Build Your Own HD Workstation
Everything Final Cut Pro users--from starving artists to small shops--need to edit uncompressed HD content
By Mike Curtis
High-definition video has been all the rage for the past few years. At first, for postproduction professionals, it was exciting that HD could be edited at all on desktop computers. It then became more affordable as compressed HD formats could be ingested over FireWire and didn't require huge (and costly) RAID arrays to handle the capacity and throughput requirements.
But if you're trying to make your project look its best, and you want the ability to see what you're doing on a high-quality monitor, more is required: a means to monitor that video signal and other input/output options. Also, some HD formats aren't ingestible over FireWire, especially the higher-end tape formats like HDCAM, D-5, and HDCAM SR. And if you're trying to do high-level work, these are the better formats to master on, regardless of what format you shoot on.
What's involved in putting together a complete uncompressed HD workstation? I've spent the last few years researching solutions for independent filmmakers and have focused on maximum quality for the dollar. My main interest has been 24p-capable solutions, but the information presented here will also apply to broadcast projects.
Because of my budget-sensitive, full-DIY post ethos, in this article I've chosen to center on Apple Final Cut Pro as a scalable, affordable, widely professionally accepted, high-quality solution. Although strong arguments can be made for Avid and Adobe Premiere Pro, as well as other NLE combinations, those are beyond the scope of this article. I'm going to stick to a Final Cut Pro-centric approach here, with some additional advice for the Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas edit station builder. (See
http://www.adobe.com/adobeopenhd/certified_solutions.html for Adobe's recommended preconfigured HD workstation partners; systems start around $12,000 without storage or monitors. In January, Adobe announced that the forthcoming version of its Production Studio software suite will be available for both Macintosh and Windows platforms, enabling video pros using Intel-based Macs to add Premiere Pro, Encore DVD, and Soundbooth to their toolset.)
Avid has long been the preferred platform of serious editors, but for the niche I focus on, Avid Xpress Pro can't handle uncompressed HD-and Media Composer Adrenaline with Avid DNxcel, although extremely powerful (mixing and matching different codecs and frame sizes on the same timeline in real time), is beyond the budget of many of my clients. If you have the budget for it, the substantial speed and power benefits can justify the cost-especially if you work in a high-throughput environment. This article, however, focuses on the needs of the small shop. (See
http://www.avid.com/products/nlefamily.asp for info on the Avid family of products.)
We'll walk through all the steps necessary to put together your own uncompressed HD system. But what level of gear, and for whom? This article assumes three broad categories of users:
Group 1: Just enough to get by. You can accept some risks and hassles-the classic starving indie category.
Group 2: You need something competent-and want greater workflow comforts-but you're still budget-sensitive.
Group 3: The fully professional, well-equipped individual's solution, also suitable for a small studio or small facility setup.
Let's start with the core of your setup, the box.
Workstations
For high-end, serious HD work (on Macs), only the Mac Pro towers should be considered. Although you can capture and edit HDV, XDCAM HD, DVCPRO HD, and other formats on laptops, iMacs, and even Mac minis, you can't add the necessary tools for the heavier-end work.
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An uncompressed HD workstation for those prepared to accept some risks and hassles-just enough to get by.
The currently available Mac Pro towers have two dual-core processors running at your choice of 2.0 GHz, 2.66 GHz, and 3.0 GHz. All three are technically capable of doing uncompressed HD work, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend them all for all users.
For Group 1, you'd think the least-expensive tower that meets the required specs would be the recommended route, right? Well, no-the 2.0 GHz box is about $2,200. For only $300 more, you jump from 2.0 GHz to 2.66 GHz-a 33 percent increase in processor speed for only 14 percent more cost. That's money well spent.
