drop frames

We shot a feature film on neg (24 fps) and telecined at 25 fps. Our images were transferred as DVCPRO HD 1080i to hard drive. We conformed back to 24fps using cinema tools software. As a result of the conform we experienced drop frames during the playing of the film. We learnt to live with it. (We were running Blackmagic decklink 4. something).
Recently we upgraded to fcp5 and also upgraded Blackmagic to 5. and have found the already disturbing drop outs are looking even nastier and sometimes the Raid drive drops off the system. When playing the film you can almost see a double frame when playing the film. It also feels like the G5 is struggling to play the film. I was told to remove spotlight from the mac by downloading spotless from version tracker and nothing has changed. Does this problem have anything to do with the blackmagic card or the final cut pro?
Will purchasing an E SATA drive help this problem? Until then do you have any solutions to this problemo please?
Tbird

<<<DVCPRO HD 1080i to hard drive>>>
<<< the Raid drive drops off the system>>>
<<<the G5 is struggling to play the film. >>>

It might be. I'd like to know a lot more abouit the machine. How many internal drives do you have? How is the RAID connected and what kind is it?

Are you trying to play a complicated timeline, or are you playing back one single show file that you created from export?

The desparation method for this is to export the show as a self-contained show, disconnect everything else external and try playing it from there. The HiDef shows may not be able to do that because some RAIDs are actually faster than internal drives and playback won't work anywhere else.

If the show won't fit on an internal drive, save it onto the RAID and play it from there. If that process won't fit anywhere, the real problem is you don't have near enough hard drive space available to do what you're trying to do and that is leading to choking and stuttering.

No that's not normal, but it's a perfectly common problem at the end of a production where you're just squeeking by on drive space.

Some of these hints may help, too.

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Koz