iMac i7 HD editing

[ravencr]

Okay, here's the verdict:

I imported my AVCHD files from my HMC40 directly into iMovie via usb. Then, I imported the .mov files into Adobe Premiere, and the difference is amazing. Premiere has no problems playing the video now...it's not jumpy skipping multiple frames, etc. So, now the question is do I need to upgrade...lol? You guys might have saved me a small fortune!

On a different note, but similar, based on what we discussed above, I found out some interesting things in regards to the imac and mbp I thought I'd share, as well:

1) The MBP can have a SSD or any other 2.5" HDD installed in place of the existing optical drive if desired.
2) The iMac can do the same thing, but instead of the optical drive being replaced, the internal card reader is replaced instead, so instead of being able to run 2 drives, one 3.5" and one 2.5" drive, you can run one 3.5" and two 2.5" drives.
3) Express card esata doesn't tend to work well with optical drives, so fw800 is the preferred connection to an external blu-ray player, for example. It's slower, but plenty fast for the burners apparently.
4) OWC's two different SSD's basically are the same, but the Raid version has more space allotted for bad sectors to be stored as they go bad, so essentially that's why they last longer and maintain the same speeds longer than the regular ones they offer. It's 4 times that of the regular ones...
5) In regards to using the SSD as a scratch disk or any use for that matter, OWC says it's totally fine, but the main reason people don't is because of cost.
6) Apparently if you've seen Raid drives that can read at 250mb/sec, the bottleneck isn't the drive but rather the expresscard esata card that will essentially cut that in half.
7) If you're looking to upgrade to an external blu-ray writer, Toast Titanium with the blu-ray plug is required on a mac to burn blue ray discs, because mac basically has no support for this natively. I'd imagine if you use Premiere or possibly final cut, they'd do it no problem...not sure, but not through iMovie.

All I can say is Stephen Lorence at OWC was amazing. After spending 1:30 hours on the chat with him, I got all my questions answered, and now my only concern is do a need to upgrade to the iMac or not? And, if not, should I get a SSD drive to replace my internal optical and run my apps and OSX only off of it, leaving my existing drive in place for my files, etc?? It would definitely be way cheaper, that's for sure.

I can't say enough how much I appreciate everyone's help on here...I couldn't have figured all this out with you. Many thanks!!

Chris

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

...and now my only concern is do a need to upgrade to the iMac or not? And, if not, should I get a SSD drive to replace my internal optical and run my apps and OSX only off of it, leaving my existing drive in place for my files, etc?? It would definitely be way cheaper, that's for sure.

The answer to this question depends solely on your satisfaction at the pace at which OS X boots and how fast the apps you use open. That's really the big benefit of the SSD: quicker boots & quicker application open times. If those delays via the HDD is not bothering you, save the money.

Personally, I'm glad I got the SSD option in the iMac i7, but I could easily argue if it was truly worth it from both points of view. It seemed fantastic relative to how long it took to boot up the old PowerMac G4 at first. But now that I'm used to it, the added load speed is taken for granted.

I really don't perceive it will make much of a difference at all for your video editing work.

 

[ravencr]

Good points for sure. Here's the first one I did using iMovie. I'm going to do multiple tests using x264 and H264 codecs to compare. The final video I'll merge together and do a 4 screen setup playing each clip simultaneously to see which looks the best, minimizes file size, and loads the fastest on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hGc9EMmbiQ

I'd love to hear how this loads on folks smart phones especially, both on 3g or 4g and wireless, because I know the iphones will default on hd on wireless versus low res on 3g, for example. I'm curious if they download and keep pace allowing you to continue to play it, or does it bottleneck and cause you to wait to hit play?

Chris

P.S. All the details of the clip is on YouTube's description.

 

[ravencr]

Here's the exact same video, but instead of using x264 I used H264. All other settings are the same. The resulting file size was about 2 mb smaller using H264 over x264, which is good. Interested to see what you all think on the quality, load times, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSqeoZiNGN0

Chris

 

[ravencr]

Stream times for me at 360p is as follows:

H264 3:21
x264 2:53

Going to test some more, but that in itself if repeatable is worth using the x264 codec instead of h264. Would anyone else mind testing this?

Chris

 

[ravencr]

The rest of the vids will be uploaded here: http://www.youtube.com/user/hmc40videos?feature=mhum

I've found this to be the best encoder and the one I'll be using from now on, both for Premiere and iMovie: http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/ It's the x264Encoder listed at the top of the page. For the best settings, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RVKfn7JW-c

Hope this helps...it sure has helped me save a ton of time, computer resources, money, rendering time, editing time, etc. I appreciate all the help,

Chris

It's not uploaded yet, but I've got a side by side comparison video between the x264Encoder and H264 rendering now and will soon be uploaded. You'll notice the difference right away.

 

[ravencr]

Here's the rest of the videos I uploaded yesterday testing ClipWrap and 1080/60p output from the TM700. I'm most interested to hear if you guys can tell which side is better of the side by side comparisons I did, because you'll be amazed at the file size difference.

But, I'm still perplexed with my stupid MBP...still jittery, yet even when I play these videos on my iphone they're silky smooth. Very weird and annoying...guess an upgrade is needed still.

http://www.youtube.com/user/hmc40videos?feature=mhum#p/p

Chris