is 512MB on my Macbook too little? keep getting dropped frames during playback...

sorry again to bug you with beginner stuff.

got a 1.83 GHz macbook pro w/ 512 mb ram.


only have 25 seconds of a simple assembly, 5 cuts in it, all from one big clip (24p footage captured via 2332 pulldn), no effects, two mono audio tracks.

keep getting this when trying to playback:


--------------------
Frames dropped. try:

Turn off unlimited rt
Lower comp data rate
Close open seq
Lower pref for rt audi trk
Increase spd of sys, disc drv or net conn
-------------------

the rt has to be on unlimited or it'll be red and not play at all.

could find nothing about the compression rate.

in user pref lowered:

audio mix to 2 tracks
playback quality to low
limit video rt to 10mbs

all other programs and sequences closed.

increased still cache to 35% from 10%.

it still does it.

thank you.

> only have 25 seconds of a simple assembly, 5 cuts in it, all from one big clip (24p footage
> captured via 2332 pulldn), no effects, two mono audio tracks.

First off, are you sure you don't have cadence problems? 2:3:3:2 pulldown removal is for 24p Advanced, not 24p. For 24p, or 2:3:2:3 pulldown, you either have to capture and edit at 29.97fps, or you have to use a capture card or Cinema Tools to remove the pulldown. Make sure you watch your footage on an external monitor. If your timeline and clips are improperly set up, you can have frame-rate issues.

Dropped frames during playback are often not a problem unless they're visible. I assume you're talking about 24p DV captured via FireWire. What kind of storage device are you using? For best playback, you must render video (OPTION-R) as well as perform an Audio Mixdown (OPTION-APPLE-R) before playback.

Go into User Preferences and turn off the "Report dropped frames during playback" option. Render video and perform the Audio Mixdown. Now play your footage -- again, you must watch on an external monitor. If you don't see any dropped frames or audio/video glitches, then FCP is crying wolf and you can probably leave the dropped-frames warning turned off.

"All from one big clip" may be part of your problem. How large was the captured clip? It's not recommended that you capture over 15 minutes at a time per clip. Ignore the people who tell you to capture an entire tape as one clip -- unless you're working on reality TV, those people are pointing you the path to disaster.

And 512MB of memory is the barest minimum for FCP. Get more memory for better performance.


www.derekmok.com

By the way, you can help us take the guesswork out of our troubleshooting and type out the whole words rather than abbreviating everything. It'll make it a lot easier for us to understand and diagnose your problems. Also, if you *are* a beginner, you should learn the proper terminology.


www.derekmok.com

and 512k is way to little to do really anything of mention - GET MORE RAM!!!!!!

Of course 512KB is too low, Wayne...that's adequate, maybe, for Pong. {:-=P


www.derekmok.com

thank you very much for your time.

it is 23 minutes 24p ADV from dvx100p. no breaks in timecode. turned off the warning, now plays fine.
next time i'll just render it, like you advised.

so more memory, huh...what happenned to the "intel duo 4x faster than G4"?

how ram much would you think?

sorry about using abbreviations

+vw

You should have the maximum RAM available in any laptop that is running a pro application. Makes a huge difference.....

>>so more memory, huh...what happenned to the "intel duo 4x faster than G4"?<<

Your processor is much faster than a g4, but your memory - RAM - is different to your processing power. 512k is about what you need just to run the operating system. There wouldn't be too many g4s on this forum running video on that little memory.

I would say get as much ram as you can afford, up to 4 gigs.