Crash on Batch Dig/ "Could not open handler" & other messages

Working on somebody else's machine and the somebody else isn't around and I have no engineering support. @!#$ Almost at the end of digitizing a 2 hr feature in PAL DV codec with the SDI from a Decklink Blackmagic card. I posted last week about the fun of handles with this same project.

The thing was running fine and we were digitizing as normal when all of the sudden, I get down to the last clip in the bin (literally -- the very last clip) and it won't do a batch digitize. It just sits there as if it had never received a command. I launch Log & Capture and it comes up and I have deck control (using a Panasonic HD1700 in SD mode), but I'm now not seeing anything on my monitor. I close log and capture and I get an error that says

"Could not open handler. System memory is probably very low."

So I shut down, boot back up, run fsck, repair permissions, check the other drives, make sure I have enough space (57 GB open on the system drive and 297 GB open on the scratch drive), and relaunch FCP. Try a batch again, same thing. When I close Log & Capture, same problem. I try playing an already captured clip, and it won't play in the Viewer.

Shut down, restart, trash FCP preferences (followed the LAFCPUG tutorial, just in case I forgot to trash a file), reset my FCP preferences, tried another batch, and got the same error, then the viewer had a red screen and said the following:

"Display unavailable. Close & reopen window to restore."

Close and reopen the viewer, and then you get"

"Error: Out of memory."

One more reboot and relaunch and you can watch previously captured clips with no problem, but once I try to batch or launch log and capture, I'm stuck. Somewhere in there, I also let the machine sit for 30 mins powered off and checked all the connections, still no dice.

This is version 5.0.2 -- think the upgrade to 5.0.4 will fix this? Or is this maybe a Blackmagic problem? Think I should reload the drivers? Hate to do a bunch of teching of a system that doesn't belong to me, but this is suddenly a big mess. I don't have any other projects to open up, except for the Offline RT version of this that I'll try, but don't know if that will tell me anything. (Maybe the project is suddenly kaput).

Dual 2.0 G5
1.5 GB RAM
FCP 5.0.2
Blackmagic card (not sure which one, but SDI in & out and only SD -- not HD)

Any thoughts muchos appreciated. Thx.

First, you're not out of memory. That's the system trying to tell you that you have run out of hard drive space.

How many drives are connected to the machine? **All** the drives, not just the ones being used for video.

<<<The thing was running fine and we were digitizing as normal when all of the sudden>>>

...all of a sudden, we ran out of hard drive space. That and the other messages are a flashing neon sign that the System thinks one or more hard drivers ran out of space.

<<<Could not open handler.>>>

That's File Handlers which get damaged when the system runs out of hard drive space.

<<<57 GB open on the system drive>>>

How big is the System Drive? The rule is 10% free. Typically, FCP tries to capture to the System Drive unless you tell it not to.


We had an question similar to this a long time ago and at the end of the day, the editor had a very old, slow, unused hard drive in the FireWire daisy chain and it was 99% full.

Koz

Another thought. If you capture blind without telling FCP the projected size of the clip, FCP will allocate a huge amount of drive space for it and that could easily not fit on your machine.

Koz

I have a 150 GB system drive that has 57.4 GB available. The only other drive currently connected is a LaCie 800 Mb firewire drive -- it's 500 GB capacity
with 274 GB available -- that's the capture drive (Capture Scratch folder has about 90 GB of files in it). Even if this were the old days of System 9 and assigning blocks for virtual memory to mirror the RAM, I would think we're ok on space.

On the capture -- I set an in and out point (10 secs TFT) and had the same problem both times. Log and Capture estimates 825+ minutes left for A/V on the scratch drive.

I opened up another project and just captured with the same settings and, though slow in reacting, it did capture a short clip and didn't crash. I'll try going back to an earlier version of the project in question and see if it works any better. Maybe the project just got jacked.

Any other thoughts? I forgot to mention that this system is running 10.3.9. Thx.Greg Kozikowski wrote:

<<< I would think we're ok on space.>>>

I would, too. But the System clearly doesn't agree with us.

<<<Maybe the project just got jacked.>>>

But why wouldn't it just crash rather than complain about "Memory" issues.

Ummmm. Can you disconnect the LaCie, push the capture scratch over to the system drive and try to capture that way? If that works, the system is having issues with the LaCie--or there's yet something else wrong. By the way, I expect that to work with the remote possibility of dropped frames--but maybe not even that.

The reason I think you have a very basic hardware problem is that you tried everything else.

Koz

So first I cleared off another 30GB of space on the system drive for kicks.

Then after realizing that it keeps giving General Errors on playback just in this one project, I copied the timeline and then started trimming stuff off the new timeline so that there was timeline #1 for hr 1 and timeline #2 for hr 2. That's about the time that I realized they had 40 tracks of audio going, and that didn't seem like the best idea. When I finally trimmed oneof the timelines down to just an hour and then got rid of all the audio (between all the General Errors and crashes), it seemed to be flying afterward and somewhat reliable. I'll tackle timeline #2 tomorrow.

Seem like this is a valid way to go? I'll deal with the audio in the offline version and export to OMF from there. Ugh.

You never mention the Spinning Beach Ball Of Death. Surely in all these crashes and system complaints you must have gotten that all over the place.

Another thought. Are you capturing while the project with multiple sound tracks and hours of work are open? This almost never happens, but you may actually be out of real memory. This is indicated when you trimmed the show and eliminated the multiple sound tracks and the system started acting properly.

