Q: External Thunderbolt HDD's

FilRmonic wrote:

 

Just out of interest, are you working with native AVCHD or in proxy mode? Working in proxy I can have several streams of video without any serious problems on my 3 year old MBP and a dual RAID disc.

Thanks for responding. I normally work in proxy, however, I'm not sure I am doing it right. I create a library, create an event to get a timeline, then import media, and then select proxy from the top media the create my multicam. I'm not sure at what point I start seeing the Task numbers start counting up from 0 until eventually 100, during which the beschballs and/or squirrelly, jumpy-jerky, conditions kick in occasionally. On long projects with 3 or more streams, the beachball can last for as long as 15-20 seconds.

Is there a better or preferred performance workflow to ease the workload on tge machine to improve I/O performance. BTW what is the clock speed of your MBP and video card if you don't mind my asking? Because that is what I used before and WOW did my MBP get HOT. :-(

FilRmonic wrote:

 

My MBP has a 2.3GHz i7, 16GB RAM and a NVIDIA GT 650M Graphics card with 512MB memory. The fans do work hard when rendering and I wouldn't have it sitting on my lap but it doesn't get over-hot! . . . . I've just checked an old project and it can run 3 video and 1 audio stream in native AVCHD quite smoothly (from a LaCie dual RAID thunderbolt connected disc).

Wow that's awesome. My MBP is 2.7 and a bigger video card yet hot hot hot and fan zooming high speed. Dunno. Yes on the "project" under the event. The real bugger is audio Adjustments. That's when the real crunch is on and color grading. I'm worried about all this because I'm going to sell my MacPro once the iMac gets here and I fear beach balls and bogging down will drive me nuts, although the new iMac that should be here today is a little faster and the video card has the same memory as my MacPro although in one card instead of two FirePro's.

Do you know the read/write speed of the LaCie ?

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

 

I am not sure what you are saying. To use proxy, you need to 1) create the proxy media (either at import or by control-clicking the clips in the browser, choosing "Transcode Media" and ticking the proxy media box) and 2) switch to proxy media at the top right of the Viewer.   Two streams of proxy media ought to work fine from your existing RAID.

I'd never heard that way doing proxy.  I'd been once told that at any time just go up to top bar and use the droop down and click "Proxy" there.  When clicking transcode will it transcode ALL the media, or only media that needs transcoding based on what I make changes too?  I ask because my RAID 0 is a 2 TB on a WD Thunderbolt and because I have as many as 8 Library projects on it at one time, it can fill up fast.  BTW, I use the copy import configuration so that all my media is in the Library file.

When I multicam, which is about 1/2 the time, there are three to four streams.

EDIT: BTW, anyone know how to get the MBP command <CTL+two finger swipe up/down> on a iMac or MacPro to enlarge the screen?  I inadvertently try it every time with my keyboard and track pad and it doesn't work on the MacPro (haven't tried it on the iMac as it hasn't arrived yet.

FilRmonic wrote:

 

The Read speed is around 390 MB/s and write is about 350. It's 75% full so probably not at its peak performance.

 

Hope your new iMac does the job! It might be the case that a nice new clean install will help!

Thanks of the iMac wish, I do too.  Is that Read/Write based on a USB3 or TB connection and that's a single drive or a dual drive?

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

 

Maybe this is just a miscommunication: you say "top bar", I say "top right of the Viewer". . . . (IMAGE REMOVED)  . . . You don't have to transcode everything to proxy. Just transcode whatever you need, if and when you need it. There is no need to waste disk space by transcoding everything. Note that proxy is easier to process, but takes MORE drive space than original AVCHD media. . . .

So glad you clarified that because that wasn't the way I was doing it.  I was doing it from the top bar menu.  Thanks :-)

Luis Sequeira1 wrote: . . . . Extremely useful feature for my aging eyes!  Go to System Preferences->Accessibility and check the box "Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom:" and select the modifier you want (I use control key for that).

Wow, thanks so much.  That made my day.  :-)  My aging eyes (over 65) needed that.  I used that for all the 350+ TV shows back in Pittsburgh using FCP7 and using clapperboard markers as the "in" point and for camera 3 that is way in the back of the studio, it was so much easier to zoom in to get that mark in point.

FilRmonic wrote:

 

The Read speed is around 390 MB/s and write is about 350. It's 75% full so probably not at its peak performance. . . .

Thanks of the iMac wish, I do too.  Is that Read/Write based on a USB3 or TB connection and that's a single drive or a dual drive?

B&H has a USB3 SSD for $204 that I ordered and gave me 313/331 before returning; however, I'm just hoping for 450 MB/s or higher if possible OR a way in which to proxy it down easy without a lot of rendering, conversion, or the like, which eat up HD space.  One project I did all proxy and all transcode with three cameras, took up 487GB's of space for the entire Library file for 42 minutes of finished video.  YIKES !!!  I am maybe gonna get back on a TV show in the background and at 5 shows of 24.5 minutes each, my RAID 0 dual drive box might hold one month (that's one day of filming) and have to lose all the data because could not archive.

Karsten Schlüter wrote:

speaking of Zooming … temporarily zoom . . . .

I just hit'n hold crtl-⌥ and a tiny box around my cursor zooms in.  release the keys - all back to normal.

What an awesome tool. Really handy to quick spot zoom in on something. Thanks!

I assume that one symbol is the Shift key?