OS X.4 & G5 Cheat Sheet: 
Voici un mix de divers petites opérations de maintenance préventives pour votre Media Composer Adrenaline sous Mac OS X, permettant d’ameliorer significativement les performances et la stabilité de votre machine Media Composer Adrenaline (à noter la version Media Composer Adrenaline 1.8.4 est désormais disponible sur simple demande auprès de notre service technique).
We have put together a list of things to help decrease sluggish performance with Media Composer Adrenaline & G5 computers. Below are some suggestions to improve speed and stability of your system. While this isn’t an official document, it’s meant to help people struggling with Mac’s and Adrenaline, and trying to get their performance better. Please send any comments or corrections to: keith_gerrard@avid.com
** Supported Mac OS & QuickTime for Adrenaline v. 1.8 to 1.8.4:
Mac OS X 10.4.2 & 10.4.3
(still testing 10.4.4 & 10.4.5)Apple® QuickTime® 7.0 to 7.0.3.
(still testing QT 7.0.4 and higher.)Slot configurations:
The location of the SCSI, FireWire or Fibre Channel cards can greatly affect performance and bus speed.
Slot order for Macintosh G5’s (
dual processor 2.0 through 2.7GHz, including Dual/Quad Core G5s):(though the type and speed of cards may have changed, the slot order should be the same.)
If using: Would be located in: FireWire*** card goes in:
SCSI:
(PCI-E)
– UL5D ( firmware 1.5.0 ) — Slot 4 of the G5 — Slot 2(PCI-X)
– UL4D ( firmware 1.5.0 ) — Slot 4 of the G5 — Slot 2(PCI)
– UL3D ( firmware 1.6.6 ) — Slot 3 of the G5 — Slot 4Fibre:
(PCI-E) –
Celerity FC42ES (current shipping) — Slot 3 of the G5 — none.(See Below)(PCI-X)
– Atto Celerity FC41XS( firmware 1.1.0 ) — Slot 3 of the G5 — Slot 4(PCI)
– Atto 3300 ( firmware 2.4.1 ) — Slot 3 of the G5 — Slot 4If running Fibre Channel card ONLY, then the slot configuration would remain the same.
(Slot 3 of the G5)*** Supported PCI/PCI-X FireWire cards used in conjunction with SCSI/Fibre card:
– ADS PYRO PCI 64, part #API-311
– SIIG 1394 3-Port PCI i/e, part #NN-440012
AT THIS TIME, WE CURRENTLY DO NOT SUPPORT any PCI-e FireWire cards in the Dual/Quad Core
G5’s. They are still in testing. (
March 16th, 2006)//////////////
NOTE:
ATTO Technology has an archive of all their drivers & flash files on their website, however they requirecustomers to register for the site to gain access to it:
http://attotech.com/– once registered, under the Applications/Utilities/Firmware area, ‘ExpressPCI Configuration Tool’ is what is needed in order to up
Version 2.8
was the supported configuration tool for OS 10.3.Version 3.0.4
is supported for OS 10.4 * higher.– you would also download the appropriate ‘flash’ file for your storage card, for use in the Config Tool.
