“Best” board for editing

[Tim Kolb]

Hi Carlos,

There aren’t as many accelerated editing hardware add-ons these days as the computers have gotten much stronger since your targa system was new…

Matrox still makes a hardware add-on system that has its own sequence settings, etc for various video formats. Real-time response and no-render proprietary effects are the order of the day here…similar to the Targa’s position way back when, but waaaaay faster.

CineForm is a software solution…it transcodes all your footage to a very high-quality codec which is optimized to run on a computer…so you get increased layers in real-time playback, etc. It makes quite a difference. For output to decks or monitors, CineForm works with AJA hardware products.

AJA and BlackMagic Design have I/O solutions…they will get the video in and out of the system and will give you multiple signal types in and out, but do less in the way of responsiveness acceleration.

I happen to use AJA equipment extensively and I also use CineForm products and can vouch for them… I have no meaningful experience with Matrox or BlackMagic, but I’m sure others here do…

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Carlos Manuel]

Thanks Tim,

For a while I was thinking on a Matrox solution but I have the feeling that is not my best solution now. For some reason, seems to me that MATROX is a bit “old” solution.

I know that Blackmagic or AJA are not accelerate boards.
-With the latest Core i7 or Xeon’s do we REALYY need that?
On top, with a Cineform, does it make sense to go to a Matrox?

The MATROX Premiere effects in real time, I’m sure I will not use them.

I edit with Cut, Mix and sometines some Left to Right Wipe.
All “effects” are done on Combustion.

I need a system to work with Premiere Pro CS4 (and future) that can play, WITHOUT render, 3 or 4 layers of video and a couple of graphics on top (names and lower thirds).

In my recent experience with Premiere CS3 on a laptop, I’ve edited 3 major projects:
-a 17 min training video
-a 7 min real state video
-a “large” 6H60m multicam video (3 cameras) on YOGA WORLD DAY 2009.

All the images on a External disc connected by USB 2.0.
Not a single problem.

But on the 3 cam, because one cam shooted all and the other two just recorded from time to time, without any sync option,
I’ve edited with cam1 on layer1
and cam 2 and cam3 on layers 2 and 3
____(Sync by eye, if you understand…)
Cam2 and Cam3 have been reduced like a PIP effect.

With the 3 layers (one full screen and 2 size effects) a proper PLAY was impossible.

That NEVER happend on the TARGA.

-If I buy a Decklink or a Xena and Premiere CS4, will I get a normal PLAY in this situation?
-Do I need Cineform for this ?

You say you work with AJA.
-On a Xena, the HDMI output is 1920×1080 or 1920×1200 ?
If it’s 1920×1200 I have to connect it to a PC monitor.
I DON’T wnat that option.
I would like to have a 1920×1080 to connect to a regular consumer LCD.

Considering my type of work, what solution do you advise me.

Thanks,
Carlos

[Tim Kolb]

OK…well first off, the problem with proper playback of three cameras simultaneously on your laptop had more to do with your USB harddrive than anything else. USB doesn’t have the bandwidth to feed that much data. It’s fairly likely that your Targa system simply had faster, likely RAID-configured harddrives. Targa vs. Laptop has nothing to do with it. Workstation fast harddrives vs Laptop with external portable slow harddrive is your situation.

CineForm (which works with AJA hardware, not Matrox, which has their own codecs) will transcode your video to a very good format for editing, but if the harddrive can’t move the bits, you’ll still experience speed issues… neither Decklink or Xena speed this process up. You’ll need large, fast harddrives to feed multiple video streams simultaneously.

HDMI is not a data display format…it’s consumer video. The frame size is television…1920×1080.

