[Bob Kiger]

Thanks to Vince and Jon for their varied personal accounts. In either case it’s fair to say that thermal issues are but one of the problems faced by professionals who operate in the field.

At Videography Lab our most minimal mobile HD production/editing is carried on a touring bicycle, but for most productions we use our mobile unit . . . VanGo 🙂

It is equipped with solar panels feeding 2 – 12 volt [100amp hours each] gel cell solar batts. We use a small 800 watt inverter to power our existing ASUS Quad core and small peripherals. One big advantage of the notebooks is they are designed to handle power interruptions. We are open to larger and higher quality inverters with the move to CS5 because we will need to add an external eSATA drive box. Any suggestions?

The shock of traveling on unimproved roads challenges all form factors but more so I believe the small powerhouse units like today’s “offering” by Shuttle Computers https://us.shuttle.com/J3_5800G.aspx Note: We see this as yet another Chinese press release “order in advance” scheme. We have been tracking a similar press release scheme since last summer at this thread https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/3/894680

These “tailor made” platforms keep popping up and than disappearing or morphing during the purchase phase. In our case we did not receive our ASUS notebook until 3 months after we paid. If history has taught us anything, it is that the digital marketplace is extremely dynamic. Everything from OSs to video cards and application versions change [usually expanding the need for resources] during a protracted purchase phase that is built into “press release schemes”. They often include hidden “gotchas” in the specs. In the case of the Shuttle J3-5800, imagine putting all that power under the hood and limiting the output to USB 2.0 when USB 3.0 is already available?

We have decided to stay the course & install CS5 on our ASUS Quad Core notebook and spend summer immersed at Lynda.com and Adobe TV learning how to manage the CS5 collection.

Right now I am concerned that Adobe’s gamble on “Flash for all” may not yield because of the monster case that Google and Apple are putting forward on the overhead of websites built with Flash as opposed to HTML5. Any suggestions on where would we go to discuss that issue?

Bob Kiger seminal author of “videography” [OCT1972-AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER]
http://www.videographyblog.com

[Bob Kiger]

I’m assuming that the projects your working on are not yet finished. Have you rendered your timeline for some reason?

With the new CS5 performance specs, it seems like the older ideas of rendering regularly to get a reasonable screening of the project is no longer a good work flow choice. If CS5 can play unrendered timelines as they openly stated in video and at NAB, than it might be wise to hold back on rendering until your ready for some kind of release. This is especially true if your storage space for projects is limited.

This is just my first impression at diagnosing the problem you describe.

Bob Kiger seminal author of “videography” [OCT1972-AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER]
http://www.videographyblog.com

[Bob Kiger]

Brian appears to be right. The GeForce 285 is listed as optimal but not the GeForce 285M. Pity!

As to USB 3.0, it will certainly be an improvement over USB 2.0 but the ExpressCard slot on many notebooks can be configured right now for up to 200MB per second sustained with RAID 5 and eSATA plugs also available right now are well over Adobe’s specs.

The real issue today is the video cards that Abobe/Nvidia certify as “optimal” for CS5. If they don’t get some high powered notebooks into the mix, they will miss a fantastic opportunity to surge ahead of FCP.

Bob Kiger seminal author of “videography” [OCT1972-AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER]
http://www.videographyblog.com

[Bob Kiger]

[Brian Louis]
Kindly show an authoritative reference for your assertion that

“The following is a list of cards including the Fermi other than the quadro that can work with MPE in CS5, one other requirement is you need more than 768MB memory on board, information on how to enable these cards is available on the net.
GeForce GT 240
GeForce GTS 240
GeForce GTX 260
GeForce GTX 275
GeForce GTX 295
GeForce GTX 470
GeForce GTX 480”

I contend that these cards are not certified by Adobe/Nvidia for optimmal use with the CS5 Mercury Engine.

See: https://tv.adobe.com/watch/short-and-suite/gpu-acceleration-and-nvidia/

Bob Kiger seminal author of “videography” [OCT1972-AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER]
http://www.videographyblog.com

[Bob Kiger]

Hi Brian–

There has never been a dispute that other high powered video cards besides those cited by Adobe and Nvidia will work. The question is whether they were optimized by Adobe engineers for the CS5 engine. So are you saying that you have authoritative information that:

GeForce GT 240
GeForce GTS 240
GeForce GTX 260
GeForce GTX 275
GeForce GTX 295
GeForce GTX 470
GeForce GTX 480

cards have been certified as optimized for the Mercury engine? If so this is great news. Please cite your sources?

Mahaloha,

Bob Kiger seminal author of “videography” [OCT1972-AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER]
http://www.videographyblog.com

[Bob Kiger]

JB wrote: “All Cuda cards will see some benefits in cs5 and cs4. But for mercury engine in cs5 you must have one of the listed cards.”