I also recommend the 2.66 GHz box for many users in Group 2 and Group 3. Here's why: The speed increase from 2.66 to 3.0 GHz is only about a 12 percent gain, but it costs you $800-nearly a third more. If you already had everything else you wanted and you felt the extra $800 was good insurance against obsolescence-and that money didn't seem significant in light of all the other money you were spending-then a 3.0 GHz box would make sense. In general, I don't see any serious performance thresholds where the 3.0 GHz box does something in real time that the 2.66 GHz box would not.
For Windows-based systems, I highly recommend a similar box-dual-core Xeon. HD entails up to nearly six times as many pixels as SD video, so you need a lot of horsepower to get things done. I also recommend the PCIe bus over PCI-X; PCIe is faster and newer, and PCIe cards are often less expensive than their PCI-X brethren.
RAM
If you're in Group 1, then 2 GB is the dead minimum amount of RAM for working with HD material in Final Cut Pro. I recommend 4 GB or more for Group 2. Why 4 GB? Because Final Cut Pro reserves as much as 1.5 GB for its own libraries, caches, and so on, and only 2.5 GB is available for Final Cut Pro project data. Final Cut Pro (or any other app) can access only 4 GB RAM at most-it's a limitation of the current Mac OS.
Group 3 can take 5 to 8 GB RAM (or more), which allows the maximum amount of RAM to be available for Final Cut Pro and also provides more RAM for other applications running at the same time without paging out to virtual memory. By leaving room to run the OS and big Final Cut Pro projects while Shake, After Effects, DVD Studio Pro, Motion, and other RAM-hungry apps are running simultaneously, you can gain a big productivity boost.
For Windows users, 2.5 GB RAM for Group 1 and 4 GB for Groups 2 and 3 is the max you'll be able to address in the semi-near future with Vista (once Adobe supports the new OS). Note: Both Mac and Windows users can save some money buying RAM through a third party.
Graphics cards
Graphics cards are becoming more important as OpenGL acceleration makes substantial performance enhancements in Final Cut Pro (using FxPlug architecture) and Motion.
For Group 1, the stock Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB is within spec for all the currently shipping pro video apps from Apple. But if you can at all afford it, step up to Group 2's recommended ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512 MB. Not only can it drive two 30-inch monitors, but this card is also much faster. And it is only $250 more than the base card-a no-brainer.
Group 3 should stick with the ATI Radeon X1900 card; the $1,400 more-expensive Nvidia Quadro 4500 does not run faster for video applications.
For Windows users, Premiere Pro 2.0 takes advantage of OpenGL Acceleration to accelerate motion, opacity, color, and image distortion effects rendering, as well as previews. After Effects takes significant advantage of OpenGL. Buy accordingly-perhaps the Nvidia Quadro FX line of the 1100, 1500, and 4500 (if you're doing heavy 3D as well) would be the 1-2-3 options to look at.
Computer monitors
More and bigger is better. Ideally we'd all have twin 30-inch displays, with one on its side as a monster bin window, but that's not affordable for everyone.
In short, I like the Dell and Apple options. Apple's monitors tout a prettier presentation, but they're more costly and not as bright or vivid in my experience (I have 24-inch Dell monitors as well as 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays). Keep in mind, however, that Dell's support-especially consumer support-doesn't have the best reputation.
Buy what you can afford-and if at all possible, get two. But one big and wide monitor is better than two small ones; stretching the timeline across the bottom is great, whereas spanning across two monitors doesn't work well. If you've got budget left over, bump up in size-you'll appreciate it. I've never, ever, encountered someone who was disappointed with the money they spent on large monitors-they give you room to work.
Group 1 users should look at a Dell 24-inch ($749) monitor if they can swing it, and a second 20-inch ($300 to $400) monitor for bins and so on. A single 24-inch is better than a 20-inch and 17-inch combo. The secondary monitor doesn't have to be as good.
If you're in Group 2, consider pairs made by the same company: either an Apple 23-inch ($1,000) and a 20-inch ($700) if you can afford it (and you like the clean lines that match your Mac Pro tower), or Dell monitors at 24 inches and 20 inches.
