MC2.8 stability...

dory_breaux

dory_breaux

Todd Wannabe
As of late, Media Composer 2.8 has been really unreliable. I'm getting erors like "too many preloads" or something about a flamethrower and then it just locks up.

Its also been off and on acting like MC 2.5, altho it may be because I was using that version before this. Its also randomly not playing back through the desktop but out the FW port, even though I have a nVidia card with the latest drivers. It also randomly wont allow fullscreen playback. Theres some other stuff that I cant bring to mind at the moment too.

Athalon 2 x64 5200+ 2.66 (dual core)
3gb DDR2 RAM
nVidia 8600GT 512mb PCI-E
WinXP Pro
Media Composer 2.8 (coming from 2.5.3)

Any help would be greatly appreciated, this is starting to get anoying and I dont wnat to have to go back to Premiere just becasue of a stability issue.
 
try not to update unless you just have to. I think I'm still on 2.7.2 because I simply cannot afford to beta test for Avid and take the chance of going down in a session. Even babying it, I crash now daily as opposed to monthly without ever turning it off with the meridien line.
They continue to down grade while every one else grows. It's really that simple to me.
 
You don't want the latest nVidia drivers. You want the drivers Avid provides when you install the software. Go to C:\Program Files\Avid\Utilities\nVidia and choose the operating system you're running (with 2.8 your only option is WINXP, so there may not be options in this folder--just the driver).

Uninstall your old driver, reboot, install the Avid supplied driver.

Also, your graphics card isn't on the certified list, so there may be some playback issues because of that. It's not to say it won't work, but it may not work as well as a certified card--particularly with Full Screen Playback.

Flamethrower errors are usually issues with a Mojo or Adrenaline--do you have either attached to your system? Do you also have firewire drives attached to your system? Give us more details on your storage and whether you have a Mojo or Adrenaline, and how they're all hooked up.

Michael.
 
Grinner, you need to test drive 3.0.5. The responsiveness and stability of the Meridien systems is back with the release of 3.0 and 3.05. Why it took them so long to get back to the Meridien benchmark I don't know, but it's much, much, much better than 2.7.2.

I know how you feel about Avid, but 3.0 really is an example of them listening to their customers and getting back to doing what they were known for--making a stable, fast NLE.

Michael
 
I could never bring myself to write another check Avid's way, man.
It's paid for. It'll stay this way till it dies.
 
MC 2.8 is rock solid for me. It never crashes on me, and every function works like a charm. But I'm reluctant to upgrade to MC 3.X for the very reasons you describe. When you've found something that works for you, stick with it.

That said, dory, I see you aren't running on a certified graphics card. No matter what version you're using, it will be unpredictable and unstable on a non-certified graphics card. I've tried, believe me. Even though Avid looks like it is working for a while with such a card, it can still become unstable later. That might be underyling your stability issues, rather than the version of Avid you're running.

Oh, and I do regularly (every few months) go through the pain of re-installing my edit system (and I mean re-installing the OS too). I keep all other non-essential software off the machine and do not connect it to the Internet so that it stays clean. You might need to start fresh.
 
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Sean, yeah I dont have a connection on my editing system for exactly that reason.

Everyone else, thank you so much for your help!

No, I'm using software only (so no Mojo or Adreneline) and no FW HDD, only two internal IDEs (dont make fun of me for being oldschool :P), an 80GB (system) and a 500GB (media).

I'll look into getting a supported card. Where can I find the list?

Thanks again!
 
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For MC 2.8 the list is NVIDIA® Quadro FX 1100, FX 1300, FX 1400, FX 3400,
FX 3450, 3500. The good news is you can get an FX 3450 for about $100 on ebay these days.
 
Im testing 3.0.5

There are a few controls that have changed that are bothering me, maybe someone knows the answers..

1. There is no Clip>Load Filler (anyone know where that option went?)

2. When I press the 'a' or 's' key to move to the next break in the clip, it now automatically turns on the trim tool, anyway to disable that from happening?

3. Pressing the effects editor button opens the effects editor, but pressing it again does not close it..


I haven't, nor may not use any of the new functions different from xpress pro.
 
Also, I can't get Boris Continuum Complete to install now since I upgraded to MC. After install, upon MC launch, it says it cannot find some sort of authorization, and then crashes. Yes I purchased Boris.
 
1. In your source monitor, where you see your clip name--click there and the option to Load Filler should be in the dropdown menu.

2. Remap A and S to Rewind and Fast Forward, respectively. Then it will function as you want.

3. Not sure here. I usually just close it when I'm done changing effects. I'll check it tomorrow when I get to work.

Boris: Not sure what's up. Did you already have it installed for Xpress Pro? If so, uninstall it then reinstall.

Michael
 
OK I checked and load filler is there - thanks.

Where do I need to go to remap the keys? somewhere under settings?

Im having an issue with importing audio files. When I import them, I am getting nothing, the file is there in the bin, but no sound when I play back, I've tried importing a few different ways. I had get the music file by opening up an old project that also used it. That file played back fine.
 
Remap the keys:

Go to your Settings Tab in your Project window. Open the Keyboard settings and you'll have a layout of your current keyboard setup. Hit Ctrl+3 or Cmd+3 (PC or Mac, respectively) to open your command palette. Look through all the tabs until you find Fast Forward and Rewind, and make sure the Button to Button remapping is selected in the Command Palette. Drag Rewind to the A key, then Fast Forward to the S key.

From here, customize to your hearts delight. Another common change to Media Composer keyboard is to enable Menu to Button remapping, click the Up arrow, then go to the fast menu of your timeline and select More Detail. Click the Down arrow, go back to the Timeline fast menu, click Less Detail. This will let you zoom in and out of your timeline using Up and Down, like Xpress Pro.

Audio: Not sure what's going on here. What version of quicktime do you have?

Michael.
 
Michael I'll take a look at remapping the keys, thanks for your help.

Im running quicktime 7.1.3 which worked with Xpress Pro 5.7.2

Which version should I be running with MC ? Thanks!
 
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