[Pierre Conti]

Hey Tom,

Yes I can play 5D clips on my system just fine. Is it smooth? No. It’s.. okay. Had to deal with a timeline that was 60 min long, and it was.. not okay. After rendering everything, then it’s smooth! But no more full rez…
Just loading a 3min project with a timeline full of AE comp can take 15min. Rendering colorista is not that long, it’s true.

I know my system could be better (well it’s just about that nvidia card now), but i find irritating all these ‘blazing fast editing from your laptop’ adds when I need to max out my 8 core macpro in order to get descent playback. I just thought I would post about it.

Now.. i do make all my work through pp and AE. It does work! But I remember editing a feature doc out of a laptop with fw800 external drives on FCP 7 w/ 422. Man, that was smooth! No comparaison! Not a skip, very little wait…. just had to set the sequence setting right and I would cut everything at full rez. It bugs me infinitely to have lost playback with a greater computer and using a ‘blazing fast’ editing software. It bugs me to have to render everything, whatever i do (unless you just play..).

My guess is H264 is the source of the problem. But that’s why I went to PP! Good marketing Adobe!

To be frank, i’m guilty of not having a quadro 4000. I should just shut up and get it.. even though you can find people still complaining about playback w/h264, and we’re now talking about a $5500 computer.

I can’t wait not to deal w/ inter frame codecs any more..

http://www.oneantred.com
PP 5.5 OSX 10.7 8 cores 24 gig ram
ATI gfx

[Pierre Conti]

Since the first post I have installed 3 internal hard drives and 24gig ram. Still slow. The only quick fix i found is to render everything (still faster than converting to 422 and i must say PP manages renders quite well).
But then.. it’s well annoying to never see the footage at full quality. As to export a timeline in full rez, it takes around 12 hours for a 3 min clip! (lots of effects.. but really?).
Next step will be the quadro… the days of h264 inter-frames are counted and things should get easier soon in post.

For now it’s a headache! I use adobe link a lot and can NEVER watch any comp back from AE without rendering.

YES MARKETING! It is very amusing to find youtube tutorial videos where guys demonstrate how ‘smooth’ h264 is in PP and that you never need to render..”..and look! I turn the resolution to half and it plays great!”. Right. It’s just not there.

BEST THING ABOUT PP? AE! But please adobe.. why don’t you make possible to have the same shortcuts in both???

http://www.oneantred.com
PP 5.5 OSX 10.7 8 cores 24 gig ram
ATI gfx

[Pierre Conti]

So why state in the same article that preview will be full quality (as render are NOT full quality?

green: This segment of the sequence has a rendered preview file associated with it. Playback will play using the rendered preview file. Playback at full quality is certain to be in real time.

premiere pro is a mess in my opinion. Exporting a small timeline can take ridiculous amount of time even though you don’t apply effect. I find it nerve racking not being able to export a timeline at 100% of its quality of its native codec in just a click.

[Pierre Conti]

I don’t think that’s it. I shoot on a 5D.

I think after all these comments (thanks everyone), I believe I need 1- faster drives (that seems really obvious) 2-Nvidia gcard

The pro res is behaving ok now (not perfectly). But it’s such a pain to convert everything.

Thanks all!

[Pierre Conti]

Any feedback on this build? Again, I’m a form mac user..

Features:
STD-PACKAGE – (3) Front USB 2.0 – Multi Card Reader – Symantec Ghost 15 – Free Remote Setup Help

Chipset:
X58SABR-A – Intel x58-GigabitLAN-(6) SATA 3.0Gbps-(2) SATA 6.0Gbps-1394a-(9) USB 2.0-(2) USB 3.0-(2) eSATA

CPU:
BX80601960 – Intel Core i7-960 Quad Core Processor 3.20 GHz 4.8 QPI 8MB Cache

System RAM: DDR3133312GB-2 – 12GB (6x 2GB DDR3-1333)

Case: CSE733TQ665B – Black Workstation Mid Tower – 665W HE PS – (4) SATA 3.0Gbps Bays

System Drive: ST32000641AS – 2TB SATA 6Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 7200RPM

Spare Drive: ST32000641AS – 2TB SATA 6Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 7200RPM

Primary Bay Option: LG22X – LG 22X DVD-Writer (Double-layer) DVD/CD Recorder w/ NERO

Display Adapter: QUAD4000 – nVIDIA Quadro 4000 2GB DDR5 DVI/Display Port PCI-e 2.0

Internal Video Raid: 2xST32000641AS-0 – 2x 2TB SATA 6Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 7200RPM 4TB RAID-0

Operating System: singlebootwin7 – Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

[Pierre Conti]

Thanks for the input!

Tom, yes I switched the preview back to mpeg-1 and it does go a little smoother.
But this is still not great considering the price of this machine.. if I switch very fast from clip to clip on the timeline (like I do all day long editing), the lag become quickly a problem. I mean it does still feel slower than editing 422 with FCP 7 on a mac book pro, wich I find almost unbelievable. My FW 800 hard drive are not ideal, and I should get an NVIDA card, but somehow I find it hard to pour all that money when I can get a faster machine for half the price (PC).
Apple has become totally ADOBE unfriendly and I need to take a long term decision and choose the right soft now that fcp is kind of dead, without spending $8000. Love osx.. but my heart is broken and I need a lot of AE.
I am tired of transcoding to 422.. I want to drop h264 on a timeline and start cutting.
Just in case if you have any idea how to improve my mac.. do you think I should put internal disks first or get the quadro 4000?
Any other suggestions are most welcome!

Thanks again

[Pierre Conti]

Yes i’m on 5.5.1
pro res 422 is behaving a lot better, but still not as good as I expected (switching from clip to clip very fast – like you always need to do on a timeline – occasionally result in freeze and lags).
Here is the setting I am using for Apple pro res 422L
Does this seem adequate?

[Pierre Conti]

I can’t purchase that now.
So if I just give up on cutting h264, what codec do you guys recommend to me?

[Pierre Conti]

Yes, MAC user please advise.
What bugs me overall is that I need $8000 of gear to cut h264 in PP when I could do it in prores in FCP with my laptop, at same speed, with external HD.
I got a new computer, a new soft, and I got slower. Bugger.

MAC USER EDITING WITH h.264 in PP please HELP!

[Pierre Conti]

Thanks, that is a useful explanation.
I’m cutting out of 2 external fw 800 7200rpm hard drives. Do you think that is too slow? I used to cut pro-res 422 without problems… on a 2007 laptop with FCP 7.
.