We produce much smaller time segments, but at 2K realtime resolution and routinely retire machines with "only" 2G of memory as being hopelessly underpowered and unusable. Your moons and stars may have lined up.

Koz

I'm just as guilty of this as most, so please, no one be offended....

I think we should remind folks occasionally that the spinning beach ball isn't ALWAYS a bad sign. I think we need to remind folks that they don't need to force quit or whatever the second they get the beach ball. Patience can be a virtue sometimes! Often times, the beach ball just means the computer is thinking, and it IS a process that will complete!

So, unless you're certain the computer is locked up, get up, take a little break, refill the coffee cup, visit the restroom, chat with the receptionist, make a phone call, whatever. Give the computer a few minutes. If it's still doing it in five minutes, then, by all means, force quit.

I've recently had items take 30-90 seconds for the computer to process. Spinning beach ball and all. There were no problems! I just needed to be patient.

I get that sinking feeling, too, every time I see it. I need to train myself to not overreact!

Koz:

Surprisingly enough, I don't get the beach ball -- I think I got it once. Mostly it either pretends like nothing happened when asking it to batch but then won't play anything afterward (even though you can click around on timelines and stuff) or it suddenly and persistently gives the General Error until it quits on me and then gives me the "Send Report" dialog box.

And yeah, I was capturing with the project and timeline open (I'm batching the master clips).

I think I'm also favoring the RAM issue being the culprit at this point. As far as the moon and stars, I think the computer mooned me and said "STAR you, buddy!" Back to bang on it.

<<<spinning beach ball isn't ALWAYS a bad sign.>>>

<<<the beach ball just means the computer is thinking>>>

I don't entirely agree with you, although a brief SBBOD may mean nothing but a temporary traffic jam.

Most times the SBBOD means the machine can't find enough quality hard drive space fast enough to do the work. You should *never* see the SBBOD during normal operations. It's the machine equivalent of an asthmatic person gasping for air and turning blue.

<<<I've recently had items take 30-90 seconds for the computer to process.>>>

This will get very much worse and IMHO you will be shortly in for a hard drive, and possibly a memory and processor upgrade to continue working.

Limber up that credit card. Christmas will come a little late to your house.

"Feliz Navidad........."

Koz

Well, Koz, I do have 2 fresh and sparkly SATA drives waiting for me to install as soon as the project I handed over yesterday is officially approved.

You may be right with the asthmatic comment, I don't know for sure. I was dealing with a lot of complex filter combinations. My renders were an hour for a four and a half minute video on a dual 2 GHz G5 with 3 GB RAM. Every time I changed a parameter, beach ball city. At first, I got all cringe-ly and nervous. By the end, I knew it wasn't anything ominous. No crashes. (OK, 2 crashes, but not SBBOD related. That was Boris related. There are mouse and timeline combinations in the Boris engine one should avoid. Too bad I can't remember what they are.)

None of my drives are full, either, by the way. Both system and media are 250 GB. System drive has 138 GB free, and media drive has 100 GB free. Both recently passed a Disk Utility check-up. My system is healthy. My mac-guru of a husband sees to that.

I'm just saying that every beach ball isn't necessarily a bad sign, and certainly isn't cause to immediately kill whatever process you're doing just because you get a little spin for 5 seconds.

If it's constant and repeating and long, sure, it's a sign you may have problems. I just think sometimes folks get used to hearing "SBBOD", and assume that means EVERYTIME they see it, it MUST be something horrible has happened or is happening.

Just my 2¢



Post Edited (12-29-05 13:10)

<<<as the project I handed over yesterday is officially approved.>>>

Yes, for goodness sake don't change the system until you deliver. Enjoy the pretty colors in the Beach Ball.

<<<I'm just saying that every beach ball isn't necessarily a bad sign>>>

It's not. Even on our latest fire-breathing machine we get one every so often--like one every couple of days--sometimes less. Most times it's one or more drives waking up. We do let our drives go to sleep if nobody is at the machine for two or three hours.


I'm saying that multiple SBBODs every hour during production isn't normal. You may be able to adjust something about your production process or pipeline to avoid the machine having to render the whole world every time you make one change.

For example, if you apply an effect to a timeline made up of thousands of cuts and clips, you may be enormously far ahead by saving the raw timeline as *one* self contained clip and apply the effects to that. In the former case, the machine has to go out, find, and play **each** clip and apply the effect. It wouldn't surprise me if that's where a lot of your production time is going and the reason for the SBBODs. In the later case, the whole movie is on the same place on the spinning drive platters and it's really easy for the machine to access it and apply changes.

You have to use the Self Contained Movie to get this to work and, of course, you need to have room to put the resulting file.

Koz

Looks like we're having the same conversation, Koz.

The workflow idea is a good one. It wouldn't work in this particular case, 'cos...well, I won't bore y'all with the details on that. Mostly it's separate keyframes in each clip depending on the clip above it. It's a lot of timing. I could've made one simple background for all, but I liked having the ability to customize each background so it would work best with the video that was on top of it. But your suggestion is a thoughtful way to deal with the right complex timeline!

I ordered those drives over a month ago, maybe even two. I've lost count. I'm itchin' to get 'em in, and upgrade to Tiger and Studio! If only the dang clients would stop offering me money for the time I have available to install and upgrade!