crashing

I have a g5 quadra w/4GB RAM, Sonnet 500P esata controller/port multiplyer, 1.5 TB 400 cavior Western Digital HDs, sonnet rocket card, DV footage digitized @ highest resolution. System not connected to internet.

58 hours of footage.

Tapes logged end to end.

Massive selects/subclips created in bins for editing.

Began to have problems when applying speed changes and filters (stop motion, matte, contrast) to subclips.

System freezes when putting subclips thru the processing paces.

What am I doing wrong? Crashing way too much and I haven't even began working the time line w/editing sequences. I still have massive amounts of memory left on my hard drives in the sonnet controller.

Help.



- A

Do you get the Spinning Beach Ball Of Death?

Koz

No, that's what's so strange. the system just either freezes up during playback of a subclip that's been filter/speed changed and the system locks up so I have to power down -- or the screen goes to a translucent grey/black with words that tell me I have to power down.

Hmmmm

I'm being told that Sonnet has a firmware update for my drive array/card, so I'm going to install that today and send them my system report.



- A

You get the SBBOD when a delay happens that is graceful and expected. When some program or task takes longer than a certain time to execute or complete.

You get crashes and freezes when something unexpected and really naughty happens. The system tries to touch one of the mounted and managed drives and it's just not there or you have a bad memory strip.

If you do it just right, you can hang the machine out to dry by filling up the System Drive. You can do serious damage by filling up any of the drives.

What you are doing is an OK workflow in a perfect world, but unfortunately, we're not in a perfect world.

FCP does not function well with hour long captures.
You will have trouble speed adjusting clips derived from hour long captures.

Some people don't believe me, but I've found that FCP works best with short, and discrete media files. Things tend to go awry if you do not log and capture individual clips. Yes, I know it takes more time. But it's worth it.

I think it's OK to capture and log, but after making your selects, you should media manage and consolidate the media so that each subclip has its own media file. Again, FCP will give you fewer troubles if you have many short media files, over fewer longer media files.

Here's what I'd suggest to you:
Use the Media Manager to consolidate your media.
Each subclip will then have its own media file.
Keep your project file lean and mean by deleting any clips you know will not use.

Surely you do not need to have all 58 hours of video online. Cut it down and you'll be rewarded with a project that's snappier and easier to manage.



Kevin Monahan
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And one more thing, is your external hard drive properly formatted?

Please explain "filling up the drives". The drives are all formatted correctly and have ample free space.



- A

Thanks for the input. Question. My understanding about FC P 5.0 is that subclips actually now contain their own media files. Is this true? If not, in media consolidate, will all my subclips become complete media files? If so, I could dump the original complete load in of all my tapes end to end, and keep the subclips as new files under consolidation. Is that what you're suggesting?



- A

yes.



- A