David Johnson
Forum Replies Created
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Just something to consider in addition to the good advice Dave and Micheal offered … most of the many editors I know always go with NVIDIA cards over ATI these days.
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[John Evans] (isn’t EVERYthing possible in AE :)?
Absolutely … in fact, I’ve heard AE CS6 will even have a brush to tailor an expensive suit to fit the editor … no mention of how to digitize the fabric though … obviously, I’m just kidding … everyone knows editors spontaneously combust if we have to wear a suit. Sorry … couldn’t help myself.
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Just to add a little detail to Dave’s suggestion to use “the codec of your other footage in Premiere”, it’s best to make sure everything else is the same too … frame rate, frame size, PAR, audio codec, etc.
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Bill and Michael make very good points. It seems your options are:
[1] contact a pro dealer / reseller that’ll have a much better pipeline with manufacturers than any individual and get them to order the part for you (at a reasonable markup, of course).
[2] Google it and roll the dice again with a DIY online purchase … I didn’t spend the time to check out the options thoroughly, but I found the following in a bout 30 seconds:
https://www.amazon.com/Gitzo-G1380SPG-Springs-Replacement-G1380/dp/B001F0RNUY
https://www.nextag.com/Gitzo-G1380SPG-Springs-Replacement-621479552/prices-html
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Thank you, Ron. I look forward to the COW’s continued growth … and to being just another opinionated guy who arguably contributes a little bit to it.
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Thanks for explaining, Ron. I understand and applaud the efforts to evolve the COW, but I also totally agree with Mark’s concerns.
I’m very uncomfortable with my name showing up in the leaders row of the Digital Delivery forum just because I’ve posted a lot of questions there recently … I’m simply not qualified as an expert/leader for the Digital Delivery topic.
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If I understand correctly what you’re asking, converting DV footage to H264 can’t improve the blurriness since transcoding from any codec to another can’t regain image data thrown away by prior compression. DV (especially DV25, vs. DV50) is notoriously soft and nothing can be done about that short of re-digitizing the footage in a better codec. Perhaps HDV since that’s what the source is, although HDV is really just a variation of DV). You could also digitize to a better editing codec like ProRes (H264 is a delivery codec, rather than an editing codec). You already mentioned you can’t re-digitize so perhaps try a slight sharpening filter, but be careful not to sharpen too much.
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lol
My theory is that we’re really the same person, but exist in parallel universes where up is down, bad is good and David Johnsons are John Davidsons … so wouldn’t that make me the truly evil one? lol
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John makes a good point … in addition to the performance capability differences, about 80% of the pro editors I’ve ever known much prefer NVIDIA graphics cards and I personally have had some very bad experiences with ATI … in all fairness, most were years ago now, but I’m still not convinced ATI ever truly caught up with NVIDIA.
That said, when you buy a Mac Pro, you choose whether you want an ATI or NVIDIA card … not sure, but I doubt that’s the case with an iMac.
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I work on both platforms daily and have for many years so I’ll just chime in to agree with the point Alf made … that that being able to “work on two machines, rendering one full video while I work on a second one” is invaluable (and not quite the same as being able to switch between two O/Ss on the same hardware).
That said, you asked about a choice between two Macs so my opinion on that is definitely go with the Mac Pro if you can afford it. The reason is the expandability … although Apple is very skilled at and has a long history of making hardware obsolete shortly after we’ve shelled out large chunks of cash for it, you’ll definitely get more mileage out of a Mac Pro. In today’s 16-bit world, the ability to expand to more than 16Gb of RAM is a big deal. If you end up doing much After Effects work, that’ll be a huge benefit … many people are considering 16Gb the minimum amount of RAM for heavy AE work now (I have 32Gb in my Mac Pro at work).
The RAM issue alone could make the decision, but the iMac’s lack of ports and slots is a big factor too.
That all said, at the end of the day, it obviously all depends on your budget …. as well as how much and specifically what types of video work you’ll be doing. I hope this is helpful … best of luck.