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AJA ioHD Makes FCP 6 whole
FINALLY, a hardware accelerator for FCP (6). Thank AJA for supporting Apple. No Mac was ever fast enough.
Richard Boghosian
Bogh AV Productions -
18 Replies
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Whoa, where does hardware acceleration enter in to the equausion???
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles -
equation
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles -
It is certainly markeded as a HW acceleration to the new ProRes (or whatever it’s called) codec.
https://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/action/?movie=aja
All realtime mentions, includes the AJA box.
Gunleik
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“The ProRes 422 codec lives inside the AJA ioHD box” That my fellow editors is the external balls of an FCP system with multiple formats on one timeline. Can’t wait for this to be on the shelf -so it can be in my suite. The upgrade to the quad core Intel box was a dissapointment in FCP speed improvement-I hope FCP/AJA has it right this time.
Richard Boghosian
Bogh AV Productions -
I just got home from Vegas. Before rushing to do anything, you should make sure you fully understand what the ioHD is and isn’t.
When you say “hardware accelerator”, this is not like what Cinewave used to be. You’re not going to get a bunch of RT effects and such that otherwise weren’t there. My understanding is that the acceleration only does two things. Encode and decode ProRes.
If your Mac is fast enough to encode (people at the Apple booth told me my dual G5 is more than enough), then you don’t need it for that. It’s pointless for capturing. You don’t need CPU resources available while capturing. It’s not like you can edit while capturing.
And as far as decoding, I read the PDF at the Apple booth explaining how the decoding process for ProRes is far less intensive than encoding. So I don’t think offloading this process to the IO is going to do a whole lot for you. Sure, it could help a little. Maybe you can get 7 layers RT vs. 6 layers. I really don’t know exactly how much (or little) performance you get, but what I do know is that the money could be put to better use if that’s the only reason you want it.
The new IO’s main thing is what you can now do on a laptop. You can essentially do DI in the field, which is amazing. This is because the external encoder for this new codec allows incredible quality to be pushed down a Firewire 800 pipe.
If that’s something you need, great. I’d pre-order one right now. But you’re talking about a desktop Mac Pro. I think is totally the wrong product for this application. You’re much better served with a Kona or Decklink. And if you need all those IO ports, you’re much better off getting a Multibridge which costs a lot less and gives you the option of using Uncompressed HD. And you’re not maxing out your Firewire bus.
Sean
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[Sean ONeil] “You can essentially do DI in the field, which is amazing.”
What’s DI please sir?
All the best,
Tom
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy” DVDs
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[Sean ONeil] “When you say “hardware accelerator”, this is not like what Cinewave used to be. You’re not going to get a bunch of RT effects and such that otherwise weren’t there. My understanding is that the acceleration only does two things. Encode and decode ProRes.”
Correct, because there is no real way to handle that much data over FW without encoding first.
“If your Mac is fast enough to encode (people at the Apple booth told me my dual G5 is more than enough), then you don’t need it for that.”
IF you are talking about a NON intel G5, there are going to be limits to the older CPU’s ability to encode anything more than SD. ProRez will be supported by most all of the existing cards via software updates in FCP6.“And if you need all those IO ports, you’re much better off getting a Multibridge which costs a lot less and gives you the option of using Uncompressed HD. And you’re not maxing out your Firewire bus.”
Not true, that gains you “uncompressed” but really nothing more. All of the connections are the same and the IoHD handles all of rest of the Kona 3 Functionality, including all of the REALTIME HARDWARE functionality (like VFR capture, cross, up and down conversion)rather than passing those processes of to a CPU.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
[Richard Boghosian] “FINALLY, a hardware accelerator for FCP (6). Thank AJA for supporting Apple. No Mac was ever fast enough.”
Nope, it’s the same as the Kona 3, Kona 3, Kona 3X, Kona LH and Kona LHe. Scales up DVCPro HD, HDV and the new Apple ProRes 422 so the processors can provide more realtime effects and filters.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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[Tom Wolsky] “What’s DI please sir?”
digital intermediate. cutting a film in the digital format.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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Hi Richard,
Could you be more specific about the dissapointment upgrading to the quad. I’m thinking of moving up from my dual 2.0 G5 and would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks,
Bill Portune
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