Oliver Peters
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Forum Replies Created
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[Les Kaye] “FWIW, I also understand that Tiger allows Motion to take full advantage of the 64bit architecture”
I believe that’s incorrect. According to what Apple’s folks have told me Motion2 can now exceed the previous 32-bit OS limit of 4GB/app. Under Tiger, Motion2 can use more than 4GB of RAM, which is part of the power of a 64-bit OS, but doesn’t make it a 64-bit app.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Michael Horton] “Send a 10 second chunk of your sequence and it references the entire clip. If its a one hour clip then you are screwed”
Michael,
This is generally how OMF export works as well. If you export OMF with media it includes the entire clip. This is the same in Avid or FCP or others. The first step to avoid this is to consolidate the media, which is why it would be great if FCP had a better Media Manager. In Avid, you would consolidate and export with embedded media, so you only get the timeline clips plus handles.
Since the Send To STP uses the FCP timeline, there is nothing that can be done differently other than to grab the ENTIRE source media clip (unless an additional consolidation step were added to this subroutine), since you want to be able to make trims inside STP. Of course, performance shouldn’t be any slower than inside FCP, but that’s a different issue. I noticed that when you have an hour-long sequence, the scale of the tracksheet also doesn’t shrink enough to display the entire timeline in STP, so my guess is that 10 minutes is probably the optimized length. There really is no reason why on most projects you should actually have an hour-long clip as source media. This is really playing pretty close to the edge for any NLE. In the case of even DV, one hour-long clip of video+audio would be around 12GB as a single QT file. Not a good idea.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Alessandro] “I have tried the following:
32bit TGA with alpha (720×576, the station bug)
Keyed over a background, IT IS REAL TIME
I have tried to blur at max level the background (very CPU intensive process) STILL REAL TIME.
Please check that you have FCP selected as render engine in the preferences.
This was possible with FCP 4.5, I expect even more from version 5.
“This all depends on your config. If you do this on a PB with DV media it also works. However, try a different test. Take a high-res JPEG (2000x1500pixels) and place it on the TL. Plays in RT. Now add a slow scaling move with two keyframes. This no longer plays in RT without getting hung up, even though the color of the RT bar would indicate total RT playback without any problems. Different on a faster machine, of course, but that’s the whole point of software-based RT. It is no longer something a manufacturer can guarantee.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Samuel A. Martin] “I am planning to digitize into Avid MC via SDI from the VTR and into a lacie external drive.
Transcode and offline DV res in Avid Xpress pro.
Once it is all done transcode back onto full res and color grade in Xpress pro.
Back onto Avid MC and output to tape.
“Sam,
Your workflow implies that you are transcoding in and out of DV, which means that you are delivering DV quality on the DBeta. This is going to look like crap compared to HDCAM-DBeta direct. To maintain quality, you can ONLY work in uncompressed SD for final digital cut to tape. A far simpler approach and far less time consuming would be:
1. Dub HDCAM to DV tapes using HD deck’s downconverted output
2. Offline on XPro with DV tapes (matching TC, of course)
3. Consolidate and move projcet to Media Composer
4. Batch digitize from HDCAM to MC at 1:1 SD (HD’s downconvert again)
5. Color-correct as needed
6. Digital Cut out to DBetaSincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Andy,
I’m afraid I didn’t work with any STP project on anything longer than a minute or so. Also this was on a dual 2.7GHz unit, so the machine was generally pretty fast. I did note that the ref picture was “base layer” only, i.e. no attempt at any Dynamic RT on effects.
The problem might be that it simply isn’t optimized for long-form. What happens when you do this without picture? Any faster? Remember that STP creates a new type of STP Multitrack Audio Project file format, so that all the history of the non-destructive changes are saved. This means that there’s a ton of info saved with the file than can be a burden.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Andy Edwards] “Have you been able to make FCP 5 to Sound Track Pro multi-track exports actually work? “
Andy,
I can’t speak for Sean, but I’ve tested this and it works fine. Use the new “Send To” menu in FCP5 to send your FCP audio timeline and a ref video track to STP. Do your mixes in STP and export/bounce/render the mixed stereo track (no pix) to the desktop as an AIFF file. Import the mixed AIFF into FCP, sync to picture and output to tape. Or send from STP to Compressor 2 for output via encoding. Two limitations: your STP project does not show up back in FCP like a Motion project and you cannot do surround mixing.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Look, the bottom line is that whatever you buy today – PC, G5, whatever – if the overhead is low and you run your business right, you will make money. There are plenty of folks on FCP and graphics making money on G4s and even G3s. There are plenty of Avid folks making money on old ABVBs running on 9600s and beige G3 computers. It all works.
This PPC versus P4 argument is BS and always has been. The system architecture is far more complicated that just CPU or even 32-bit versus 64-bit. Both Intel and IBM have hit a wall with CPU speed so in order to move to the next level, they have to re-engineer the guts. Intel is in a better position to do this and has the interest in doing so. By and large IBM is a services company first, a mainframe company second and everything else third. When IBM developed their own machines for the first 601 chips, they let something like 100,000 consumer desktop PCs rot in the warehouse because the RISC division of the company pulled enough strings to kill off IBM’s PC division. There is no right or wrong in any of this. Only smart business moves.
If you buy a G5 today – and stretch a little in cost so you get a top notch machine – it will still be making money for you 2 or 3 years later.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[scottgfx] “If IBM couldn’t deliver for Apple, how are they going to deliver for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo?”
Different type of chips.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[David Robinson] “But existing software will not work. You will have to buy new software.”
I think it’s way too early to tell unless something was specifically stated in today’s announcement. I presume there will be an update needed of some sort, but will that be a normal update or a whole new
version of any given app? That’s the question. And will it be partially handled in the OS instead of the app itself? Presumably there’ll be a different version of the OS (Leopard, right?) and then you’ll need to get app updates accordingly.Of course, I wouldn’t expect desktop versions (replacing current G5s) until the end of the year.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
So if your software still works and the performance improves, why do you care what engine is under the hood?
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com