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M100 software codec question
Hi all
I’m running M100 v 8.2.2 on two different systems, one an XR and one an XS. Both have the P6000 and E6000 boards, and both are dual 1 ghz G4s, and have identical RAID setups.
I was having some troubles with M100 codec QT files rendered via AfterEffects. Sometimes they looked great, sometimes they looked heavily pixelated. Very random results.
It was recommended to me to install the M100 software codec, which I did on one of the systems. As the instructions indicated, I also removed the Media100 Codec.component file.
The movies now always render correctly, and as an added bonus, the render times are much faster. I did a test render on both systems of the same movie, and the system with the software codec rendered more than twice as fast.
I was also under the impression that Boris files would render faster too, but I found that not to be the case, at least with my test in Graffiti. I rendered the same 10 second lower third on both systems, and it took the same exact amount of time, about 2 minutes, for each system. This was a bit dissappointing. Why wouldn’t Graffiti files render faster with the codec? Are they somehow still using the M100 boards to do the work, while AE is using the computer & software codec? Just wondering if this seems normal to everyone. I definitely plan to update the other system to the software codec, because the stability and speed of AE renders is a big bonus.
thanks
Mike -
4 Replies
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[Mike Weber] “It was recommended to me to install the M100 software codec, which I did on one of the systems. As the instructions indicated, I also removed the Media100 Codec.component file.
The movies now always render correctly, and as an added bonus, the render times are much faster. I did a test render on both systems of the same movie, and the system with the software codec rendered more than twice as fast. “These are the reasons why you should install the software codec. Good to hear that it works for you.
[Mike Weber] “Why wouldn’t Graffiti files render faster with the codec? Are they somehow still using the M100 boards to do the work, while AE is using the computer & software codec? Just wondering if this seems normal to everyone. I definitely plan to update the other system to the software codec, because the stability and speed of AE renders is a big bonu”
Media 100 i itself does not use the codec.component to access the board, so disabling the hardware codec does not change anything inside Media 100. As a result, there is no performance gain inside Media 100 i. The files from and to Graffiti and BorisFX are handed over by the hardware, since the Media 100 i software was not modified to use the software codec. There would have been some changes to make to the Media 100 i code to use the software codec and to transfer the files from and to Boris via the software codec. Only in Media 100 HD and Media 100 sw (new beta version released today) the software codec is used, resulting in much faster rendering times.
E.g. if you want to export a timeline to DVD with a lot of ColorFX it is much quicker to export them from Media 100 sw than from Media 100 i. -
Thanks for clearing that up, Floh!
Mike
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Is the software codec available for download? If I have a Mac without M100 hardware can I download and install the codec and render M100 files for another M100 P6000 XS system running on OS9?
Thanks,
Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media -
[Rich Rubasch] “Is the software codec available for download?”
Hi Rich,
the software codec can be downloaded here.
[Rich Rubasch] ” If I have a Mac without M100 hardware can I download and install the codec and render M100 files for another M100 P6000 XS system running on OS9?”
Yes…probably . The sw codec does work under OSX only (I think it is tested from OSX 10.2.somewhat upwards), but I don
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