OT – Open Letter to Apple re: Mac Pro & FCP

[Andy Mees]

Tom

This is like shooting fish in a barrel … if I wanted to buy a PC workstation and based my research on trawling websites for disgruntled users with hardware issues then I’d never be able to buy anything with any peace of mind!

If I went to a systems integrator and told them what I wanted and had them configure it correctly for my needs, have them install it, test it and have a support contract in place then would I still be worried?

You say you are a professional and want to integrate a Mac Pro / FCP system in your shop, and I have no reason to doubt that … so why would you treat the Mac system any differently than your Avids?

Andy

[Tom Daigon]

“so why would you treat the Mac system any differently than your Avids?”

Andy, you actually called this quite well even without knowing me. I DID the same detailed research before the other purchases in the facility. I was prepared to deal with the issues that might arise and have to explain things to the GM.
Just my way of covering my butt.
If what I have come across is the exception not the rule…Im ecstatic. I cant tell you how excited I am to get the Mac Pro!

[Shane Ross]

Tom, BAREFEATS.com is a great place to check on system configs.

Shane

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[Tom Daigon]

“Tom, BAREFEATS.com is a great place to check on system configs.”

Yes, I go there often. Did you see the “Shootout” between the 2 new graphics cards (2600 & 8800) when being utilized by
Motion 3. They say they are stumped how the less beefy card
(the 2600) beats out the 8800 in the rendering race. That sure has me confused as well.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Tom Daigon] “They say they are stumped how the less beefy card
(the 2600) beats out the 8800 in the rendering race. That sure has me confused as well.”

Probably because ATI makes a better product. ATI has always been recommended for use with Final Touch HD / Now Color. I run ATI’s in all my machines except our oldest G5 Dual 2.0.

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

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[Cory Caplan]

Actually, the irony about your implication about “quality product” is that the x1900XT does have significant issues, a la the ‘red ring of death’ on the xboxes previously mentioned.

You may recall a few rants from me earlier last year about instability, lockups, bugs etc. I recently ‘upgraded’ to leopard, figuring that with the most recent round of updates, the FCP team is going to be focusing way more heavily on 10.5 than 10.4, and I’d take my chances over here on leopard.

After installing Leopard, I experienced the ‘Screen Corruption’ issues people discussed specifically with the x1900xt. Furthermore, after a lot of digging, I’m hoping that this issue is key to my hard freezes that I was having on Tiger.

Apparently, gamers playing WoW on macs ran into this first, as it pushed the video hardware the hardest, and apparrently leopard pushes the x1900 harder than Tiger did (I suspect they increased the clock in the driver, to make leopard/Quartz extreme seem “snappier”) Which of course, revealed these defects in the cards to many.

After digging and digging, I found an internal apple reference number, that once mentioned, was like saying “open sesame.” They actually agreed to swap out my x1900 xt out of warranty, without my exploding beforehand.. (Which is good, because If I would have had to pay for a manufacturing defected 2+ year old video card at “full mac retail” I probably would have firebombed cupertino.)

So, anyway, I’ve had it in a few days now, and no more artifacts. I also turned off all sleep and power management, which I think has major issues on both Tiger & Leopard with FCP, especially if you’re running a wireless mouse. (infinite beachball, UI hangs, etc.

Unfortunately, many bugs and oddness remain in FCP, but I guess that is going to be the standard for “professional software” for the forseeable future.. (I just cancelled my 3D Studio contract, because I was tired of an annual release schedule that NEVER fixed the bugs…)

So, there is quite a decent amount of truth in the original posting. I have actually moved some of my workflow back to AE & PC/AVID because of the uber-crappy speed and lack of stability in motion (fcp integration, esp.), and the general bad behavior & lack of communication on Apple’s part with the Pro apps & never-fixed bugs… (QT 7.4, “recommended updates” that you can’t uninstall, but have no list of bug fixes, etc.) The point is, they don’t care.. they want to sell software to the iPhone crowd (wait, does that include me?) not truly “pro apps” to professional users, or else they’d be at NAB, ESPECIALLY in the absense of Avid.

I incorrectly thought having a single provider of (insanely limited spec) Hardware, Software, O/S would result in a more stable platform, but I was wrong– it just means that it’s too much under one house to keep track of– Or a wash, in other words.

[Joe Murray]

[Cory Caplan] “After digging and digging, I found an internal apple reference number, that once mentioned, was like saying “open sesame.” They actually agreed to swap out my x1900 xt out of warranty, without my exploding beforehand.. (Which is good, because If I would have had to pay for a manufacturing defected 2+ year old video card at “full mac retail” I probably would have firebombed cupertino.)”

PLEASE let me know what this reference number is. I’m having lots of issues with my ATI X1900 – screen artifacts mainly, which make it into my rendered files from Color – and I have Applecare, but they’re telling me I have to remove all the peripherals (including the Kona card, RAID card, extra RAM, etc.) and run the hours-long hardware test to see what it reports. It is so obviously a failing graphics card, and I don’t have time to shut down my main edit suite for a day anytime before the middle of March.

Thanks if you can provide that number.

Joe Murray
Edit at Joe’s
Charlotte, NC