Final Cut & HD

[David Bogie]

You’re not going to be happy at all.
FCP’s HD capabilities were mostly hype but no one has really seen (and then told us about) the new quads in action with full rez 1080.

Look at the Apple AR sites for their HD-capable FCP rigs and note carefully the external hardware they build the systems around. Spend hours on the phone with the Kona people.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Joseph Bradley]

I think Walter Biscardi might disagree. He’s been editing FCP HD for quite a while. Check out his website and then decide. http://www.biscardicreative.com

[Michael Buday]

It depends on what AVID you came from and what you’re expecting to achieve in realtime in FCP. If you’ve used Avid’s HD Adrenaline, you already know that NOTHING is performed in realtime (other then CUTS that is), and EFX processing can take a VERY, VERY long time depending on your bit depth (8bit vs. 10bit), resolution (1080 vs. 720) and the particular DNX codec you’re using. I did a show a couple of months ago and it took almost SIX HOURS to render a 45 minute show with almost no EFX, but with a fair amount of primary color correction.

I have not yet run my FCP system in HD (though I have the video hardware and RAID to support it), but I expect that the performance issues will be somewhat similar. From what I’ve heard, the HD hardware I’m using (Decklink HD 4:22 Single Link) doesn’t really do alot of EFX in realtime. FCP really relies on the CPU to its almost all of its processing, and in the “real” the HD domain (1080i, 10bit, uncompressed), it’s probably very slow going for many of the EFX you want to use.

I’ve worked on a few realtime HD systems (Avid DS, Sony XPRI), and there’s nothing like realtime processing, but you pay for it. If I could afford to buy an Avid Symphony Nitris (which does a lot in realtime), I would. I looked at Premiere Pro with the Matrox Axio card (which does a tremendous amount of HD in realtime), but I’m not a Premiere still has way too many quirks and rumors are that Matrox isn’t the healthiest company out there – so who knows where they’ll be in one or two years?

I expect that I’ll be able to make FCP work just fine when my first HD project starts next January, but I also expect that I’ll have to be very, VERY patient!

All the best,

Michael Buday

[Mark Raudonis]

I would agree that working in true HD on FCP means lots of rendering. However, looking forward there are two trends that are going to ease that pain. First, the ever increasing processor speeds (Dual core) will help slim down render times. Second, distributed rendering will really help with some of the heavy lifting. I know that FCP does not support distributed rendering now, but there are some ways to dance around that.

For example, SHake DOES support distributed rendering. You can export your green screens to Shake, feed the render farm, and bring back into FCP. As Michael points out, “there’s nothing like realtime processing, but you pay for it.” So, if you want to pay for it, you can buy several FCP systems, link them with x-SAN, and still be cheaper than your Avid DS. Now, for the price of one Avid, you’ve just built a whole post department.

Mark Raudonis