Do keep in mind that CS4 is a heavy load…it will take some power to run it. I’ve been using it on a Dell M90 (which was fast 2 years ago…) and it works, but it takes more to run CS4 than it did CS3, just as it took more to run CS3 than CS2…

As far as advice…it’s tough to be decisive as all these solutiona have their place. I can say that I use AJA hardware and have found it to be solid and tight…my for-broadcast work is spot-on for diagnostics…

CineForm definitely helps MPEG footage (XDcam, EXcam, HDV, AVCHD) footage run better on lesser processors. I used to use it on a laptop back when Premiere 6.5 was current with a single FW drive and I could get two streams with effects and I think most modern netbooks are more powerful than that machine was…

I’m sure there are more on this forum who could fill you in on the other solutions available as well…at least considering all your options would be a good idea.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Brian Louis]

I use a laptop for 3 to 4 cam editing in the field with CS4 production studio, its a 3gig core 2 duo, with 8 gigs of ram, 17″ screen, 2 internal SATA drives, Vista64, the thing that makes things workable is that it has a eSATA port and express card slot, I have a external esata raid 0 attached to the eSATA port and a Matrox MX 02 mini I/O in the express 54 slot which has HDMI, Component, or composite I/O, so you can capture and monitor various feeds, plus has software to do a reasonable monitor calibration, I also use Cineform’s NeoScene as a intermediate codec, you can use the MX 02 mini for a Windows desktop also or a BlackMagic Intensity Pro if you don’t want the expense of the more expensive cards.

[Carlos Manuel]

Thanks Louis,

A couple of questions:
-In terms of performance (for money it’s obvious) why do you prefer the NeoScene and not the prospectHD ?

As far as I can see the MXO2mini has no RS-422 and I still receive some material in Betacam. So I feel that I will need that.

About the RAID system it’s quite clear.
On my Targa I work with a Raid0 with 8 SCSI discs.
I believe that in the present days a Raid 0 or 5 with 6x SATA II discs will give me a “decent” speed.
On my Targa3K the system works very well with SD uncompressed files (YUV 422).
A bit slower with DV files and quite instable with MPEG-I frame.
This is the main reason for me to choose a Cineform Codec.

I have read a ton of posts and comments, but one decision it’s not clear yet for me.

It’s about GPU.
Franckly I can’t afford a Quadro FX 3800 or a FX 5600.
My work is done, and it will remain this way in the near future, of 50% PremierePro and 50% of Combustion.
ALL my movies have an intensive ColorCorrection of almost each plan.

Also a bit of Photoshop, CorelDraw and all the usual stuff.

For this do I REALLY need a Quadro FX ?
Do I get a much SLOWERRRRRR performance with a GeForce GTX 285 or 295 ?
The GTX has also CUDA technology!

I need to assemble a PC with a I/O Video card that works with YUV, SDI and HDMI. DV comes from any 1394 port.

I need the best image quality possible.
For SD I have a SONY 20′ PVM-20L4 as monitor.
For HD I will get a consumer LCD Samsung or Sony with HDMI 1920×1080.
I also want at least 1x SDI out for connecting a Blackmagic UltraScope.

I need it and my clients appreciate it.

I’m exitating from BlackMagic HD Extreme and Aja Xema.
Any advice.

For last now:
For the work I do, should I go for a Corei7 or a Dual Xeon ?

Thanks
Carlos

[Alex Udell]

Hi…

I’ll chime in.

I edit frequently with the Matrox Axio and RT.X2 hardware.
I like them, not only for their real time performance boosts, but also for some of the tools they add in software (i.e. advanced color correction and great in Premiere Pro chroma keying, real time matte keys and alpha channel animation keys).

As they are accelerators, they should get faster as you move them to faster computers, so you should always see some benefit with them.

RS-422 control comes not from the cards but from your serial or USB ports via adapters from Addenda electronics.

My $.02.

Alex

[Arc Nevada]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj0JoFxoOyo

The video above uses a DV converter and the video below just uses two computer monitors. I just use a 2.66 GHZ Core 2 Quad (Yorfield) with a mere 4 GIGS of RAM. I used to use a Canopus DV Storm back when the Pentium 4 at 2. 4 GHZ was consider fast. With the invention of the Quad Core CPU accelrators cards have now become obsolete for the most part. I admit a Decklink card would be better than my converter box.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGdvmjDB3HE

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