I am working through a bunch of sequences full of P2 encoded media (linked via AMA Volumes) and attempting to lift or extract out segments but am constantly getting a 3 to 5 second (sometimes up to 8 seconds or more) delay after pressing the lift or extract key. 

I have tried multiple separate sequences linking to different P2 AMA volumes with the same result, so it does not appear that it could be a single clip or bad media file.

My media is all stored on an external Western Digital 1TB "Caviar Black" Hard drive connected via eSATA. (an essential part of my workflow for flexibility and portability). I am running both MC 3.5 and 4.0 on multiple systems and the same issue happens reguardless of the version of AVID I run. I have also tried this on XP, Vista and Windows 7 all seem to have the same error (Vista runs the worst).

In a similar vein, sometimes scrubbing forward or backwards to much in a squence will caue the same delay. It looks like AVID is locked up and not responsive, but hen 3 to 8 seconds later everything works again.

Any ideas on what I should look for to fix this?

How does the Media Composer act if the media is consolidated to the same drive and the P2 volumes are unmounted (File > Unmount)?

I've never tried Consolidating as that would add a lot of time to my workflow.  I already convert to P2 format from AVCHD files shot on a Panasonic HMC150.

So far contrary to what I said above it seems to be only Media Composuer 4.0 and is not system dependant.  Meaning I can take an external hard drive to multiple copmuters and have the same problem (however its always in Windows 7).  Hopefully MC 5.0 will fix this as I haven't found any other work around.

What is the exact version of Media Composer you're running? I believe this was fixed in a patch. Clearly Windows 7 isn't supported with MC 4.x.

I'm having the same kind of problem using AMA and XDCAM files ; for me the delay is not so long as you says, only 2, to 3 seconds.

But I already had the same problem with the old method when we had to use Xdcam browser to reencode the file;  

I have no problem with DVC Pro HD files for ex, it's very fluid.

Isn't it because of the LONG GOP profile?

MC 4.02

I'm running 4.0.5.  Is there a newer version as of the writing of this post with a patch?  I was not aware if so...  do tell!

Also I've heard people have had the same probelm on XP, so its definately a 4.x.x problem and not a Win7 problem.

jpottenger:

I'm running 4.0.5.  Is there a newer version as of the writing of this post with a patch?  I was not aware if so...  do tell!

http://community.avid.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?q=link+editor+patches

Just scrolled through all the updates in the PDF readme file and didn't see anything about a fix for this... but I'll try to install the latest patch (4.0.5.5) and see if that helps.

Just installed the patches (I think) but I've seen no improvement.  I installed the AvidMediaComposerPatch4.0.5.6.msp patch only... and it said it was successful but when I go to the "about" section to see what version of AVID I have... it still just says 4.0.5 and not the extra .6 at the end.  Anyone know if there's a different place to check for this... or know if the patch installed ok?  Since it didn't fix my problem I'm wondering if it didn't get installed ok?

Thoughts anyone?

I'm sad to report that MC 5.0 still has this problem on all 3 of the systems I've tried it on.  All of them are Windows 7 64 Bit... and all of them are screaming fast systems purchased within a year to 3 months ago.

I've tried closing out every process running in the background to see if it was something else (like AIM or Logmein etc...) but it still has the problem. 

My newest idea is to try a new approach to the problem by changing up my workflow and importing MTS files directly since MC5 can do this now.  Might be a better way to go anyway as the conversion to P2 loses some resolution in the process anyway and if I have to wait to convert to P2... I may as well skip that step and wait for the mts files to import.  I haven't tried this yet, but will attempt to report back my findings.  If anyone in the meantime figures out a solution to this... I'm still very interested.

I've noticed exactly the same issues here with P2 (AMA).  I have no idea what's causing it yet.

Some progress... by chance I noticed that it was not giving me any delays when working with a short sequence of clips which got me to thinking.  And in a nut shell I've found after some testing that if there are 96 or MORE clips or P2 AMA linked clips in the timeline it gave delays... but if there were between 90 and 95 or less clips the delays appear to have gone away.  Here's what I did to test this.

In Media Composer 5.0 I started a new 720p 23.976 project raster 1280 x 720 which is what my footage was shot in.  I then linked to AMA volume and brought in 3 hours worth of clips from a wedding I shot on one camera (all on one P2 encoded card or volume)  I then dropped all the clips in order into a new sequence and started lifting out clips from the rear of the sequence working my way backwards.  What I found was that when clips 0000 through 0095 were in the timeline and nothing more, I could lift and cut with no delays.  If clip 0096 or anything over that were in the sequence it gave me delays. I then closed the project and started again and found delays occurred again with 95 clips, but when I cut down a few more it was fine again.  So there seems to be some majic number of clips that can be in a sequence based on these tests.

I also test length by importing another camera's footage from one P2 card (about 2.5 hours total) and follow the same procedure above.  The same thing happened around the clip count of 95.  Even though the total quality or length of the sequence was different by nearly an hour.  (test one had clip 0095 ending around 1 hour and 8 minutes, test 2 was around 2 hours exactly so length of sequence doesn't seem to matter).

These are new findings and I may end up seeing inconsistencies down the road as I edit more but so far this is the first sign of ANYTHING that I've found that could effect the problem.  Maybe we can submit a bug report to AVID once we know the exact triggers and specifics as I feel that I'm just now starting to figure out the specifics of the bug.

hey i´m having the same problem, which is quite strange, as i´ve edited using big Ama sequences without any problem before.

please keep us updated of your advences if there is any, i´ll try to solve it as well

good luck!

forgot to tell i´m using EX material

I am having the same problem with SD video (from a canon XL2) and as few as 20 clips on a 10 minute production. Any attempt to lift or ripple edit causes a delay. If importing the video prevents this from happening, I'll do that. But it's nice to just be able to copy it in and reference it. (I do this because I can load multiple tapes onto other systems, and just copy all the files over. I hate waiting for tapes to load.) :-)

I am using MC 5.