Dropped Frames w/Xserve RAID: Solution

We were having problems with capturing DV footage onto our new Xserve RAID and having dropped frames or even image freeze during the capture. Found some threads on the Xserve RAID forum regarding the issue and after following some of the suggestions (summed up in the article below) we can now report the problem has been solved. However, there are some reports the remedy may need to be reimplemented if the Xserve RAID is powered down. But I hope this helps those out there experiencing similar problems between FCP and Xserve RAID.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302780

every night I shut down my xraid unless it's rendering or copy ing. I use raid admin to shut it down. Every morning I start the array from the button on the back, boot the G5, and launch raid admin and uncheck "allow host cache flushing" It's like brushing your teeth and having a shower tho those personal habits don't have to follow the same order

Similar Messages

Dropped frames on Xserve RAID upgraded w/750GB drives.

I'm capturing in 10-bit uncompressed standard definition 720x480. I just upgraded one side of my Apple XRAID, (connected directly via fibre channel) with seven, 750GB hard drives from Apple, drives designed for the XRAID, (came with there own sleds.)
Current Xserve RAID firmware version is at version 1.5.1/1.51c
Before the upgraded drives, no issues with dropped frames, (drives 1-7) the other side of the same RAID has no problems, (currently running 250GB drives, drives 8-14.) All sleds are populated with drives of the same capacity, (respective to each side.)
The drives were formated using the Xserve RAID Admin software and mounted using Apples Disk Utilities, Journaling turned off. The final formated capacity of the RAID on drives 1-7 is 4.1TB.
When I capture to the drives on the upgrade side, I get dropped frames. When capturing to the other side, no issues, works great. I checked the settings for performance and they are the same for both sides, as follows:
Use Controller Write Cashe - ON
Allow Host Cashe Flushing - OFF
Use Drive Write Cashe - ON
Use Steady Streaming Mode - OFF
Read Prefetch: 128 stripes (8 MB/disk)
My capture box is an AJA I/o and has never given me dropped frames till now, but only on the side of the RAID that has the new 750GB drives. I also have another RAID that uses 500GB drives on both sides and it work just fine as well, (no dropped frames) using the same performance settings in XRAID utilities.
Any suggestion on why these new Apple drives modules are dropping frame would be very much appreciate. Again 7 new 750GB drives from Apple w/sleds having dropped frame issues.

I'm capturing in 10-bit to avoid loss of quality from analog sources like BetaCam SP as well as line 21 must be part of the captured file, because it contains line 21 for captioning. Eight bit has a banding issue that I can't have in the final product and 10-bit doesn't have this issue.
Source quality is maintained completely when working in 10-bit uncompressed, as well as the captioning data that I need, which is stripped out of the captured video latter. Captioning software can read line 21 of the raster area, of the captured file.
Source video is from BetaCam SP, DVC Pro and DVCam.
The RAID is an Apple Xserve RAID, connected via Fibre channel directly, (no xsan.)
I also create high quality QuickTime Streaming files from these source files, the higher the quality of the source video the the better the streaming files look when created.
I have never had any problem capturing till I installed these new drives from Apple.
The RAID is as stated above, is an Apple Xserve RAID, connect via a fibre channel card in a Mac Pro 3.0GHz tower, (no xsan is used, due to connecting directly to the XRAID.)

Final cut drop frame at xraid ( raid 5) with cinewave

Hi All , I Have G5 with Mac os 10.4 with cinewave A/D pro Ver 4.7 .. the problem is i get drop frame when capture to Xraid 7 X500GB ( Raid 5 )..i try to capture to another xraid 7X500GB ( Raid 0 ) without any drop frame..
i ask if cinewave 4.7 can work with Macosx 10.4.6 or not
any one can help me to use raid 5 with cinewave 4.7 without drop frame ????
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

We gave up on our cinewave card a couple of years ago. You might like to try this forum - they may be able to help.
http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=14&SectionID=19&lng=1
Good Luck

Dropped Frames and Render/Playback problems in Final Cut Express HD

I use FCE HD and edit HD video off my Sony camcorder. Recently I've got rid of my old Imac G5 and have a newer 2GHz PowerPC G5 with more RAM (2GB) off a friend because my old mac wasn't fast enough and was incapable of playing back some of my edits.
At first when i got my new mac things looked faster and it was playing transitions without dropped frames etc. However now i've started editing again and imported new projects, i've got a big problem with dropped frames during playback and rendering. I get dropped frames during unedited clips let alone at transitions and for some reason, fce will no longer render video. Unedited clips from my latest project need rendering, which i've never had before, but when i try to render them the 'writing video...' pop up flashes, but nothing happens and the video is not rendered!
Now i can't watch and edit some of my projects without dropped frames stopping playback every other clip and i can't do anything with my new ones because the video need rendering but can't be rendered!
Can anyone help me out on either topic?

