[Ryan Holmes]

[Melody Thomas] ” does upscaling cause degradation? “

Yes. If you shot 720p then upscaling to 1080p is forcing the software to add resolution that did not inherently exist. In my experience jumping from 720 to 1080 doesn’t greatly impact the visual quality. However, going from standard def 480 up to 1080 will cause a visual softening of the image.

h.264 is an efficient codec but bear in mind that it throws out a lot of data in comparison to other codecs (like ProRes, DNxHD, P2, etc.). If you’re trying to archive that may be an acceptable loss. For much of what I do it usually is….but h.264 is not a good intermediate codec if you’re just trying to get everything into 1 codec. h.264 is what’s called a Long-GOP (Group of Pictures) format. As such, it takes a lot more horsepower to decode for an NLE than something like ProRes or DNxHD which is an intra-frame or “all I-frame” codec. More info here about i-frame codecs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_compression_picture_types

I-frame codecs are easier to edit (less horsepower needed), but tend to be bigger file size wise and therefore need more storage space to maintain. Long-GOP formats tend to be more space conscious while losing some of the high quality of an I-frame codec.

If you’re looking to edit the material right away then I would stick with a ProRes-type codec. If you’re just going to throw it on a shelf and maybe pick it up in 2 or more years, then h.264 is probably you’re best option. As far as resolution and frame rate go, that’s a decision you and your boss will need to make. It may be better to leave it all native and deal with upscaling or frame rate conversion if/when you need it.

Compression is a complicated world! I’ve been doing this for over a decade and I’m still learning things I never knew….so you aren’t going to master it in one weekend! 🙂 Read a lot and experiment. Places like the COW are most definitely you’re friend.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

My team and I downloaded CC on Tuesday morning and using it ever since. No problems. App is more responsive, exports faster, saves faster….pretty much does everything faster than the previous CS6. All my old projects reopen correctly with no connection issues. The downloading was fast, painless….pretty much the way you’d want a major rollout release to go. No technical issues. No glaring bugs.

It’s just what Adobe showed at NAB – a more polished, stable, faster version of CS6. No complaints here in Dallas, Texas.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

No…we won’t know anything until Apple ships the tube. Anybody who is testing a new Mac Pro is certainly under NDA and is not legally allowed to comment publicly about it in any detailed way.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Margus Voll] “Any word on performance on new mac pro ?”

I’m assuming you mean performance in relation to DaVinci Resolve on the new Mac Pro….Grant Petty posted on the Blackmagic forums immediately after the Apple announcement:

“I think this new MacPro is amazing and those 2 GPUs are incredibly powerful. I am not sure what I can say however there is a whole new OpenCL and DaVinci Resolve 10 is having lots of performance work done to integrate it and its really really fast. Those GPUs are very high performance and each GPU has lots of graphics memory so this is the Mac we have been waiting for! We have lots of Thunderbolt products too so video in and out is taken care of.

Overall we could not be happier!”

https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=8898

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Jordan Mena] “Q3, whatever that means.”

July – September is Quarter 3 for businesses. They have historically released updates to DaVinci in June and July the last few years. I’m hoping for July, but between their camera releases and major updates to DaVinci, and their newly development products they do have their plates pretty full right now!

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Any release date information?

I’m really looking forward to this software release.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

I’m also an ex-FCP 7 guy….if FCPX doesn’t ring your bell you should give Adobe Premiere Pro a try. I switched to it back in 2011 when Apple took a different direction with their NLE and have been very happy with the speed and performance of Premiere. The newest version (just released on Monday, 6/17) is easily the FCP8 that you’re looking for. It’s only $50/month to buy into the Creative Cloud (what Adobe calls their software subscription program), and with that you get everything that Adobe makes – Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Lightroom, InDesign, etc. Or if you just want Premiere Pro you can pay $20/month for just access to 1 app on the Creative Cloud – https://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html

They have a free 30 day trial (and FCPX does as well, I believe). You may want to give both of them a spin if you’re looking to move on.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[James Cude] “I suspect your IT guy would agree that supporting an off the shelf Apple configuration is going to be more straightforward than a customized PC rig hacked to run OS X but your mileage may vary.”

+1 to this! Maintaining a hackintosh is more time/labor intensive than a traditional Mac or Windows system.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Well they’ve optimized the OpenCL technology better in CC than in CS6.

There is a hack you can do to a .txt file on your system to enable Premiere Pro to see your current GPU card and utilize it better. Just bear in mind it is a hack, and therefore not necessarily stable at all times in all situations. It is not endorsed by Adobe.

Use the Google to look around and I’m sure you can find some walkthroughs about how to enable your ATI card under CS6 via a text file hack.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

You’d see a stark increase in performance just by switching to an approved Nvidia graphics card (Quadro 4000 or Quadro FX 4800). Or if you move up to Premiere CC they have more support for ATI cards (using OpenCL technology) and harnessing the GPU you currently have.

Getting rid of the dynamic link will certainly help you. Transcoding your footage out of AVCHD when you import would also help you get faster export times. The drawback to transcoding upfront is that you increase your time on the front end instead of the backend. AVCHD is a highly compressed format that takes a lot of horsepower to export when finished, especially if you’ve added color correction, or titles, or dynamic linked material.

Setting up a render farm is a possibility, but I would start with a different GPU as already mentioned. AME utilizes just as much processing power as PPro, it’s the same engine in either app. The difference is that dynamic link between the two apps creates an extra step for the export to go through. In your case it might shave off 30 minutes or something…..it’s not gonna drop it by 4+ hours.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost