PT12 Play Start/Stop Lag
 

Greetings, gents. If I may, I could really use your help.
I'm having a couple of issues. I'll split them up as different threads to keep it clean.

We are a post facility, and we just upgraded from PT10/OSX MtnLion/BlackMagic to PT12.8.1/OSX Sierra/AJA LHi.
Running:
MacPro Towers 5,1 2.66 12cores, 48gb ram.
HDs are all Samsung SSD 850 Pro.
Capturing video with AJA ControlPanel,
Translating video with MPEG Streamclip.
We've tried every iteration of DNxHD.

Very simply, push play= lag. Push stop= lag. Total varies, but is around 1.5 to 2 seconds. Every single time.

Longest lags come from alternating the playback from opposite ends of even just a 30 second spot.

I can minimize it to PT10 levels if I Disable Video Hardware, and/or turn off Delay Compensation.

True, we work at an extremely fast pace, but I'm not seeing a lot of complaints about this since PT11 (which we skipped).

No, Count In is not enabled.
No difference when changing "Play Start Latency"
Changed Synchronization values, no change.
Changing Video I/O does nothing.
Have tried looping in Sync HD with house ref, including feeding reference to AJA Kona LHi through a breakout cable, nada.
Switched over to BM, same issue.
PT 12.8.2 didn't solve it. In fact, it just added a few more turds.
Even obsessed over the AJA ControlPanel settings with the editors/machine room monkeys.

This is super frustrating and diving us nuts. May even roll back to PT10.
There are other issues, like, not being able to see System Preferences while PT is open, and lagging automation during playback if you click or change any automation, but I'll start new threads for that.

Thanks so much, fellas! I really appreciate those of you who take the time!

Thanks

Re: PT12 Play Start/Stop Lag
 

I can only assume that your Mac pro is the mid 2012 version with 2x 6 core Westmere processors, yeah?
I believe that the PT 12 compatibility list shows that it needs the i5 2.93 GHz and above processors. Not to say that PT 12 won't work at all with the slower processors, but this sounds like a possible cause right here.

Another thing to try is Disk Caching. Do you have Disk Cache enabled and set high enough to cache your entire session? With 48GB RAM, you have plenty to cache an entire TV series mix session for sure. But even if your doing features, it would have to be a pretty damn big session to not be able to get your timeline cached. This could possibly help with the play start time lagging.

Re: PT12 Play Start/Stop Lag
 

Thx for the input, @Inglesworth.
You are correct, using MP 5,1 towers. If that’s the case, we are hosed until the new modular MPs are released, as there is no way we’ll get approval for trash cans and all the extra mess that they would require.

The Disk caching has had no effect on performance, even though I tried every setting including just “normal”. Seems more like an AVE issue.

Is anyone else using the towers without play start/stop lag?

Re: PT12 Play Start/Stop Lag
 

Confirmed that another another system with the same MP specs is NOT having this issue. So, it would seem the CPU is not the issue.

Re: PT12 Play Start/Stop Lag
 

I just installed a MacPro 2012 3.33, and , even with the faster processor, still getting the play start/stop lag...

Re: PT12 Play Start/Stop Lag
 

It's def not the processor, I have a 5,1 2.4 Ghz 12 core machine and it does not display the lag you mention. Nothing wrong with a Westmere, thousands of folks use 'em.

Re: PT12 Play Start/Stop Lag
 

hi, have you tired running on Mac Built-in audio to eliminate your Audio Interface Drivers ???

does this happen in a blank session ???

Re: PT12 Play Start/Stop Lag
 

I don’t use AVE but do use a coinstall of both 10 and 12 for this reason. 10 for editing speed, 12 just to make bounces and stems bc of the transport lag driving me crazy while editing fast.

It definitely gets worse the more graphics are on the screen. Ie- with a 100 playlists open and tons of waveforms it’ll go very sluggish. When I close the playlist view and trash the pt waveform cache (pref/database helper app) then it gets better for a bit. I also use the “open in low-res mode” option or whatever it’s called for opening the pt12 app, which does help as well.

Re: PT12 Play Start/Stop Lag
 

@john1192 That’s interesting. Taking the I/O out of the equation the lag is MUCH better. Way snappy! Can’t work without an I/o, tho.
With the I/O, even a blank session with video has the lag.

Re: PT12 Play Start/Stop Lag
 

I know it's probably a dumb question, but did you install the 12.8.1 HD driver? Also if the BM cards are not in the equation, you've removed those drivers too yes?

Cheers

Ray