Andrew Richards
Forum Replies Created
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I really hope Alex is right about the shared Events/Projects databases. That has been the endgame I’ve been pulling for all along. I was a big fan of Final Cut Server, though I was sometimes disappointed in its limitations in actual use. While as admin I could do really cool things with it, the users felt it was more of a burden than a tool.
My pie-in-the-sky dream was for Apple to better integrate FCP and FCSvr, where FCSvr essentially replaced the Browser window (or rather become a tab). FCP would become a direct client of FCSvr’s database, eliminating the troublesome Java GUI and making it a work-saver instead of a work-maker for the editors.
FCPX already has a database-driven local asset manager, the Event Browser. Now all they need to do is put a database server behind it (like it’s that easy, right?). The database underpinning FCSvr was PostgreSQL, which Apple recently adopted as the bundled database for OS X in Lion. In OS X through 10.6 they shipped MySQL. Probably just a coincidence.
Best,
Andy -
[Jeremy Garchow] “It’s interesting he points out how much work the GPU combination is doing, and how much it has to do for the retina. It’s rather illuminating. I wonder how this effects performance in GPU based applications. This computer is an Apple test pod until technology catches up, they usually start slow. “
This is the bit I was most dissuaded by. Bear in mind that you can get the same Ivy Bridge + Kepler guts in a old-school MBP, albeit with the old-school screen to go with it. But without all those built-in pixels to drive, GPU-hungry apps might likely fare better on the non-Retina MBPs. You can always get a fast SSD in the MBP to match (or exceed) the rMBP’s storage performance, pack it with 16 GB RAM after-market (maybe even 32 GB?), and swap out the ODD for a second HDD, which can be had up to 1 TB these days. Granted, the screen won’t be able to deliver as much real estate, but the Retina MBP apparently really has to strain its GPU just to do all the scaling necessary to drive 1920×1200 mode.
All told, if you can stand the old screen and its old resolution, the non-Retina MBP might be the safer choice for someone who plans to really push the rest of the hardware to its limits, at least this go ’round. In a couple years everything out of Apple will be Retina, and the GPUs won’t be breaking a sweat to handle it. But for now, I think I’d stick with the non-Retina.
(Full disclosure: I’m a 2010 13″ MacBook Air user and I plan up upgrade to a fully loaded 2012 13″ MacBook Air).
Best,
Andy -
Thunderbolt is only as fast as the drive(s) behind it. I’m guessing the 1TB in your GoFlex is a typical 7200 RPM SATA HDD, and thus prone to dropping frames on multi-cam. Since multi-cam plays multiple streams at the same time, the HDD must seek, cache, and stream and if its cache can’t buffer enough to meet demand you will drop frames, especially with high-bitrate media like Pro Res. The only way to guarantee multi-cam performance is with a RAID or SSD since they can both sustain much higher random read performance than a single 7200 RPM HDD (regardless of how it is connected).
Best,
Andy -
[Craig Seeman] ” I think there’s some confusion over unit sales vs revenue but these Apple April 2012 quarterly report show iPad and Mac revenue as very close. iPhone sales are many fold higher.”
I was lumping the iPad and the iPhone together since they share so many common components and a common OS. Nonetheless, you make a good point- it’s the iPhone that skews the scale and the Mac is holding its own.
Best,
Andy -
[Herb Sevush] “So many nice things to add with an available slot – USB3, Accelsior, Esata – so many choices, so few slots.”
Too true!
Best,
Andy -
[Greg Andonian] “If the iPad gets torched by the Windows tablets, it will light a fire under Apple and force them to re-think their strategy a bit. They would have to give some serious thought to putting some sort of backup plan in place should the iToys gravy train get derailed- then maybe they’d re-visit the high-end professional sector that kept them going before they got distracted…”
Competition is good, but if Apple starts to slip in its iDevice market, it isn’t going to find financial solace in the pro tower market to make up for it. It just isn’t a big enough market. Apple is selling far more Macs now than ever in it history (and that’s mostly laptops), and they are still only a small fraction of their overall revenues which are utterly dominated by the iPhone and iPad.
Best,
Andy -
[Mark Wilson] ” I was reading about Trim support in Raid 0 configuration, is this a big factor when choosing SSD drives?”
TRIM lets the OS tell the SSD’s controller what it is doing so the SSD controller can perform its own garbage collection and thus extend the life of the SSD. Apple supports TRIM for its own SSDs, but as far as I know not for 3rd parties. There is a utility for enabling it, but I haven’t used it.
TRIM is sort of redundant on any SandForce-powered SSD (OWC, OCZ, Intel 520, among others), since SandForce reserves cells for indepentent garbage collection without input from the host OS.
As far as RAID support goes, make sure your SSD choice is specifically qualified for RAID duty. Not all are. I’m not well versed on TRIM on RAID-0 striped SSDs. If it is OS dependent, I doubt OS X supports it. If you want more speed in your Mac Pro than you get with a single 2.5″ SATA 3G SSD, look at OWC’s Accelsior.
Best,
Andy -
Here they are: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1396
…but the installer won’t let you install them unless it sees FCPX, Motion 5, or Compressor 4 installed.
You could try it with Pacifist though.
Best,
Andy -
Telestream ScreenFlow. Not sure how it will do with the HiDPI/Retina stuff, but it is very good screen recording software.
Best,
Andy -
[Jason Jenkins] “My OWC SSD died on me after about 10 months of use. I’ve never had a mechanical hard drive die on me. They replaced it under warranty, but make sure you back up!”
I’ve had the inverse experience, but regardless- always backup!
Best,
Andy