Oakmozart
Forum Replies Created
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I suppose one could call this a coincidence. I was just reading on the Avid Xpress Pro forums over at Avid.com, when I found a posting started 1.5 years ago, regarding XPro and Mojo on an AMD system. One of the XPro software engineers at Avid, a friendly fellow named Mr. Brian Williams, posted this explanation of why XPro doesn’t support AMD, only Intel. I quote him exactly:
“Xpress Pro uses SSE and MMX heavily. Although many users report using Athlon systems successfully, it really is not recommended for Mojo. The great benefit of Mojo is the ability to output full resolution material. This means that Xpress Pro needs to manipulate 4 times the number of pixels as you might do previewing effects without a Mojo. Because of the increase of the workload per frame, you want the best SSE and MMX performance possible. Right now, that’s either a Pentium 4 or a Xeon. Athlons and P4s have the same multimedia performance per clock cycle, but an atlon running at a 3200+ rating is really running at a 2GHz clock speed, compared to a P4 running at a true 3.2GHz clock.
To really unleash the power of a Mojo, a dual Xeon P4 should be used.”
This is a fascinating explanation, which garnered quite a bit of interest. Of course, within a few postings, someone asked the million-dollar question: Will Avid ever support AMD systems? The answer, again from Mr. Williams:
“We have evaluated Opteron systems and they still suffer the same multimedia instruction performance limitations. From all public information, it doesn’t sound as though AMD plans on improving this situation any time in the near future.”
Again, keep in mind that this was talked about 1.5 years ago, when XPro + Mojo had only been out for about 4 months or so. Xpress Studio hadn’t been announced, and XPro HD was still a year away. A lot can change in a year-and-a-half in the computer world. I guess we’ll just have to wait-and-see on the AMD issue.
And just for your info, Mr. Willams was one of the engineers who was principally responsible for adding in scroll-wheel support (at the last minute, sacrificing his time as well as the time of the other engineers involved—Kudos, folks! Thanks!) for the latest release of XPro HD 5.1.5. So for those of you who say that “Avid never listens,” you’re dead-wrong. It’s just that engineering doesn’t frequent the “other” forums (like this one) as much as they frequent the ones on Avid.com. No offense, Bessie!
Take care.
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What do you intend to do with your video projects once you’ve finished editing them? If you plan to burn them on DVD or stream them on the web, you’ll need an encoding application. Sorenson Squeeze Pro is that application…and it’s VERY important. Happily, there’s a student discount on that product too, so you should be able to acquire it for a fairly inexpensive price. The included ReelDVD software is a basic DVD-authoring program, but you can live without it. I’d recommend looking into Adobe Encore or another DVD app. Sonic’s programs pretty much suck (with the exception of Sonic Scenarist, but that’s a bit out of most of our price-range…got $40K or more?). Encore can be had in an academic version for a lite price.
You’ll also find the paper manuals missing from the academic version of XPro HD. They ARE included, but they’re in PDF (Acrobat) format, on a CD. You can purchase the manual’s fairly inexpensively from Avid.
I don’t know what kind of moola you’re sitting on, but consider this: I know a few people who have purchased the academic version of Xpress Studio Essentials. At $995, it’s a steal…even though it’s still a grand. HOWEVER, they all came with Smartsound SonicFire Pro and Sorenson Squeeze (2 of the 3rd-party apps included in XPro HD retail version). In addition, you’re getting 5 different apps for video, effects, 3D and 3D effects, audio, and DVD, plus DigiDesign Mbox hardware for an audio i/o. Chew on that for a while…it might be your best bet. Then again, it might not be.
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Well, I can’t speak for Avid, but most of their sales (from my perspective) appeaer to be for the PC. Notice how there’s no Xpress Studio for Mac? That’s largely due to the fact that Avid 3D is based-off of softimage and softimage was originally formed by Microsoft in the early ’90’s. Therefore, it was designed to be inherently for Windows and not Mac. For Avid to port Avid 3D to Mac, they’d have to rewrite the entire software application from the ground-up, since softimage has specific Windows-only commands at its deepest, most fundamental core level.
Besides, Steve Jobs doesn’t want them creating products for his Apple platform…it cuts into FCP sales. He wants to create ALL the software himself and thus profit not only upon the hardware sales, but the software. (Think about it, if a PC user goes out and buys a copy of FCP, they must buy a computer at the same time, if they wish to use FCP. That’s a big way how Apple’s making its money.) Plus, Avid is trying to push forward and utilize the new processors/chipsets, graphics technology and RAM. Apple is still in the dark ages when it comes to that. That makes Avid have to create 2 “separate” versions of their software.
