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Posted by Smarty on 04/21/07 17:48
Luis,
Having not used Adobe video software since Premiere 6.5 a couple years ago,
I am not knowledgeable about the newer versions and how they run on the
newer hardware. My first and only trial of their HDV-compatible software led
me quickly to the belief that buying the optional Cineform plug-in was
essential to get any reasonable performance, and this was an expensive
option I did not pursue. All of this has probably changed significantly in
the last couple years. You should ask others on these newsgroups for their
opinions on these solutions, since they have much more insight and
experience.
I will say that Sony Vegas has been a very nice editing platform for most of
what I do, and they have been scaling their software to aggressively and
fully exploit hardware as it evolves, including a "rendering farm" solution
to distribute the rendering workload over a network as well. The educator's
discount of Vegas/DVD Architect Suite for $280 or so also makes this Sony
package a very reasonable home editing solution, IMHO. They also offer a $99
scaled-down version for consumer use which is very good as well, albeit
limited somewhat in features.
I find myself using Vegas quite a bit, but I must be candid in saying that I
have a particular fondness for the simpler, cheaper, and easier to use
products for a lot of stuff I play with. In this regard, Ulead makes some
really nice software most of the time, so inexpensive that I consider it to
be "a no-brainer". The results are truly stunning to look at in high def,
and their renderer (from Mainconcepts) is fast and very crisp and smooth.
The fairly recent trend is parallel processing has put new demands on the
software developers as well as the tools they use to develop programs to
spread the workload beneficially across multiple cores and processors, and I
will caution you to investigate the payoffs of quad core hardware with
specific software before buying. Video editing and rendering create a lot of
processing demands, and many software releases have little or no
exploitation of the full power of the quad systems out there today. I would
also be careful about Vista until it gets a bit more established, since
Microsoft has clearly and consistently released buggy software which the
user endures during this early release phase we have recently entered. XP
may be a much better home for your video editing environment for the next
year or longer, all things considered.
Hope this helps,
Smarty
"Luis Ortega" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:ZprWh.7505$M_3.6701@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net...
> Thanks, Smarty,
> What would you advise for someone who is interested in video editing and
> not primarily DVD authoring?
> If I don't go for a Mac Pro and FCP Studio 2, I am considering upgrading
> my PC to a quad 4 core cpu with 4 gigs of fast ram, a 512 ddr3 mb graphics
> card and a suitable motherboard for all of this, and buying the Adobe
> master collection CS3 suite which pretty much has everything that I need
> for my workflow. I would probabl;y also upgrade to Vista Home Premium from
> my curent Win XP Pro.
> Do you think that this would be a faster and more stable setup? Does the
> CS3 software make use of quad core cpus or should I stick to core 2 duo
> cpus?
> I could get my school to loan me a suitable Mac with FCP 4.5 studio loaded
> and use that to keep learning FCP for my school work while forgetting
> about trying to go to a Mac at home.
> Thanks for your advice.
>
>
> "Smarty" <nobody@nobody.com> wrote in message
> news:0PudndC0uc2eprfbnZ2dnUVZ_rqhnZ2d@adelphia.com...
>> Ken and Luis,
>>
>> I'll offer an abbreviated reply to the 2 questions asked, and will be
>> glad to elaborate if you want me to, but will otherwise spare you the
>> detailed version.
>>
>> I purchased my most recent 2 MacPros, first the dual G5 Powermac and then
>> the Intel Quad Xeon, for the purpose of making HD DVDs. Although Apple
>> has not made a bit marketing fuss about it, their Final Cut Pro Studio
>> software was really the very first way consumers could produce an HD DVD
>> deliverable on a disk, namely 4.7GB red laser DVD-R. This has been true
>> for at least 18 months, maybe closer to 2 years, but I wanted to take HDV
>> content I had recorded and make playable disks and FCP was at the time
>> the ***only way*** to do so. Secondly, I was amazed after getting my
>> first HDV camcorder, the Sony FX-1, when it came out a couple years ago,
>> that my wife's tiny "MacMini" (a $600 computer) could do a reasonable,
>> albeit very slow job of HDV capture and editing with the free software it
>> contained, iMovieHD. I was then convinced that a high-end dual processor
>> workstation from Apple with FCP would be the "ultimate" HD and HD DVD
>> tools, since the only missing ingredients I needed and lacked in the
>> MacMini were speed and more editing / authoring features. The high end
>> workstation seemed like an obvious upgrade path, if FCP were also
>> purchased at the same time. Ironically, Sony, despite their immense stake
>> in HDV acceptance, chose to ***never*** provide any BluRay authoring in
>> the Vegas Suite, (instead demanding the user purchase their extremely
>> costly "BluPrint" stuff, and also, as you might imagine, never provided
>> any HD-DVD support whatsoever. This is still the case over 2 years
>> later..... Thirdly, my motivation to buy the Mac was predicated on a long
>> and very enduring love / hate relationship with Apple going back to their
>> inception. I love their innovation, their spirit, their testimonial to
>> American engineering, and their marketing finesse. My Apple stock has
>> also rewarded me many times over. And yes, I also am sucked into the
>> Job's reality distortion field when ever a new product launches. And
>> finally, my interest in buying the newest high end Macs was grounded in
>> my very early use of the Mac with the original Final Cut, Adobe Premiere,
>> and even earlier stuff going back to their original Quadra 660AV model
>> which had built in Phillips video capture hardware along with support for
>> MJPEG, the IOMEGA "Buzz" and other 1980s / early 190s vintage video toys
>> for home video editing.