– Their utilities can be found:
( http://attotech.com/software/app1.html )Names of required flash files:
All the flash files come in one package labeled:
Flash Files for ExpressPCI Host Adapters
(File Size 1.8 MB)Other Info & links:
MCA specs:
http://www.avid.com/products/composer/adrenaline/specs.shtmlAvid RAM Specs: www.avid.com/onlinesupport/supportcontent.asp?productID=0&contentID=8966&typeID=2
Avid CPR site:
http://avid.com/onlinesupport/downloadcpr.aspAvid Download Center:
http://avid.com/support/downloadcenter/index.aspG5 specs(Dual Processor):
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86790G5 Manual (Dual Core)
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Power_Mac_G5_Late_2005.pdfInstalling RAM in a G5:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Memory.pdfA handy reference for info on
EVERY mac ever made: http://www.everymac.com/systems/Apple’s page of Manuals:
http://www.apple.com/support/manuals/powermac/Apple’s 101 area:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/(for learning the basics, as well as your way around the Mac)
Quicktime Links:
QT 7.0.3(Mac):
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime703.htmlQT 7.0.3 (Win):
http://appldnld.m7z.net/qtinstall.info.apple.comamper/us/win/QuickTimeInstaller.exe
QT 6.5.2 (Windows):
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime652forwindows.htmlQT 6.5.2 (Downgrading from 7.0.x):
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime652reinstallerforquicktime701.html
QT 6.5.2(Mac):
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime652formac.htmlFibre card specs:
Atto 3300 spec sheet: (
PCI card: http://attotech.com/software/files/techpdfs/EPCIFC3300TS.pdfAtto Celerity FC41XS (
PCIx card: http://attotech.com/software/files/techpdfs/CelerityFC41XS.pdfATTO Celerity FC42ES: (
PCIe card: http://attotech.com/software/files/techpdfs/CelerityFC42ES.pdfRAM:
For more information on RAM specifications or configurations, please visit:
www.avid.com/onlinesupport/supportcontent.asp?productID=0&contentID=8966&typeID=2
General Speed suggestion:
– If running into performance issues with G5’s, you can try bumping the ‘
Pre-Filled Frames’ setting down to ‘0’ if it was not already. That setting is found under the ‘Video Display’ settings.Prefilling the Video Display Buffer
In the Video Display Settings dialog box, you can specify the number of seconds that the Avid editing application delays before it begins playback. During this time, the application processes frames in advance and stores them in the video display buffer. When playback begins, the application starts to display the preprocessed frames while it continues to process new ones. The application will continue to play back the sequence successfully in real time unless it exhausts its supply of reprocessed frames. By
accepting a delay at the beginning of playback, you increase the likelihood that the application will play the material successfully. The maximum delay you can specify is 10 seconds.
(More Info: Page 173 of the Effect Guide for Media Composer Adrenaline)
– If you notice missing frames or choppy video during real-time playback, switch to Draft Quality Mode.
– To select video quality for playback click the Video Quality Menu button at the bottom of the Timeline and select a video quality.
(More Info: Page 175 of the Effect Guide for Media Composer Adrenaline)
Controlling Video Quality for Playback
The Video Quality Menu button in the Timeline bottom toolbar allows you to switch display resolution between
Full Quality and Draft Quality. Display resolution during playback has two states:
•
Full Quality (green – ) uses full-image 1:1 resolution, but handles limited effect complexity before theAvid application begins to have difficulties with real-time playback.
•
Draft Quality (half green, half yellow – ) uses 1/4 resolution and reduces the quality of the image soyou can view greater effect complexity in real time. Once you are satisfied with your sequence using Draft Quality, render the sequence and switch to Full Quality to see the final result.
Troubleshooting Suggestions:
Resetting P-Ram
– reset the p-ram by holding Apple+Option+P+R (apples says 2 or 3, I aim for 7 restarts)1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these
keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys after the first Chime. You must press this key
combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the 7
thtime.6. Release the keys & let it reboot.
7. Your computer’s PRAM and the NVRAM are reset to the default values. The clock settings may be reset to a default date on some models.
