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How fast does your FCP run?
I have posted a couple times to no avail. I have contacted Apple and all my local resellers to no avail.
Basically I am wanting to know if I sould buy a FCP over a complete Hardware Accelerated system.
But no one can tell me how FCP performs? It was running 8 streams of HD at NAB which I am told is impossible (at full bandwidth). The only answer I get is: “It is hard to say without knowing what system you are running.”
I understand it is not a really simple question. But I also believe it is not that hard to answer.
What systems are you guys running out there? Ones that use non-hardware accelerated cards (like Decklink or Digital Voodoo).
What type of performance do you get in SD and HD? I am talking professional broadcast (not MiniDV).
This is sample system to give you an idea of what we are thinking of running:
Dual 2.7Ghz G5, 2GB RAM, nVidia QuadroFX 1300 (or Higher), Huge Systems dual fibre storage.And help or examples would be greatly appreciated.
Denzel
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8 Replies
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Apple was running 8 streams of DVCPro HD material from what I understand at their NAB show using their new Dynamic Realtime feature of FCP 5. Basically, FCP will automatically scale down the resolution of the footage to allow more streams of RT.
As for true to life HD performance, I’m easily running full 1080i uncompressed HD with my Medea FCR2X Fibrechannel array here and will be adding some realtime color correction tools via Final Touch HD in the next few weeks.
With FCP everything really does depend on your actual setup as to how much realtime you’ll get. Everyone here seems to measure RT by how many streams of video you can run which to me is quite silly. Since I’m not cutting the Brady Bunch open anytime soon, as long as I get two streams of video with two or three streams of graphics I’m really happy. I’m much more concerned with how many filters and effects I can stack up in realtime.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Can you use the Nvidia Quadro cards with Mac? I was to believe that the highest card a Mac support is the 6800 from the apple website.
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How fast FCP does run? Well, I think this will speak volumes. The other day I was trying to explain to some students the nature of FCP’s orange and green color codes in the timeline, usually associated with the unlimited RT mode. I started dropping effects (including color correction, several motion transformations and gaussian blurs) and the thing kept playing in RT without stopping. This in a dual 1.8 Ghz G5, with the stock 5200 card, not exactly bleeding edge at all. I am using a Decklink Extreme. If you want to do uncompressed SD instead of DV, that’s better in terms of RT- the uncompressed streams are lighter to decode and thus the RT power is more, not less than with DV. Some effects, like speed changes and time remapping, usually play in preview quality. But the color correctors and many others work in true output quality.
I think you will be impressed. There are specialized Apple film/video resellers who should be able to give you a demo of the system.
Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
https://www.adolforozenfeld.com
adolfo@adolforozenfeld.com -
What do you plan to do with your fcp? Do you edit uncompressed HD, SD, DV? What are you looking for and what systems are you comparing to FCP?
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[Lucas Merino] “Can you use the Nvidia Quadro cards with Mac? I was to believe that the highest card a Mac support is the 6800 from the apple website.”
From what I understand, the 6800 is the fastest nVidia you can run.
But if you want to go for third party realtime color correction like Final Touch HD, then you need to run an ATI card, preferrably the x800.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Thanks for the respone guys. Feel like I am finally getting somewhere.
With the system I am looking at editing 2 main formats.
PAL SD (broacast not DV)
1080 HD (anywhere from HDV to SR (SR is obviously huge data rate))Probably using the Decklink Pro HD card so all will be in 10-bit.
I am directly comparing it to a Similar window based Premire Pro system.
Also seeing if it is justifed to spend more money on a system like:
Matrox AXIO
Leitch VelocityHD
Smoke
DVS Clipster -
Very true. The linear Digital system we use only runs 3 layers but all FX, DVE, Keying, Titleing and Animation are all 100% realtime. That is why we still use it.
This is the type of performance I want to match?
So if anyone has any examples similar they would be greatly appreciated.
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With a fast RAID you’ll get some nice real time with FCP in SD, but not full blown HD. FCP does not do real time keys, but it will do some real time fx & filters. There are no real time alpha movies, prepare yourself for that, but with the latest g5s your render speeds are pretty fast.. It will do real time CGs (titles) and psd overlays. You will get some real time animation/motion depending on how complex your moves are, and as walter said, how many filters/fx you have stacked on each clip. It doesn’t work as fast as tightly integrated software/hardware machines (such as Media 100 HD), but FCP does very well for the price point. Also, you know very well that FCP is in constant development so it is surely to get faster with updated feature sets. Also, you cannot beat the interface. Adolfo is right, find a reseller and set up a demo.
Jeremy
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AJA Kona2>HD10C2>D10ADecklink Extreme
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