What kind of performance do you get with DVC PRO HD codec?

[Sean Oneil]

I wouldn’t by a Powermac right now. Very bad timing. If you want one, wait for when the Intel-based ones come out which will probably happen this summer (northern summer that is).

I use FCP on a Powermac Dual 2.5ghz. RT performance for DVCProHD seemed pretty decent 1 1/2 years ago. Now I’m just fed up with it. We use 8-disk SATA arrays, and can easily get 8 streams of DVCProHD at once using Multicam. But any type of effects is kind of a joke. Especially if you use stills like PNG files. Dynamic RT just doesn’t seem to work well either. And it looks so bad that it kind of defeats the whole point of doing offline editing in HD (something I’ve given up on doing).

The codec’s quality looks really good for one generation. After that it degrades much faster than other types of codecs like JPEG. Also, it chops off some of the horizontal resolution. So 1280×720 actually gets scaled to 970×720. 1920×1080 becomes 1280×1080. That’s a pretty large amount of spatial quality lost right there. Even if you can’t really notice it at first, doing this over multiple generations will take a major toll.

When the Intel Powermacs come out, it’s speculated rumor that a new version of FCP will also come out. This new version could use GPU rendering which has the potential of improving RT effects performence by 10-fold. So I’d definately wait.

All that said, why not just get a large, fast disk array for you PC? External SATA solutions are cheap, and software RAID will get the job done nowadays. Its a lot cheaper than buying a Powermac.

Sean

[Bj Ahlen]

The release of the MacPro models (IntelMac towers) was originally rumored to have been planned for August’s Apple developer meeting, to coincide with Intel’s release of the new CPUs Apple will use.

Since then, Intel has been forced to speed up the release of these new CPUs, so they are now saying July, and will likely meet this.

This could conceivably mean an earlier release of the MacPros also, but they’re still going to be first generation for a while, so there is always some potential for grief.

Still, I think these machines are going to really kick butt, and if you want to buy a G5 soon, it possible that near-new ones will drop in price by at least 30-40% as soon as the new MacPro models are out. Pure speculation, but very likely IMHO.

I don’t like DVCPRO HD either, for exactly the reasons you mention.

[Peter Gruden]

Sean,

I guess youre right about bad timing for G5.

My reason to go with Mac is really DVD Studio Pro, and Dvc Pro HD codec would be a bonus which is not available on PC. But it seems that reduced resolution and multigeneration loss negate the advantages of using Dvc Pro HD.

Are you getting better performance (effects, slomo and CC) with uncompressed than with Dvc Pro HD?

thanks for valuable information,
Peter

[Sean Oneil]

I’ve never done any offline editing in Uncompressed HD. I really couldn’t give an honest comparison.

BTW, despite it’s shortcomings, DVCProHD does have one major advantage. If you actually shoot footage in that format (Varicam or HDX200) then you can capture and edit DVCProHD natively. It is very useful to be able to do that.

Sean

[Bj Ahlen]

If you’re doing mostly straight cuts it’s obviously convenient to stay in DVCProHD if the footage was originated in it.

For compositing and effects though, this codec seems to deteriorate a bit too quickly for my taste.

[Sean Oneil]

You can still capture it natively and render the final edit on an Uncompressed timeline. That way the effects don’t get recompressed.

Sean

[Peter Corbett]

Sean,

Off-thread, but I found a post of yours about the occassional “No Video Input” flashing up in capture which makes capture impossible. I tried all the things you did without success.

I have a HD Extreme PCIe but have the same symptoms you have/had with Multibridge. Black Magic can’t identify the problem. It’s not motherboard or decks as the result is the same on different systems.

If you have any insight, I would really appreciate it. My email is peter@php.com.au if you don’t want to post here.

Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
Australia
http://www.php.com.au