Andrew Kimery
Forum Replies Created
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[Richard Herd] “I guess the actual detail I can’t quite figure out is the difference between GPUs and Hardware Accelerators (eg Red Rocket, AJA, Bluefish, etc.).”
In a nutshell, a GPU creates what you see on your computer screen in the proper specs (frame rate, color space, gamma, etc) that are used to display images on a computer screen. Video I/O cards (like from AJA or Blackmagic) are used to send a video signal based on TV frame rates, color spaces, gamma, etc., to a TV/monitor. Something like the Red Rocket is similar to an AJA I/O card, but it has additional hardware designed to specifically decode/encode certain codecs (in its case R3D) so the card will be able to do it much faster than a computer’s CPU/GPU can.
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The flip side is would Apple sell more of these machines if they updated them regularly? For example, between upgrading laptops and desktops I’ve bought a new machine from Apple every 2-3 years for the past 15 years or so (this includes home and work machines). That’s a not too bad a customer, IMO. If Apple had released a nMP this year I would’ve bought one. If they release one this year I might still buy one, though I’m coming to terms with either attempting a Hack or switching to Windows (not sure which one will be less annoying).
Shane recently built a Hack because he needed a new machine and Apple’s offering’s didn’t meet his needs. I’ve got another editor friend who loves to use Mac Mini’s in his home studio for side projects, yet the Mini hasn’t been updated in ages (and the last ‘update’ was a downgrade in some respects), so who knows what his next purchase will be. Even on the Mac-centric forums I go to there is a growing chorus of complaints about Apple’s non-mobile product line up. Tim Cook said desktop things were coming this year, but he only name checked the iMac (not the Mac Pro) so we’ll see what happens.
To you point though, when the iPhone makes up like 60%-70% of your revenue then of course that market gets catered to first. That wild money river won’t flow fiercely forever though and iPhone sales are already flattening out as the smart phone market matures.
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The flip side is would Apple sell more of these machines if they updated them regularly? For example, between upgrading laptops and desktops I’ve bought a new machine from Apple every 2-3 years for the past 15 years or so (this includes home and work machines). That’s a not too shabby customer, IMO. If Apple had released a nMP this year I would’ve bought one. If they release one this year I might still buy one, though I’m coming to terms with either attempting a Hack or switching to Windows (not sure which one will be less annoying).
Shane recently built a Hack because he needed a new machine and Apple’s offering’s didn’t meet his needs. I’ve got another editor friend who loves to use Mac Mini’s in his home studio for side projects, yet the Mini hasn’t been updated in ages (and the last ‘update’ was a downgrade in some respects), so who knows what his next purchase will be. Even on the Mac-centric forums I go to there is a growing chorus of complaints about Apple’s non-mobile product line up. Tim Cook said desktop things were coming this year, but he only name checked the iMac (not the Mac Pro) so we’ll see what happens.
To you point though, when the iPhone makes up like 60%-70% of your revenue then of course that market gets catered to first. That wild money river won’t flow fiercely forever though and iPhone sales are already flattening out as the smart phone market matures.
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[John Rofrano] “Who are they designing for? Clearly not the Pro market. :(“
They are designing it around their vision of what the pro market needs, and it’s what they’ve always done. They make something they want to make and customers can take it or leave it. Usually it’s a hit (iMac, iPod, etc.,) but sometimes it’s not (G4 Cube, Ping, etc.,). When it jives with what a user wants they mistakenly think “Cool, Apple made this for me” and when it doesn’t they go “Man, why did Apple abandon me?” when Apple didn’t target that user or abandon that user. Apple just made what they made and it happened to mesh with what that user wanted at the time.
For example, Apple never made I/O hardware like Avid or Media100 which is why it was seen as poor man’s, non-pro NLE. Yet many of us were the ‘poor man’ back in the day and loved the fact that Apple made a solution that was accessible to us. Fast forward nearly two decades and many of us are more like The Man instead of the Poor Man and we are lamenting why Apple is making these non-pro things. Apple is largely targeting the same demo, but over time we have drifted out of that demo.
It’s like hitch hiking. The driver and the passenger aren’t necessary going to the same final destination, but for a time they are coincidentally headed in the same direction.
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[Bill Davis] “Seriously, I remember all the events you are referencing and by the time they appeared, I’d been cutting on FCP for quite a while.”
Less than 12 months is quite a while?
