Peter Corbett
Forum Replies Created
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I don’t understand where the HPX3700 gets it Varicam moniker. I mean who buys a vari-speed camera to shoot only Buster Keaton fast motion?
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
In light of the new GPU acceleration in CS4, I’ve revised my thoughts on VGA cards. I have a GTX280 which performs very well, but I’ll be replacing it with a mid-range Quadro FX like the 3700 or 4600 when CS4 ships. The goal posts keep moving….
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
Yep,
I’ve been working with another cameraman in evaluating the cameras (I think he’s visited you Matthew!) and we’re both in agreement. The 2700 (in limited testing) seemed to have a more “pleasing” filmic look but there was definitely a difference in perceptible resolution compared to the 3000. I’m concerned about a compositor or editor sitting in his front of his 1920×1080 monitors moaning that the picture from the 2700 looks “nice but soft”.
Whilst the 3000 had kapow impact, it did look a little more contrasty and more less filmic than the 2700. This could be adjusted with the gamma curves. I did notice some aliasing on the 720/50P slomo footage when the 2700 panned over a brick wall.
I agree with John if the 3700 did 60fps slomo in 1080P, it would have been a knockout blow against Sony. But now the economic meltdown is upon us, so it may be best to do nothing about new cameras for a while to come…
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
Thanks Paul,
Sorry; “videoie”. I couldn’t find the correct words I wanted, but I meant that super-clean Digi-beta video look that suits soaps and news magazine shows.
When I tested the 3000 and 2700 there seemed to be extra noise in the darker areas of the 3000 pictures, but it may have been the setup of the demo camera as most (all?) users report very low noise levels. I do lean towards the 3000 because of the resolution, the only real-world feature missing being over-cranking to 60P.
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
I haven’t noticed that. Maybe it’s because I’m not on XP or maybe I haven’t looked closely enough…
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
Larger memory space on Windows Vista 64, access to more than 3gb of usable RAM, greater system stability and speed, CS4 is optimized for 64-bit…. the main thing is is be sure your hardware is compatible and as recent as possible plus you have 8gb of RAM. You can get away with 4gb, but 8gb is better.
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
Hi Richard,
There’s no ideal setup but I think size does matter here. Get the latest chips (probably Intel) and make sure you have lots of RAM and a good disk RAID system.
I rebuild my main edit-PC every six to twelve months depending on what is coming out (CPU-wise) and to some extend motherboards.
This time I bought an Intel Skulltrail D5400XS dual Xeon board. This has been absolutely stellar and much more stable, expandable and faster than my old Supermicros. It was the only Xeon-based board that I could find with loads of full x16 lane PCI-e slots. I bought two cost-effective 2.5 5420 CPU’s (I think they are 5420’s) then overclocked them to 3.0GHz. It runs very stable with no hardware/cooling related crashes. I also installed two Zalman 7900 coolers and a RAM cooler for the 4 x 2-gig FB-DIMMS. The board takes 775 coolers which is unlike every other 5000-series Xeon mobo, which take those outrageously loud fans/heatsinks.
Intel have good BIOS support and the “gamer-focus” with Skulltrail means lots of input from users and a flexible and focused response from the manufacturer.
Oops almost forgot, get a fast, fast, fast video card. I use the NVidia 1gb. GTX280. Unless you’re a CADman, save your money and go for the best gamer card you can afford.
Good luck.
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
V64 does work. See my post above in ‘CS4 and Vista”.
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
I keep hearing of people who have hellish problems with Premiere and Vista. I switched to Vista 64 and CS3 six months ago and I’d never go back to XP. Not only is V64 more stable with PPro, the memory issues are almost non-existant (I do have 8-gig FB-DIMM), compatibility is excellent (I don’t have one video/FX app that won’t load or work in Vista) and it’s faster. I believe that many PPro/Vista users with problems have hardware/driver issues with the OS and/or have underpowered systems. Just my two cents worth…
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -