Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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Cool I’m glad everything worked out. So many intricacies, sometimes this line of work gets CRAZY!
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“the slight negative of this workflow (providing two different sizes) is that you will have to render twice… you can’t just add an output module to the render and have it kick out two files for one render.”
Maybe I misunderstood you here, but you actually CAN have two output modules (or more) on the same queued render item and it does render them at the same time.
As for the HDV codec, I had to upload it for a contractor recently and you can download it here:
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These same principals apply to both Windows and Macs, although (and I could be wrong here) I believe people are seeing better multiprocessing results on Macs. This could simply be because quad-core PCs are not as common and therefore results are not as commonly made available.
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Cool. Please do let us know how it goes, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned in marketing it’s that there are no guarantees of success OR failure, and just because we weren’t as successful with mailers doesn’t mean you won’t be.
Good luck, and hopefully you’ll be posting here often!
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The DVCPRO HD codec is Mac only. Sucks I know, but that’s the way it is. Your only option is to convert it (on your mac) to a different codec that is cross-platform.
You can download the Blackmagic codec from the Blackmagic Design web site for free, Which provides great quality options. The Sheer codec is supposedly great (and provides smaller file sizes), and there are a lot of other options out there.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
My understanding is that, unless you have a specific hardware recorder that recently came out, you are only going to get 4:2:0 from XDCAM. If those are your only choices, workflow should probably be the deciding factor, not color sampling.
If you want 4:2:2, you should try to step up to DVCPRO-50 or DVCPRO HD, both of which are available in the Panasonic HVX200.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
If anything, I would guess that maybe it is the difference in color management between Quicktime and everything else. Have you been viewing the footage in Final Cut Pro (or similar) for these comparisons, or are you comparing the AE renders to the original footage in Quicktime? QT has some odd gamma issues, and while I’m not sure what the particulars are you may pull both clips into an editing app to make sure it isn’t quicktime giving you problems.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
markertek.com sells them:
https://www.markertek.com/SearchProdList.asp?off=0&sort=prod
I’ve purchased quit a bit of gear from Markertek, and they are a reliable, reasonably priced vendor.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Much like MPEG-4, After Effects HATES HDV because of its compression type like Steve mentioned. The problem is not your machine, it’s the codec you’re using.
That said, here’s my take on your questions:
– slower quad vs. core 2 duo – It depends on where you need the horsepower. A quad will help more in rendering tasks (provided you have enough RAM, see point below), while a faster processor will help speed up the creation process and general interactivity within AE.
– AE CS3 and RAM/Processors – AE CS3 will use as many processors as you have, provided you set it up properly. On the RAM issue, while Windows can only address 3GB RAM (with the 3GB switch enabled), that amount is per process. Most apps are limited to that 3GB limit since they are only a single process. AE CS3 gets around this by using a Nucleo-like trick during rendering, wherein multiple instances of AE are launched in the background, all working on your render and all using as much RAM as is available. Keep in mind – AE CS3 won’t use all of your processors unless there is enough RAM per processor for it to do so, and the recommended amount is 2-3GB per core.
In order to get AE CS3 to use all your cores and RAM, make sure multiprocessing is turned on in the After Effects preferences. It will tell you how many cores it can use based on the available RAM.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Vista probably won’t get you anything worth the headaches and resource hogging of the OS. If it were me, I would stick with XP given that it has been stable for a while now, has multiple updates that addressed any lingering issues and doesn’t consume RAM and other resources as bad as Vista does.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com