[Mark Hollis]

Apple’s information on Snow Leopard is here:

https://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/

The “clearinghouse” function in Snow Leopard is called “Grand Central Dispatch” which is covered here: https://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/#grandcentral

Quicktime will be 64-bit and my Windows-using friends are all hoping Apple releases Quicktime X for Windows as well.

I would imagine that Apple’s Final Cut Studio will be 64-bit in the next revision (8) but 7 was tested under Snow Leopard with some interesting results.

Now, Apple is pretty specific:

“GCD-enabled programs can automatically distribute their work across all available cores, resulting in the best possible performance whether they’re running on a dual-core Mac mini, an 8-core Mac Pro, or anything in between.”

This means one has to program for Grand Central Dispatch and one imagines that the operating system will want to prevent applications from gobbling up cores and not working them very hard, so this adds to the permissions complexity when you are writing the code. Anything not written in XCode will suffer greatly, which means plugins that work with Final Cut and Premiere and Media Composer (which may not be written in XCode) will suffer as a result.

So this is why I’m offering a strong caveat here. Lots of people I know use lots of plugins to get their work done effeciently and effectively — from green screen work to effects and transitions. Your mileage will certainly vary, depending on how the particular plugin is written. And I would suggest that, if plugin makers are forced to rewrite everything specific to Final Cut in XCode (while writing for everything else in the tried-and-true methods used previously), the cost of plugins and the cost of their upgrades may increase substantially.

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[Mark Hollis]

Snow Leopard does offer something new, and that is a kind of cleainghouse for multi-threaded applications. In other words, if the application is multi-processor aware, the OS will step in and become a “scheduler,” so that multi-thread processes scale up much better. I would note Microsoft has nothing like this in Vista or Windows 7.

But!

Lots of what you do in Final Cut is added in. There are keyers, effects and many other tools you can use to create special effects. I recall that I was using a version of “Toon It!” (a filter that makes video look like it’s a cartoon) and it was completely multiprocessor unaware. I was on a new Intel-based 8-core Mac and some renders took overnight.

My deadline was in September and I heard that a new (MP-aware version) was due in late October).

So, for your workflow, look at your added-on keyers, effects and filters from third parties as well. Apple’s Final Cut Pro may well take full advantage of the newest, hottest Nehelem systems with Snow Leopard (a really inexpensive upgrade) but your plugins may well lag behind.

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[Mark Hollis]

You will create big files where you have HD video. That is just a fact of life.

One thing to look for is an appropriate codec to keep file size manageable and Avid has released DNxHD codecs to anyone and everyone. If you transcode HD to DNX 145, you’ll find smaller file sizes. But I cannot promise you that your computer will be able to play them back nicely.

To the extent I have worked with HD video (even compressed) I have always used a disk array striped RAID 0 or RAID 5 for speed. (RAID 5 gives you security as well if you have enough drives.)

So if you can get an e-SATA array to work with, you should find HD more palatable at HD resolutions.

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[Mark Hollis]

You need to transfer to a codec that Premiere Pro understands. And one codec that will work is “none” which is no compression.

It sounds like what you are doing is taking commercial DVDs and trying to edit them. And commercial DVDs use MPEG their codec. MPEG is not a good edit codec, as it sets up a scene with a P frame and then follows the scene with difference frames from then on until the next cut. It also may be a 24 frame-per-second film, where you have Premiere Pro set to create a 29.97 frame-per-second (NTSC) sequence.

Take what you need through a converter and happy editing. I realize this isn’t the answer you are looking for, but MPEG is not the best codec for an editing application.

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[Mark Hollis]

I use Sorenson’s application because it’s always been much more trustworthy than anything else. So you’re corect. Of course, you pay extra for that kind of an encoder.

When you say “in the camera,” are you talking about its monitor? Those color monitors never reflect reality. Can you look at it in a scope?

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[Mark Hollis]

What kind of interpolation is going on in your encoder if your graphics are fuzzy? Also, are you seeing a difference between the Character Generator tool and imported logos?

I think the ZR1 uses 4:1:1 compression in video, and to prevent it from making compression artifacts, it may be set up to reduce color. You can recompensate using color correction and I might suggest that you figure out a preset. Also check to see whether or not it is delivering low chroma on bars (if it has them). Shoot a standard color bar chart and set up color correction to compensate for anything you find abnormal. I have heard of these cameras not being low in chroma so much as pulled slightly towards blue.

YouTube has recommended compression settings. I use Squeeze and here is my workflow:

Make sure your video is exported to the highest quality possible.
Open Squeeze and expand the MPEG-4 presets.
Click the “HQ” preset and copy the preset by finding copy under the audience tab or clicking the copy icon.¹
Set your video data rate to 4000kbps, encoding method to 2-pass VBR and resolution to 640×480 (4:3) or 640×360 (16:9).²
Set your audio data rate to 256kbps.
Save the preset, apply it to your video, and click “Squeeze It.”

Using the higher resolution and data rates will ensure that your videos look great at the current high quality options and be ready for any future increases in quality or resolution offered by YouTube.

As to your last question, that depends on what you are trying to do. I think that Adobe’s AfterEffects is better than Premiere for the Ken Burns effect.

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[Mark Hollis]

As far as I know, the only Adobe application that is using today’s GPUs is Photoshop. But I know of at least one high-end editor that uses the GPU for realtime effects. There’s a lot of processing power in today’s GPUs and it’s mostly just sitting there. Adobe can get some real speed-ups by harnassing it and they’re obviously interested.

So if you are buying a new computer or you’re looking at graphics cards, understand that they may extend the life of your new system. Of course you can always wait and add something really nice later. It’s not like replacing a whole computer.

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[Mark Hollis]

I kind of “walked into this one,” and don’t have the power to really add much to the mix — yet.

The company wants to move to Final Cut and purchase three or four Mac Pros for the work and we’ll take the Adobe Suite we have over to them — though we will probably upgrade a few of them.

Essential to our workflow will certainly be AfterEffects and Photoshop but we may also need Premiere for some things.

You have a 12-month-old computer and CS4 is about that old, so your upgrade will certainly be fine on your system.

And I do have an advantage. Render times are long enough to allow me to follow this forum…

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[Mark Hollis]

You will want to be sure to switch it to PAL mode while overseas — especially for artificial light. If the material you shoot in PAL is useful for your work here, then you’ll be all set with a little conversion from 25 FPS to 29.97 here. People will wonder if you shot on film.

But you will not ever have the light beating against your camera’s frame rate. And that is the best part.

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[Mark Hollis]

I agree with Jeff here.

You have way too short a clip to really do a decent cloud loop, which is certainly what you are looking for.

I might suggest a bit of shooting or to buy some footage — and there are lots of really inexpensive places to buy footage from these days.

What if there were no hypothetical questions?