>>
>> As to why I then decided to sell it off last week:
>>
>> I waited until NAB a week ago to see what Apple was going to do next,
>> having lived with not one but 2 top of the line multi-processor
>> PowerMac/MacPro workstations for the last 18 months or so. My true
>> experiences with the machines was far below my expectations. Perhaps it
>> is because the PC software is so much more plentiful, and I can pick and
>> chose from dozens of tools and make them work nicely together, or the
>> fact that I can easily modify my hardware a little bit at a time, but I
>> truly found the Macs to be mostly aggravating to own and use.
>>
>> The first and single biggest objection was speed. Everything seems to
>> take a long time, comparatively speaking, rendering in particular.
>> Secondly, moving around in the Apple environment creates a lot of
>> Quicktime files which are not intrinsically compatible in most cases with
>> other tools I use and like. Rendering to and from Quicktime is especially
>> painful. The third issue was Apple secrecy and a general lack of candor
>> in dealing with their problems. My dual G5 had severe power supply issues
>> which Apple people were totally unwilling to admit existed until a very
>> large number of complaints surfaced, and I, as one of the early victims,
>> had a long and frustrating battle attempting to get them to fix my
>> machine. Similarly, DVDStudioPro, their disk authoring component of FCP,
>> could not make Toshiba compatible HD DVDs until very recently, when a
>> quietly released software update fixed a problem that others had
>> complained about and acknowledged since the Toshiba players came out well
>> over a year ago. Those of us who made workable disks actually had to
>> bring the "HD DVD" folders over to a PC and burn them with PC
>> software..........Lastly, and this may be just a personal complaint, I
>> found that the user interface of FCP had small and difficult to read
>> controls, mostly ***NOT*** user adjustable in size, so that a screen big
>> enough to show full HDV workflow has tiny text, small icons, and a less
>> than comfortable user interface. I fully recognize that this is the world
>> as seen through the eyes of somebody 60+ with not so perfect eyesight, so
>> my complaint may not be legitimate for others.
>>
>> I have had friends and relatives who have had Macs with a blown Firewire
>> port, bad DVI connector, power connector, etc., and they have been
>> ***FORCED*** to replace logic boards and motherboards at expenses of
>> thousands of dollars when a single chip is blown or a single solder joint
>> is bad because the Apple repair philosophy does not include so much as
>> the concept of a replacement chip, daughter board, or simple subassembly
>> without a major repair bill. I personally find the Apple "geniuses" who
>> meet you at their stores to discuss problems are very limited in their
>> problem solving resources......
>>
>> By releasing an entirely new Final Cut suite, Apple may have solved some
>> of the issues above, but I am disappointed that the major claims did not
>> include speed enhancements so much as new and additional features.
>> Admittedly, the features are long overdue as well, and many new buyers
>> and upgraders will be attracted for this reason alone. I may buy into
>> their concept once again after the dust settles, and wanted to sell my
>> latest Apple hardware and FCP suite at a time when it was still current
>> and therefore most valuable. To Apple's credit, their resale is very high
>> compared to the PC equivalent hardware, and the cost of ownership is thus
>> relatively low despite the initial cost of purchase.
>>
>> Hope this answers your questions.
>>
>> Smarty
>>
>>
>>
>> "Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
>> news:obadnXMM9a1DIbTbnZ2dnUVZ_u-unZ2d@giganews.com...
>>>
>>> "Luis Ortega" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
>>> news:z59Wh.1817$V7.1736@newsfe7-gui.ntli.net...
>>>> Smarty, I just checked the site and it seems doable.
>>>> My question is, the part that "took a lot of screwing around"- was that
>>>> in creating the disk itself or getting it to work on the Mac when
>>>> trying to install Windows on the Mac?
>>>> The creating the disk part doesn't concern me as I am quite familiar
>>>> with getting things PC to work, but I am a total novice on the Mac
>>>> side, so that currently scares me.
>>>> Thanks for your advice.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Just curious, what is it the Mac provides that makes
>>> you buy it instead of a new PC? I mean if you want to
>>> run MS software, on the MAC? Did you find that you
>>> couldn't live without being able to run Windows
>>> programs? What were the things you needed Windows
>>> for, that the Mac couldn't provide?
>>>
>>> Luck;
>>> Ken
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
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