For Group 3, if you've got the money, go with an Apple 30-inch ($2,000) and a 23-inch. Failing that, try the similar sizes by Dell (the 30-inch is $1,500). Your last option is twin 23s or 24s from your company of choice-less than this, and you're not in Group 3.
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A budget-sensitive HD editing setup that affords greater workflow comforts than the starving-indie group.
Storage
You really should have separate boot and data drive systems.
Let's look at boot drives first. In Group 1, if you had to, you could drop back from the system's stock 250 GB drive to a 160 GB unit and save $80. The smaller capacity is enough for the operating system and a full Final Cut Studio install with all the trimmings and some other apps. But $80 isn't much of a savings. For Group 2 (and probably most users in Group 3), the stock 250 GB is fine for boot drive usage.
However, if you're also using your NLE system as your primary personal machine (understandable for Group 1, frowned upon for Group 2, and never for Group 3), it doesn't take long for your iTunes and iPhoto libraries to mount up quickly, so be ready to bump up those drive sizes. A 500 GB unit isn't an unreasonable choice. I've got about 80 GB of music and about 40 GB of photos from the last few years. That's 120 GB of content that wants to live on my boot drive.
With data drives, there are a lot of categories to sort out. But first are the variables of your uncompressed HD projects. Is the frame size 720p, 1080i, or 1080p? Is the frame rate 24, 25, 30, or 60 fps? Frames versus fields-progressive or interlaced? Is your bit depth 8- or 10-bit? Is color sampling Y'CbCr 4:2:2 or RGB 4:4:4 (or Y'CbCr 4:4:4)?
All of these project specs have a dramatic impact on the data rate of the video stream and thus the amount and speed of the storage system you'll require. You must be careful to qualify your answers. Even asking, "What's the data rate for uncompressed 24p HD?" can give an answer anywhere from 42 Mbps (8-bit 4:2:2 720p) to 190 Mbps (10-bit 4:4:4 1080p). Here's the short answer: for 10-bit broadcast work, you need a system capable of sustaining 200 Mbps across the entirety of the array. What do I mean by entirety? Drives are fastest when empty-when they are writing to the faster-moving outer tracks of the disk. As the disk fills up and the drive writes to the slower inner tracks, the transfer rate drops. So the minimum sustainable transfer rate is actually the salient detail on drive throughput.
With data rates in this range, how are we to record them? No single drive can do 200 Mbps. We need a RAID-a redundant array of independent disks. RAIDs are defined by levels, and there are two categories to care about here.
The first category is fast and cheap, but risky: RAID-0, using inexpensive native Serial ATA (SATA) drives and cards. The risk with RAID-0 is that if one drive fails, you lose all the data in the array, irrevocably. My coping strategy is this: I keep all user-generated data (Final Cut Pro projects and Photoshop, Illustrator, etc., documents) on a non-RAID volume that is regularly backed up. The only thing that goes on the RAID is footage from tape-so a backup exists on tape and can be recaptured in batch. But RAIDs are fast-my 10-drive RAID-0 delivers more than 350 Mbps sustained at all times. I've yet to have a data-losing failure, and I've been using 4- to 10-drive SATA RAID-0 systems for 2 to 3 years now in increasing numbers (I think I have four or five of these systems in the studio at the moment).
Uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) and journalled formatting (in which the disk keeps a log of its write transactions) are strongly encouraged. The second RAID category costs more and trades speed for safety. Fibre Channel-connected RAID arrays of external enclosures offer fault-tolerant performance: if one drive goes down, no data is lost, and the array can repair itself over time. These systems use RAID levels 3, 5, 30, or 50, and they are substantially pricier. Apple's Xserve RAID is good for about 220 Mbps. You pay substantially more per gigabyte for that security.
