EDIUS on a Mac Pro

[Paranova Films]

NHX working here in a MACPRO with bootcamp and EDIUS 6.02 with no hardware problems

[GrassValley_SW]

Jose

We're currently looking into creating some supporting material explaining how to use EDIUS on a Mac, as it seems an opportune time to do so. There seems to be two ways of doing this - squashing the Mac OS and putting Windows 7 on it, or using BootCamp. The former is the most reliable, because a Mac essentially IS a PC nowadays, but somehow I just don't see hardened Mac users doing this. Educational institutions, perhaps, but it would mean they lose any investment they have in Mac software.

BootCamp overcomes this, but I've heard that it's not terribly practical - that it takes up to 10 minutes to switch between Operating Systems and security-wise there's no way of backing up your assets when in 'Windows' mode. Or maybe this is not correct?

I would be very interested to hear about your (or anyone else's) experiences with BootCamp.

Steve

[GrassValley_SL]

I am using EDIUS with bootcamp since 2008. Mac Os and Windows 64.

10 minutes you switch from Mac OS to windows?
That is awfully slow.

Backup in windows is as any other PC. No magic involved :)

[Paranova Films]

hey Steve, as Steve said (i thing this sound a kind of wierd: steve\steve)

10 minutes you switch from Mac OS to windows?
That is awfully slow.

IMHO: switching apps takes not so longer, i would say 2 mins in a very slow day using bootcamp, MAC OS is very fast to load and the stability is awesome

There seems to be two ways of doing this - squashing the Mac OS and putting Windows 7 on it, or using BootCamp.

here, all our software is legal (as should be everyplace) and i'm considering to get Parallel to switch to "windows mode" in MAC mode without restarting the machine. i'm now making my search to know if would be better or worst

there's no way of backing up your assets when in 'Windows' mode. Or maybe this is not correct?

Steve

Backup in windows is as any other PC. No magic involved :)

my boss get a LaCIE RAID Storage drive formated in MAC, using MACDRIVE you can read and write in any disk mac formatted, in MAC you can only read disk WINDOWS formatted, the only disk i can not acces in MAC is the RAID installed and formatted in Windows.

We're currently looking into creating some supporting material explaining how to use EDIUS on a Mac, as it seems an opportune time to do so.

that sounds excelent!!

it would mean they lose any investment they have in Mac software.

That's right, in MAC i have Adobe CS5 installed, Final Cur Pro (FULL) using a BLACKMAGIC card and Corel Draw... i got to say that i am not a full MAC world editor, because here (Paranova Films) we are 5 Editors guys using EDIUS and sharing projects by Network... making my projects in FCP or CS5 would make to me "the diffrent guy" jeje


if i can put 2 more cents let me know!

Cheers

[GrassValley_SL]

I would not advice to run EDIUS under parallels. It is not usable. :)

[Red Union Films]

Agree with Steve, Parallels is not a good idea and things will not be the same running in an emulation environment. The best way is to just leave OSX as it is, and to use a separate boot drive and just install Win7 straight, without bootcamp.

Anyone spending all that money on a MacPro and all the software including Win7 and Edius, should not have any problem spending a fraction extra on another drive. This way takes about a minute to change OS's without bootcamp and partitioning your main boot drive.

Anyone serious about spending many thousands and taking post production seriously, would not find this method anything but the best way to take advantage of the best of both worlds.

Cheers.

Dave.

[tdtinker]

Looks like we got into a Mac discussion, my original question concerns Edius running in a PC and NX card driver.
Thanks tdtinker

[Red Union Films]

Looks like we got into a Mac discussion, my original question concerns Edius running in a PC and NX card driver.
Thanks tdtinker

That works too :)

[Paranova Films]

Looks like we got into a Mac discussion, my original question concerns Edius running in a PC and NX card driver.
Thanks tdtinker

ok, sorry if i missunderstand, but i confirm: my MACPRO has 2 editing cards

NHX (with the expantion composite output card)
Blackmagix 3d xtreme

hardware and drivers working fine in Windows 7 64 bit with Edius 6.03... in MAC only Blackmagic (of course)

and Dave: that sounds even better, the thing is that i (jose luis) am the "editor guy" and we have Mr Hernando the "computer magment guy" and he is the ona who takes the machine and setup to get the best performance, as he thing that would be, because this particular machine is (as i said) fully and totally Legal we have support, and (if i rmember) Apple supports strongly reccomend using bootcamp the get the best performance in windows for the MAC hardware... i''m just curios to know there could be a better way... i;m gonna talk to Mr Hernando and see if we can set this machine with another drive.

Cheers

[Red Union Films]

Hi José.

Don't worry about installing Win7 and Edius on a separate drive. It does not in any way invalidate your Mac warranty. Believe me, although bootcamp is a good option, using Win7 raw on a separate boot drive is more stable. Where ever possible you should avoid partitions and sharing different OS's on the same drive. You can still share data completely between NTFS FAT etc. and the Mac Journaled etc. by installing MacDrive or similar on the Win7 disc and the Mac OSX is ok for seeing the Win7 drives anyway.

When you boot the machine you simply hold the ALT key, and the Mac will give you the option for booting between the Win7 and OSX discs. This is how I work with one of my clients at their studio. When I finish an Edius edit, I do my HQ and HQX masters as normal, but also do XDCAM-EX for sharing masters with FCP on the same system without the QT gamma issue. I use CS5.5 under OSX for preparing stills etc. then simply save the files to one of the internal media drives, re-boot into Win7/edius and use the files in Edius. No losing any software or investment in the Mac it's OS and software, but give it the ability and flexibility of using the best NLE on a Mac. There are even ways of sharing raided data if you need to, and sharing network data. All in all, the most flexible computer setup for A/V post production.

This is not a Mac V PC thing. It's quite simply a case of using one of the most powerful personal computers you can buy, a Mac Pro. Then simply use the OS that allows you to use the application software you need for your production work. It may not be what Apple intended, but this really is the most flexible computer you can use for serious post work. It's all about using the best tools to get the job done. Being able to use one powerful computer for your workflow, edit in Edius, colour in DaVinci, use CS5 for whatever, has to be a complete no brainer.

Maybe ask your tech guy to take a look into the dual boot drive setup.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Dave.

[Paranova Films]

Thanks, i'm gonna search and see if it would be possible, and i agree: Being able to use one powerful computer for workflow, make that working in edius be a fresh walk in the woods...

i'm curious about the ways of sharing raided data

[GrassValley_PS]

I can confirm Steve and Dave's findings. Running Edius via Bootcamp is very smooth and only takes a short time to boot up. Really no longer than a regular machine. As a Mac boots up faster than a PC in normal conditions some people used to Macs might think it is too long.

I tried running under Parallels and was not happy with it. We also have Mac Drive.

[Paranova Films]

so... parallel would give us the chance of having Windows without restarting but we would have no...?

[Red Union Films]

Hi José.

Seriously, don't bother with Parallels. Anything running under emulation will only cause a lot of problems. Plus Edius and all of it's components will not run properly. Even if you feel you should try it to make up your own mind, you will only regret doing so and loose time better spent on editing. The advice of those telling you not to bother, is through experience. