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QNAP – video convertions
Hello, I would like to know if I put a nvidia cuda card into Qnap Desktop NAS TS-1685-D1531-32G-550W 16-Bay (12x 3.5″, 4x 2.5″, 6x M.2), RAID 0/1/5/6 (Xeon D-1531, 32GB RAM, 550W)
is there an app be able to convert video files (from raw or prores) to prores proxies?
it would be nice to use cuda core card to convert footage into proxies
Best.
S. -
6 Replies
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Hi –
in order to put an Nvidia GPU card inside a TS-1685 or TS-1677X, you must create a VM (virtual machine) – load Windows 10 on the virtual machine, and then run your app (like for GPU rendering). Just plugging in a card does absolutely nothing for rendering.There is no QNAP “App” like Transcode station to convert into ProRes Proxy. However, Apple FCP X offers optimized media for free. There is also Apple Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder, Imagine Products Prime Transcoder, Divergent Media Edit Ready, Red CineX Pro, etc. These run on your Mac as a standard application.
It’s cheaper and easier to get an external eGPU box for your Mac to run something like this. And that is for rendering of specific programs. An eGPU product like an AMD Vega 64 in an eGPU box will do absolutely nothing to increase render speed of something like Adobe Media Encoder.
“why can’t things just plug in and work”
☺
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
thanks Bob,
I thought it would e possible to let the box make convertions, autonomous and always on.
I know that external mac could do the job (using cuda cores), so it could be nice to have a fast unit just for doing this job.
How would you connect the storage to the mac? usb 3? thunderbolt?!
Best!
S. -
you connect via 10G. You can certainly connect via 40G, but it’s expensive to do this.
10G with thunderbolt 3 to 10G adaptors will give you about 1000 MB/sec, when using a Sonnet Solo 10G, and a decent QNAP like the TS-1685 or TS-1677X, loaded with drives. For Win 10 computers, you can put in 10G NIC cards from ASUS, QNAP, or Sonnet, to give you those speeds as well.You connect via 10G, not Thunderbolt 3.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
Thanks Bob,
just I’ve seen this video about hardware transcodint into qnap station, but don’t know what they are talking about.
https://youtu.be/M5uCyF6QKB0?t=8280Any idea?
Thanks.
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I have already given you the correct answers. But apparently this is not enough.
The QNAP is a generic NAS product for multiple uses. Transcoding for QNAP and Synology means transcoding to h.264 so you can have your files on the web (YouTube) and play out of the HDMI port for your TV.YOU want a specialty application – convert your RAW files to ProRes proxy so you can edit. QNAP or Synology will not do that. There are more expensive products that are shared storage systems, like from EditShare and Promax that will do exactly what you want, but you are not interested in spending $30,000 – $40,000 for their solutions. You just want to buy an NVidia GTX-1080ti, pop it into your QNAP, and have some magic menu show up, that says “transcode from this format (RED RAW, or ARRI RAW, or Blackmagic RAW) – to ProRes Proxy. WELL, you are not going to get what you want. As I explained earlier, the NVidia card install requires setting up a VM Ware Win 10 installation, and I am guessing that you are not aware what this even means. And even if you were an expert at VM Ware and setting up a virtual machine, you would need to install a transcode program from a third party company on your Win 10 VM partition to do what you want.
Our industry is a specific tiny industry – the professional video market. Most top IT people have no idea of what RAW file codecs are, or what ProRes codecs even are. Only the people in the video industry knows what this means. And lucky for you, there are specialty software companies like Imagine Products, Adobe, Apple, Divergent Media, RED and a few others that make programs to transcode from the exact formats that you want to the exact formats that you want to wind up with.
It’s my guess, that you are confused, and just want some application for free that you can run on your QNAP, without having to learn much of anything else, other than to purchase an NVidia card, download a free QNAP app, and do exactly what you want, inside the QNAP.
Well, you are not going to get what you want. Sorry.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
If you have a Creative Cloud subscription, you already have the tool you need: Adobe Media Encoder. You can set up a Watch Folder that transcodes anything you put in it to a format of your choice.
So my guess is that you could solve your problem by setting up a virtual machine on the QNAP, set a watch folder with Adobe Media Encoder, and off you go.
If it’s not possible to use the QNAP for shared storage AND a virtual machine, you’d have to buy a second machine to monitor the watch folder on the QNAP. Bob could speak to that better than me.
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