Best Mac Pro Configuration Video Editing

[pierrox]

Should be pretty straight forward:
1. Use AMA to avoid importing and transcoding
2. If the footage is Sony’s XAVC-S codec then you will need to update to MC 8.9.1
3. If the footage is Panasonic's GH5 read here http://community.avid.com/forums/t/180517.aspx?PageIndex=1
4. Just make sure you have the latest AMA plugs by Nablet
5. If 4K-6K your drive speed should be up to par (As you know there is no CUDA or GPU acceleration, yet!)
6. Use yellow/green if necessary

1. A documentary using AMA and not transcoding? That's asking for trouble. AMA is fine for short fast turnout videos. If you're going to spend weeks on the project, it'll make you go mad. I'm currently cutting a doc with 200 hours of footage and we transcoded everything. And I'm not the first nor an exception.
2. same as 1. Also, the QuickTime replacement codec from Avid has a TC bug. So we're back to 1.
3. Depends on the files. The film I'm cutting was shot with a GH5 with 10bit video. As of today, no software can deal with those (professionally, I'm excluding flakey workarounds) except DaVinci Resolve Studio (not the Free version, not the Mac AppStore). But it's working pretty good.

 

[shaunp]

Of course 3 Gigs is way to less
at the moment the mac pro is in a nearly original delivery setting

I use the AdobeCC

My whole budget is arround 2000-3000$ but i also want one of the new generation 4k monitors (500-700$) and some other additional hardware (ca. 500$)

If you are using AdobeCC and have a budget of $2000-3000 ask yourself if there is anything tying you to the Mac? If not get a PC and run AdobeCC on there as you will get a lot more performance for your money and it's a platform that is being actively developed unlike the Mac Pro at present.

 

[OS6-OSX]

1. A documentary using AMA and not transcoding? That's asking for trouble. AMA is fine for short fast turnout videos. If you're going to spend weeks on the project, it'll make you go mad. I'm currently cutting a doc with 200 hours of footage and we transcoded everything. And I'm not the first nor an exception.

Of course it depends on the format. The poster in question did not state the format of his footage. He did ask if there was a problem playing 1080p. There is no reason to transcode just for the sake of transcoding. People have moved to other NLE's just because of the countless hours of transcoding because of MC's antiquated engine. If you have to ask about playback of 1080p then his drive speed is in question. Depending on his set up (not fully described) and the file format, transcoding can indeed be avoided. If the poster in question returns and states the file format the AMA vs transcoding answer will be obvious.

 

[troybogert]

Of course it depends on the format. The poster in question did not state the format of his footage. He did ask if there was a problem playing 1080p. There is no reason to transcode just for the sake of transcoding. People have moved to other NLE's just because of the countless hours of transcoding because of MC's antiquated engine. If you have to ask about playback of 1080p then his drive speed is in question. Depending on his set up (not fully described) and the file format, transcoding can indeed be avoided. If the poster in question returns and states the file format the AMA vs transcoding answer will be obvious.

Thanks for all the responses!

I am planning on eliminating file format as an issue by using a video assist to transcode on the set to DNxHD. Then I plan on copying over the media and editing that way to avoid the transcoding process.

So the plan is to edit in 1080p, 23.98 fps and I am still not sure if I should have the camera operator shoot in 4:2:2 or 4:4:4. He will be using a Canon C-300 MkIII and a Sony FS 7. I would like to use the highest quality DNxHD format DNxHR 444. My understanding is that the bandwidth required for playback for DNxHR 444 is around 42 MB per second. Since I will be running two 7200 RPM WD BLACK 4TB internal Hard drives on SATA at 6Gb per second, and my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 video card it should playback without transcoding and creating proxies. This will streamline the online process because then I can just deliver the drives to online without the hassle of the relinking etc.

Is my thinking correct on this? Will it playback?!? I guess worst case I can always stripe the drives or transcode afterwards if it gives me problems but I want to save time which is why I am planning it out better this round.

On the last project (this will be the sequel) I transcoded EVERYTHING which was time consuming, but the offline edit was smooth and fast. I never had any hang ups or delays in playback.

I realize that render times will be longer using DNxHR 444, but it took almost a month to transcode all the footage and I can eliminate that time. The main thing is I want to avoid the Media Composer HANGING etc and slowing down the edit. Obviously I can use the proxy button in the timeline too.

Regarding formats, I realize that I will need to update media composer. Last time I used the MEDIA REACTOR plug in and was able to AMA all the camera formats except the Sony FS 7 which I remastered to DNxHD first using CATALYST. This worked fine but again was time consuming.

I priced out the video assist tools and it seems like it will cost less to get two devices with SSD drive for the two cameras and live transcode everything to DNxHD on the set instead of a month of transcoding.

Thanks again for all the responses. Please feel free to give more feedback and if you think my plan sucks or you have a better solution please enlighten me. I have been using media composer exclusively since 1994 but for the last 15 years I was freelance or in house editor and there was always a good assistant editor handling all the media. The last project was my first foray into the world of file based work flows on the newer tech because I exclusively work out of my home now. When I was an assist 1994-1998, everything was tape ingestion so there was a huge learning curve that I went through before I started last year on the previous project.

Anyway thanks again!

Troy

 

[OS6-OSX]

I guess worst case I can always stripe the drives......

With two 4TB internal SW RAID 0 you should roughly get 1/2 of this. This is when I had 4 internal spinners @ RAID 0. With the addition of the ATTO R644 and 4 more drives the number is W-1436 R-1076. This may be why I have a different perspective when speaking on the playback of a timeline.
Keep in mind since it's RAID 0 you need to have a drive for backup. This single (backup) drive may be the one to pass on.

 

[pierrox]

Important question to ask yourself: how much footage altogether, and how long will your timelines be?

 

[Acden]

With the addition of the ATTO R644 and 4 more drives the number is W-1436 R-1076.

Tell us about your HDD config? Are you using PCI-e adapters or 2 drives in standard bays to get 1076 mb/s read speeds?
They are SATA-II (i think up to 200 mb/s).