So, given all of this, what RAID configurations do our user groups want? If you're in Group 1, RAID-0 is all you can afford, baby, and be happy with it. Mac users should consider the Sonnet Tempo E4P card (see
http://www.sonnettech.com). There are other options, but I feel this is the way to go. The card supports a feature called port multiplying, which, when matched with an enclosure that has this feature, allows as many as 5 drives to be connected via a single SATA cable-so as many as 20 drives can be connected to a single card. Port multiplying enclosures from Sonnet, such as the Fusion 500, are a good match; I also like the port multiplying enclosures from MacGurus (
http://www.macgurus.com).
You can do uncompressed HD work with as little as 4 drives in a RAID-0 array, if and only if the array is properly set up and partitioned such that you know at what point the array isn't fast enough for the work you want to do-and you limit your HD captures to the faster partition. I've written extensively on my blog about this; you can research it further at
http://www.hdforindies.com. However, a 4-drive RAID might not work for you, so be careful. I like the 5-drive, port-multiplying SATA enclosures for Group 1. If you're in Group 2 and you get an 8- or 10-drive SATA array, you don't have to worry about that partitioning nonsense anymore. Worried about the cost? Hard drives get more expensive per gigabyte as they get bigger-so spend more on enclosure(s), but get a larger number of smaller drives for higher speed. Remember, it is all about ensuring adequate performance. Beyond that, it doesn't render or play back any faster.
If you can, step up to a smaller fault-tolerant RAID solution, like the G-Speed from G-Tech (
http://www.g-technology.com). Starting at $4,000 for a 1.5 TB solution (plus about $900 for an Atto 4 Gb Fibre Channel card), this array gives you high speed and the confidence that if a drive fails, your data still is recoverable.
For Group 3, let's assume you need a fault-tolerant solution. Here, the G-Tech G-Speed arrays again are worth considering, as are those from Huge/Ciprico (
http://www.ciprico.com) and Apple's own Xserve RAID (Reviews, Feb. '07 DV), although you have to get the $13,000 model to get uncompressed HD speed. Don't forget the $500 to $1,000 Fibre Channel interface cards for all of these as well.
All this advice applies to Windows users, too, but you have more options. Be sure to check out 3ware's and especially Ciprico's RAIDCore line of cards, including fault-tolerant options that unfortunately are not available on Macs.
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The full professional, well-equipped HD editor's solution, also suitable for a small studio or facility.
HD-SDI I/O cards
HD-SDI I/O cards are really the heart of your system-they're how you get the audio and video in and out, monitor it on various devices, control video decks, and so on.
Although you have many choices, for uncompressed HD editing I feel there are really only two companies to consider: AJA (
http://www.aja.com) and Blackmagic Design (
http://www.blackmagic-design.com). AJA designs its products for the professional broadcast market, and Blackmagic Design focuses on the creative/artist/filmmaker market. The companies offer very similar products. For Windows systems, AJA markets cards under the Xena brand for Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas users; Blackmagic Design's cards are cross-platform and certified for use with Premiere Pro and Vegas as well. Both vendors' cards work with Adobe After Effects and Photoshop on Mac and PC platforms for video preview, as well as with Autodesk Combustion on the Windows platform.
Digital Voodoo and Bluefish 444 make a line of cards that have very similar specifications, but at several times the price of the AJA and Blackmagic cards. I presume they work as advertised; they probably have their users, but I never come across these cards or hear them mentioned in the realm in which I work. Matrox has an innovative new MXO box (Reviews, Jan. '07 DV), but it has several limitations, including 8-bit-only output and no inputs. The MXO is great for hooking up to non-tower Macs and for moving around quickly and easily when occasional HD output is needed-and it's the answer for high-quality HD-SDI output of onscreen activities. But I don't recommend it for dedicated HD editing. (At the same price as a Blackmagic DeckLink HD Extreme, why get a less capable device?)
