Does anyone know what the specs are in order to achieve real time playback in Final Cut Pro?

Here is the email I got from my client with details about the issue.

"I have replaced the proxies with our master Cineform files in my Final cut
sequence and since our client wants it output as 1920x1080 HD, I have the
Cineform clips in a sequence of that Size.

We have our "Enable FCP RT Playback" selected in Performance settings for
Cineform. However this shows as an orange line on the sequence that does
NOT need to be rendered and that is good. However, we can't even play 1
full second of it without dropped frames. I have our system configuration
displayed below, if you have any suggestions for our set up please let me
know."

This is a mixture of Uncompressed and FilmScan2 CineformRAW being generated on the SI3D camera. Please if you know could you include the hardware specs for both formats.

Thank you!

-John


Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro4,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per processor): 8 MB
Memory: 12 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 5.86 GT/s
Graphics card:NVIDIA GeForce GT 120

Here is my system... same problem no RT playback.

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro4,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Memory - 8GB
Graphics - ATi 5770
Data Disk - 8TB Sonnet Disk Array.
OS Disk - Intel X25-E

Those Macs are likely under powered for full resolution 3D playback with a demoscaic (the first system might be close.) Are you using a AJA card? As you sources 2K or 1920? Have you tried enabling the Speed mode in the 3D settings? What are you 3D playback settings? What external displays are you driving? If you aren't playing 3D, talk to support.

Hi David,

We already discussed system requirements in the other post but I wanted to answer your questions here to keep the threads up to date for others curious or who have the same issue. For our situation you recommended a Dual Processor i7 (8 real cores / 16 with hyper threading) or a Dual Xeon Nehalem.

We are using an AJA Kona3 card.
The source files are 2K (from SI3D).
Speed mode is enabled
Our 3D playback settings are, Side by Side and Anaglyph. Getting about 12FPS.
The external displays are a Panasonic with active glasses, or a 2D monitor in Anaglyph.

Thanks again for your support,

-John

"Dual Processor i7 (8 real cores / 16 with hyper threading) or a Dual Xeon Nehalem" -- this is the same thing as Nehalem is an i7.

There are a couple of issues in playing back the 2K material in FCP on a 1920x1080 timeline.

1) FCP will request a 2K frame from the decoder and will scale however it sees fit. This may not be the most efficient and well threaded solution.
2) Mixing the Kona 3D and RT Enabler is a bit tricky. The Kona playback is a little more efficient, and necessary for dual-stream 3D playback. The Kona card is limited to 2Kx1080. Once you turn on RT Enabler, FCP takes care of all decode and scaling and passes the 8 or 10 bit images to the Kona card for display.

Is the Kona card set to 8-bit or 10-bit display? Scaling the 10-bit images in FCP is not as efficient as scaling the 8-bit images.