Dan Stewart
Forum Replies Created
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Flamethrower more like.
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OK thanks Bret – it looks like the slave machine will keep on doing what it’s doing while its screen is being used by the other machine. I’m assuming this means it will continue to be a usable network location as well – though whether that will run down the same tbolt cable or not I can’t tell. There’s always the ethernet.
So is anyone interested in the practicality of this? It seems like the two machines could share files and instantly switch from being 2 workstations to one with 2 screens (and with 4 cores doing encoding or whatever truly in the background..). I’m thinking the SSD machine could be resolve or smoke at full res spitting out prores 422 or dnxhd220 for the other to put the timeline together..
But I’m still not clear if all 8 cores could be brought to bear on one task? What are people using for clustered rendering – compressor? If so does it work? I gave up last time I tried to get it working – I had 14 cheesegraters (112 cores + gpus!) on a local network and ended up staying all night because I could only get one to reliably work.. this is the big question for me because to compete with a 6 core xeon I’d need to put all 8 i7’s on the case when I needed to.
The other big plus of course is I could buy the one machine for now and add the other if I needed it.. And the two machines could be separated for 2 suites if necessary with only a couple of spare LCDs needed – which I have.
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So that’s £8300 with two apple displays. I was wondering how this would compare to two top spec iMacs next to each other, one for cutting one for encoding (and £2500 left over). Could one act as a second screen for the other? Would require switchable video input.
How is cluster rendering on mavericks? I remember trying to use an office full of cheese graters to get something done in a hurry and giving up.
Eight i7 cores would do it for me if they can be put to work. -
It does seem the tube is fcpx only. Premiere, avid and smoke are so far no-shows. Even with fcpx it also seems the software side has boosted performance significantly on the iMac. Really not feeling $5k+ for a 20% performance increase at best and in any case 4k is in the distant future still for me. Also I rarely layer more than 3 or 4 effects.
Is this machine really just designed for 1 niche program and silly overloading at that? -
You need an upgradable machine. Buy a large case pc with plenty of room to expand. For now stick in the fastest motherboard/CPU combo you can afford (without going mad) and a couple of gpu cards (again without going mad). You’ll have to switch to premiere or avid but the cash you keep aside can be spent in 10 years to do the same again and you’ll be magnitudes faster then than anything you buy today. The non-upgradable Macpro is sexy now but in three years it’ll be a doorstop, in 10 a relic and in 25 conversation piece.
If you must stay on fcpx then keep the iMac but offload the encoding to the PC box.
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‘But one thing is for sure – FCPX went from fast to faster and I think, sadly, Apples primary goal with FCPX at this point in time is to demonstrate the roaring speed of their new MacPro baby. This is something it does very very well and it seems everyone gains for that.’
This was on an iMac though right? So given this result are you more or less inclined to go for the tube?
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If the OP has the camera original files and the avid sequence why not reconform the sequence in the avid and export with the fx burned in?
You could even round trip the shots to resolve for the grade and finish back in avid. You’ll need symphony and the full resolve if you want to go above HD.
Or am I missing something? -
Of course anyone with the bank balance to survive a year or so of angry screaming and massive loss in business will eventually put right what once went wrong. Sooner or later even tracks..
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It’s true I forgive Avid a lot because I prefer it as an interface for cutting, especially trimming and simple fast effects and coloring. Offline work, essentially.
That said if they ever release a shiny new version that can’t connect to shared storage or a client monitor they will get plenty of abuse from me.
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.. Make sure you’ve got those tracks switched on!