Tom Sefton
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I think someone has written an online article comparing the iMac with the Mac Pro at speeds for h264 but in our experience the Mac Pro will do it in realtime for a dual pass encode at 4K source to 4K output. The iMac tends to do the h264 encode about 20% faster as it is hardware accelerated with the i7 chip (I believe this is why, but could be wrong). It’s not a huge amount but if you never work with raw, have a reasonably light workload and edit and deliver to h264 it could make a difference. I’ll try and find the online article.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
We got one 8 core with d700s and then added another with the same spec. First one had 32GB ram the next had 64.. Extra ram made a positive difference for working in fcpx. Both are still in heavy use for the forever project and any other work that passes through. Both machines have a gtech studio xl raid attached via thunderbolt, an apple monitor via thunderbolt, an external soundcard via usb3 and peripherals – the speeds we have been getting are helped massively by the speed of the raids.
We never had any servicing required for either, but purchased AppleCare as a fail safe. The d700s never let us down once. Realtime r3d encoding to ProRes, then stepped down to h264 or h265 using compressor was easy. The one place the Mac Pro isn’t as good as the iMac is encoding to h264 – the iMac is faster for this. However it’s counter productive as I’m not sure if I could leave an iMac encoding for a week and expect it to last as long without requiring servicing – I could be wrong though…?
If you’ve got a lot of footage to chew through, you might find the iMac gets very hot and struggles without a red rocket X – add this purchase price on with a sonnet enclosure and you are past the expense for a Mac Pro which doesn’t require it unless you need faster than realtime encoding. Can’t praise the new Mac Pro highly enough – suppose the only consideration is whether apple will release something new in the fall.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
Have a look at the forever project link I posted a few weeks back. Documents a 2 year project working with red raw footage on the new Mac Pro. Brilliant performance.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
Thanks Jeremy.
It would mean a trip to the UK, but it is up and running at the Holocaust Centre in Newark. There are some plans afoot for something to happen in London too – watch this space.
The first 3 survivors are loaded onto the system with full interactivity in 3D, with the next batch being loaded until November. However with the project being extended, its likely we will be continuously doing this!
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
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Good question.
We’ve got our own studio space and we don’t really have to worry about the increased size from something the size of the trashcan to the cheese grater, so if the Mac Pro was larger, it would be fine.
But having something small enough to either rack mount or put into a peli case as a custom DIT station is fantastic. I’ve packed some for long haul projects, along with a G Tech Raid and a single peli case holds this along with a monitor which is brilliant for on-set work and rendering.
I suppose it’s something I haven’t really thought about before – you make space on your desk for however large your edit machine is…
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
This +1
Mac Pro performance with raw 4k, 5k and 6k media is fantastic. It isn’t with iMac.
I’ve seen nothing but great value for money from the Mac Pros we have bought and really hope that apple brings out a high res monitor to replace as I still love the thunderbolt display.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
Work – a bunch of 2013 Mac Pros – d700s and max ram. iMac 27. 2 HP X series PCs, Mac mini, 4 3 g tech studio xl raids, g tech portable raid
Home – MacBook Pro retina, MacBook Air
Love those new Mac pros!
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
I Suppose when you put it like that it doesn’t make too much sense really. I think the rumour sites haven’t helped and overdue updates make people expect something to come. Is it September when hardware is announced usually then?
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk