HD Pro Res doesn’t work on G5 Quad.

[Tim Wilson]

Developers are always trying to push subsystems to the absolute limit. As processors, drives, graphics cards etc all get beefier, so do the things you can do with them.

FWIW, Avid created a $10,000 daughtercard 3 years ago, because that was the only way you could capture DNxHD in real time. Now you can capture ProRes in RT….awesome. But you have to have a computer that can count fast enough.

[walter biscardi] “ProRes is just another option. But it’s not the only reason to purchase FCS 2.”

We’re going to have muuuuuuch more on all this in this week’s COW newsletter. (I hope you saw Part 1 of our ProRes coverage this past week.) As a sneak preview, I’ll point you to one of the best system specs pages I’ve ever seen.

I LOVE that it gives the basic spec to run the Studio, which actually goes down to a G4.

MacBook, no problem. Don’t even need a Pro.

But for ProRes? No way. Gotta have an Intel Xeon, which means a multiprocessor. Period.

So yeah, it’s easy to say Apple just wants to sell computers, but I think having to buy a new computer is just a side effect. It comes from scientists who always want to do more today than they could yesterday.

Which is exactly what we WANT them do. 🙂

The hottest features are always going to need the heaviest iron.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Gregory Dillard] “Thank you Walter. I know that the Canon XL H1 doesn’t embed the audio through it’s HD-SDI, but i know that the solution is the Convergent Design piece.”

Does your camera have Component output? You can go Component right into your LHe.

[Gregory Dillard] “We will purchase that as well, but if i am only looking for video can’t i just use an uncompressed codec besides the PRO RES and still capture it via the KONA LHe without worrying about dropped frames? We have the XSERVE RAID and it’s connected via a fibre channel card.”

With that setup, Uncompressed should be just fine. We actually capture all our HDV material to the DVCPro HD codec and edit that way. Have delivered three broadcast documentary episodes posted that way.

[Gregory Dillard] “Not to sound redundant, but i will have a better image capturing via the HD- SDI into one of the HD formats as opposed to firewire which is HDV correct?”

Technically, the image quality will be identical since you can’t “add” any quality to the original HDV image. Uncompressed just gives you better quality when you color correct and add graphics. Like I said, we just convert to DVCPro HD which has worked brilliantly on our end.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Walter Biscardi]

[Sean ONeil] “Nobody’s stopping me from asking for a refund. And of course I’m not. But it was a sleazy thing to do IMO.”

I wouldn’t call it sleazy but it certainly was a huge mistake by Apple not to be upfront about the G5 limitation of the ProRes codec. Just goes back to what we’ve been saying all along, Apple is a hardware company first, the software is there to sell new hardware.

But I do agree with you Sean, this should have been on the specs page since day one.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Tim Wilson]

[Sean ONeil] “I specifically asked two people at the Apple booth if a G5 was good enough for ProRes and mixed formats. The answer I got was “I’m sure it will be fine”.”

No disrespect to Apple intended — quite the contrary. And no disrespect to you for doing what you SHOULD do, which is to NOT make assumptions, but ASK. Way to go.

But my experience from booths as a developer is that not everybody is qualified to answer every question. I don’t want to make it sound like folks from tech support or even engineers (there’s often a TON of them in booths — but they’re usually there to ASK questions of customers, more than answer them) don’t know what they’re talking about…but there can be a pretty big gap between a well-intended, heartfelt educated guess and what happens when the product ships.

[Sean ONeil] “I can’t help but wonder if ProRes could have been optimized to work well on a PowerPC chip.”

I’m going to guess that the answer is “no.” Or maybe some combination of “not without pulling lots of people from other critical projects” and “not and ship this year” and similar concerns.

But I suspect probably “no.” If Apple could have done everything they wanted to on PowerPC chips, they’d likely still be there.

Here’s the thing. Every development effort aims to bring as many people as possible into the tent. More potential customers means more potential money.

Anybody here think Apple’s into leaving money on the table?

But they have to be realistic about what’s possible. They have to in fact be willing to leave money on the table to do the right thing for the product’s long term growth.

BTW, we’ve seen Apple do this again and again, including killing off the MUCH higher-selling Apple II, to enrich Mac’s future. Killing off clones to ensure quality development. Cutting qual on OS support for older but otherwise capable hardware. So on. In the scheme of things, this one’s pretty minor.

Still sux though.

[Gary Adcock]

[Tim Wilson] “The hottest features are always going to need the heaviest iron. “

here, here tim,

if you are a pro it should not be an issue to step up with the latest hardware, like Walter, my main 2 machines are replaced yearly, the older models are moved down to lesser tasks.

When you make your living with it, it needs to be of high quality and well maintained, we are not talking about $60K lenses or $120K tape decks, we are talking about a $4000.00 computer.

Not quite as much as my office phone bill last year.

it is all about perspective.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Gregory Dillard]

Gary,
point well taken and i please don’t take this in a derogatory matter. Paying the price for a new machine and an AJA i/O HD isn’t the problem, it’s just i should have been better prepared to know all of this upfront especially when this is your occupation and you allocate a certain amount of your budget for the purchase of new equipment. I just have to purchase an 8 Core Mac that’s all.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Gregory Dillard] “Paying the price for a new machine and an AJA i/O HD isn’t the problem,”

You don’t have to. I already explained that your Kona LHe will work with a Mac Pro which will handle the ProRes conversion. You need the Mac Pro with the Kona OR the Io HD. Not both.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Gregory Dillard]

Thank you Walter. The reason i mentioned an 8 core is that i will use the i/O HD in the field to shoot and capture with our Canon XL H1 and bring in the footage via the i/O HD and a firewire 800 drive. Once i get it into post i would transfer the footage from my firewire drive to our XSERVE RAID and edit using the PRO RES HQ codec on the 8 core Mac Pro as i cannot do this on the Quad core G5 correct? Thank you again for all of your knowledge.

[David Roth weiss]

[Gregory Dillard] “i cannot do this on the Quad core G5 correct?”

You most certainly can edit ProRes 422, you just can’t capture it on a non-Intel…

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

[Chi-ho Lee]

Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Video Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Trainer
http://www.chiholee.com