Jeff Bernstein
Forum Replies Created
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I think there still needs to be an industry standard mastering codec. From a technical point of view ProRes is the best. As has been pointed out above, the biggest drawback is the lack of a Windows encode component. If Avid could fix the big overhead issues of DNxHD, it would become a much better option. The other issue we will all have is the terrible transition from QuickTime to AV Foundation. I think Adobe needs to a new cross-platform container format
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For those keeping score at home, I don’t think Apple delivered everything they promised, intimated, or whispered they would deliver this summer. Though, they have 1 more day.
Had Apple delivered this for the launch, I think there would still be a big stink. This release is not going to change many minds for the simple fact that basic functionality is still missing. We still have a diamond in the rough.
If Apple is allegedly listening, let’s see if the next Mac Pro replacement still has 4 PCIe slots.
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All I got to say is… “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? NO!”
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It’s only going to get worse. Next month, however, you will be able to get Lion on a USB thumb drive.
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[Andrew Richards] “Oh, well, yeah. I was hoping it could become friendly with shared-disk filesystems (like StorNext). I guess Avid has to make a living somewhere. Still addressing storage like it’s 1989.
“Reading my mind again. They need to get rid of the “virtualized volume” requirement. While they are at it, they need to get rid of the code in ProTools that checks the storage and has a very narrow idea of which storage and storage-types are kosher.
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[Andrew Richards] ” I want to know if MC6 will support shared filesystem storage.
“You are reading my mind!!! With support for other QuickTime I/O boards out of the way, this would be the last stumbling block to an easy transition.
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[Chris Kenny] ” a decision to ship a UI that was less than ideally responsive on some currently deployed hardware makes a certain amount of sense. Apple did the exact same thing with the initial release of OS X.”
Can you say “River in Egypt?”
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Similarly, I am investigating the possibility of purchasing the Brooklyn Bridge.
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OK, I am having Deja Vu. Here was what I wrote on Macintouch in 1999. Sorry it takes up so much room, but notice how today’s arguments are eerily familiar…
Subject: End of Mac Media Composer
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 01:11:23 -0700
From: jhb
To: Ric Ford, Avid, et al
On behalf of all Media Composer editors I know (about 200)…What the f*(@! I am one of the first Avid editors on the planet. I worked at Rebo Studios in Manhatten in July 1989 when we took delivery of the very first Media Composer v1.0. It ran on either a Mac II or Mac IIx, I can’t quite remember. It was incredible! While you could barely make out the digitized video images on screen, we didn’t care. Why? No more 409, no more Trace, and you could simply hit this magical button that would let you insert a clip right in the middle of a sequence without worrying if Trace would screw up. Today, most editors give me a wierd look when I mention 409 and Trace. They have no idea what they are.
Flash forward to today. Avid announces the end of the line for the Mac and Media Composer with 8.0 being the last of a breed. As an editor and support engineer of both Media Composer and Symphony, I beg the powers that be at Avid to continue development of Media Composer on the Mac.
First, let me layout my credentials. I have been an editor and Chief Engineer of ABC News, where I purchased ABC’s very first Avid in 1990. I then went on to become the senior editor of MTV. In 1991, I moved to LA where I was an editor and compositor for ABC Entertainment On-Air Promo, and in 1992 became the senior editor of General Hospital. In addition, I have consulted Sony, Panasonic, Grass Valley, and Apple on product development. Alright, enough about me.
Back to the issue at hand… Why continue Media Composer development? For starters, Avid has done a fantastic job at recreating the Media Composer on the NT platform, now called Symphony. When you are in the Symphony application, you would swear that you are using the Mac. The problem is that as soon as you are outside of the application, you are squarely in the middle of an NT environment. Not fun. Suddenly, Media Composer editors long for their Macs. Simple things like importing a song directly from a CD in the CD-ROM player becomes a major hassle. Organizing and backing up your files becomes a weed-like process as you sift through the odd commands and menus. Popping on a Zip drive onto a system brings you the joys of plug and pray. But the clincher, if your system goes down, it’s an all or none proposition – blue screen of death.
