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User profile for user: trenino
trenino Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Suddenly - Speed reduced / Dropped Frames

Hello,


I have been editing for more than 4 moths using HDV material converted to ProRes 422 LT. No problems with the playback, video was running smooth.


Suddenly today the same sequence I have watched dozens of time, does not play. I get the two dropped frames messages. The one without and the one with the red letters regarding disks.


Nothing has changed in my setup.


What could have caused this?



Macbook Pro 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Scratch Disks: 3 x 1 TB G-Technology (connected through Firewire 800)

Final Cut Pro 7, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 17, 2011 2:27 AM

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10 replies
User profile for user: trenino
trenino Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Dec 17, 2011 9:00 AM in response to Russ H

Thanks for the reply Russ.


yes I am sure about the particular sequence.which is just one layer of video and a layer of subtitles.


I do use the program "Yasu" every second day to repair permissions and general maintenance so that should not be the problem.


The helpful application you mentioned gave the following results:


Scratch Disk 1 - Write 19.1 MB/s / Read 19.4 MB/s - this is too low. Can I do something about that?

Scratch Disk 2 - Write 71.3 MB/s / Read 81.7 MB/s

Scratch DIsk 3 - Write 71.7 MB/s / Read 82.4 MB/s


The test was made with a 128MB test file size and 1920x1080 10bit RGB video frame size.


All the disks are almost full


Disk 1: capacity 999.86 GB / available 61.44 GB

Disk 2: capacity 999.86 GB / available 62.25 GB

Disk 3: capacity 999.86 GB / available 42.3 GB



But the question is it possible for a disk to start reducing speed suddenly?


thanks again

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User profile for user: Nick Holmes
Nick Holmes
User level: Level 7
30,018 points

Dec 17, 2011 9:07 AM in response to trenino

trenino wrote:


All the disks are almost full


Disk 1: capacity 999.86 GB / available 61.44 GB

Disk 2: capacity 999.86 GB / available 62.25 GB

Disk 3: capacity 999.86 GB / available 42.3 GB


But the question is it possible for a disk to start reducing speed suddenly?


That's exactly what the problem is. You should have at least 10% free space. 15% is even better.

Time to buy a couple more drives and archive that stuff off.

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User profile for user: trenino
trenino Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Dec 17, 2011 9:19 AM in response to Nick Holmes

Ok, I know that this is a problem but not sure if this is "the" problem. I mean the disks were full before the speed change and there was no speed issues then. Nothing was added on them. For the last 4 months they carry the same footage.


The second thing is that Disk 1= Write 19.1 MB/s / Read 19.4 MB/s , this is too low compared to the other identical drives' test results.


So, I am wondering if there is something wrong with the disk actually.

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User profile for user: Studio X
Studio X
User level: Level 7
27,229 points

Dec 17, 2011 9:23 AM in response to trenino

Disk 1's performance is the reason you are getting dropped frames. Why that one of all of the drives is now performing so badly is logially tied to the fullness of the drive and also the fragmentation of the directories.


Your drives may benefit from running Disk Warrior. It will help organize things but more importantly will alert you to evolving problems with the disk structure and file integrity. It will also enable you to correct a great number of these issues before they become real problems.


I consider it a standard part of my regular machine matenance.


Also, G-Tech drives have been known to have throughput issues on FW800 busses when there was more than one drive attached. I have g-tech FW 800 500GB drive that read/writes 70-75 MB/s when it is the only device on the machine but drops to 20-30 MB/s when another hard drive is connected.


Good luck.


x

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User profile for user: trenino
trenino Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Dec 18, 2011 12:37 AM in response to Studio X

Hi, you are saying that the problem is tied to the fullness of the drive, but why don't the other drives (identically full) show the same speed results?


I believe that the problem is what you said about an issue of connecting many G -Tech drives together. In my example the scratch disk (firewire800) chain is : computer -- disk 3--disk 2--disk , so this is probably the issue.


What I still do not understand though is why, this issue appeared suddenly..


Which tools from Disk Warrrior would you advise me to use? Is it safe for the material I have on the disk?


Many thanks🙂

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User profile for user: Studio X
Studio X
User level: Level 7
27,229 points

Dec 18, 2011 7:09 AM in response to trenino

trenino wrote:


Hi, you are saying that the problem is tied to the fullness of the drive, but why don't the other drives (identically full) show the same speed results?


Because not every drive is used exactly the same way. While the three drives may have similar levels of data, this drive may have had more write/edits to the material with resulting directory fragmentation, there may be directory corruption and/or the mechanism may be failing,


Why do things "suddenly show up"? Often they don't. Small problems which pass unnoticed may grow to become big problems - which are noticed.


As Nick already noted, Disk Warrior has one main task, check the integrity of your drive directory structure and repair it if it can. It will also check the integrity of your files, but usually, directory problems are the major problem. It is a stable and safe program for drive maintenance.


Good luck.


x

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Suddenly - Speed reduced / Dropped Frames

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