Hi Ross,
Well, most people, myself included, would say you should consider yourself lucky if doing video via USB ever worked at all for you. Overall, USB is not up to the demands of video, and that is most likely why you are getting your dropped frames problem.
The solutions would be either use your internal HD or get a good external FW drive. I know this is frustrating, as it has been for many people who look at the raw specs where USB 2.0 appears faster than FW400 but in real life, for video especially, it is not.

Mac Pro compatibility with Xserve Raid

Are the two compatible? In other words, can I connect an Xserve Raid to my Mac Pro (asuming that I have a Fiber Chanel card)?
If above answer is yes, asume that the Mac Pro is connected to a WLAN at home via Ethernet or airport. This WLAN also hosts one more computer (PC). Will this PC have access to the Xserve raid data?
Finally (and asuming that cost is not a big issue-I know how much the Raid solution costs, even at minimum config), Do you think that the Xserve Raid solution (with the minimum configuration) is better/more reliable/faster/ than the Mac Pro internal solution? Take into consideration that I am a photographer (shooting digital and raw format ONLY) and I consume about 50-60Gb of disk space per month
Mac Pro 2.66 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You might want to look at what some other photographers use, Port Multiplier controller and drive enclosures. Up to 5 drives per channel for a total of 20 drives.
XRAID would offer FC and more levels of RAID support, and concurrent access, especially with Xsan.
Take a look at the AMUG reviews:
Mac Pro 2GHz 2GB WD Raptor/ RE 320/160 Mac OS X (10.4.8) APC RS1500

Dropped frames only on xserve raid

dropped frames only on xserve raid
i'm not able to capture on xserve raid without dropped frames. tihis was a working sytem bud one morning it dosn't work. i capture on mac pro internal drives or external fw drives without problems.
the xserve raid is new formated in raid level5 [mac os extended journaled and striped in raid 0 extended] and the risult of kona system test are 178mb/sec write and 167mb/sec read.
must bee enought for 8bit uncompressed pal, no? also if i divide the stripe set the system dosn't work on both controler. i tried also to change the fibrechannel cables!
i checked also the fibrechannel card with expansion slot utility and the message is that runns at maximum speed.
there are no error message on raid admin, the xserve raid appears ok.
i'm shure that the fcp settings are ok, i know the list that regard dropped frames from apple.
i'm desperate, can you help?
thanks jochen
system:
mac pro 2x3ghz-5gb ram(from apple and the hardware test on the system dvd is ok)
osx 10.4.10
fibre channel card: lsilogic firmware 1.2.18.0 in slot 4
xserve raid 15x250gb firmware 1.5.1/ 151c
aja io (driver 3.0)
raid admin 1.5.1 (diver 1.0)
fcp 5.1.4

I'm guessing conditioning is the same as optimization, but I can't find anything about it in the help documentation. I ran another capture test today with no problems.
An interesting side event is that when I started experiencing dropped frames I ran the Kona System Test utility to verify write and read speeds. It wouldn't run (no write or read) on my RAID. I tried it on my Firewire drives with no problems. I discovered that in the Kona System Test preferences there is a choice of I/O API for Macintosh or Unix. When switching to the Unix I/O API the test ran fine with expected read and write speeds reported. I've used the Kona utility in the past without having to change that setting. I sent an inquiry to AJA.

HD Capture into Xserve raid dropped frames

Any body know how to set up an xserve raid to capture uncompressed 1080/24p footage. I striped it to a raid 5 got dropped frmes detected, redid the stripe in raid 3 got the same thing, please help!
I'm shooting on the Canon XL H1 at 1080/24p sending the feed from the cameras HD/SDI output to a Panasonic AJ-1200A DVCPRO HD deck. after capture I want to import the footage into FCP thru the blackmagic multibridge extreme onto a 7 terabyte xserve raid.
g5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

You may check your cache settings on Xserve RAID via RAID Admin tool.
Here is the settings I believe should work for most video captuer cases.
RAID ADMIN 1.5, with 1.5 firmware on Xserve RAID
1) Use controller write cache checked
2) Use Drive cache checked
Read Prefetch:
8 stripes

Dropped frames on capture to SCSI Raid

I am getting dropped frames on capture to a partitioned clean scsi raid coming in thru FCP 5.04 via SDI. The clip will run for about 10 minues (digitising to DV) and then the picture will freeze on the FCP monitor but the VTR doesnt stop (even tho I have 'stop on dropped frames' selected). I then hit esc but the FCP goes into a coloured windmill hang and then I have to force quit. Anyone have any suggestions? Yours deperately!!
J

Thanks for closing the thread with your solution; hardly anyone does that around here.
bogiesan

Dropped frames on multiclip playback - possible solution

so I've got a project with 2 streams of 1080 30p material and fcp is constantly dropping frames when I try and do a "live switch." Playing the material off an external glyph drive connected via Esata. Tried connecting via fw800. Same problem. Also have the same material on another external glyph. Same problem.
Tried booting off an alternate startup drive. No problem.
restarted off my primary startup drive. Went to system preferences: accounts: log in items, Found an item there called "simbl.osax"
Did some googling and found that it was probably installed by some third party app. Deleted it. Problem gone.
I hope this helps someone else. Installing apps that install this kind of thing without warning you is a constant danger.

