[Terry Flaxton]

Thanks Ben – I had a broadcast career once many years ago – then turned to art production and display and on one level for big projections in goes a computer and output at HD/4k pro res…. but often the site requires a card in a display with the same specs as streaming – or – as a for instance I had several exhibitions in cathedrals and price wise the choice was media players but at that time they were not dependable for the six month periods (on the other side of the atlantic and I really didn’t need to be coming and going fixing things) so I chose old fashioned blu-rays at max 29 per second and each of the 5 times one machine got me through 6 months of daily use sometimes 12 – 14 hours per day (several exhibitions of which required 3 x blue rays – not synched of course but the show didn’t need synch – otherwise itd be back to computers).

[Terry Flaxton]

First of all let me say thank you to everyone that’s replied to my post – as soon as I’d written it a family event happened that took me out of the picture which is why I haven’t responded. But: to be clear all the files are coming in from around the world and all are in their final state so determination of how they capture is not possible. These are not pro cinematographers or DITS or post folk, they’re moving image artists (the kind you’d see on sedition art as with my outputs here https://www.seditionart.com/terry-flaxton ) but they all grasp the various resolutions possible – and they all grasp that compression must occur. Like me though (as I just conflated wrappers and containers – and on that with regards HEVC and MP4, I did some experiments for online streaming some while back and discovered that – staring at an early 4k OLED – HEVC needs pushing in terms of samples to get as good at MP4 such that it’s bit rate and file sizes are equivalent by the time unwanted artefacts have gone). Re Display this will be via a 50 inch 4k OLED LG and the audience will be close up. Now I may not be understanding everything – got that – but I come from the front end, camera. So given my grasp of resolution, is – were I shooting I’d set the camera output to as high as possible in terms of un-compressed files, baring in mind that basic analogue to digital compression happens between lens and light sensitive surface – and the pathway behind that through to data collection in a medium. But the task I have is to gather via the internet a set of 12 x 5 minute pieces of work and from the answers you’ve all given me, I’m thinking I shall create an ask for everyone to send me 4k Pro Res files before I go abroad and just go through standard FCP routes of preparing a loop, then adjusting that at best quality via Compressor. And thanks again for responding.

[Terry Flaxton]

Thanks Devrim – I’ll think on this. Thanks for taking the time to answer

[Terry Flaxton]

So from your reply you’re voiding the M2 macs as a choice – but of course waiting for next year for the M4 macs – given that our world is now turned upside down by Trumps potential tariff system – may just end my 40 year relationship with macs. I don’t say that lightly as I shot the making of 1984 – the commercial that launched the mac for Apple. So its a bit of a trashing of values that’s going on. In real terms we pay maybe a pound per dollar when you take in taxes and all the rest and when I first came to the states the pound dollar was 2.75… now its 1.35 and who knows where it’ll be next (probably 1:1). But as an individual creative without a company to back up my finances (which I always had in the past) I have to plough on with the system I’m comfortable with – or I may have to go for a hackintosh which in another lifetime I said I’d never do in memory of steve jobs (as an innovator). So last checks – is the m2 not that much of an advantage over the Intel – and secondly does the massive speed surge of the OWC enable a faster rendering by stacking up the data that bit faster (or is that me misunderstanding the principles of the architecture that transmits the data)?

[Terry Flaxton]

Ah ok that’ll explain it because the mac 2019 architecture is governed at 6 gig (so the literature says), so a hackintosh may have different parameters. I have no experience with eiether windows or hacks – though of course given the prices that Tim Cook has brought in and the heinious system of tariffs on apple kit and software which walked away from the original intentions (though the signs were always there) I may one day go that route. I presume there are patches that do this and probably you need to know basic windows stuff. Plus it worries me that apple is going over to ARM chips fully (though as a Brit I should be proud of that but of tech) though that’s probably a fear based on too little knowledge.

[Terry Flaxton]

Hi you’re getting 6700 with the M2? I’m getting 5800 which is naturally beneath the 6 gig ceiling. I’m struggling to see how you’re getting over the governed limit. Have you applied any fixes? Also as I don’t use PC so does their internal architecture allow a different higher speed? I’d assume there must be some benefits to having a PC besides apparently being cheaper – but then friends with PC’s tell me that once you start tooling up to MAC standards, costs are about the same.

[Terry Flaxton]

Well that sounds interesting – so far I can see no real drawbacks. I’ll let the comment stay up a bit longer before acting. Thanks for your reply.

[Terry Flaxton]

Thanks – OK that’s good – any enhancements though – speed etc? I lose functionalities on older stuff so I need a good reason (other than they’ll get us in the end).

[Terry Flaxton]

So here’s sonnets response to my question about speeds – :

Hi Terry,

OWC connects 8 lanes to the PCIe slot (24-lane PCIe bridge chip). Sonnet connects 16 lanes to the PCIe slot (32 lane PCIe 3 bridge chip). If you are using a RAID 0 of 4 SSDs, The Sonnet is nominally twice as fast.

And by twice as fast I said I’d achieved 5700 with the OWC M2 – is it remotely possible they’re confused?

[Terry Flaxton]

oops that was 3.57 compressed – I misread that (at 119 mb) and Vimeo created a 4k version

Made my first video in 1976, A long term programme maker, DP, editing etc – changing with AR/VR/MR media –