CS5 + MPE Has anyone hands-on experience? is it worth it?

[Ann Bens]

Put in a cheap Nvidia which runs on the same driver along the main nvidia card and you still will have your 3 monitors and MPE hardware.

[Jeff Pulera]

I work for a dealer, but do have my own video business as well and am a Premiere editor. That said, I did some trials with CS5 when it came out, with MPE ON, and MPE OFF. There is an absolute WORLD of difference.

When running two layers of 1080i AVCHD with a background and title added, with CS5 in “Software Only” mode, Preview on the second monitor ran at about 1 frame per second, useless.

With Mercury Engine enabled (Quadro FX 3800), secondary monitor preview (24″ LCD”) was nearly perfect. I say “nearly” because it is still a computer image and not true video, was not perfectly smooth playback, a little jerky still.

For best results, I recommend a Matrox MXO2 Mini in addition to the NVIDIA card of choice, then you will have two PC monitors for your work area, and MXO2 Mini will provide a true high-quality HD preview via HDMI or Component on your third display. Does a lot more than that of course but we’re just talking third display here.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Tim Kolb]

[Ann Bens] “Put in a cheap Nvidia which runs on the same driver along the main nvidia card and you still will have your 3 monitors and MPE hardware.”

Yup…just like Ann said.

I run 4 displays with one NVIDIA CUDA capable Quadro card and one older Quadro card. Works fine.

Keep in mind that CUDA acceleration assists with edit preview through effects processing during editing. (The CUDA accelerated effects are marked in the Effects Folder)

If you have straight video clips on a timeline with no effects (color correction, transparency, position/scale, etc), there will be no difference in performance with the way CUDA augmentation is implemented at this point.

Video decode is done on the CPU (video codecs are all currently coded to run this way so it isn’t some “limitation” imposed)…so CPU core count and torque are still key, but CUDA effects augmentation definitely helps as how many of us edit with no color correction or any other effects?

If you plan on using Premiere Pro to edit, you’d run into limitations pretty fast as any effects that the CPU has to handle and process hobbles its capability to decode video streams…

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Eric Jurgenson]

Tim,

Do you need an SLI capable Nvidia card for the second card, or just a card that runs on the same driver?

[Tim Kolb]

Hi Eric,

In my case, I’m currently running a Quadro 4800 for CUDA capability and I’m also running a Quadro 560.

The 4800m lights up a 24″ UI and a 30″ overlay/UI display and the 560 lights two 17″ LCDs on the flanks.

I have a pic here: https://tinyurl.com/68nmow5

(Hopefully I put this link in here correctly)

I started that system with a Quadro 4500 and a Quadro 540, so I’ve been running this basic configuration for a while.

You do have to watch the card firmware and that sort of thing with OSs in flux and all that… I had to make some BIOS updates and that sort of thing when I jumped from the 4500 to the 4800.

(Because they’re Quadro professional display cards, the tech support I received from PNY certainly streamlined the process).

Otherwise there was really no issue.

(I’m actually not certain you retain all the display outputs as live if you use an SLI link…but I’m not an expert.)

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Jan Janowski]

Yes… I use MPE an CS5 and I absolutely Love it!!

It is the most productive time-saver I have ever invested in!

Looking for 1939 Indian Motocycle

[Ann Bens]

I also love CS5 and MPE hardware. No trouble playbacking AVCHD whatsoever.

Found this for you: https://www.gogocycles.com/1939-indian-chief-bobber-for-sale.html

[Tony Gil]

Thanks for the input! Tony Gil

[Tony Gil]

thanx a million. i will be working most of the time with no effects on the timeline. editing documentaries. your feedback (along will all the others) has been invaluable in helping me make my decision.

i’d appreciate one final clarification: am i correct in supposing that rendering for file output (“final” encoding) will NOT be affected by CUDA (i.e. MPE only works for display rendering)?

thanx a G,
Tony Gil