G4 Dual 1GHZ ok for DVCPROHD footage?

[Gary Adcock]

[HarryD] “Jan seems to share your opinion that the system should work with DVCPRO HD, but it really doesn’t. as i said, it works, but it’s slow and stutterey and really feels like it’s not up to the task. the system is maxed at 1.5 GB RAM.”

Harry
the max RAM in that machine with a current OS is 4 gigs, the 1.5G limit was lifted in 2001.
Sorry but your machine is “almost” as old as the first version of the DVCPROHD codec is and even predates HD in FCP. Since your machine is slightly over the bare min. config for working in HD content with FCPHD and that was 3 versions of the app ago, don’t you think it is in your own best interest to upgrade your hardware? You have a new tapeless camera but that old tired g4 is lagging behind, way behind.

[HarryD] “but you’re right – if working in HD, then it has to be HD all the way through. And because I’m going tapeless these days, i have no plans to get an HD deck. so on the horizon for the new machine will probably be a Kona or Decklink card. not sure which one, though; i like bang for the buck, and i have no need for SDI.”

IF your going tapeless– how are you going to handle content from others or deliver it to your clients? No one I know wants to deliver a P2 card and I do not know of any source that does not want some sort of tape.
How do you plan to monitor and properly color correct your content?

By the away there is no such thing as Analog HD anymore – all the decks I know of want HDSDI.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows
Chicago, IL

[Harryd]

[gary adcock] “the max RAM in that machine with a current OS is 4 gigs, the 1.5G limit was lifted in 2001.”

Apple has other ideas about the max RAM in this machine:
https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42686

From the aforementioned article:
” You can expand your computer’s DRAM to a maximum of 1536 megabytes (1.5 gigabytes).”

[gary adcock] “don’t you think it is in your own best interest to upgrade your hardware? You have a new tapeless camera but that old tired g4 is lagging behind, way behind.”

I thought I said that my plans are to decommission this machine later this year once Apple releases an intel-mac tower and I can see what we’re working with (I might have said that in another thread; if so, forgive me). But that’s the plan – I’m waiting on Apple. I have been working handily with DV in this box and haven’t had reason to upgrade until now; my HVX purchase has been quite recent. and also as I said, I’m not complaining, just reporting my experience. I’m actually grateful – the images that i get are great.

[gary adcock] “IF your going tapeless– how are you going to handle content from others or deliver it to your clients? No one I know wants to deliver a P2 card and I do not know of any source that does not want some sort of tape.
How do you plan to monitor and properly color correct your content?”

For me, some of these questions have yet to be worked out as my studio is obviously in the process of an overhaul for HD. as for the P2 question: I no longer work in broadcast and am 99% solo as an independant producer, and therefore have a closed shop. VERY rarely do I bring in outside editing jobs, and I’ll wait and see how that work plays out before I invest in any HD studio equipment. I believe i also said that once the machine thing is determioned, then an output card will be selcted, either Kona or Decklink.

I currently work with no one who shoots/delivers in HD tape; most are working in DV, HDV, Super16 and 16mm. I deliver in SD DVD, very occasionally in VHS. My clients – all still in SD – are happy. Actually, considering what many of my cohorts are doing I have more reason to include HDV than anything else.

But the question you ask about tapeless seems to me much larger than what my little studio will do in the short term – how is anyone going to deal with it? Is tapeless really the wave of the future, as Panasonic hopes it will be? How are freelance shooters going to deliver P2-acquired footage to their clients (I assume on hard disk, or possibly copied to DVD, or HD-DVD, or BluRay), and then how are those producers going to deliver that same footage to editors (I assume they will supply the post house with the same HDD they were given by the shooter)? Some of my editing clients who work in film bring in a HDD that has their digitized footage on it already, and I assume this would be a close model for tapeless.

But this is a new way of working, certianly to me it is, and I’m hearing all sorts of answers, many of which work, some don’t.

Using HD on tape is of course another matter, and to my way of thinking isn’t really so revolutionary as evolutionary – it’s still tape, just a damned good-looking one with really high datarate. So one figures out what is required of that medium and adjusts. But it’s still a tape deliverable, which is the same model as we’ve had for quite awhile now. Of course, P2 and tapeless are a whole different thing, even if the codec may be the same.

In my mind, HD and SDI are similar to what we went through when component came online many years ago, and what we did to our studios to convert from composite to component.

HarryD