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hardware speed boost – best ROI?
Currently running FCS2 on a G5 PowerPC dual 2.3, 12mb memory. Just did my first HD (shot on Canon XH-A1 and Vixia HV30). Of course, I had to down-convert to SD 16:9 for the client DVD. Main sequence came to just over 1hr12min duration. Some of the conversion/encoding/rendering times were excruciatingly (is that a word?) LONG! In fact, one setting that I tried in Compressor estimated at 798 hours!!! I have been drooling for a Mac Pro for some time now, but just cannot yet justify the $$$$.
Questions:
- Would it be a good investment to get a G5 Quad 2.5 off of ebay, and then maybe use it *and* my current box (linked together?) to do the heavy lifting, i.e., would that give me a significant speed boost?
- Or maybe invest in an Aja Kona card to offload (?) some of the graphics work?
- Or should I just keep saving my pennies for the Mac Pro?
TIA
Thanks,
Paul M. -
4 Replies
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Paul
Just a couple of quick thoughts before the big boys jump in …>Would it be a good investment to get a G5 Quad 2.5…
No. This is old tech. Apple has been producing all Intel machines for some considerable time now and have already stopped support the G5 architecture as of the latest release of FCS (FCP7 etc). Apple are soon to release a new version of OS X (10.6 aka Snow Leopard) which similarly will not support the older G5 architecture. So if future proofing (as best as one can) your investment is an issue, then I would suggest a G5 is not your best option.Or maybe invest in an Aja Kona card to offload (?) some of the graphics work?
You’re shooting with a selection of HDV cameras so its likely the excruciating render times you’re seeing are largely due to the format you’re working with. A Kona card or similar would allow you to get out of the HDV format quickly whilst maintaining the best possible quality, so yes, this would be a good option. Note; It won’t accelerate actually working with the footage once its captured necessarily but it will give your Mac more of a fighting chance of handling the footage for itself.One other thing, if your target for compression is H264 then you might get some worthwhile ROI with Elgato’s Turbo.264 HD usb based device which should be compatible with your G5.
Hope it helps
Andy -
>One other thing, if your target for compression is H264 then you might get some worthwhile ROI with Elgato’s Turbo.264 HD usb based device which should be compatible with your G5.
Apologies for the misinformation here Paul, it appears that Elgato’s Turbo.264 HD requires an Intel mac.
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[Paul Mosser] “Would it be a good investment to get a G5 Quad 2.5 off of ebay, and then maybe use it *and* my current box (linked together?) to do the heavy lifting, i.e., would that give me a significant speed boost?”
No. the new version of Studio is Intel only. So when you’re ready to upgrade to the new version you’ll have to buy yet another computer. Pick up an Intel machine if you’re going to change it out.
[Paul Mosser] “Or maybe invest in an Aja Kona card to offload (?) some of the graphics work?”
This does nothing for graphics but does everything for your downconversion. It’s realtime. If a client needs a one-off DVD for review, we simply play the HD timeline out to our DVD Recorder in realtime via the Kona. If we need a full quality DVD, we either go straight to Compressor with the HD timeline and let it downconvert the file, or if it’s a long project like yours, we’ll lay it off to HD tape and then re-capture it at 8bit SD letting the Kona do the realtime downconvert and then make the MPEG-2 for DVD from that new file.
[Paul Mosser] “Or should I just keep saving my pennies for the Mac Pro?”
Yes
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
Hi — I just set up my new (drum roll please) Mac Pro, 8 core, 2.23Ghz with 12 meg of ram.
I mention this because like yourself, I have had to deal with really slow rendering speeds using a Mac Pro laptop (2 gig ram). I finally saved up enough for this Mac and really glad I did. I tested it out to see how much faster it would be on an export I commonly perform. The material is HD and set out as an H264 file.
So far I’ve found the normal 18 hours I was waiting turned into 38 minutes. I’m amazed…
I suggest you get a new Mac Pro. For video I suggest the 8 core set up l;ike mine. I couldn’t afford the fastest one made and choose the slower. Still, it is one hellava lot faster than I have ever seen.
I hope this helps
Jerry Wills
Xpeditions TVKnowledge Is Power — Xpeditions TV <https://www.xpeditionstv.com> Is FREE… Pass it on!
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