3 drives in RAID 0 on the Xserve RAID is likely not sufficient for 3 uncompressed SD streams. In fact, it's almost certainly insufficient.
I also can't imagine that you're striping the 3x500 RAID 0 with the 3x250 GB RAID 0, as it would give you less space than just using the 3x500 RAID 0 on its own

Easiest solution for adding Fibre Channel Tape Backup to Xserve RAID setup

I'm interested in getting a Fibre Channel LTO-3 tape library such as the Exabyte 221L for my Xserve RAID/Xserve G5 setup. I realize there are SCSI LTO-3 solutions that are less expensive than FC, but I'd prefer not to have to add a SCSI card to my Xserve, mainly because I'd have to pull the video card and run the server headless (horrors!). However, I understand that I must get a Fibre Channel switch to allow the LTO library, the Xserve, and the Xserve RAID to communicate... you can't just daisy chain FC devices. The least expensive switch I can find is the new QLogtic SANbox 3050 for about $1800. For my situation, in which these will be the only FC devices I'll probably ever use, does this switch sound appropriate? The specs on the switch can be found here: http://www.qlogic.com/products/sanbox/sanbox_3050.asp.
Xserve RAID & Xserve G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

For simple environments like yours, it's trivially easy. You must plug everything in, and you're good to go... as simple as a network switch.
Now if you start adding multiple hosts (i.e. plug in a second Xserve or G5), you need to be careful, because in the default configuration everything is "wide open," so every device can see every storage LUN. This would actually be problematic, as systems could (actually, would) corrupt each other's storage. When you get to this point, you'll need to look at either zoning the ports on the switch, or using LUN masking on the Xserve RAID to allocate specific pieces of storage to specific hosts.
But for now, just get the switch, plug everything in, and you're off.
BTW if you mark "answered" for me, versus for the thread overall, it helps me out a bit in this forum ranking system, whatever it is.
Cheers.

Upgrading QT caused my RAID array to drop frames again!

FCP 5.1.4. Upgraded QT today as per software upgrade. Repaired DPs after. Just as last time, now my RAID array drops frames on PB. Last time, I thought it was a controller card problem, but a student said to just reinstall QT using steps from Michael Eilers' March 18, 2007 post. It worked. I can try this again, but my question is: Do I have to do this everytime I upgrade QT? Am I doing something wrong? This can't be the SOP for upgrading QT, can it? Maybe I should look at LaCie for updates to the RAID? Advise and help to answer this would be greatly appreciated.

REPEAT AFTER ME: WHEN YOU HAVE A STABLE OS AND APPLICATION COMBO, CLONE YOUR STARTUP DRIVE. This is the only way, I repeat, THE ONLY WAY to work if you depend on your system for your livelihood. I clone to a second internal drive and I can be back to work in a matter of minutes if things go south after an update or upgrade. There is no way that Apple can thoroughly test every possible hardware and software combination. And do not expect a third party supplier to have updates immediately ready.

Dropped frames during playback and Record To Tape

Mac G-5, OS X 10.4.4; 4 X 2.5 GHz; 4.5 GB DDR2; NVIDIA GeForce 6600 w/256MB.
G-Raid 1TB, Format Mac OS Extended; External FireWire 800 port.
Maxtor 300GB Internal, Format Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Tape deck, Sony Mini DV GV-D1000 NTSC FireWire 400 port used for digitizing and mastering.
Have searched forum for solution to dropped frames. Based on other suggestions, set Final Cut Pro 5 RT button to SafeRT; Playback quality to High; Playback Frame Rate, Full. Compression rate at 75%. Sequence > Render All-Video Needs Rendering;Audio, For Playback Render Only-Mixdown.
System Settings--Scratch Disk Video Capture and Audio Capture set to RAID. Video Render and Audio Render set both to Maxtor or RAID. Either case dropped frames.
User Preference--Real-Time Audio Mixing, 2 tracks (have also tried 4 tracks, which equals # of tracks actually used).
In spite of changing all the above settings, I still get dropped frames. Am I missing yet another setting that will fix the problem?
Kerwin

Any heavy filtering and/or effects?...including audio, since you've specified the same number of audio tracks in your real-time audio prefs that you're working with...
...and yes, please explain 75% compression...
K