Long story short, they’re working on it. Give them time.
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I’d expect it by Dec. 31st of 2005. Not sooner. That way, Avid will still make due to their statement that Mac XPro HD will be delivered in 2005. Look at their HDV support: they said it would be available in mid-2005 (June), but nothing has come about yet. Now all Avid says is that it’s coming in 2005. Keep in mind that HDV has been in Beta since March.
Bottom line: Avid never hits their release dates. They’re always late. And that’s not a bad thing. Would you rather have a late product that works (for the most part), or a worthless, broken piece of software delivered on time?
Good things come to those who wait. Be patient.
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It’s risky. AMD chips aren’t supported by Avid at this time. If you do go with an AMD system, avoid buying a motherboard with a VIA chipset, since they’re well-known to cause problems with Avid’s software/hardware.
I was at an Avid seminar in May, showcasing Avid’s new offerings from NAB. The guy who was giving the presentation was talking about how much new added RT capabilities have been added to the software since XPro and MCA’s launch 2 years ago. He told about how many streams you could push 2 years ago with an HP xw8000, then what was capable this year, using an xw8200. Then he mentioned how excited Avid is about how many streams they’ll be able to push by NAB ’05, where all their demo machines will be HP xw9300’s. The xw9300’s use dual-AMD Opterons, plus dual graphics cards. To me, that says that AMD support is coming. That’s a good thing for us, the end-users.
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Buy Xpress Pro HD. XDV only supports DV25 resolution.
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The first thing about your system that makes me nervous is the VIA chipset on your mobo. Every time I’ve tried to build an Avid system (or make one work) around a VIA chipset, I’ve never had any luck. I ALWAYS go with an Intel chipset when building/buying a new system for video editing…ESPECIALLY for Avid. This is based on past experience (nightmares), so take that for what you will.
The rest of your system looks fine. The only problem is, using firewire storage isn’t going to fly if you hook Mojo to your system. You’re going to need to go with internal SATA storage, or external SCSI storage (expensive!). Park your firewire drives on the shelf for now or toss them on Ebay and use the proceeds to buy SATA/SCSI drives. CAVEAT: if you buy a certified system, you’ll be able to use your firewire drives, because you’ll have multiple bus segments.
It’s always a toss-up as to whether or not Mojo will work on your system. Getting XPro software to run on a homebuilt-system is usually a piece of cake, for the most part. Getting Mojo to run on it, however, is usually far more difficult. My suggestion: buy a certified system. If that’s out of the question (and it’s understandable if it is), then buy a Mojo and see if you can get it running. If you run into troubles, posting on these forums for help can often times get you tracking down the issues that plague your operation. If for some reason you just can’t get Mojo running, you can always throw it on Ebay and get most (if not all) of your investment back. Ebay is a great place to buy used Mojo’s too. If I were you, I’d ensure that you’re getting the “Cujo” version (determined by the letters “CLK” on the back, which allow Mojo and Digi 002 to be synced if you’re using Xpress Studio) and not one of the older “Rev” series (Rev D, Rev H, etc.). I’ve seen used Mojos, “lightly used” go for around a grand. That’s a $700 discount over buying one new and that’s a pretty decent chunk of change in savings.
On a closing note: SCSI drives are criminally expensive. You will pay hundreds of dollars for them and find yourself with nominal storage. If you buy Avid-brand SCSI drives, you will pay over $1000 for a 146 gb drive. That’s ONE DRIVE!! If you buy Seagate, Western Digital, etc., you will pay much less, but will still pay out the wazoo. Consider SATA drives, especially the 10,000 RPM drives.
Gotta get back to work, will answer more questions if you have them!
Take care.
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Well, if you want to spring the cash for SCSI drives, sure…go for it. But before you do, how about posting the specs for your PC? Make/model, specs, etc.
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Look around on Dell, HP, IBM and Apple’s websites. They usually have closeout computers (certified) and you can often get them for 50% off or better. A guy I know just recently got a Dell Precision 670 (dual 3.4 ghz Xeon’s, 2 gigs of RAM, almost a TERRABYTE (!!!) of internal SATA storage and a recommended Nvidia Graphics card–either QuadroFX 1300 or 1400) from Dell’s closeout website. This computer was a 2-week old returned unit and was being offered with new warranty, etc. The retail price was just a tad shy of $5000. He got it for around $2150, which is still alot of money if you don’t have it, but is still a STEAL!!
I’d start there. Good luck.
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Genarts Sapphire has a plugin in it called “Jitter” (or “Shake,” I forget off-hand) which is a decent plugin. Problem is, it costs almost $2000 for the plugin set.
Download the demo from Genarts and play with it: https://www.genarts.com