[Jonathon Lee]

I have:

– Mac 12-core w/48GB (6x 8GB DIMMs)
– Win7 4-core w/12GB (6x 2GB DIMMs)
– Mac 8-core w/24GB (6x 4GB DIMMs)

Have not had RAM issues yet, but working mostly on short form. On the shows I’m working on never could tell the difference on any of the systems… which struck me as a bit odd! But, it’s all short form so far!

– Jonathon

[Jonathon Lee]

It’s actually on the supported equipment list.

[Jonathon Lee]

Yeah, I’ve used the Cyclone with a Linux system and it seemed fine. I’ve heard the cubix is “noisy” but that it may provide more robust aux power…. I could not find specific info on the Cubix website about this. It just says there are 2 sets of PCI-e aux power connectors. I’m guessing that it has enough power for 3x 580’s as I’ve heard people talk about that. The CUBIUX site makes no mention of Linux support on the GPU-Xpander Desktop 4 page. Just says Mac and WIn. It should not need any drivers AFAIK. We’re probably going to go with the cubix since it can take 4x 580’s so if we go linux we can use the 4 GPU’s.

First round is on Mac, but just got the BMD panel so we can go Linux later if we need too. For now the 3 GPU’s will be great. I’m using a single 285 right now so I’m sure I’ll be happy.

Hope the cubix has enough power and that it will work on Linux later!!! I’ll let you know.

[Jonathon Lee]

Perhaps a BMD person can answer this? I’m very curious about migrating the hardware from Mac to Linux or Win.

thank you,

Jonathon

[Jonathon Lee]

OK so here’s the deal on this currently…. Only Deluxe has a special 3D subtitling system, which is patented. Otherwise the D-Cinema projector has a process built into the DLP chipset for rendering the subtitle data. If you do not have the subs processed at Deluxe on their proprietary system you may have readability issues as the subs will be straight up 2D. But, I think it should work.

I missed the part about this being a 3D show. The 3D sub thing you are trying to do in FCP will not carry over to A.E.

The only thing that I can think of for you to try is this hack:

– In Annotation Edit generate DCP subs with externally linked PNG sequence.
– From FCP output the 3D sub events. Just the events, and you will need to find a way to do this with the sub images cropped. (I’m not sure if this is even possible.)
– convert the 3D subs image sequence to PNG format (make sure that they are identical in format to the ones AE output)
– examine the XML of the DCP Subs you output from AE and rename the file sequence of your 3D subs to match those that are called out in the XML.
– Replace the original PNG’s with your 3D ones

I’ve note done a 3D DCP yet and for sure not a 3D with subs. I’m not sure if there are separate Sub streams for each eye… if so it should be easy to repeat this process for each eye. If there is only one, then I’m not sure.

Again, the above hack is only a guide based on my best guess of what I would try. Some or all of those steps will probably need to be tweaked, but I think that will put you in the right direction. I’m guessing that there must be 1 sub stream for each eye. I think the biggest challenge will be to render out the 3D subs as cropped and matted images from FCP… not sure how that will get done. Actually, I have a trick for that maybe… (use one of the several FCP to Adobe After Effects converters to bring your FCP timeline into After Effects and from there you could render out cropped and matted images.. I’ve actually done that for 2D subs in the past).

Anyhow, this will put you in the right direction. But it looks like Deluxe is the one who has the magic sauce for 3D subs right now. I bet they will be happy to author and manage your DCP for you 😉

– Jonathon

[Jonathon Lee]

That’s basically OK.

There are actually several ways to get the subs into A.E. the XML method is OK if AE can read it. I’m not sure what will happen if you have multiple layers. You should not have overlapping subtitle events… so you should not have multiple layers as far as I know.

[Jonathon Lee]

So if you have the latest version of Annotation Edit:

– goto File pulldown menu
– select Fetch from Final Cut

You will need to have the specific timeline open and active. Also, you should have a reference movie ready to to which matches exactly the frame rate, audio velocity and start time of your show. You have to be true 24fps or true 23.976fps… with A.E. you can not interchange pulldown’s. If you are working in 23.976 and you’re dcp is 24fps you will have workflow problems.

After you get the subs sorted out in A.E. you can do an export for DCP…. which will take a couple of attempts most likely — until you get the settings sorted out. You may want to create a shorter version of the shot for testing. In my experience, the first time can be a bit of a torture until you get comfortable with the workflow. It’s not a simple “press go” and it works situation sadly.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, if you are using custom fonts then you will need to get a hold of the whacky and PC only T.I. True Type font utility. It will be less painful if you can go with the default projector font. If there are foreign languages using alternative character sets, then you will need to go the “external font” route.

It took a good couple of weeks to figure out the workflow the very first time I did this. But Annotation Edit is the key for the Indy version of DCP subs.

– Jonathon

[Jonathon Lee]

It works…. but it is not speed demon. Depends what you are doing. I have a system that I some times do simple stuff on. I can get about 12-18 frames with uncompressed HD source to prores render on an 8-core westmere with a 5770. The other system I have with proper nvidia HW with fast storage can do the same thing significantly faster then real time. But it is very stable with the AMD card. You will not get the NR on the AMD.. you’ll need nvidia for that.

[Jonathon Lee]

Yes, Annotation Edit…

zeitanker dot com

It’s very cheap and really powerful. If at all possible go with the default “in projector” font. Using custom font’s is a big pain if you are not really experienced. Also, you will need to check the DCP as the screen preview in A.E. will not be the same as on the DCP as projected. Actually, if you have Easy DCP player+ that will do the job. You may need to cycle through a few versions and tweak the sizing.

Also, in easy DCP creator…. if you have the + version PRE-ENCODE the picture! If you don’t you’ll be stuck re-rendering the J2k essence every time.

best,

Jonathon

[Jonathon Lee]

I’m in the midst of testing WIndows Resolve. So far so good. I’m doing a 6min Epic short. The system is not certified by a long shot, but it is working well so far. I’m working in proxy mode. The output will be 4k & 2k DCDM, 1080p rec709.

The system is:

HP z400 3.06 GHZ w/24GB
win7/64
SAS LSI RAID-6 controller w/12 not that fast SATA HDD’s
(1) GTX 285 pulled from a mac!
Quadro 600
BMD Decklink HD Dual-link

So far so good. I’ve not done a scientific test, but it seems to be a bit snappier then the 8-core 2010 2.4GHZ that I was using. I’m going to install a GTX 570 in that mac and use it for conforming.

The new z820 looks amazing… 3x Gen 3 slots.. wonder if there will be new cards that have better performance?