ProRes HD really that good???

[Jerry Hofmann]

ProRes is fabulous. The workflow is great, the pictures are visually lossless from the original, and ProRes is VERY friendly with FCP’s real time unrendered effect playback technology called “RT Extreme” I’ve seen 10th generation ProRes too.. it looks like Generation 1 to me. The codec is truly advanced.

That said, with that many stations, you do want the fibre…

Something else… Why Avids? I’d not mix it up that way. I’d do all the same software. Media Captured in Avid won’t work with FCP, and vice versa…

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D

[Mark Raudonis]

[Kaveh Pourshahidi] “Xsan users out there, are you still happy with your choice or do you wish you had gone different way? “

Yes, I’m happy. We were an early adopter (Over three years ago) and I don’t regret it at all.

Do you need such an expensive system? In a word, YES! Do your research. If you’re even asking this question, you don’t know enough to make a decision. Full resolution bandwidth with that many stations will require a fibre connection. There are some gigE solutions out there, but I doubt that you would be happy with their performance in your situation.

When it comes to a reliable, capable SAN installation, there are no shortcuts. Don’t even think of trying to do the installation yourself. Contract with a reputable installer.

Good luck.

Mark

[Shane Ross]

I have limited experience with ProRes, but what I have had has been great. Very clean. Not sure about the workflow, as I mainly work with DVCPRO HD. But the quality is very good.

SAN SYSTEMS – EditShare bears looking at. I am working on an XSAN now, and I have in the past, and it works great too. But you need an IT guy that REALLY knows his stuff to set it up and manage it. Plus you have to have a Fibre card and XSAN seat license to access the drives. EditShare has up to 10 connections over GigE, and anyone can connect. Read up on it.

And yea, you need one of these expensive solutions if you want to do things properly, and not spend half your day trying to make things work.

Shane

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[Dave Jenkins]

ProRes looks great but renders times are much slower than Uncompressed.

Dajen Productions
Santa Barbara, CA
G5 Quad – AJA Kona LHe
Huge 1.2 Raid
FCP 6.0.2-OS X 10.4.11-QT 7.3

[Jerry Hofmann]

Well, they are pretty speedy here, but then, I’m on an octo core mac…

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D

[David Peralta]

Has anyone tried ProRes over the editshare? does it choke when editing?

hmm… I wonder what this button does…

[Matthew Nelson]

I’ll also join the chorus in praise of ProRes. It is an excellent codec but as far as I know it is not a codec Avid works with.

As for shared storage solutions they are spec’d out in terms of bandwidth. How many steams of whatever can it support. With the number of seats you are talking about you’ll be spending a good chunk of change so I’d have the reps of Xsan, Metasan and Editshare come to you and pitch their respective systems. Then you can judge what works best for your house. But no matter what system you choose get a professional to do the installation. Shared storage is a tricky beast that will severely punish those who do it half a****.

Matt

[Chris Poisson]

Kaveh,

There are two papers here on the Cow about ProRes by Tim Wilson, you should go to the library, print them out and read them. Very, very important articles. Then read them again.

ProRes even at half res is unbelievable.

Have a wonderful day.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Also, editshare claims responsibilty ofr sharing FCP and Avid on the same network.

Another vote for ProResHQ. It’s really been great for us. I don’t know what you do, but if you do any keying and compositing it has so far shown great success with everything we have thrown at it. I have been using it for a live capture codec and it’s never been easier to pull a key. I am on set right now actually, if you can believe it. The future is now. The render times are a bit slow, that’s really ht only down side, even on the Eight-Core. But I use HQ and not SQ so perhaps there’s a difference there. All little tests that I have done have ProRes benefits outweighing uncompressed. Sometimes I will still work in a 10 bit timeline for graphics at the very end, but for every day serious edits, ProRes has been awesome. Now if they’d only add an alpha channel to it……

Jeremy

[Kaveh Pourshahidi]

Thanks every one for your inputs. I feel much better now about ProRes as a serious alternative to full SD an HD.
Mark, you’re right about Fibre and San system being the only way when working with uncompressed material. But we’re trying to avoid that.

Here is the thing, we’re going to deal with hours and hours SD and HD material every day. That’s why we are looking at ProRes, DVC Pro HD and even AVC-intra to find smarter workflow to minimize the need of storage, and render time.

Shane, we had the opportunity to try out EditShare for couple of days and I must say the system worked pretty good handling both DV and multiple uncompressed SD coming from four FCP-stations and one Avid. We did not tried it out with ProRes which is a shame. It still remains some more testing before we decide what system we will go for. Tomorrow we’ll meet with some Apple-people and hear their solution.

Jeremy, we are a production company producing mostly promos, and billboards. Many times we do lots of keying, tracking and compositing. That was very good news you having such good results when posting.

And Matt, don’t worry. I wouldn’t even dreaming about doing the installation myself, not even with a gun pointed to my head. Our house is a creative house and we want to keep it that way.

Thanks again every one and keep sharing your wisdom.

Kaveh