So if you're in Group 1, and you just want to see the picture on an HDTV, use the $250 Blackmagic Intensity card for monitoring, connected via HDMI to the HDTV. There's no HD-SDI I/O or analog component output. It's really just a monitoring card-HDMI in/out only. If you need low-cost HD-SDI in/out and component analog monitoring (and you do for any real color correction), then get the Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme card (about $1,000 list). The AJA Kona LHe does pretty much the exact same stuff, but it's $1,800 list.
For Group 2, the Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme or AJA Kona LHe are good solutions that will handle any HD format (except HDCAM SR in 4:4:4 mode). Blackmagic Design's $1,600 Multibridge Pro is also worth considering-instead of all the brains residing on a card, they're in the external breakout box that is connected via a cheap stub card (which you can buy more of for other computers). The box also can function as a standalone converter-it down-converts and cross-converts-and it has HDMI monitoring as well as HD-SDI and component analog ins and outs. If you need 4:4:4 capabilities, the Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Pro PCIe is only $1,200.
Group 3 users need as many capabilities as possible. Look at the top-end solutions, which also handle 2K as well as HD. The AJA Kona3 and Blackmagic Design Multibridge Extreme are very similar, but both have their pros and cons. The Kona3's advantages are that 2K (by 1080 or by 1556) can be cropped or scaled to display on the video outputs (HD-SDI and component analog HD outputs) and it also does SD to HD up-conversion. The Multibridge Extreme now can monitor 2K cropped to 1920x1080, offering DVI output as well (great for pixel-for-pixel preview on 23-inch or 24-inch LCDs for 1080p, and even full-film 2K by 1556 on 30-inch LCDs). Unlike Kona3, it also can function as a standalone down- and cross-converter box (sporting analog as well as digital inputs).
Windows users can simply insert Xena for Kona into these recommendations; recall that Blackmagic Design's cards are cross-platform.
Video Monitors
You need to see what you're doing-and for a variety of reasons (incomplete decompression displayed, gamma, white point, interlaced versus progressive display), your computer screen is not a suitable and accurate representation of what your HD content will look like in final form on an HDTV.
Group 1 users: Consider Blackmagic Design Intensity and an HDMI HDTV monitor. You won't have accurate color correction, professional features, or calibration, but you will see the picture as a consumer would. Don't be surprised if the video appears light or dark, purple or green, or whatever else on somebody else's HDTV.
Group 2 users: I have a 19-inch JVC DTV-1910CG and love it. It handles every video format, including 1080p23.976-but this model isn't made anymore. The 17-inch version, the DTV-1710CG, is still out there but is hard to find as of this writing (fetching around $2,500 with the RGB/component board necessary to connect it for high-def viewing). Other than that, you're looking at Sony CRTs, such as the 14-inch BVMA14F5U, which is gallingly expensive-more than $7,000 with the component analog input board, or nearly $12,000 list with the HD-SDI input board. You should also look at the Sony Luma and Panasonic professional LCD high-def monitoring options, or, as a stretch, a Blackmagic HDLink attached to a 23-inch or 24-inch LCD computer monitor.
Group 3 users: the Sony BVMA14F5U is worth considering for your critical color work, or the larger 20-inch model, which lists for about $14,500 with the analog board. (Or you can drop more than $45,000 for the 32-inch!) At these prices, the professional video LCD panels from Sony and Panasonic, as well as the higher-end eCinema Systems and Cine-tal LCD panels, are worth a serious look. Consensus amongst colorists and engineers I've spoken to is that LCDs have elevated black levels and poor shadow detail. Nevertheless, professional LCD panels are worth considering, because they feature razor-sharp and consistent color that CRTs don't match for the money.
In the luxury category, I also use a 23-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD connected to either a Blackmagic Design HDLink ($450) attached to any HD-SDI output card. Alternatively, I hook that LCD up to my Blackmagic Design Multibridge Extreme: it gives a pixel-for-pixel preview of the HD signal, sharp as can be. It doesn't handle interlace or 24p ideally, but I use it in conjunction with my broadcast CRT-the CRT for accurate color, the LCD for accurate detail work.
