Cannot play video from network drives

[Branko]

Hello everyone,
Recently I bumped into a very strange error that's forcing me to change the way I work.
I run 2 ProTools rigs in the studio on Mac Pros (a 12-core 5,1 and a 6 core trashcan), both with 11.3.1 HD. My main rig is on 12-core and it has a BM Decklink card installed. Both machines are connected to the server via Ethernet.
Several weeks ago I tried to open a session and add a video to it and I got a warning that the codec was not supported, which was very strange because it was a DNxHD36 1080p/24 kind of file that I always use.
First I thought that those codecs got updated or corrupted, so I installed a fresh copy of those, but no success. Then I converted the video to ProRes LT. Nothing. Needles to say, Quick Time plays back these files without a problem.
Then I copied the file to my system drive and suddenly everything was OK, the video appeared in the session.
So, the conclusion is my setup can't play video from network drives which is a big problem in my setup where all projects reside on the server.
Has anyone got a similar problem, or a solution for this?

[mikevarela]

Had you been using video from ETHERNET server before?

God, can't imagine why you would want to. Unless you're on a large back plane switch, traffic will halt you in your tracks.

I know storing stuff local clogs it up, but it's so much faster on local, especially for higher bandwidth tracks - dnxhd 60 or 90 or ProRes 422 or HQ

Direct, Fibre, USB, FW or TB usually.

I have the trashcan too. Got a OWC thunderbay and run video and audio through that connection but on separate drives, SFX too. Use internal PCI for system only.

Seems to be rocking so far.

[coaxmw]

What's the format of the network drives? I noticed that sessions that would play back fine on 10 using network drives give permissions issues and other random hangs/errors/can't save when working from network drives.

[Chief Technician]

Do you have any characters other than letters, numbers, or underscores in the file path? I have heard (not experienced) of the Avid Video Engine being finicky with characters in the name and maybe the path. Being certain the file ends in .mov helps too.

[Branko]

Originally Posted by mikevarela

Had you been using video from ETHERNET server before?

All the time since I installed the server, 2 years ago. Gigabit Ethernet is more than enough for DNxHD36, which is enough for our HD projector.

[Branko]

Originally Posted by coaxmw

What's the format of the network drives? I noticed that sessions that would play back fine on 10 using network drives give permissions issues and other random hangs/errors/can't save when working from network drives.

It is a ZFS Raid set. Very fast and very reliable.

[Branko]

Originally Posted by Chief Technician

Do you have any characters other than letters, numbers, or underscores in the file path? I have heard (not experienced) of the Avid Video Engine being finicky with characters in the name and maybe the path. Being certain the file ends in .mov helps too.

Everything is written without accents. Occasional use of underscores.

[Pythagor]

Do you experience problems with particular video or all projects refuse to play?

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by Branko

It is a ZFS Raid set

Have you ever been able to playback video from the ZFS volume with Pro Tools v11.x?

[coaxmw]

Originally Posted by Branko

It is a ZFS Raid set. Very fast and very reliable.

I ask because 1 facility I work from has a Facilis Terablock that has always worked great for me. When building new rooms they decided to wipe and reformat everything as multi user partitions. It again worked fine for me while I was on 10 but as soon as I upgraded to 11 and 12 I was totally unable to play sessions, edit or even save until I reformatted my audio partition to a single user system. I'm no IT expert though, just throwing the idea out there.