Mac Pro technical queries regarding professional HD video DSLR editing.

[anthroposii]

I have a Macbook pro, late 2010 model and I've been having trouble editing DSLR video from my Canon 60D.

I use the Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and during playback on the program monitor, the images don't play smoothly, it stutters, it plays fine for a second or two but after that it stutters, like strobe images then completely stops playing while everything else in the timeline plays normally.

Now I've come to understand that Macbook pro is obviously not the best machine when it comes to editing HD DSLR footage for a professional action flick using Action Essentials. So I've decided to upgrade to Mac Pro.

But I just have worries that whether it will be super fast, super smooth for editing, and the footage will play effortlessly without any glitch. If so, will it be worht the price and worth buying the present model OR is there an ungraded model coming out soon.

Since it's real expensive and I'm just starting out as a professional film editor, I need to make sure I buy something that I can invest in and that is long lasting.

So, all you guys please kindly help me answer my queries and convince me that Mac Pro is the one to go.

Thanks.

 

[handsome pete]

It's not only your machine. It's that you're editing h.264 video.

Despite what anyone says, it's true purpose is to be a delivery codec. It's not a good format to edit with.

 

[wonderspark]

I'm editing another feature-length movie shot on DSLR (5DMkII, 7D and D7000) with my Mac Pro. It's a 2009 that I upgraded to 2010 firmware and 6-core chip, 32GB of 1333MHz RAM, 5870 GPU and a fast RAID of eight disks via an Areca 1880ix-12. Before I upgraded the CPU, RAM and RAID, I was getting by ok, but occasionally there was some trouble with playback. Nothing seems to slow it down any longer.

Fortunately, the poor playback won't show up in final render, although it makes it difficult to work with. I understand your frustration. I would say either build a PC for a lot less money that will be faster than what Apple offers today, or buy the refurbished 2009 on the Apple Store, then upgrade it for a better deal.

That refurb is $2039.
Hex 3.33GHz CPU is $591 from Provantage (just went up from $585, weird.)
32GB of RAM can be had from OWC and such for less than $450.
You can software RAID 0 three drives internally without any RAID card, and get ~330MB/sec sustained disk read/write speeds. That's how I got by before dropping some money into a proper RAID. Just be good about backing up everything every night! Disks vary in price these days, to say the least.

That will put you at about $3100 plus three disks for a system that can handle DSLR footage smoothly. I use Adobe CS5 myself... mostly Premiere and After Effects, and it works great. I have two monitors, too. A 30" ACD and a Dell. When it comes to color correction, the ACD is ok, but I'm too cheap to buy a better monitor for now, so I burn a copy to Blu-ray (got an internal LG BD-R burner in the lower slot) and throw it on the big screen in the living room to see if it needs tweaking. So far, it has looked the same as the ACD, so I'm pretty happy with that.

Consider that you can build a PC for a lot less, and still use CS5. All the files work on either platform. I'm stuck with my Mac Pro since I built it before CS5 came out, and was loving it with CS3. I decided it was worth it to extend the life with a new bunch of upgrades, but you're free to build from scratch. Consider all options!

 

[ashman70]

How do you fit eight drives into a Mac Pro? I guess you have no optical drives then, that might be how I guess.

 

[wonderspark]

How do you fit eight drives into a Mac Pro? I guess you have no optical drives then, that might be how I guess.

They're in a separate box next to the Mac Pro, a Sans Digital TR8X connected to the Areca RAID card in the Mac Pro via two mini-SAS cables.