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hardware setup for FCP (new user)
Hi guys,
Need some help on what specific hardware I should purchase to run SD & HD on FCP.I know that sounds like a laughable question at first, but I have specific areas of interest:
Assuming I’m buying a Mac Pro dual-core 2.66…
Should I stay with default graphics card or does the NVidia450 make a big difference. I imagine FCP is primarily based on CPU rather than GPU activity.I would like to have a dual 30″ screen setup… one for the GUI and one for full screen HD/SD output. I am looking at getting the Blackmagic Multibridge Extreme (dual DVI output). Would you guys recommend having a two screen setup? I realise the base NVidia graphics card only can handle one DVI for the 30″ screen, but I believe the Blackmagic card will handle the second output. Is my thinking correct or does the GPU have to be able to support the two 30″ screens as well ?
I would like to get a 2Tb RAID5 setup. I imagine all I need is a FiibreChannel card and then connect. What storage do you guys recommend?
Do most of you buy via a reseller..ie almost turnkey solution or buy the MAC, storage, and capture cards separately?
I’m open to other suggestions if my thinking on the above is not correct….
Many thanks,
Steve -
6 Replies
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Two 30″ monitors? That is overkill. And you want to use one for viewing your HD and SD footage? No, it will not do as a color correction monitor. A good setup has a couple smaller displays, two Apple 20″ or two Dell 2407 24″ displays, and THEN a color correction monitor. And unfortunately HD color monitors ain’t cheap. The PVM 14L5, lowest end CRT for the job, has sold out. But you can look for deals on e-bay or somewhere.
No need for fibrechannel unless you are wanting to set up the drives in another room or setting up a SAN network. A good SATA Raid will cost half as much and still provide you with the ability to work with uncompressed HD.
Turnkey resellers? The DR Group, ProMax…both in the LA area.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Have to agree with Shane – you need a proper monitor for colour correction/motion viewing. Although I have not tried the multibridge extreme, I have used the HDSDI-DVI pod they make, and was very disappointed with the picture quality on a 23″ Mac monitor.
Matrox now make a box (Axio? something like that) that claims to ‘resync’ the second DVI output from a Mac and display it properly on a computer monitor. They claim it gives a much better picture, but you would need to see that for yourself. I’d still go with two 23″ displays (can be driven by the standard gfx card I believe) or two of the Dell 24″ displays, which are generally held to be excellent, and have a better set of inputs.
Can really recommend the Kona 3 capture card for SD/HD. Also has a breakout box available for it (K-box) and really just lacks the DVI output that ain’t all that anyway. Haven’t tried the HDMI out on the newer units, so trial that if you can. Blackmagic make excellent products, so I’m not saying don’t get the multibridge, just giving you another option really. Perhaps that DVI out is now excellent… AJA’s customer care is also great.
Ben
Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations.Producer/Director “The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com
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Ditto on the Kona3 card/K-Box combo. I’m running it on a Quad G5 and it works very well. I use one of the Kona’s HD-SDI outputs to drive an Aja HD-SDI to DVI converter which in turn is driving a 27″ Dell widescreen monitor for the client. Excellent picture. I run a pair of 19″ NEC’s off of the G5’s card and also have the Sony 14″ for color grading. It’s a nice workable Setup. Very reliable.
For storage I have a Huge 2Tb raid and a couple of G-raids plus assorted LaCie drives for “Sneaker-Net” purposes.
Tom -
Hi guys,
Many thanks for your answers… I should ahve been more clear though.
I do have a Sony broadcast monitor for SD monitoring purposes. The second monitor was only for viewing HD fullscreen since I can’t afford a proper high def monitor.
Thanks for the tips on the various issues…
So a good SATA setup is enough to do uncompressed HD… that was something I wasn’t aware of. Are the drives 7200 or 10000 rpm?Regards,
steve -
[steve997] “The second monitor was only for viewing HD fullscreen since I can’t afford a proper high def monitor.”
As a client monitor? Just too look at the footage? You can get a good 50″ plasma or LCD for the price of a 30″ monitor. Two 30″ is overkill. Two 23″ or 24″ monitors is plently. And we here recommend the Dell 2407 monitors over the Apple 23″: http://www.barefeats.com/lcd
[steve997] “So a good SATA setup is enough to do uncompressed HD… that was something I wasn’t aware of. Are the drives 7200 or 10000 rpm?”
All my drives are 7200 RPM. Most drives you find in SATA Raids and Fibrechannel Raids are 7200rpm.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Steve,
If you are going to be editing uncompressed HD you will want at least a SATA enclosure with 5 striped drives, and preferably 8 drives will be even better. Four drives is great for uncompressed SD or for DVCPro100, but you will be pushing things quite a bit with uncompressed HD. You’ll be able to play a few streams with no problem, but when it comes to a real project with layering and titles and several audio tracks, you’ll be rendering every single small change on the timeline.
DRW
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