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Why Apple should let HP build its workstations
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[Andrew Richards] “But with no Start Menu, you are slammed right back into Metro to do anything, though I suppose you can just saturate your task bar with the software you use most of the time and try to avoid the Start Screen.
“Well, the new start menu is metro, I’d just get rid of all the social networking crap, live tiles etc. and have all the app shortcuts there. It’s actually not bad from a navigational point of view; it just looks goofy. A bit like launchpad, but fully customizable with regards to ordering, layout, color etc. But, frankly, I don’t mind as long as it runs my stuff and it runs it well.
[Andrew Richards] “Do you mean tweaking of Linux or tweaking of the apps? Neither Adobe nor Avid rely on QuickTime. They both have their own playback engines. Pro Res would be out though.
“No, the apps. Avid doesn’t rely on QT internally, but you need to output your content at a certain point and that is pretty much QT in Avid. No avi wrapper for DnxHD, only QT. Reference files rely on QT etc. etc.
Same for Premiere. Neither DnxHD, Prores or Cineform exist on Linux so unless you want to export as uncompressed and up your storage space bigtime its a problem. -
[Frank Gothmann] “Avid doesn’t rely on QT internally, but you need to output your content at a certain point and that is pretty much QT in Avid. No avi wrapper for DnxHD, only QT. Reference files rely on QT etc. etc. Same for Premiere. Neither DnxHD, Prores or Cineform exist on Linux so unless you want to export as uncompressed and up your storage space bigtime its a problem.”
What about MXF? I thought that was Avid’s native DNxHD container these days. DaVinci supports DNxHD on Linux. FFmpeg can be called upon to encode and convert almost anything, including DNxHD (which is open source).
I don’t think the barriers are that high.
Best,
Andy -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Yeah, but then they have to support three OSes, and all the variants therein.”
No, they’d drop support for the Mac since obviously Apple is going to kill OS X because they make so much money on iOS toys and because they hate pros and love pulling the rug out from under us.
/sarcasm
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[Andrew Richards] “What about MXF? I thought that was Avid’s native DNxHD container these days. DaVinci supports DNxHD on Linux. FFmpeg can be called upon to encode and convert almost anything, including DNxHD (which is open source).”
Yes, but Avid doesn’t use MXF for its deliverables. You cannot export DnxHD MXF files from an Avid to work with most other applications, only QT. What would make sense though is to allow DnxHD in an avi wrapper, just like Cineform, so that would avoid QT on Linux (and on Windows).
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[Dennis Radeke] “Like Ron and Tim, I have long thought very well of HP and agree that the Z800 is easily a better Mac in case design and overall execution than the current Mac Pro is. I have also thought that licensing OS X to a single vendor would make sense and HP would be on my short list. I also agree that it would be a win-win. “
Licensing OS X might be great for Adobe and HP and pro users, but it is all bad for Apple. There is no upside for them. If Apple doesn’t want to play in the workstation market, they will just leave it. What does Apple gain by partnering with HP on workstations? They don’t save dev work on OS X, if anything they add significant hassle. They have the best industrial designers in the world, so it isn’t like they are short on talent. I just can’t see what advantage there is for Apple to hand over the keys to the OS X castle to a competitor, even if it is only for a class of computer Apple isn’t interested in selling anymore.
Apple is in a position where they can be in any market they want to be in. They could decide they want to make original content for iTunes and outspend NBCU’s entire 2010 production spending with 5% of their cash hoard. If Apple wants OS X on a workstation, they’ll make one. If they don’t, they won’t.
Best,
Andy -
[Frank Gothmann] “Yes, but Avid doesn’t use MXF for its deliverables. You cannot export DnxHD MXF files from an Avid to work with most other applications, only QT. What would make sense though is to allow DnxHD in an avi wrapper, just like Cineform, so that would avoid QT on Linux (and on Windows).”
AVI and QuickTime are the only way out of Avid? Sounds like Avid has some legacy container baggage to shed. Just allow export to MXF. This is exactly the kind of thing MXF was designed for- platform agnostic media exchange.
Best,
Andy -
[Andrew Richards] “AVI and QuickTime are the only way out of Avid? Sounds like Avid has some legacy container baggage to shed. Just allow export to MXF. This is exactly the kind of thing MXF was designed for- platform agnostic media exchange.”
I lobbied a long time ago back around June 21st for this and practically got my head cut off.
Avid could go a long way to really push MXF in to a real world option for Mac.
Jeremy
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[Jeremy Garchow] “I lobbied a long time ago back around June 21st for this and practically got my head cut off.”
That’s what you get in this business for suggesting changing a workflow. New technology is great but we’ll be damned if we have to break a habit to use it!
Best,
Andy -
Well, I agree with you on this 100 per cent. I love Avid’s editing toolset but the export functions need a serious overhaul.
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