[Oliver Peters]

[Tim Wilson] “This probably goes more on the Catalina thread, and I’ll add a longer discussion there, but there’s a LOT of talk about Catalina being slower out there. A quick Google search will turns up tons of results.”

Look, I personally dislike Catalina and will hold off as long as possible. Larry’s article is good, but it’s extremely narrow, because it’s based on comparison of one small overall group of codecs. It’s quite likely that Apple may be better optimized for one codec or another and that could vary as codecs change, especially in light if the complete deprecation of 32-bit libraries and apps with Catalina.

While my use of Catalina is admittedly limited, I have run it and done testing. See here:

https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2020/03/20/apple-2019-16-macbook-pro/

This is a review for the 16″ MBP, but performance tests compare an iMP with Mojave against the 16″ MBP running Catalina.

In nearly all of the “Catalina issues” we are talking about machines where the user upgraded from a previous OS or tried to migrate from a previous back-up. By default this carries all of the old accumulated crud from codecs, installers, uninstallers, apps, library components, plug-ins etc. Or the issues are things like sleep mode and so on.

I’m not disregarding that there aren’t really issues. It’s just that “evidence” presented always seems tainted in some manner. It could well be that the OS is perfectly fine, but not fully optimized for their own gear. Or maybe how you’ve got your security settings set.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Morten Carlsen] “Sorry – I was referring to FCPx regarding the controls. Not PPRO.”

OK, in that case, playback is stopped in FCPX in Mojave when you move a color wheel. I’m not sure that’s different. Maybe someone on an earlier OS can chime in and verify.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Morten Carlsen] “No, one used to be able to move controls during playback without it stopping. This is NOT possible anymore.”

OK, so yes, you are correct, that does work in Mojave. I just double-checked on my machine. However, I’m still not sure how that’s a Catalina speed issue. It’s an issue of compatibility between Premiere and Catalina.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Tim Wilson] “Dude. If that’s the quote, I’m looking at the word “affordable” as referring to the IP infrastructure, and NOT as referring to this service. I can’t imagine that “affordable” is in the mix for most of us for this….but I honestly don’t know. Do any of you?”

These solutions all seem like “heavy iron” approaches. I’d be willing to bet most potential customers want a “no iron” solution. So maybe Frame’s proof-of-concept film at HPA might be closer to the mark.

https://blog.frame.io/2020/03/09/hpa-cloud-workflows/

– oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Morten Carlsen] “Premiere Pro on an iMac Pro is X fast. Premiere Pro on a Fast PC is X*3
Metal is still wearing child-shoes and graphic wise Apple can nothing (Cant say about new MacPro) against a PC with a fast NVIDIA card..
In Fact macOS has become SO SLOW that when you try to move a color corrector control while playback is running, playback stops and THAT per design.”

Hmmm… Your explanation doesn’t really quantify how Catalina is slower that Sierra high Sierra, or Mojave, which is what you started out saying. Adobe has been shifting to Metal. Yes, A PC with a CUDA-enabled card will offer faster renders/encodes. But that’s a Mac to PC comparison, not a comparison of successive macOS versions.

I have not seen your color corrector example as something that’s changed for the worse. It’s the same as it has been. Premiere Pro performance in my experience is actual quite good on Macs, as long as you are dealing with media that is optimized for macOS, such as ProRes. FCPX and even Resolve are a bit better in overall media handling, but again, nothing that seems to have changes because of Catalina. And APFS came in quite a while ago.

Am I missing something?

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

This probably isn’t a LUT. It’s most likely based on how the color profile was set in the camera. Make sure you have the RED software package installed on your machine. Then you should be able to open up the raw settings (source settings, I believe) in Premiere and alter it to be whatever other RED setting you prefer.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Morten Carlsen] ” Speed would be one where Windows blow macOS out the water.”

Would you elaborate? Specifically, what sort of speed are you referring to?

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Doesn’t that mean this works with macOS even if the central server is HP?”

I think what Mark is saying is that Apple doesn’t offer a machine that can provide the services of the HP server. There is no equivalent end-to-end Apple solution. Therefore, why should he buy new Mac Pros.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Tim Wilson] “But I also think that going back to “normal” might be a stretch.”

One of the things I keep looking at is this interest in working remotely. Not just in our industry, but many others, like education. It’s temporary now, but many companies may find this is a way they want to work going forward. If anything, this will spur developers to improve the software and hardware systems we currently use.

If you have more industrial use of video over the internet – like teachers with live Skype/Zoom/other sessions over the internet – it will only push more traffic through the system. And what about 4K and 8K video? Yikes. Just so much more to move.

And don’t think 5G is a savior. It will push more competing uses that we don’t need onto the internet, like smart homes, not to mention driverless vehicles. Want to bet who gets priority in that equation?

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Right now, I think macOS is the roadblock. For example, you cannot virtualize the OS. And yes, we are hostages to our own preferences for Apple.

OTOH, an Apple solution might easily take a completely different form than you expect in order for Apple to maximize its product line. Imagine the ability to use iPadOS (like on the new iPad Pro) to drilling into your new Mac Pro back at home base, in order to run a virtual copy of FCPX. I could easily see this being applied to something like a Mac Mini, as well.

For all intents and purposes – a step back in time. When corporate computing installations were “thin” clients on your desk connected to the mainframe system in the bowels of the building. Welcome your IT overlords again. ☺

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com