The goal posts are moving a bit, Bill. I’m not disagreeing that you started using FCP v1 early or with your personal experiences while using it. I’m disagreeing with your idea that, “Without the market of NON-Filmmaking – FCP Legacy would not have developed into a tool that filmmakers FINALLY got to access for THEIR needs.” It doesn’t fit. Having a single product that could address multiple market segments was always in Apple’s plan. I mean, they had the Oxygen Network as beta testers for FCP v1. Like I said previously, there were a lot of things happening concurrently and it was FCP use in the lower end of the film/TV community that lead to the development of improved tools from Apple that focused on the workflow needs of the film/TV community. It just doesn’t make sense that Apple would look at a guy editing corporates with 3/4″ or MiniDV and go “You know what he really needs? Cinema Tools!”
I agree with you that FCP’s path to success was from the bottom up, not the top down, and there’s certainly a wide bottom in the filmmaking community.
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[Michael Gissing] “I still think the Fairlight controller with dedicated jog, transport and touch sensitive rotary pots is superior.”
Probably, though the downside to dedicated controllers like that is cost, learning curve and it possibly not supporting all the apps one needs it to support. Keyboards aren’t primary interfaces for NLEs because they are great at being primary interfaces for NLEs, they are primary interfaces because they are ubiquitous. There will be pockets of people that like and use other peripherals, but most people will stick with the keyboard and mouse/trackpad because that’s what they know and are comfortable with.
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[Bill Davis] “But that was nearly 2 years after it was launched, Andrew.
Some of us had cut literally hundreds of projects on Legacy by that time.”
While you were cutting your stuff on FCP in AZ, other people were cutting docs using FCP in NYC, music videos on FCP in Chicago and TV shows on FCP in LA. The first cable show to use FCP aired in 2000 (“WOW!” aka Women of Wrestling) and Apple won Engineering Emmy’s for FireWire (2001) and FCP (2002) so it’s not like these things weren’t being used by people in major markets to cut movies, TV shows, movie trailers, etc.,.. They just started out being used on smaller projects before working their way up the food chain to bigger budget/higher profile projects.
Which brings me back to the crux of your previous post:
[Bill Davis] “Without the market of NON-Filmmaking – FCP Legacy would not have developed into a tool that filmmakers FINALLY got to access for THEIR needs. “I disagree. The lower-budget TV and filmmaking community using FCP is what led to the higher budget TV and filmmaking community using FCP. For example, Apple didn’t buy FilmLogic in 2001 because corporate guys were switching from 3/4″ and Avid to MiniDV and FCP. FCP’s $999 price tag made it attractive to anyone on a small budget and having a small budget isn’t exclusive to the non-filmmaking community.
[Bill Davis] “Probably why it all the X hue and cry has always sounded a bit familiar to me. ; )”
Which is a reason I’ve always wondered why you railed against such a predictable, and oft repeated cycle, so vehemently.
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[John Rofrano] “But do you even need other cards? PCI Express (PCIe) is 12 years old! Preceded by PCI, EISA, & ISA. Maybe it’s time for a change? Maybe Thunderbolt is that change?”
AFAIK ThunderBolt operates over PCIe. Some people need the expandability and some don’t. Those that do might also have a preference between adding a card internally vs having a dongle/box hanging off the back.
[John Rofrano] “Maybe whats needed is for all computer manufacturers to acknowledge that having every component provide for it’s own cooling is absurd in 2017. What is needed is a standard design where cards can take advantage of the existing cooling properties of the case so that case manufacturers provide cooling and card manufacturers just provide cards. Then you could have a different card form factor with that prototype case that plugs into the backplane cooling system.”
I don’t think that would possible without a case being designed and built around a fixed set of components (like the new Mac Pro) since different CPUs, RAM, GPUs, hard drives, motherboards, power supplies, etc., all generate different amounts of heat.
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[Noah Kadner] “That design is still an issue if you want to add any cards besides GPUs… I’d take a huge breadbox.”
True, but it’s still better upgradability than the current MP.
I don’t think having the two, desktop class GPUs would work in that design though. It works in the current MP because Apple custom designed the whole thing to share a single, giant heat sink that was cooled by the fan. A typical GPU is designed to be in a case with sufficient airflow around so that it’s own onboard cooling can dump off excess heat into the case. Unless Apple goes back to a more standard form factor I’m not sure we’ll see off the shelf GPUs used.
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If only a keyboard like the Optimus Maximus was in mass production (and didn’t cost a fortune).
https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/maximus/