More info on pram and nvram: (
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238Other than P-RAM,
you can also try resetting the Open Firmware settings.Restart computer, hold down Apple+Option+O+F after the first Chime (F+O for Open Firmware)
At the Open Firmware prompt, type:
reset-nvram. Press Return.Then type: ‘
reset-all’. Press Return and Machine will reboot.Disk permissions
– These can be repaired if the system is acting up, or if there have been a lot of applications uninstalled or reinstalled recently. Once you open the Disk Utility (drive >Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility), you select your internal drive and the ‘Repair Disk Permission’ button becomes active. Click it and let it run. May take up to 10 minutes. Also, Apple recommends that you repair disk permissions BEFORE and AFTER any system or OS update.(
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=152059 )Run ‘fsck’ on your internal drive
– boot into single user mode by restarting, and holding down: Apple+S.Once booted in, you should have a black screen with white text, type the following:
/sbin/fsck –y
– fsck goes through and checks file system consistency and interactively repairs the file system. When finished, type ‘reboot’ and it will reboot. ** You MAY have to add
–fy instead of –y at the end of command.(
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106388 )System Preferences & Settings to check:
Appearance
– Disable ‘Smooth Scrolling’ (may not make much of a difference, but could help)Dock
– you can turn ‘Magnification’ off if you want to.Security
– File vault – make sure it’s off. Select ‘Disable Automatic Log-in’Energy Saver
– everything should be set to ‘Never’also, under ‘Options’, set processor performance to ‘Highest’ NOT ‘Automatic’
( http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86612 )
Display
– matching resolution and refresh rates) also check that the resolution is native for flat panel(s)Screensaver
– none. Also disable any ‘Hot Corners’ though not required.Accounts
– Fast user switching turned off.Users
– make sure that they have only admin users.Software Update
(and Automatic Upate for QuickTime) – Both should be turned off.Sharing
– All options could be turned off. Check for long Computer names in here.Speech
– Could also be disabled.Universal Access
– Both options set to ‘Off.’ Also, since OS X added the ability to create shortcut keys for almost any action or function, make sure that the Universal Access settings are not set to use any used keyboard shortcuts.Login Items
(located under ‘Accounts’) – you should keep this list as clear as you can.Date and Time
– Make sure that it’s not automatically setting itself.Dashboard/Expose
– for safety sake, set all options to the ‘-‘ listed at the bottom.Also, if you want to disable Dashboard entirely:
Launch Terminal and then enter the following commands.
To turn Dashboard off:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
To turn Dashboard on:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
You have to restart the Dock after making either change for it to take effect:
killall Dock
with thanks to: (
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050723123302403&lsrc=osxh )Spotlight
– After installing or upgrading to OS X 10.4, Spotlight might be automatically enabled onyour media drives. For the best system performance, Avid recommends disabling Spotlight for
your media drives. (
NOTE: Avid Unity drive, by default, do not show up under Spotlight’ssearching tool. Use for LOCAL drives only.)
To disable Spotlight:
a. Go to System Preferences > Spotlight.
b. Click Privacy.
c. Select a disk on the desktop, click the + button to add to the list. (or drag & drop from the
desktop)
d. Continue to do this for every disk. You will need to add new disks as you add them
****(
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301533 )During the boot up,
all the extensions that are marked as essential are put into cache files; which is used tospeed startup. Throw out following 2 (two) files and they should rebuild on restart. Those are found in:
/System/Library/
Extensions.kextcache and Extensions.kextcache)(More info on those files and extensions within OS X:
http://www.osxfaq.com/Tutorials/extensions_hell/index.ws )In some instances,
physically pulling the Ethernet cable from the computer has also helped.CHUD utility
– for disabling 2nd processor. While it’s not required for Adrenaline, it’s a test that can be done tosee if there’s an underlying performance problem.
To download: (
http://developer.apple.com/tools/download/ )////////////////////////
Unity, Adrenaline, G5’s and you.
A note about ‘.DS_Store’
files on OS X.When OS X touches a shared, networked drive, it creates a file named ‘.DS_Store’
Sometimes these can go corrupt and cause problems. Info on them, how to delete them and how to prevent your Mac from writing these files:
http://www.avid.com/onlinesupport/supportcontent.asp?productID=43&contentID=9055&browse
=NOTE:
‘The ATTO 3300 and 3305 Fibre Channel boards are qualified for Avid Unity MediaNetwork. These boards are designed for use in 100 MHz PCI-X bus slots. If they are installed in a133 MHz PCI-X slot, data corruption and data loss will result. Be sure to install the ATTO 3300 or 3305 Fibre Channel board in a PCI-X slot that runs at 100 MHz or less. For more information, see ‘Avid Unity ATTO Fibre Channel Slot Requirements’.
