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Performance Issues / How to set up a “render farm” with FCP?
Hello.
I am responsible for 2 FCP editing machines at my company. They get heavy use and often run DVDSP as well as FCP and compressor and sometimes even Photoshop for some multi media projects.
Problem is, they can be sooo slow, at encoding and rendering.
I have 1.5 GB of RAM and they are dual 2.5 Mhz G5s.
The environment I work in aren’t too pleased about waiting for anything. “Time is money”.
I am about to upgrade the machines, with an extra GB of RAM each but I suspect this won’t make a huge difference.
I have tried looking up how to create a “render farm” of macs but can’t find the info on the web.
Can anyone point me to some info, or has any other suggestions?
thanks
Lucy -
3 Replies
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DVDSP4 can be set to run with Qmaster for encoding. You have Qmaster. It totally sucks, truly evil Apple software for which they should be punished.
FCP cannot be set to run on networked rendering alth we’ve been screamign about it since V1.You can invest in better, faster machines, add more RAM or pursue hardware solutions such as Cinewave that support real time effects but they all carry heavy maintenance and compatibility burdens that, AFAICT, far outweigh any perceived productivity gains.
If I may be so bold, your employers are clueless. It wasn’t all that long ago that a weekend was required to render 30 seconds of video.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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Or… yoiu could put your system in a time bubble and crank the time up or down depending on how much time you want for lunch.
Chris
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What format do you normally work in?
Why don’t you get a computer just for encoding so it’ll keep the edit stations free from processing? Optimize your settings in Compressor. Choosing single pass goes much faster than double, and there’s not much of a quality difference, especially if you are doing short pieces.
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