Premiere Pro, Mac vs PC

[Patrick Murphy]

Hi Walter,

Thats great to know thanks… I think that seems like being the best set up for me…

DO you have any advice RE work flow or anything that you need to bear in mind when switching between the two?

How do you make sure portable hard drives are compatible across the two platforms?

Paddy

[Mike Squires]

I can honestly say that I haven’t gotten a virus or malware via email in years with a PC. It’s pretty simple, if you don’t know who the sender of the email is, don’t open it.

Also, make sure to have a quality anti-virus/anti-malware program running. I use ESET Smart Security, and it catches everything for me.

Windows 7 is stable and secure. I use my laptop (Asus G53SW) for everything, including editing and personal use. I can honestly say that I haven’t had any issues regarding security.

[Gus Evangelista]

I’ve tried Norton, AVG, McAfee, etc…

I’ve been using Microsoft Security Essentials. It’s great, simple, unobtrusive, it’s from Microsoft, and it’s free!

[Walter Soyka]

[Patrick Murphy] “DO you have any advice RE work flow or anything that you need to bear in mind when switching between the two?”

A piece of general advice for working on more than one computer, regardless of platform: be ruthlessly organized in your file structure. I organize all my projects so they are completely self-contained within a single project folder. Inside the project folder, I have a variety of other sub-folder and sub-sub-folder to keep me organized and help me find things quickly, but having a stand-alone folder that I can copy or sync from one machine to another is important.

Platform specific: you can’t encode ProRes through QuickTime-enabled applications on a PC like you do on a Mac, but there are some open-source options using the ffmpeg encoder and a GUI front-end with ProRes presets like AnotherGUI.

My work is mostly graphics, so I use a lot of image sequences, but I have also been rendering to CineForm AVIs on the PC and ProRes MOVs on the Mac; I haven’t had any trouble reading the renders from one on the other and using them in projects.

[Patrick Murphy] “How do you make sure portable hard drives are compatible across the two platforms?”

You could theoretically use exFAT [link] as a crossplatform format with large file support and built-in support on Windows and OS X, but I’ve not tried this.

I purchased Tuxera NTFS for my Macs and MediaFour MacDrive for my PCs. With these applications, my Macs can read and write NTFS and my PCs can read and write HFS+, so disk format becomes a non-issue.

You can also use networking to share files: OS X supports SMB, the Windows file-sharing protocol.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Tom Daigon]

Thanks Gus. You are the 3rd positive testimonial Ive heard about MSE. I am downloading in preparation of the Z820 arrival.

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.7.3
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Ramil Pasibe]

[Tom Daigon] ” I am downloading in preparation of the Z820 arrival.”

Hi Tom, ours arrived a week ago! Still doing a bit of tweaking inside. Also I can vouch for the Microsoft Security Essentials as weell, that’s what I’ve installed.

I’ve just installed red rocket the other day. Just finished installing Avid Symphony today. Tomorrow I’m installing the CS6 Production Suite.

I’m pretty excited to test this one. Although I am an avid newbie – mostly for stereoscopic workflow reasons, I’m excited to learn new stuff.

I plan on putting Premiere Pro CS6 through its paces – especially handling Red Epic files, been mostly doing Premiere work for corporate AVPs.

I’m still waiting for the E-sata 3 PCIE express card I’ve ordered. The Z820 has no Esata option to speak of, and I plan on connecting a GSPEED 8TB raid via Esata.

[Tom Daigon]

Hi Ramil:

Very Cool. I look forward to hearing how things go for you.

I purchased the Caldigit HD Pro2 16TB raid which uses a PCIE card. It will be interesting to see what kind of performance I get from the system.

No Red Rocket for me. but I did get the fastest CPUs available on the Z820 which will help with Red and Epic playback. My old Mac Pro plays back Red at half resolution (2K) just fine.So I expect the same from the Z820 at the very least.

Please keep me posted on your experiences.

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.7.3
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Patrick Murphy]

Hi Walter,

Amazing advice, thank you! Its so so useful… just want to clarify a couple of points for a not overly technical brain!

I normally convert to Pro Res using MPEG Stream Clip. Would i still be able to convert all footage to Pro Res on the PC using that?

I have googled some of the ways you mentioned being able to file share across the computers and think i understand the basics. Will do some more research in to it.

the exFAT does seem to be the simplest (i may well be overlooking something!) can i ask why you dont use it?

THanks again Walter, I really appreciate such comprehensive advice.

Its so useful

Paddy

[Walter Soyka]

[Patrick Murphy] “I normally convert to Pro Res using MPEG Stream Clip. Would i still be able to convert all footage to Pro Res on the PC using that?”

No. MPEG Streamclip relies on the QuickTime libraries for ProRes encode, and Apple only supports ProRes encode on Macs. The only way to encode ProRes on a PC that I am aware of is with a tool like ffmpeg.

There are a couple other mezzanine codecs comparable to ProRes that are cross-platform and worth consideration: Avid’s DNxHD, Go Pro’s CineForm, and the brand-new Grass Valley HQX [link]. DNxHD and HQX are both free for encode and decode; CineForm is free for decode, but paid for encode, much like Apple’s ProRes. HQX has just been released, and I’ll be testing it myself next week.

You can even mix codecs in the pipeline; if you wanted to encode ProRes on the Mac and CineForm on the PC, decode would be totally cross-platform for both. I have not bought CineForm encode licenses for all my Macs, so I’ve done this myself a bit.

[Patrick Murphy] “the exFAT does seem to be the simplest (i may well be overlooking something!) can i ask why you dont use it?”

Two reasons: I have to be prepared to accept whatever comes in the door for client media, and I didn’t want to have to worry about reformatting my current drives or accessing older drives. For less than $100 total for a license of Tuxera NTFS and a license for MediaFour MacDrive, the ability to read any disk in the shop on any computer made the most sense for me.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Tom Daigon]

Walter, I look forward to reading about your thoughts on the GV codec.

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.7.3
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3