from the unity 4.1 ReadMe:Hardware and Software Requirements
Software Requirements
You need the following Avid software to use the Mac OS X 10.4.2 operating system with an
Avid Unity MediaNetwork system:
• Avid Unity MediaNetwork v4.0
• This v4.1 point client software release
• Proper drivers for the 3300 and Celerity ATTO boards
////////////////////
OS X limitations listed from the Unity 4.0 Release Notes:
“Mac OS X Clients
When you attempt to transfer a group of files from one Unity workspace to another workspace and the destination window is open, it is possible that all files will not be transferred and you are not notified.
Workaround
: Make sure that the destination window is closed and you transfer the files to the destination iconIf the File Manager service is turned of or the File Manager system powers down for any reason such as a failover, maintenance, or a system crash, all Mac OS X clients must be rebooted to reconnect.
Mac OS X clients are slow when saving Projects or Bins to shared MediaNetwork workspaces.
Mac OS X Ethernet clients cannot mount workspaces that have one or more spaces in the workspace name.
You receive an erroneous error message that asks you to check User Name and Password.
Workaround
: Create workspaces with no spaces in their names. If you need to separate two words in a workspace name, use an underscore (_) instead of a space.Using the Administration Tool to delete a workspace containing a large file can cause the client to disconnect from the File Manager and show a “Lost connection to server” error message.
– The Administration Tool for Mac OS X clients has Optimize, Synchronize, Add/Remove Drives, and Move
Workspace options disabled.
Workaround
: Perform the Optimize, Synchronize, Add/Remove Drives, or Move Workspace operations from the File Manager, a Windows client, or a Mac OS 9 client.– If you copy media files from one MediaNetwork workspace to another, the media files are corrupted and cannot be used.
Workaround
: When you need to copy files from one workspace to another use Consolidate to copy files from within the Avid Composer Products software to copy files from one workspace to another. Alternatively, you can copy them to your desktop and then copy them to the other workspace. If you click Cancel on theAuthentication dialog box while you are installing the MAC OS X client software, you can still install the software but with incorrect permissions for many features to function correctly.
Workaround:
If you install the software and it does not function correctly, uninstall the software and reinstall it. Do not click Cancel on the Authentication dialog box and make sure that you type the user name and password for an account with Administrator permissions.– Quicktime files on an OS9 client will not play on a Mac OS 10.2.6 and 10.3.2.
Workaround:
This is a third party limitation, a QuickTime issue on OS9. The paths stored in the QT ref files are not compatible with OS X or Windows. If you export a QuickTime Movie with QT 5.x, it does not export flat movie files that will work on OS X or Windows.Mac OS 9 clients cannot copy files larger than 2 GB to a MediaNetwork workspace. Windows clients can copy files larger than 2 GB to a MediaNetwork workspace, but that file and all the files that follow it alphabetically do not appear in the list of folder contents when viewed from a Macintosh client. This is not a problem for Mac OS X clients.
//////////////////
The following sections apply to Mac OS X client installations. (pg 33 of the Avid Unity™ 4.0 Release Notes)
Rendezvous Name
When you are installing a Mac OS X client, you also need to assign the client a Rendezvous Name. The Rendezvous Name appears in the Sharing window below the Computer Name. The Rendezvous Name can be the same or different from the Computer Name, but must be unique among all of the Windows and Macintosh clients. n The Computer Name and the Rendezvous Name cannot contain any spaces or apostrophes. The File Manager uses the Rendezvous Name in the same way it used the Windows 2000 Network Identification and the Mac OS 9 Computer Name to determine which clients are currently logged in.
Background Tasks
Mac OS X runs several background tasks daily, weekly, and monthly. The tasks clean up system databases and
run between 3:15 A.M. and 5:30 A.M. If these background tasks are missed for a period of time, they can take several minutes to complete, they run at a higher system priority from Avid applications and utilities, and will affect the pe
