Is the FCP PowerPC G5 tower fast enough for editing CineAlta F-900 1080i HDCAM

[Walter Biscardi]

The G5 is not the issue. The issue is your hard drive storage. My old G4’s were capable of cutting Uncompressed HD with the old CinéWave card.

So any G5 will cut uncompressed HD with the proper video card (I would recommend the AJA Kona series) and the proper hard drive array.

You want at least 250MB/s speed, though I would recommend a minimum of 350MB/s. You can look at arrays from MaxxDigital, Dulce and Sonnet for eSATA. We run the MaxxDigital EVO HD series on both Mac Pro’s and G5’s with upwards of 500MB/s and more.

Be sure to check the manufacturer’s recommendations for slot placement and PCI Expansion Slot setup.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Greg Verspohl]

Thank you so much!

[David Roth weiss]

BTW, to add to what Walter said, tons of people shoot with the F900, but edit that as either ProRes or DVCProHD, both of which look very good while able to be edited with with smaller raids or even just firewire 800 drives.

Once the edit is finished, you have the choice of mastering with the cut you’ve got, or onling uncompressed at a facility that can handle uncompressed. This is a workflow that has been used for several years.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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[Shane Ross]

[David Roth Weiss] “tons of people shoot with the F900, but edit that as either ProRes”

HOWEVER…capturing ProRes on a non-intel is an issue, because of the processor power needed to do the encoding. Only an AJA I/O with the onboard encoder can enable a G5 to do that…I think. I’d call AJA to confirm my wild statement. I just know that I could not capture ProRes on my G5 with my Kona LH.

Shane

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[Walter Biscardi]

[Shane Ross] “HOWEVER…capturing ProRes on a non-intel is an issue, because of the processor power needed to do the encoding. Only an AJA I/O with the onboard encoder can enable a G5 to do that…I think. I’d call AJA to confirm my wild statement. “

This is absolutely correct. Our Dual 2.0 G5 could NOT capture ProRes using a Kona 2.

Our Quad 2.5 G5 CAN capture ProRes running an AJA Kona 3.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[David Roth weiss]

[Shane Ross] “HOWEVER…capturing ProRes on a non-intel is an issue, because of the processor power needed to do the encoding.”

Oops, Shane is correct, I forgot Greg had a G5… But, he can certainly capture and edit DVCProHD.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Chris Borjis]

I could never get our Quad G5 to capture HD ProRes without
dropping frames and it can easily handle anything else
I throw at it (uncompressed etc…)

[Jeremy Newmark]

Our Quad G5 with Kona 3 has captured hours and hours of 1080p material to ProRes from HDCAM F900 source material. I believe the questionable part is frame-rate. 23.976 and 25 material is no problem, but if it’s 29.97 or 60i, then that will depend on the actual specs of the G5. This is for capturing ProRes of course. If you’re going the uncompressed route, then like Walter said, it’s all about the storage array.

best regards,
jeremy

[Connie Simmons]

HI. I had a dual G5 and I bought an quad-core Mac Pro with and AJA IOHD to ingest Sony Cinealta F900 HDCAM tapes using the ProResHQ codec. After a few fits and starts, it worked wonderfully!

Best, Connie

[Greg Verspohl]

Thank you all for the continued information.

Greg.