Edius NX Express on Mac Pro 8 Core

[Geoff]

Hi Stormdave,

Just a couple of questions:

Are you getting real time performance with Xplode for Edius transitions in HDV and what Xplode render driver are you using?

Do you know if Edius NX will run alongside a Black Magic Intensity Pro card?

I know, I suppose that's three questions, but what the heck!

Thanks in advance,

Geoff

[STORMDAVE]

Hi Geoff

Are you getting real time performance with Xplode for Edius transitions in HDV and what Xplode render driver are you using?

I am getting realtime Xplode 4.5 for SD, but have not tried HDV, but I will for you. I am using the Xplode nVidia/ATI installer that I made. I am afraid that once the new Mac Pro's come, the graphics card is going to go to nVidia 8800 series (probably) or the newer 2900XT from ATI, so you gotta say bye bye to Xplode Pro in RT...

Do you know if Edius NX will run alongside a Black Magic Intensity Pro card?

I have no clue, but I don't see why not? Just remember that if you put in a 3rd PCIe card, you will run out of PCIe slots, so you can't put in any SATA cards in there etc. I wish the NX was just 1 card, but oh well...

Hope this helps :)

By the way, make sure you do not use the wireless keyboard with the Mac Pro. It is a pain to use it under Windows (You have to reconnect everytime). Use the USB keyboard and dump the mighty mouse. Hope Bootcamp final in Leopard fixes this.

If you're seriously thinking of going with the Mac Pro, I have a feeling that Apple is going to refresh their whole line and stock will be 8 Cores so money to save in the future! Wait until October to see what apple is doing about the Mac Pro line, which hasn't been updated in ages. Or get a Refurbished one, they're usually good from what I've been researching on. An update might come at the same time as Leopard or maybe a bit later.

[Geoff]

Thanks, Stormdave.

I bought a MacPro with an ATI1900 card, 3 x 500GB SAT in RAID 0 and 3GB RAM earlier this year so Iguess that I'm stuck with it for a while. As I mentioned earlier, I'm finding that Edius is normaly much faster than FCP, but perhaps more RAM might help here.

Geoff

[STORMDAVE]

Hi Geoff, you're totally fine with 3GB. Either way, under Bootcamp, Windows only sees 1.98GB for now. Apple needs to fix this. They probably need to update the firmware because this has to do with the BIOS emulation.

Do you have the Quad Core?

I use FCP, and of course Edius has more RT...but I don't like comparing these 2.

[Geoff]

Hi Stormdave,

No, my system is just 2 x 2.66GHz dual cores. Do you think that FCP render times would benefit from more memory? My present way of thinking is that I'll do the major editing in Edius and use the FCS suite for the bits that Edius cannot handle. ProRes seems to be quite time consuming in rendering.

Geoff

[STORMDAVE]

Hi Geoff, you have the Quad Core then :) 2x Dual Cores = Quad Core.

I am not sure you will benefit much, unless you run more than 1 application at the same time. FCP uses all cores.

[Geoff]

Hi Stormdave,

I've just got the Edius NX Express cards for fitting in the MacPro, but notice that the HD card requires an additional DC power connection. Did you fit this card and if so how did you get that additional power to it, was from the square 4 pin connectors on the motherboard and if so where did you get the dc cable from?

Hope you can help!

Cheers,
Geoff

[STORMDAVE]

You don't need to connect that power plug on the component card. It's only if you want to feed power to FireWire devices onboard the component card. It is a 6pin port.

Just use the front Mac FireWire port for DV and HDV capture and you'll be fine. Or just the 4pin port on the NX board so you can have video out if you want.

[Geoff]

Thanks, Stormdave. That's a relief!

Cheers,

Geoff

[STORMDAVE]

No problem!

Let me know how the NX is working for you :)

Here's a small app for ya to backup your bootcamp partition after getting everything working:

http://www.twocanoes.com/winclone/

[Toms]

StormDave,
Are you using the 8core macpro with FCP2? I wondered how the prores codec is.

[STORMDAVE]

Yes I have FCS2. ProRes is nice, similar to Canopus HQ. I can't do any scientific tests though. I still use Animation codec @ 100% (Lossless) for archiving because I want to keep the highest quality possible for back up.

[Geoff]

Hi Stormdave,

The NX Express cards are installed and seem to be working fine although I haven't had time to carry out any major tests or edits yet. I have fitted the HD expansion card next to the ATI X1900 graphics card, the main NX card next to that and the BM Intensity Pro card in the third slot.

Thanks for the link to the backup software, I'll download it shortly.

Have a good weekend,

Geoff

[STORMDAVE]

Sorry to up this thread, but here's a great article for anyone thinking about this:

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/wilson_tim/win-mac.php

By the way, once Vista 64bit drivers come for the NX, I'll be installing that and now Windows shall see all my RAM :D

[adspencer]

Geoff, did you ever install the Intensity Pro card in your Mac Pro for use with EDIUS. Does it work?