Do you run PT11/12 and Media Composer 8 as satellite?

[Postman]

Hi friends,

I have worked with Media Composer as a video satellite since, well, since a very long time ago. The two have been good together until recently. Since upgrading from PT10/MC6.5 to PT11 or 12 with MC8.3 or .4, Media Composer is an unreliable satellite. I would like to know if anyone is having a good experience with PT11/12 and MC8 satellite?

Media Composer may, 5-10 times a day, freeze up randomly while slaved. Seems to happen mostly when I do very quick stops/starts/repositions of the edit cursor. Pro Tools throws up a dialog that MC is unable to playback then removes MC as a satellite. MC rarely shows an error message but usually is unresponsive to manual commands as well. Windows (7) reports the MC application has become unresponsive. The fix is to allow Windows to close MC, then restart it. There have been times when MC is not totally frozen and appears to work independently of PT with local commands but not as a satellite. In all cases once the satellite freeze has happened, MC will not function as a satellite again until after MC relaunch. It appears to be entirely a Media Composer issue, but only while running as a satellite. Freeze happens with PT11.2, 11.3, 12, and 12.1, although each version of PT reacts to the freeze in slightly different ways with different messages.

My system specs are in my profile. I have spent a long time troubleshooting the MC system, fresh Win7pro install, MC8.3 and MC8.4, verifying driver versions, etc. All is current and supported with the exception that MC is on Windows while PT is on Mac. This particular combo, I have learned, may not be officially supported (unsupppored? untested?). This I didn't know until after purchasing a new HP z840 for MC8 early this year. Mac with Win satellite was a supported setup in past years and in fact it was the only supported video satellite setup in earlier years. If you have a stable system, what operating systems?

I can start a support case on the MC side of the world but first I want to collect more information from my fellow Pro Toolers.

[StefB]

Hi Postman

I am running Protools 11.3.2 (12 Core 2010 Mac OS 10.10.4) with MC 8.4.2 (4 Core Mac Dustbin 64 Gb memory) and this combination hardly ever have these issues - maybe once every other day. I do however only work with prores HD or DnxHD 120mb/s (or lower) clips. I have used it with DnxHR (LB & HQ) clips with no issue. I avoid H264 - I found I picked up the errors you describe often when using silly codecs :)

Hope that helps

[Postman]

Hi Stef,

Shout out to S. Africa and thank you for the information! If/when you do see a similar issue, do you have an idea what might cause it? Is it only the codecs? I note that you are running Mac with Mac (which may have no relevance except that it is supported).

I import (not AMA link) all client-delivered movies when time permits, to ensure that only old fashioned Avid-centric mxf media is being referenced. I never attempt to AMA link to h.264. For these reasons I am reasonably sure that cpu-hog codecs are not a factor. MC8.3.1 is running on a new high-end HP with one (not two) fast processor and tons of ram with raid 0 (stripped pair) storage. When I purchased it I figured it would have no trouble with DNxHD 145 video, which is not particularly demanding, without running out of steam. My old HP xw8400 and MC6 could play those easily. It could run a couple of uncompressed HD streams simultaneously, so I expect this one can do at least as well. But hey, if I had answers I wouldn't be asking questions!

I really wish I could troubleshoot by running the old HPxw8400 with PT12, but Avid made that impossible when they changed the video satellite protocol such that MC6 does not work with PT11/12, and MC8 does not run on the old 8400 (I gave up trying).

Anyone else running video satellite with PT 11 or 12 care to weigh in? If you have good results, I will continue to investigate why my system is fehcachteh.

[Ray JB]

Hi Richard

It's a good question that you ask and before my current subscription to MC 8.4 runs out I'm going to run some tests. (I only got MC via subscription in order to generate the MXF-centric DNxHD media you mention and it did not solve my problems of freezing picture streams in PT12.x). I have only used the combo of PT12 on a Mac Pro 5,1 and using video satellite via ethernet to a MacBook Pro retina laptop.

