Movie Window Slowing Down Everything Else

[hamburski]

I've tried this with a brand-new, empty session as well as the fully-loaded project I'm having trouble with, and it's happened on multiple projects with different movies over the past month or two. It's this:

Whenever I have the movie window open, everything else - and I mean everything - works on about a three second delay. Hit play, and the wiper takes three seconds to start moving (as does playback). Sometimes when playback and the wiper do kick in, they come in midway through the movie. This obviously makes scoring much more difficult if not impossible. Clicking on anything else also has this three-second delay: pulldown menus take time to appear, record and mute buttons, anything involving the interface.

I've tried putting the movie on a different drive from the session, it makes no difference. I've tried crushing the movies down to a few MB, also no difference.

Has anyone else experienced this and/or solved this problem?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Might help if we knew which Mac machine, OS, version of DP, how much RAM, video and audio cards &/or devices you are using. Otherwise the short answer is no, I have not had that experience even in large HD movies with surround sound on dozens of audio & MIDI tracks and some VIs present, and that was on my G5!

However, you might try changing the format of the movie, especially the video part. Which video codec are you using?

[hamburski]

Right, of course:

Mac machine: Intel Dual Core 2.66
OS: 10.6.3
version of DP: 7.24
how much RAM: 10 GB
video and audio cards &/or devices you are using: My interface is a Digi 002. My sessions, samples, and applications are each on a separate internal drive. The movies are Quicktimes, and average about 50MB apiece.

What codec would you recommend? Would it be a matter of re-exporting the movies using something like MPEG Streamclip?

It doesn't seem to be a matter of incorrectly matched frame rates, but my session drive was nearly full so I'm archiving a bunch of stuff to get it down to about half full, at which point I'm going to run Disk Warrior and see if that makes any difference.

[sprout]

As MLC mentioned, the actual codec in the quicktime could be a factor. Some highly compressed formats like H.264 use quite a bit of CPU horsepower to decompress the frames of the movie for display. Great for reducing file size, but not great when there's other work I'd rather have my CPU doing! I've had good luck with motion JPEG A, or DV codecs on my modest MBP. And you're correct, you could transcode using MPEG streamclip, or Quicktime Pro.

And good call on getting some more free space on your session drive, too.

Good luck!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Based on what I've seen so far, it's the drive. You could even try copying the movie to your main HD and see what happens. It won't kill it.

Then again, you didn't say if you are on a Mac Pro, Mac Book Pro, iMac, Laptop, or MINI. That is also a factor, as is the specific model (3,1 7,6, etc.).

Could be the distributor, could be the coil...

~Tom Waits

[hamburski]

Thanks for the input, both of you. I've re-exported to DV format but that doesn't seem to make a difference. I've also just archived 170GB of files (all completely backed up on two different external drives) so I've got just 30GB of data now on my 200 GB session drive, but again - things are still acting the same.

When you say it sounds like the drive, do you mean it sounds like the data drive was too full, or like maybe the drive was getting corrupt (does that happen?) or needs to be defragmented? Or that there's an issue with the main Mac HD? That's a 250GB drive but it's still got 130GB free.

And oh - right, sorry - it's a first generation Mac Pro - 2x2.66 GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon.

I should also say I've observed, as I look at this more closely, that if there's been no activity for at least 30-60 seconds and I hit play, things start up right away. But if I do that, then hit stop, then start again, that's when the delay occurs. So obviously in the normal course of working, you're doing something new every couple of seconds, and so the effect is for there to be a delay for every command I try to initiate, whether it's playback, editing or whatever.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Is this in all projects or just one? It could be a file corruption, in which case you should try to LOAD the sequence (copying data) and see if that helps. Also, try a new sequence and see if and when the issues arise.

[hamburski]

Definitely multiple projects, and with a completely clean, new project file, as I mentioned at the outset, in which I tried a couple of different movie files as well.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Sorry, I don't re-read the whole topic and can't always remember every detail.

You might just try a clean install of DP. Have you ever contacted MOTU on it?

[hamburski]

Totally understandable; I just wanted points for having thought of that I did just install the 7.24 upgrade; not sure if that would net the same results as re-installing 7.22 from the disk?

Haven't contacted MOTU yet. Sounds like the next step.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Maybe we can split the points? LOL!

Oh, you didn't think of this! I CALL POINTS!

What version of Quicktime are you using? I find QT7 to be way more reliable and flexible than the QT10 crap they're putting in the OS now. If QT 7 (preferably the Pro version) is not installed, you might want to install it and try that for your export with a paired down, slim video file. If you've already done that I forfeit my points. And not to be morose, but is it possible your video is going?

One more thing: How long are your movies

[hamburski]

Dang it! I didn't *think* of calling points!

I am indeed using the dreaded QT 10. I supposed I should give 7 Pro a shot, though I feel like at some point I've paid for and/or lost track of the licensing for a few earlier QT pro upgrades. Well, one more won't break the bank.

These movies aren't that long. Anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes, and it's definitely the same for the 3 minute ones as for the longer ones.

What would it mean, for my video to be going?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

From my experience with QT X I think your problems may be solved. Maybe not, in any event I'm going to look for a couple of points...

[hamburski]

Okay, Quicktime Pro 7 retrieved, movie clip for this projected open in QT 7 Pro and exported for "medium broadband," loaded into brand new, otherwise empty DP 7.24 file - no difference in performance. So, hmm. I guess it's time to try MOTU tech support? This is very, very mysterious.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

May have been time for tech support long ago. Couldn't hurt...