The Mercury engine that drives CS5 is optimized for the CUDA cards you listed but your assertion that in CS5 you must have one of the listed cards is not correct. You can run many high powered cards with CS5 CUDA and other types, but to get optimal performance across the cores and balanced memory usage the cards that have been qualified THUSFAR have been as you said.

GeForce GTX 285 (Windows and Mac OS)
Quadro FX 3800 (Windows)
Quadro FX 4800 (Windows and Mac OS)
Quadro FX 5800 (Windows)
Quadro CX

We’re confident that Adobe will be continuously expanding the cards that are optimized. What you MUST have to run CS5 is a 64-bit OS.

Cheers,

Bob Kiger seminal author of “videography” [OCT1972-AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER]
http://www.videographyblog.com

[Bob Kiger]

Hi Kurt–

Believe it or not we were addressing this very same issue back in 2005 at the beta for CS2 Production Suite. I argued that Adobe should take a graduated approach to their entire set of “collections”.

That they should consider notebook/laptop users as a market for every one of their programs, and create a light version of the entire collection for that purpose. They systematically blocked this effort. At one point I even asked Adobe president [at the time], Bruce Chizen, to donate the old Premiere 6.5 engine to open source 🙂 That went nowhere!

I still believe there is plenty of room for a light version of the Master Collection. The concept was that an inner ring of “lite” programs would be installed. When a user pattern shows that they spend most of their time on say “Photoshop” than enhancements would come in as downloads. At the same time if they showed no use of say Flash development, than those apps would remain a basic shell. So the circle of programs that comprised the collection were customized and scalable dependent on use and resources on the laptop/notebook.

In the early days of video editing [circa 1970] remarkable special effects and any kind of program editing were attainable using simple A/B rolls. I am of the belief that all modern editing programs have gotten too carried away with deep [often redundant or downright silly] features that make their applications “intimidating” to the youngsters who just want to cut a video for their friends or their school or their cause . . . whatever!

I tried Microsoft Movie Maker on my Quad Core and it easily handles 1080p but Microsoft is clueless about how to edit video IMO. I tried simple Quicktime Pro. Both these programs neglected basic editing features and added really dumb ones. I won’t get specific because this is an Adobe Premiere forum and Adobe ain’t dumb when it comes to editing. They are misguided 🙂 So when you say: “All I need to do is to be able to do some basic cutting, titling and burn to DVD.” it is a very fair question? The only complication is to add that many now want to do their “basic cutting, titling and burn” in HD and burn to Blu-Ray!!!

Bob Kiger seminal author of “videography” [OCT1972-AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER]
http://www.videographyblog.com

[Bob Kiger]

Thank you Mike for filling in the lost links. I don’t know if I just coded those links wrong but they failed to appear in my original post.

A word of caution, based on experience about getting a notebook with specs like the ones I obtained. ASUS the notebook manufacturer that made the gamer book I chose, had a dealer who advertised the notebook prematurely. I put down the money fast to lock in the deal and they ended up trying to back out of the offer. During the “negotiations” that followed they conceded to build my notebook up by adding 2 – 500GB 720rpm HDs in place of the 320GB drives that came stock with the unit.

Today, less than 9 months after purchase, one of the hard drives sounds like a washing machine and is sure to die when I need it most. I called ASUS tech support and they said that they would not support the repair under warranty because the computer had been altered.

The ASUS dealer who sold me the computer never told me that I would not have any warranty and, worse, they seem to have disappeared!

So the moral of this story is to get a reputable dealer or buy direct from a manufacturer who will Customize your notebook and put it under extended warranty. “Better safe than sorry”.

Bob Kiger seminal author of “videography” [OCT1972-AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER]
http://www.videographyblog.com

[Bob Kiger]

Hi Kurt–
By the way you phrase you post “I’m getting a new laptop” it is not clear whether you have already committed to purchase or not. If you have not than I would say STOP!

Than drop down 10 threads on this forum an read the specs that I have posted under “Quad Core Notebooks and CS5”. Your specifications will not work IMO. Most notably the use of 5400rpm drives is not supported by Adobe Premiere Pro when you call for tech support. They specify 7200rpm. There are many other reasons but let’s start with a reality check and look at what we’ve compiled after nearly a year in pursuit off your goal.

And by the way I believe that CS5 will be widely deployed on very powerful laptop/notebooks in the year ahead.

Bob Kiger seminal author of “videography” [OCT1972-AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER]
http://www.videographyblog.com

[Bob Kiger]

Hi Laura–

I’m answering your question at a new thread entitled “Quad Core Notebooks and CS5” which will be at the top of this forum list shortly.

Hope it helps.

Bob

Bob Kiger seminal author of “videography” [OCT1972-AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER]
http://www.videographyblog.com