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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 :)

New iMac Pro and FCPX struggling to play 5K R3D??

Matt Beardsley

Matt Beardsley

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After years of happy FCPX / R3D editing on Mac Pro / Mac Pro Trashcan / MacBook Pro, this new iMac Pro with the current build of FCPX often struggles to play back footage.. tap the spacebar and wait for several seconds before the rainbow wheel even appears – working on a timeline set to the same resolution as capture, effects turned off, etc. I updated my Red Drivers, have everything else up to day, even moved the Library I'm workin on to the home drive to rule out the TB3 SSD RAIDs I run. Anyone else having trouble with Apple and Red not playing nice on the current builds? Super frustrating!

iMac Pro 3 GHz Intel Xeon W, 64 GB 2666 MHz DDR4, Radeon Pro Vega 64 16368 MB, 2 TB SSD about 60% full (900 GB of which is this one FCPX Library, I don't store anything locally)

FCPX 10.4.2

Redcine-X 50.44748
 
Do you have a clip to share with the problem? I play 4.5K with no problem on my iMac Pro.
 
Definitely not normal. I have tested with R3Ds in FCPX on the whole range of iMac Pros and definitely no issues playing back 5k stuff. Are you on the latest version of macOS and the latest Apple Workflow Installer from RED?
 
Blair Thornton said:
Yea, definitely not normal. As Andrew suggested, grab the latest Apple Workflow Installer https://www.red.com/downloads?category=Software&release=final

Another issue may be your Final Cut project itself. I have steps here to help fix corrupted FCPX projects: http://www.girafxmedia.com/?p=315
Click to expand...

Yeah good point. Would be a good idea to just try to make a new Library and start fresh and see if there are still issues. Also a good idea to check activity monitor to see what is using up CPU resources.
 
Awesome, thanks for the trouble shooting tips! Good call on the updates and new library. I updated Redcine-X (Apple Workflow Installer, FCPX, and iOS were all already up to speed). That seemed to help a bit. I moved the project to a new library (on a TB3 Thunderbay with 3 Crucial SSDs in RAID 0) only copying over the referenced files and that Really got it moving again.

The iMac Pro is funny: crazy fast with some things, like rendering stabilization, color corrections, or transcoding in FCPX, and pretty average at some other tasks, like running Neat noise reduction or Filmconvert within FCPX. It renders 5K CDNG from my Inspire to full-res ProRes HQ in Resolve at about 1:1 speed, which is impressive. I have a feeling there are some steps I need to take to optimize tho.

Sounds like you guys are pretty happy with the iMac Pro! That's encouraging, watching that little rainbow wheel all week, I was kicking myself for not holding out for whatever comes along in the Mac Pro category.

EDIT: I spoke too soon. Knocking out a quick edit a client shot at 1080 25p ProRes LT and I'm getting a spinny rainbow wheel about half the time trying to just start playback of clips in the browser of FCPX. Gross. Might be time to wipe and re-load this system..
 
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I would try opening activity monitor and see what is using CPU resources when that is happening. Editing ProRes LT should be buttery smooth even at 4k+. Are you using any plugins or anything within FCPX that may be causing issues? Clean install and then testing with specific plugins might not be a bad idea.
 
What you are experiencing isn't normal. I work in 8K, which obv has its caveats, but 5K and 6K raw aren't an issue, let alone 1080p Pro Res LT @25fps. That's def not right. (I can easily playback 5K raw 120fps on my MacBook Pro, just as a basis of comparison) You mentioned that you don't store your media/assets locally- where are the clips you are playing back being stored? One simple trick is to keep your media external with FCPX- running your library from one dest and your ext media from another. However, your case sounds very extreme..
 
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Yeah, super weird that playback is so glitchy on this system. I suspect there may be an issue running a Library off the RAID. It's a TB3 Thunderbay from OWC with 3 Crucial MX drives in RAID 0. Given the uncertainty over TRIM abilities in High Sierra, I erase it and re-raid periodically. I have three of them, and they have all been flawless for years, but this one seems to be an issue of late. It takes a system reboot every few hours to keep everything moving smoothly, though, regardless of storage location.

