Hardware de-interlace

Graeme Nattress · August 16th, 2004, 05:06 AM

If you want a really simple de-interlacer, Simon, drop me an email and I'll cut all the other stuff you don't need out of my code and make a little hod rodded version for you to try. I've seen one other person report the solarization bug - it's something inside FCP or settings or something, and for the life of me I can't remember what caused it. I'll have to go hunt through my tech support emails and find the cause.

Graeme

Boyd Ostroff · August 16th, 2004, 08:54 AM

There is still something very wrong if it takes 3 hours to render a 5 minute sequence I think. I don't know about Film Effects, but DV Film should only take you a bit over 20 minutes to do that.

You mentioned you were running OS X 10.2. My recollection is that there were some serious problems with versions of OS X older than 10.2.8. Maybe that has something to do with it?

Perhaps there's some other software running in the background that dogs down your system? I don't think having a single partition on your internal drive will be a problem at all. The only other thing which I'd suggest checking is the formatting of your external firewire drive. "Out of the box" many of these are preformatted as PC drives. They will mount on the Mac this way, but performance is greatly impaired. You might check that drive just to confirm that it's formatted for "Mac OS Extended". There could be other issues with an external drive too. Have you tried this same experiment by putting the input and output files on the internal drive? Any speed difference there?

If you're seeing a slowdown by a factor of 900% (taking 3 hours to do something which should take 20 minutes) then SOMETHING is wrong SOMEWHERE. While it may not manifest itself in FCP itself, I would want to know what was going on if it were my computer...

Boyd Ostroff · August 16th, 2004, 09:01 AM

One other thought... what version of QuickTime are you running? All these programs use it. I know there are some issues with FCP 3 and newer versions of Quicktime. I have Quicktime 6.3 pro on my machine.

Jeff Donald · August 16th, 2004, 11:32 AM

Use Process Viewer (an Apple supplied application in your utilities folder) to check what application are using what percent of the CPU. This will confirm Boyd's suspicions of another program hogging the CPU. Your hard drive needs to have at least 30% free space. Unix base systems (OS X) will experience problems when the drive fills greater than 80%.

Simon Davies · August 16th, 2004, 11:56 AM

Hi there,

Graham, that’s a fantastic offer and I will gladly take you up on it, email’s in the post.

The more I think of this, the more I feel that lack of RAM is the issue. I’ll purchase some and see if that speeds things up.

Everything else seems within the limits you guys have suggested: 115.03GB drive with 58.15GB free space, Mac OS Extended format. I can pretty much qualify that there isn’t any other piece of s/w grabbing processor time because I purposefully haven’t installed or run any on the machine, it is used solely for editing. QuickTime version is 6.0.1, which is the version that shipped with FCP.

Jeff Donald · August 16th, 2004, 03:41 PM

Operations running in the background can hog CPU cycles. The feature that allows the time to be set over the internet automatically can be a big problem, as well as anti-virus software that scans new files. Run a small test and run Process Viewer at the same time and it will put the issue to rest and confirm your need for more ram.

Simon Davies · August 16th, 2004, 06:03 PM

Hi there,

I’ve just run this test: 5-min original sequence, dropped FCP’s deinterlace filter on to it and began rendering. Estimated time to finish - 20 mins.

In Process Viewer CPU usage is 170% and memory usage is 10.5%. There is nothing else listed having any real impact on the system.

Don’t know what you make of these figures Jeff, are they sort you are used to seeing? (Won’t be able to reply until tomorrow, must get some sleep!)

Simon.

August 16th, 2004, 05:06 AM	#16
Graeme Nattress RED Problem Solver Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 1,365	If you want a really simple de-interlacer, Simon, drop me an email and I'll cut all the other stuff you don't need out of my code and make a little hod rodded version for you to try. I've seen one other person report the solarization bug - it's something inside FCP or settings or something, and for the life of me I can't remember what caused it. I'll have to go hunt through my tech support emails and find the cause. Graeme __________________ www.nattress.com - filters for FCP

August 16th, 2004, 11:32 AM	#19
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	Use Process Viewer (an Apple supplied application in your utilities folder) to check what application are using what percent of the CPU. This will confirm Boyd's suspicions of another program hogging the CPU. Your hard drive needs to have at least 30% free space. Unix base systems (OS X) will experience problems when the drive fills greater than 80%. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

August 16th, 2004, 03:41 PM	#21
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	Operations running in the background can hog CPU cycles. The feature that allows the time to be set over the internet automatically can be a big problem, as well as anti-virus software that scans new files. Run a small test and run Process Viewer at the same time and it will put the issue to rest and confirm your need for more ram. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

August 16th, 2004, 08:54 AM	#17
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	There is still something very wrong if it takes 3 hours to render a 5 minute sequence I think. I don't know about Film Effects, but DV Film should only take you a bit over 20 minutes to do that. You mentioned you were running OS X 10.2. My recollection is that there were some serious problems with versions of OS X older than 10.2.8. Maybe that has something to do with it? Perhaps there's some other software running in the background that dogs down your system? I don't think having a single partition on your internal drive will be a problem at all. The only other thing which I'd suggest checking is the formatting of your external firewire drive. "Out of the box" many of these are preformatted as PC drives. They will mount on the Mac this way, but performance is greatly impaired. You might check that drive just to confirm that it's formatted for "Mac OS Extended". There could be other issues with an external drive too. Have you tried this same experiment by putting the input and output files on the internal drive? Any speed difference there? If you're seeing a slowdown by a factor of 900% (taking 3 hours to do something which should take 20 minutes) then SOMETHING is wrong SOMEWHERE. While it may not manifest itself in FCP itself, I would want to know what was going on if it were my computer...

August 16th, 2004, 09:01 AM	#18
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	One other thought... what version of QuickTime are you running? All these programs use it. I know there are some issues with FCP 3 and newer versions of Quicktime. I have Quicktime 6.3 pro on my machine.

August 16th, 2004, 11:56 AM	#20
Simon Davies Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: London Posts: 37	Hi there, Graham, that’s a fantastic offer and I will gladly take you up on it, email’s in the post. The more I think of this, the more I feel that lack of RAM is the issue. I’ll purchase some and see if that speeds things up. Everything else seems within the limits you guys have suggested: 115.03GB drive with 58.15GB free space, Mac OS Extended format. I can pretty much qualify that there isn’t any other piece of s/w grabbing processor time because I purposefully haven’t installed or run any on the machine, it is used solely for editing. QuickTime version is 6.0.1, which is the version that shipped with FCP.

August 16th, 2004, 06:03 PM	#22
Simon Davies Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: London Posts: 37	Hi there, I’ve just run this test: 5-min original sequence, dropped FCP’s deinterlace filter on to it and began rendering. Estimated time to finish - 20 mins. In Process Viewer CPU usage is 170% and memory usage is 10.5%. There is nothing else listed having any real impact on the system. Don’t know what you make of these figures Jeff, are they sort you are used to seeing? (Won’t be able to reply until tomorrow, must get some sleep!) Simon.