Scott Sheriff
Forum Replies Created
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I agree with all the above. Quality of the footage is a huge variable that can’t be accounted for on a chart, and IMO is the single largest factor in the amount of time it takes to post something.
Perhaps making a chart of things that contribute to a more efficient post experience might be more worthwhile instead of try to quantify it.Here’s few off the top of my head, that influence length of post
Amount of editing experience
Editors familiarities with the system
Quality of the footage
How much of it need repaired/CC
Are all the takes there/will I have to repair continuity problems
Complexity of the basic visuals
Complexity/amount of FX
Quality of audio
Number of audio channels
Complexity of the audio
Quality of logging
Amount of Pre-viz/pre production, if any
Amount of font compose
Motion Grfx
Editing codec
Ingest/capture time of footage
Output format -
I saw an interesting article on a non-editing related web site aimed at computer manufacturing about a month or so, about the nehalem chipsets compared to harpertown.
It was talking about how the chips handle data flow, and they types of applications that these machines are generally used for. They said that even though the clock speeds were not that much higher, the data rate was much better (in the nehalem) for most applications than the clock speed would indicate. The one application that they thought wouldn’t see a significant boost was video editing. Something to due with the way video data is packaged vs science type data. This was written by manufacturing techs, not users, so it is interesting to hear opinions on this. I didn’t bookmark this page, but if I can go back and find it, I’ll post a link to it. -
Scott Sheriff] “David, I totally bow to your superior knowledge of all things NLE. ”
“Is that kind of crap always necessary when someone disagrees with you Scott?”
Crap? What’s up with that? I pay you a compliment, and just want to show how I justify my opine, and you flame me. Thanks a bunch.
As far as extra 26 large, when I was picking out stuff for my system, I went with your logic, and didn’t get the fastest processor. Now I’m sorry I didn’t get the fast one. Life is short, you can get more money, but you can’t buy more hours in your life. But that’s my opinion.
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David,
I totally bow to your superior knowledge of all things NLE.
But, here’s some food for thought:While $20 isn’t much, most of a 1Tb system drive will sit there looking good and it won’t ever be used. So, spend the $20 on a lunch for your client and you’ll make that back in spades.
My thoughts are to have some breathing room for things like music libraries (these seem to be OK on the system drive IME), other production software etc.
Also, larger drives tend to have a higher MTBF. Probably because there is less background reshuffling of data.Frankly, if you do a side by side speed test you will find that the difference between the slowest and fastest Nahalem procs is negligible, however the premium you will pay for the fastest procs is high, in fact, very high. So, an evaluation of ROI would point out that paying for the hot procs is not in fact worth the extra dough.
OK, I don’t have hard facts on the speed difference between the current fastest and slowest MP’s, as far as real world differences on rendering, or compressor.
But, the cost difference is $2,600. There are 250 business days per year. Assuming 8 hour days (stop laughing) even at my puny day rate, the faster machine only has to save me 8 minutes per biz day for two years to make that $2,600 back. Of course it takes even less time if your rate is higher, or you work with a second editor that can put more hours on the machine.However, Scott’s idea of buying the RAM from OWC and not from Apple is sound. Although, you will be probably end up throwing away two sticks of RAM, because mixing RAM from different vendors is not a good idea in MacPros and it has been known to cause big issues for lots of users.
Mix them all you want. The odds are that most of the OEM and aftermarket chipsets are from the same vendor anyway, and are just re-branded. Mine are, if you peel the stickers off and look. Also the screen print on the board is identical. As long as they meet the spec, the machine doesn’t know where they were born. It’s a lot more important that they are used in the proper slots if your not filling up the machine, and that the they are numerically identical (all 2g, or all 1g). It also seems like I’ve seen some benchmarks that shows multiples of 4G work best. I have built 3 systems since 2008 (intel 5400 series)using mix and match memory and they all seem to work fine. I admit it might be a different story with the X58 processor machines on size combos that work best, but I think mix and match vendors is still going to work OK.
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My 2 cents on drives and RAM.
I wouldn’t go anywhere near those Barracuda HD’s. Google “Barracuda 1.5TB Problems”. Don’t know who is recommending these to you. Yeah, they are supposedly fixed, but why take a chance when there are so many other great choices. Hitachi 1TB 7200rpm 32MB cache, fast, solid, quiet, low heat. WD Blacks, are also good. Both have great independent web reviews. I have a couple of each, and I actually think the Hitachi is a bit faster and quieter, even if it’s not a ‘name dropper’ brand. You can get these in an OEM package from OWC for around a hundred(ish) bucks. Spend the extra 20 bucks and get a 1TB system drive. With prices what they are why go with a 650? There are also some 2TB drives out, but I would stick with the tried and true 1TB’s for mission critical stuff until the 2TB’s have been out for a while.
Get the fastest processor, not the slowest, how could you go wrong there?. Even if you have to cut back on RAM to afford it. Besides FCP doesn’t use all that RAM, but the processor makes a dif. And you can always get more RAM later, again OWC has great prices on RAM sticks, but you can’t just go buy a faster processor later like you can RAM. -
Chyron.
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What editing platform?
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[Gerry Bayne] “Thanks for all the info guys, I really appreciate it. Vegas is fine but part of this is professional development. I can’t see myself going out to my next multimedia job with only Vegas under my belt. Most production houses use FCP I’m finding and I’d like to train in what is most marketable as well.”
Gerry,
Now that’s a horse of a different color. Big dif between this and your original post, which sounded like you were possibly, thinking about, dabbling in video editing.
If your main objective is professional development, then FCP is a fine choice, especially if you have an ‘in’ to get gigs. But in the end it isn’t about which platform you use, editing is editing. Plenty of great edits have been made on to 1″ going ‘machine to machine’. Get some seat time in on whatever system you can get on. -
Budget?
How much time are you willing to put in learning new software?
What is the format of your incoming video?
Do you have any video, or film editing experience?Without a lot of info, it would be hard to recommend anything at this point.
One thing to consider is that you are showing up late for the party if you are looking at becoming an editor. The market is over-saturated with johnny-come-lately guys that have the cash to buy a system, and they have to compete with all those guys plus folks that have been editing for years (decades) who only had to learn a piece of software.
Not trying to rain on your parade, but that is the situation that exists in 2009, and might have some bearing on your budget if the equipment purchase is on your nickle. -
Add a second (or more) 3WCC filter. You can also stack your clips in a second (or more) video track to improve density.
It’s easier to fix underexposed video, than overexposed video, but there are limits.