New Mac Pro - Uncooperative Quicktime

[Luke Boyce]

So I just got my new 2.8 GHz 8-Core Mac Pro with 8800GT today (No extra ram yet. Only have the 2Gb in there right now). I'm noticing that all of my quicktime proxies, even the smallest ones, are all playing back choppy. Can someone tell me if there is anything I need to be doing to make sure my system is ready to work on this. I really wanted to be able to edit 1k proxies in Final Cut, but it won't play a single one cleanly.

Not sure if this was a quicktime issue, but I noticed that lots of people are doing fine with 7.4.1 in Leopard, which is what I have.

Thanks for any help!
Luke

[Joel Kaye]

Considering I was just about to run out and buy one of these... I guess I'll hang on for a second. Does the 8800GT not work right yet? Perhaps it's the hard drive speed?

It's pretty easy to set up a little raid internally.

[wshultz]

I've actually never heard of anyone being able to play the proxies full speed in FCP or in QT player. I hope I'm wrong, but I've always had to use the proxies to export to Prores or some other codec before effectively editing.

[Brent J. Craig]

There is a great tutorial here on Reduser about how to downgrade to QT 7.3.1.

Discussion Thread: > http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9811


Excellent step-by-step instructions how to downgrade: http://filmskoniques.ath.cx/qt74/QT_7.4_Fix.html


I just did it on my new Macbook Pro and it worked perfectly (except now I can't buy movies from iTunes).

Someone (Gibby?) had a problem doing it and crashed a computer. Worth looking for that thread too.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Step 1> DO NOT DOWNGRADE TO QT 7.3.x IF YOU'RE RUNNING 0SX 10.5.2 (which you will be to properly support this system).

Step 2> If you already goofed up step 1, reinstall QT 7.4.1

Step 3> Install all OSX updates and all pro apps updates. Be sure to install Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 (this is a must for the 8800GT).

OK... QT proxies are going to play back a bit choppy on this system. No way around that. Live with it. For what it's worth, QT proxy playback stutters with QT 7.3.1 on this system and OS config as well and it crashes a lot too.

However, QT proxy playback and editing is smooth and real-time in FCP. The proxies will also render fine (usually) through compressor.

In FCP you will be loading and using the _H proxies. Yes, the 2K if you're working with 4K material. Don't bother with the others, they play back choppy. The _F proxies like to crash FCP (higher than supported editing resolution).

To get smooth editing of your _H proxies in Final Cut you need to set your timeline to match the settings of your imported clips. Match the settings of 4K clips if you're trying to mix 4K and 2K on the timeline. I would not recommend mixing - this can be bad. 4K 16:9 is not currently supported by the QT proxy system and therefore FCP, Compressor, etc.. Also not supported by Red Alert. You will also need to go into the Final Cut Pro > System Settings window. Choose the Playback Control tab. Change RT to Unlimited, Video Quality to Dynamic, Frame Rate to Full. Un-Check the Scrub High Quality box.

[Warren Kommers]

Good post Jeff.

For Pete's sake. When are they going to get the 16:9 proxies together? I can't believe it's taking this long. I like the 2:1 format but for now it's a small minority format. 16:9 is so standard it hurts not to have it as Redcine is just way to slow to render that stuff out. My whole feature that starts on April 1 hangs on this one item. Otherwise....Hello HVX. HELP!

[Adrian T.]

This QuickTime proxy problem has nothing to do with QuickTime 7.4. I have QuickTime 7.3 on my new Mac Pro since the beginning (never updated it) and the proxies always use up all eight cores of processing power.

This was my first post about it:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=138560&postcount=3
Other redusers have exactly the same problem with their new Mac Pros.

That's two months now and we never got a fix! :angry03:

What's up, RED? We're supposed to work with this software. At least tell us that you have identified the problem and that you're on it.

Dual Quad Core Mac Pro 3.2 GHz
MacOS 10.5.2 with graphics update
QuickTime 7.3
8 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 2600

[Adrian T.]

However, QT proxy playback and editing is smooth and real-time in FCP.

Most of the time, yes. BUT it still uses up almost all eight cores of processing power. I can play the same proxies on my two year old MacBook Pro without a problem. This needs to be fixed!

Rob, are you listening?

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Most of the time, yes. BUT it still uses up almost all eight cores of processing power. I can play the same proxies on my two year old MacBook Pro without a problem. This needs to be fixed!

Rob, are you listening?

Yes, the multithreading on the QT module as well as in Redcine is horrid. It can saturate all 8 cores to 85% or so and it just seems to be spinning its wheels. In Redcine, if I lock it down to 4 cores (forced externally), I can render just about as fast as using all 8 cores. Definitely lots of redundant processing going on.

[Luke Boyce]

Step 1> DO NOT DOWNGRADE TO QT 7.3.x IF YOU'RE RUNNING 0SX 10.5.2 (which you will be to properly support this system).

Step 2> If you already goofed up step 1, reinstall QT 7.4.1

Step 3> Install all OSX updates and all pro apps updates. Be sure to install Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 (this is a must for the 8800GT).

OK... QT proxies are going to play back a bit choppy on this system. No way around that. Live with it. For what it's worth, QT proxy playback stutters with QT 7.3.1 on this system and OS config as well and it crashes a lot too.

However, QT proxy playback and editing is smooth and real-time in FCP. The proxies will also render fine (usually) through compressor.

In FCP you will be loading and using the _H proxies. Yes, the 2K if you're working with 4K material. Don't bother with the others, they play back choppy. The _F proxies like to crash FCP (higher than supported editing resolution).

To get smooth editing of your _H proxies in Final Cut you need to set your timeline to match the settings of your imported clips. Match the settings of 4K clips if you're trying to mix 4K and 2K on the timeline. I would not recommend mixing - this can be bad. 4K 16:9 is not currently supported by the QT proxy system and therefore FCP, Compressor, etc.. Also not supported by Red Alert. You will also need to go into the Final Cut Pro > System Settings window. Choose the Playback Control tab. Change RT to Unlimited, Video Quality to Dynamic, Frame Rate to Full. Un-Check the Scrub High Quality box.

Jeff, thanks!! That did work in fact, as long as you actually render the clip. When I leave it unrendered, it plays great for about 20 seconds and then starts to choke. Although, I'm wondering how much of this is my need for much more ram.

Also, why 2K? Why not the 1K clips? Just out of curiosity.

Thanks again!

EDIT: Regarding the choking thing: I think I just noticed that it only does that when I'm playing the clip off of a Firewire400 drive instead of my usual FW800 ones. I should have known fw400 isn't enough to play a 2k clip.