I'm still baffled that I can't get 100% reliable video playback in PT12, it drives me crazy that I can't just get a 23 minute DNx36 Quicktime to play end to end on my rig. I've filled in all the recent questionnaires and hope that AVID make some progress here but it seems that the Avid Video Engine is not reliable. Some days it's fine and then the next day I've got major lockups on the same area that I was playing flawlessly the day before. What gives?

Anyway I'll try and do some tests and document my setup with MC as video satellite with the current versions of MC and PT 12 and get back to you.

Regards

Ray

[Postman]

Thank you. To clarify, I am not having troubles with picture playback on Media Composer. When I said "freeze", I mean the Media Composer app locks up.

I don't want to derail my own thread but two days ago I was editing on my 11.3 Win7 system, using a DNx QuickTime through a MojoDX, same specs as we usually use in there. It was a terrible video experience, with literally dozens of error messages in the space of a couple of hours, saying unable to lock, unable to stop, disconnected, etc. In every instance, the errors occured as I edited quickly, like a stop, cursor reposition, hit play all within less than a second. Very similar fast-editing that is prompting freezes with my PT12/MC8 video satellite. The 11.3 video engine always came back to life on the next playback attempt, but I've never seen anything like that before especially on that system that has been so reliable in the past. Another engineer recorded Foleys that afternoon, same system with same video, and had no troubles. He was not doing very rapid stops and starts, and I think that is the difference.

I will reconfigure my PT12 rig today to mix a short job WITHOUT video satellite. There will be a period of fast editing, and it will be interesting to see if PT12's video engine can keep up.

[danbrennan]

Postman

About to jump into session so quick response, if its helpful I've been running PT11.3.1 and MC 8.2.2 for the past few months (both on OS X 10.8.5) on a few films and it been pretty stable. I normally AMA link to DNxHD or ProRes files and it feels pretty snappy. In a pinch I'll have to link to an H.264 or a PhotoJpeg (credit roll etc) and that's when I'll get lock errors.

The one lockup that I haven't been able to figure out it is occasionally if I'm working in preview on a selection, MC will stop chasing and its In and Out selection on the MC timeline will be stuck unless I swtich over to MC and press "G" to clear the IN/Out selection. I haven't been able to consistently recreate this one though.

[Postman]

It is helpful, Dan, to know that your MC is on Mac, so is Stef's, and you are not having my problems.

I moved the NitrisDX interface over to my PT12 Mac this morning and spent the day running DNxHD-145 from PT12. Almost flawless, and WAY better than using MC8 video satellite! Back+Play button on the S6 caused some trouble, described below,and there is an annoying black flash frame at start and stop when in loop-play, on the NitrisDX output (not in the video window in PT). Black frame is not a show stopper but the Back+Play thing is no fun.

At least a dozen times when I hit "Back+Play" from S6, playback would continue forward, an error message immediately appears saying "Pro Tools timed out while trying to stop". Dismissing it immediately brings a second message "The Avid Video Engine was unable to stop". Once this is dismissed, I can actually stop playback and start mixing again. I've been having issues with Back+Play with MC8 satellite as well.

[Ray JB]

Hi Postman

Sorry for dredging up this old thread, but I'd not got back to you. I ran tests with Media Composer running on a MacBook Pro 15" Retina running pictures from a USB3 connected SSD on current version MC 8.4.1 and with PT 12.2 on a Mac Pro 5,1 32GB RAM OS X 10.10.4, lotsa disks etc with no real problems. Pictures files run internally on the PT rig exhibited freezing at the usual points. Reasonably snappy performance with MC satellite but not as good as running pictures via ProTools.

Just as a matter of interest, I un-installed PT12 as per the AVID recommended way on the knowledge base and installed PT11.3.2 and all my picture problems went away and I was able to play the same 25 minute reel flawlessly internally on my PT rig, the same one that had noticeable solid picture freezes, wtf? I'm just bewildered that the PT12 setup cannot do it!

All I can try is to remove 11.3.2 and pray to the video gods that it will work as well in PT12 as in 11.3.2. I'm stumped as to the flakiness of the video engine in my setup with PT12.