FC-5 & Xserve Raid

Has anyone heard of any issues regarding the new 500gb drives affecting performance in the Xserve Raid? I was recently advised not to purchase a Raid that was populated with 7x500gb drives -- It was claimed that you can experience dropped frames In Final Cut once the raid reaches 80% capacity or higher.
is there any truth to this?
I've already got a Xserve Raid that is populated with 7x250 gig drives -- would they not be affected in the same way if this were true?
--sbf
Dual 2.7 gig G5
4gb RAM
1.35 TB Xserve RAID
Final Cut 5 Studio
Logic Pro 7
Shake 4

I'd suggest you ask your source for more information about his/her claim. That's an element of truth to it, but there are so many variables that it isn't factually correct, IMO.
Hard drives produce lower data throughput as the read/write heads get closer to the inner portions of the platters. Some hard drives will benchmark (test) significantly lower numbers on the inner, and even on the middle tracks.
If one of the drives in a RAID set has this type of throughput pattern, it will bring the entire RAID set down to lower throughput.
Xserve RAID isn't any more open to this problem than any other array. A low performing drive can be isolated outside the RAID set and replaced.
But there are many other factors to consider.
Quad-core G5 5GB RAM, Aja Io-LA, FCP 5.0.3 Mac OS X (10.4.2) Lots of toys, over 5,500 posts served

"Dropped Frames on Playback" - when playing back FCP's Bars+tone

We've been having a problems with one of our edit suites dropping frames when playing back to tape (Edit to tape).
In checking it out, I created a new project and added DCP's PAL Bars and tone to the default sequence. FCP is stopping playback with the "Dropped Frames on Playback" error after 13"-15". I've tried all the usual stuff - trashing FCP prefs, zapping PRAM, repairing preferences etc.
Has anyone any further suggestions??
RT is set to Safe, with dynamic frame rate and video quality.
The Mac is a Dual 2.66GHz Dual Core Xeon, 4Gb RAM, with an AJA kona lhe card, connected to an XServe Raid via fibre. The tape deck is a DigiBeta M2000.
I've read all the posts I could find, and checked Shane's stock answer #12.
Cheers
Steve

Try creating a new user, log into that and test FCP.
In my case, a new user worked, for awhile.
Through a lot of trial and error and a reinstallation that was ineffectual - properly surmised by a very learned friend of mine, Mr. Sheffield - I found a project to be corrupt. So thoroughly corrupt that it would corrupt FCP and any projects opened downstream which is why my new user worked for awhile. Took me some time to figure out the proper order to open things after a system restart. Looks like I'll be doing a rebuild of the project through xml which shouldn't take to long.
In your case, if a new user doesn't help and you go the reinstallation route, uninstall FC Studio with this jewel of a utility. Many thanks to Jon for writing and distributing. http://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/fcsremover_1.0.6released.html
Zeb

MAC PRO KONA 3 External SATA dropped frames

Recently our company upgraded to KONA3 card with the new MAC PRO. We were not aware our External SATA drives would not be 100% compaditable with the MAC PRO. The drives do mount and seem to work fine in Standard Def and compressed HD, but start to drop frames when dealing with Uncompress capturing. Spoke with AJA and was referred to use Fibre or SCSI based on the LH FAQ portion of their site.
We've installed a temp Fibre Channel Drives and set the card on port 4, with the KONA3 card on Port 3. Do note the drives are RAID 0.
Still having dropped frames when capturing Uncompress HD to the drives.
My questions are:
1) Why does the MAC PRO not support External SATA?
2) Any ideas to contribute to my Fibre issues?
3) What type of other storage solution has been proven to work?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thank You All For Your Professional Experience
Marcus
MAC PRO 2.66 Dual Core Intel
2GB of RAM
3.2 TB of EXTERNAL SATA (from Promax)
500GB FIBRE CHANNLE
OS 10.4.8
KONA 3 Drivers vs3.3
FCP 5.1.2
MAC PRO Mac OS X (10.4.8) KONA3; External SATA

My questions are:
1) Why does the MAC PRO not support External SATA?
The only Mac Pro compatible External SATA drive is from CalDigit. This has been proved by people in Barefeats and Creativecow. More and more people are using CalDigit S2VR HD and their FASTA-4e card to do the editing.
3) What type of other storage solution has been proven to work?
S2VR HD has been provedn to work and work very well with great price. Many people are raving about CalDigit's products and its support.
http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/newreadpost.cgi?forumid=98&postid=862284
http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/newreadpost.cgi?forumid=98&postid=862289
http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/newreadpost.cgi?forumid=98&postid=862301
http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/newreadpost.cgi?forumid=8&postid=917131
Power G5 Quad and Intel Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Dropped Frames w/Xserve RAID: Solution

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