[Walter Soyka]

[Joe Jennings] “I did hit the start sharing button and then I will hide that window and go to compressor to continue and hit submit in compressor. I think I have got it set up properly.(I can see many processes working while looking at the cpu activity in the activity monitor)(but i have also done it to see only one working) “

Even if you’ve set up the cluster correctly, you must select the quick cluster when you submit the job in Compressor. If you leave it set to the “This Computer” default, it will not split up the job among multiple processes. Perhaps this is what you saw?

[Joe Jennings] ” know that it’s possible to to utilize many computers with a cluster…correct me if i am mis-understanding. And it’s also possible to utilize…spread out processes over different cores on the same computer…correct? This is what I think that I am doing. I only have this one work station.”

This is all correct.

[Joe Jennings] “My question is approx. how much usage should i be seeing…of RAM and CPU processes. I am seeing about 6 different processes working around 200% to 300% each and the RAM only seems to be using 2 to 3 GB. This confuses me a little because i thought that RAM will make your computer faster.”

Unfortunately, the answer is “it depends.” Your source footage, compression settings, and disk speed will all factor in.

RAM makes a computer faster in two ways: it allows you run more processes spread out across multiple cores (as Qmaster does), and it reduces the amount the operating system needs to swap RAM to disk. When a computer runs low on RAM, it copies pieces it hasn’t used recently virtual memory on a hard disk, then frees up the RAM it used to occupy. When that old item from RAM is requested again, the computer must swap something else out to load the original contents back in. As a user, you’ll see your system slow down and hear the hard drive accessing rapidly when swap occurs.

In other words, perhaps it’s not so much that more RAM makes your computer faster; less RAM makes it slower.

As long as you have a decent amount of RAM free, you’re in good shape. When your RAM gets maxed out, your computer will slow dramatically.

[Joe Jennings] “Any information you might have to help me understand better and or to help me make sure that my setting are the way they are suppose to be for best optimization.”

I recommend installing MenuMeters — it’s a great little utility that can add processor, memory, disk, and network meters to your menu bar. It’s a useful tool for figuring out where any bottlenecks may be occurring.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Frederic Lumiere] “Is there a way to replay the same RAM preview (which will play the audio as well) that has already been rendered (green bar)d without triggering the RAM Preview rendering again?”

Just RAM preview again. Hit 0 on the numeric keypad to start RAM preview. If AE starts rendering additional frames, hit 0 again to interrupt it and start playback.

If RAM preview is rendering frames that you don’t need to see right now, you could adjust the work area.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

Another vote for C4D. The MoGraph module is especially useful.

I would also take a look at Blender. It’s open source, free, flexible and extensible, and it has a vibrant community. Paolo Ciccone here on the COW has put together some amazing resources: an After Effects Exporter for Blender, the Blender Survival Guide, and a Blender forum.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

I contacted support from each manufacturer about their standard definition analog video to SDI converters. AJA says 1 frame; BMD says 4 lines.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Compressor does this, but it’s called a transport stream.”

Great point, Jeremy. The deliverable might either a program stream as I originally suggested, or a transport stream as you have mentioned — both are muxed.

That’s probably the best question to go back to the client with if you cannot get any more information on the playback device — do they require a program stream or a transport stream?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Wayne Beckwith] “I have a customer specifying the following video format requirement to play via a CF card in their media player as it does not accept any other format. I am having trouble finding a way/software that outputs a mixed mpeg2 format.”

Perhaps the client made a typo when specifying a muxed MPEG2 file? I’d suspect an MPEG2 program stream would work, but perhaps you could find out more about the playback device to look up its input requirements?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Joe Jennings] “options for selective service is set to 7 instances but prior to that it says selected service off”

Have you clicked the “Start sharing” button in the lower right corner of the preference pane? Can you post a screen shot of the window?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[David Roth Weiss] “I suggest that in the long run, a cost/benefit analysis will indicate that a SATA RAID will improve day to day editing experience far more than an increase in RAM, so long as there is at least 1Gb per core.”

I’d agree with this statement for editing with FCP only, but Allan also specifically mentioned After Effects.

After Effects is extremely memory intensive. 4GB of total system RAM will be very, very tight for AE, especially working in HD. Multiprocessing in AE with 8GB is workable, but multiprocessing with only 4GB is out of the question. Skimping on RAM — thereby disabling AE’s multiprocessing — will nearly double render times.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

A couple other elements I didn’t see listed by the other posters:

• Date
• The word “Invoice” (so they know they need to pay it)
• Invoice number (often necessary for your client’s internal reference)
• PO number (if the client issued you a purchase order)

Finally, you might also have to provide a W-9 form (US tax identification).

If you’re going to need invoicing on an ongoing basis, you should look into an accounting package like Intuit Quickbooks that will help you track your business’s income and expenses.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Gabriel Delattre] “In RAM preview it is still jitering.”

Does the Info panel indicate that it’s playing in realtime throughout?

Do any of the individual frames look wrong?

Any chance you can post a screen shot or a movie showing the problem?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events