all the editing. I have both a macbook pro and a mac pro and feel you need both. I'm certainly not carrying my edit suite around to set.

Now, back to Harky. Are you working in High Precision YUV? What version of QT? I really don't think this has to do with your laptop.

 

[hanselblat]

Sorry, maybe I should have put this in a separate thread and not interfere in Harky's

 

[Shawn Booth]

no no, you're fine. I was just saying I'm now going back to Harky's issue.

 

[Miltos Pilalitos]

Miltos,

How are your rendering times from your Macbook? I am just curios.

Thanks,

IC.

The only rendering my Macbook pro is doing is DPX sequences out of REDCINE and it's doing it very fast. It's actualy several times FASTER than my PC (Intel Core 2 X6800 EXTREME @ 2.93GHz, 4GB of RAM running WinXPx64).

I am not sure if it's the hardware or the way REDCINE is working under OSX but it's a reality that many users with both PCs and MACs can confirm. REDCINE (OSX) is FAAAAAAAAAST!!

Miltos

 

[Harky Jewett]

Are you working in High Precision YUV? What version of QT? I really don't think this has to do with your laptop.

Hi Shawn,

The high precision YUV option in Final Cut? I didn't have it enabled, but doesn't it just apply to rendering?

I'm working with Quicktime 7.5

Another thought, I don't know if it would cause problems, but I do have windows installed using boot camp. It's on an 11GB partition my 200GB notebook drive.

Harky

 

[Shawn Booth]

hmmm. I would try the YUV setting in FCS and see what happens. Also, QT 7.5 might be the culprit. I haven't yet updated, so I'm not sure.

I'm not sure about the windows thing, but I doubt that's the issue as well.

I would definitely say run only REDAlert! or FCS at a time. Also, you do have the REDCODE codec installed right?

 

[Harky Jewett]

Definitely have Redcode installed. It wouldn't even show up in QT if I didn't.

I'll try setting it to High Precision YUV. I hope 7.5 isn't the culprit, but you might be right.


Yet another thing I forgot to mention is that I've tried to run a "repair disk permissions" and it just crashes the computer. Don't know what to make of that.


In any case, thank you for your responses!

 

[Shawn Booth]

Wait, you try to repair disk permissions and that crashes your computer?

Whoa.....

Any chance you can try working on another machine with specs as close to yours as possible? Maybe the windows thing is also a problem?

If it is a QT issue, build 16 is coming in less than 48 hours and you should be fine on that front.

You're very welcome. It's what this forum is for no?

 

[Esteban Sosnitsky]

I gotta shoot this question here, maybe shawn or harky can give me a hint. What do you think on the new iMacs with 3.06GHZ and 4 G on ram? With one 1TB of disk space for editing in FCP red's footage? Do you really need to invest all the money on a mac tower with dual processors and all that?
Thanks!

 

[Harky Jewett]

Do you really need to invest all the money on a mac tower with dual processors and all that?

Short answer, Yes, if it's feasible for you to do so. But what are you using it for? Editing? Color? FX, Graphics work, etc.? All of the above?

That's just my opinion though. Miltos, earlier in this thread, said that he was happy with his macbook pro. And the specs on the top iMac are slightly better. If it were me, I'd still go with the macbook though, since I'd want the portability.

 

[Esteban Sosnitsky]

I want an editing suite in which you can edit and color correct.
We use FCP, After effects, color and combustion.
I think macbook pro is not the way to go, its not that expandable and the screen is small. But I do want to know if getting a mac tower will improve my editing time in terms of renders a lot more than the iMac.
I mean, you can get 3 iMacs for the price of 1 Mac Pro.!!! I can have three machines working on different things instead of just one. Just a thought. I really dont know if it will make that big of a difference.:s

 

[amrrahmy]

imac screen has issues, and cannot be used in video productions.

macbook pro offers mobility, so u can use it on set. and that's worth allot.

also, it's not slow(yes, it's slower than a mac pro that cost's 2,3 times as much), but it's not slow with applications, and it wont bother u or make u feel restricted with it's limitations that u'll be annoyed from it(maybe a little, but not much).