G5 with PCI-X alot better than standard PCI?

[Sean Oneil]

If the cards are PCI-X, then yes, you’ll get an incredible performance boost. If the cards are not PCI-X, then you won’t.

[Erik Lindahl]

Okej, so when it comes to SD or HDV editing, what PCI-X vs PCI options do I have? How will I notice a difference? Better RT-performace? Better throughput to HD

[Zolotroph]

[Erik Lindahl] “A FireWire-based system would of course be an option, but I feel PCI-based cards are more responsive and gives me the video-divice as an external monitor as well. “

If you’re interested in working with uncompressed video, I would strongly recommend that you plan for RAID storage in your budget. A single SATA disk has ample throughput for DV, but for uncompressed video you’ll probably need at least 2 SATA drives striped in RAID 0, especially if you want to work with 2 or more streams.

I’m not quite sure what you mean by saying a PCI card will give you an external monitor as well. This functionality is also provided by Firewire devices, although PCI cards don’t have the latency of Firewire (about 7 frames or so). Final Cut Pro can be easily configured to use an external Firewire device for monitoring playback. As long as both the audio and video are monitored on the external Firewire device, they will be in sync.

I would recommend researching firewire/analog converters like the Canopus ADVC-100. They provide a low-cost method of monitoring DV on a video monitor via composite or S-video outputs. They also convert analog video sources to DV for capture over Firewire. Many DV camcorders have a pass-through feature to provide the same functionality, but at a higher price.

-zolo

[Erik Lindahl]

Yes, I was thinking of either going with an external SATA RAID or FW800 RAID.

No, a ADVC-device isn’t an option really. Being that I’ve grown out of DV and want to have more freedom in choice of codec. The ADVC (or any firewire divice aside from AJA Io, LA, LD) will ONLY give me DV. This isn’t good enough even if final output “only” is DVD and the video source might be DV I’ve seen what benefits uncompressed gives me in this workflow. Thanks but no thanks 🙂

Also, as you say, there is the latency. DV has 4-frames, Uncompressed over firewire today has 7-frames (should go down to 4 with Tiger/QT7/FCP5/AJA Io etc.). Still a drag.

Also, even “the best” FireWire i/o box out there (The AJA Io) can’t make my videomonitor/TV a secondary screen/view-area as most (if not all) PCI-cards do (or am I wrong here?).

So, back to my question again: I guess I should go with the PCI-X motherboard, right? But has anyone done any REAL tests here?

[Zolotroph]

[Erik Lindahl] “when it comes to SD or HDV editing, what PCI-X vs PCI options do I have? How will I notice a difference? Better RT-performace? Better throughput to HD

[Zolotroph]

[Erik Lindahl] “Also, even “the best” FireWire i/o box out there (The AJA Io) can’t make my videomonitor/TV a secondary screen/view-area as most (if not all) PCI-cards do (or am I wrong here?)”

Actually, with recent firmware updates, the IO, the SD-Connect and the BlackMagic Multibridge can all be used as framebuffers for applications like After Effects and Combustion. This is commonly referred to as a “video desktop.” The Multibridge connects via a PCI card, and the IO and SD-Connect are connected via Firewire. The IO and SD-Connect do suffer from the 7-frame latency, but many do not find this to be an issue.

I understand your desire to move beyond DV. I’m doing the same thing myself, and I’m glad that there are many reasonably priced options out there for those of us who are ready for the next step.

-zolo

[Zolotroph]

[Erik Lindahl] “Yes, I was thinking of either going with an external SATA RAID or FW800 RAID.”

Avoid FW800 RAID like the plague–SATA is by far the best option in the long run. There’s a great review of an inexpensive SATA card and SATA RAID at this link:

https://www.barefeats.com/hard46.html

Enjoy.

-zolo

[Zolotroph]

Hmmm… I guess I should actually READ posts before I respond to them…

😉

Sorry, I skipped over the bit in your original post about PCI-X for a SATA card (rather than a video capture card). In that case, yes, PCI-X will give you greater throughput. The BareFeats link in my other post shows the difference between the 100MHz and 133MHz PCI-X slots in the G5.

-zolo

[Sean Oneil]

Keep in mind, if your source is DV, and your final output is either DVD or DV, there’s no benefit for editing in uncompressed.

[Erik Lindahl]

Is there no benefit in going from DV > Uncompressed > MPEG2? I beg to differ… Keeping a complete DV-workflow will constantly give me a 5:1 compression loss per generation (i.e. color-correction, compositing work, adding of graphics etc.). Doing my offline in DV, converting the final edit to uncompressed and then do online in uncompressed 8- or 10-bit does give a better final result.

I did a lot of testing of this when doing a few films last year and YES the benefit is there when final output is MPEG2. When final output is DV I’d reckon it’d be good working in another format than DV when adding effects etc. since I then only get ONE generation loss in the end instead of a constant loss per generation of effects (for instance offline edit (gen 1), then color correction in Final Cut (gen 2), adding effects in After Effects (gen 3) and finally outputting that file).

If you can show otherwise I would be interested to see that.