With a Mac we take these things for granted. You want a song off a CD, drag and drop. You want to add a Zip drive, pop it on the built-in SCSI port. If your system is having problems, it usually starts out as wierd ailments. Perhaps boot up is taking longer than usual, or maybe you are getting a -43 SCSI error. But you are not down. If you do a little maintenance consisting of about an hour, at most, you are back up and running. With Symphony, it’s time to book an edit session out of house because you will be taking at least 4 hours pieceing your NT system back together. DO OVER.
One of the reasons Avid’s biggest competitor, Lightworks, got out of the market was because editors had a hard time navigating through it because it was based on a PC. At the sametime, it is true that Avid’s feature set was simply more robust.
Why is Avid dumping the Mac? Oh, there are plenty of reasons. For starters, Apple’s success in the multimedia markets, especially the broadcast market, is not because of Apple. History will show that it is despite Apple. But that is another topic for another time. Let’s jump forward to recent history. For starters, PCI slots. Apple has wavered on the number or expansion slots (NuBus and PCI) since the first PowerPC CPUs. The latest fiasco is the B&W G3. With the lack of built-in SCSI, lack of serial ports, lack of stable third-party converters for USB and Firewire, Apple has a royal mess on their hands. The Mac is the only platform with only three expansion slots. Even the really cheap Celeron systems have 5 expansion slots. I could go on, but the bottom line is that professionals need more slots. Apple executives will go on and on about how their “research” tells them that users don’t need the slots. As my dad once said, “Figures don’t lie. Liars figure.”
The most glaring reason may be that both Intel and Microsoft have been bending over backwards to work with Avid. Did I mention they been practically backing up Armored trucks filled with cash in the executive suites at Avid’s Tewkbury headquarters?
For those wondering why Media Composer 8.0 will only do a single stream uncompressed, while Symphony already does dual-streams uncompressed, has to do with the PCI bus. Apple has to decided to play it safe by continuing to only partially supporting the PCI 2.1 spec. The full spec calls for 64 bits running at 66 MHz. Apple has decided to run the B&Ws at 64bits running at 33MHz. To get to the point, there simply is not enough bandwidth to move two uncompressed D1 video streams in the box. Some of you may point out that the ATI video board resides in a 66MHz slot. Unfortunately, this slot is very proprietary in that it runs at 66MHz, but at 32 bits. Apple had to whip this port together because they couldn’t make AGP ready in time. Thus, it kind of ticks me off that they list 4 PCI slots as a feature. If you look at the beige G3 through the System Profiler, you will see the “built-in” ATI video is also on the PCI bus. Some of you may point out that Apple had to stick with 33 MHz for compatibility with existing PCI cards. HMMM, compatability didn’t seem to be a problem when Apple took away Floppy disk drives and shoved USB and Firewire down our throuts.
When you ask an Apple Executive, and they know who they are, why they don’t build a box for us professionals, they claim they can’t be everything to everyone. When Apple killed cloning, in my opinion, they lost the right to use that excuse. Besides, isn’t content creation one of their core markets?
Also, Apple still suffers from Ivory Tower Syndrome. When Amelio and Hancock were in power, the best thing they ever did was to get Apple to listen to their customers. Now that Steve is back, listening is not at the top of Apple’s priority list. Well listen up Steve. Firewire and Final Cut Pro are great, but they are only a sliver of the market. If Apple is going to expand in the content creation market, it must have solutions for the entire vertical. If it doesn’t WinTel will. In fact, the Wintel market does. Major heavy duty applications such as SoftImage, Discreet Logic, Maya, have all been ported or are being ported to NT, not Mac.
The real shame of it all is that Apple is on the verge of offering a real heavy-duty operating system, OS X, that will be more scalable than NT. It will be easier than NT and, if things continue they way they are going, it will be more stable than NT. Add to the mix G4 and Symetrical Multiprocessing in the near future, and you are onto something really BIG. But we still need more PCI slots, we still need faster PCI slots, and we need Apple to wake up to the market realities of the video vertical market. The same box you build for this market would be perfectly suited for those who need a heavy duty server, both of which are missing in Apple’s product line.
Unfortunately, Apple’s upper management is set in their ways and can not admit they have made a mistake. Call it pride, they call it research.
Jeff Bernstein
Digital Desktop Consulting -