Beyond that, this system's video playback is not normal – it won't reliably play online video via Chrome, for example. Very strange.

Apple Pro App support recommended switching to a proxy workflow.. but like you guys have said, this system should be a-ok with 5K or event 8K R3D (my Macbook Pro can work in it all day, after all, as did the previous Mac Pros I've owned)...

I'll keep digging!
 
Nope, the FCPX playback issue is the same regardless of which RAID the project is stored on.. can the current build of OSX or FCPX not handle SSDs? Something in the way the iMac Pro or High Sierra handles external storage is just not working with my setup. Super Frustrating
'
 
Definitely not an issue with the OS or FCPX, as you said you aren't having issues on your other machines correct? I have had zero issues like this on all the iMac Pros I have tested on. Did you start from a fresh install or did you try migrating data from another system when you got it? I would try a reinstall of the OS and FCPX and then test from there probably.
 
How are other folks setting up and managing RAIDs on OSX? The iMac Pro has a known issue running SoftRAID, so that combo is buggy and unreliable. I wonder to what extent that is effecting my system. There's no way I could work only off internal storage. Are there other RAID options out there now that OSX doesn't natively allow making RAID volumes through disk utility?
 
andrewhake said:
Definitely not an issue with the OS or FCPX, as you said you aren't having issues on your other machines correct? I have had zero issues like this on all the iMac Pros I have tested on. Did you start from a fresh install or did you try migrating data from another system when you got it? I would try a reinstall of the OS and FCPX and then test from there probably.
Click to expand...

Thanks Andrew, yes, started fresh and migrated nothing to this system, to avoid any funny business with High Sierra. It's all rainbow wheels today... it must know I'm on a deadline :(
 
Thanks guys, really grateful for the trouble shooting tips. I trashed preferences with the hold option+command while launching FCPX option, which did not help, tried with deleting the actual files from the Preference folder in the Library folder and that seems to have got the system moving again... also tried setting up a new user and it also runs smoothly there, though I didn't have my Universal Audio or Sonarworks plugins loaded, so no sound (had to re-import the IPP2 LUTs to test playback). Apple Pro App support via phone was awesome.. spent an hour or so trouble shooting.

I suspect that SoftRAID's compatibility issues with the iMac Pro is one potential issue and Sonarworks / UA Audio for monitoring is another potential issue.. hopefully I can stress test both tonight and see what's up!

The SSDs, according to Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, move right around 800-900 MB/s in both read and write and are roughly 50% full.. I can't imagine that's inadequate, especially since when everything is working, 5K can playback fine at 2x, 4x... 8x, no problem. And the RAIDs work fine on my MacBook Pro too. Very strange issue!
 
I would bet it is the audio plugins/drivers having compatibility issues. More likely than an issue with reading and writing from the RAID I would think, even with dramatically slower disk speeds you shouldn't be seeing delays in initiating playback like you had mentioned. I would try reaching out to the developers of those plugins to see if they might already be aware of these issues and if they can replicate it. I am sure they would want to get it fixed asap.
 
Matt Beardsley said:
Yeah, super weird that playback is so glitchy on this system. I suspect there may be an issue running a Library off the RAID. It's a TB3 Thunderbay from OWC with 3 Crucial MX drives in RAID 0. Given the uncertainty over TRIM abilities in High Sierra, I erase it and re-raid periodically. I have three of them, and they have all been flawless for years, but this one seems to be an issue of late. It takes a system reboot every few hours to keep everything moving smoothly, though, regardless of storage location.

Beyond that, this system's video playback is not normal – it won't reliably play online video via Chrome, for example. Very strange.

Apple Pro App support recommended switching to a proxy workflow.. but like you guys have said, this system should be a-ok with 5K or event 8K R3D (my Macbook Pro can work in it all day, after all, as did the previous Mac Pros I've owned)...

I'll keep digging!
Click to expand...

Aaahhhh !!! That explains it. External SSD / 3rd party drives need to have TRIM turned on. Your TRIM must not have been enabled and hence you experienced speed degradation.

Turn TRIM on in the command line: sudo trimforce enable
 
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