Windows folks, this information is all on the video side of the fence, so it exactly applies to you as well.
Summary and final recommendations
Getting the right gear involves lots of decisions. I often spend an hour or two reviewing filmmakers' or producers' needs before we arrive at a system recommendation. Every shop and every project has its own peculiarities, so don't take this list as gospel. It might be worth (ahem) consulting with someone whose advice you trust to fine-tune your needs, budgets, expectations, technical comfort level, and other factors. Myriad little extras and doodads make the system complete, but those are beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say you'll spend a bit more than the following tallies by the time you're done.
Given all this, here are my general system recommendations. Bump up as you can.
Group 1: Mac Pro 2.66 GHz tower, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB boot drive minimum; Final Cut Studio software; Nvidia GeForce 7300 graphics card; MacGurus 1.25 TB, five-bay SATA RAID (port-multiplying, or PM, enclosure) with Sonnet E4P host adapter; Dell 24- and 20-inch monitors; Blackmagic Design Intensity card; and $1,000 HDMI-equipped HDTV. Total: about $7,600. Increase storage for longer-form projects as needed. Bumping up to Blackmagic Design HD Extreme and a JVC HDTV adds about $2,500. Getting Blackmagic Design's 4:4:4-capable Pro card (which lacks HDMI) adds $200.
Group 2: Mac Pro 2.66 GHz tower, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB boot drive, 500 GB data drive, with Bluetooth/AirPort capabilities and AppleCare protection plan; Final Cut Studio software; ATI X1900 graphics card; Apple 23- and 20-inch monitors; two MacGurus 1 TB PM enclosure, four-bay SATA RAIDs with Sonnet E4P host adapter; Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme; and JVC TV-1710CG with component/RGB card. Total: about $12,000. Switch to twin 23-inch monitors: add $300. Increase storage for longer-form projects as needed. Bump up to two 5-drive RAIDs, for 4 TB total storage: add $1,200. Switch to a fault-tolerant G-Tech G-Speed 1.5 TB RAID with an Atto 4 Gb Fibre Channel card: add about $3,000. Bump up to a 4:4:4-capable Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Pro PCIe: add $200. Bump up to an AJA Kona LHe: add $800.
Group 3: Mac Pro 2.66 GHz tower, 5+ GB RAM, 250 GB boot drive, 500 GB data drive, with wireless cards and AppleCare protection plan; Final Cut Studio software; ATI X1900 graphics card; Apple 30- and 23-inch LCD monitors; G-Tech G-Speed 3 TB RAID; AJA Kona3 I/O with K3-box (breakout box); and Sony 14-inch 16:9 HD CRT with analog board. Total: about $25,500. Bump up to 3.0 GHz tower (makes sense at this price point): add $800. Increase storage for longer-form projects as needed. Bump up to Apple Xserve 7 TB RAID: add about $7,000. Switch to Blackmagic Design Multibridge Extreme I/O: save $400. Bump up to 20-inch Sony CRT: add about $7,500.
Bonus round: the hybrid, best bang for the buck, indie filmmaker build. Mac Pro 2.66 GHz tower, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB boot drive, with AppleCare protection plan; Final Cut Studio software; ATI X1900 graphics card; Dell 24- and 20-inch LCD monitors; two MacGurus five-bay 2 TB RAIDs with Sonnet E4P host adapter; Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Pro 4:4:4 PCIe; and JVC 1710CG. Total: about $14,000. With some additional software, you could edit and finish a 10-bit 4:4:4 feature with this system if you wanted to.
I hope this information helps you get started. Remember to check all the details before you buy-this stuff changes rapidly.
A special thanks to Curtis Harris of Promax for his assistance with the Windows details in this article. Promax sells turnkey Mac and PC solutions, and I'd recommend Promax's solutions and advice as well.
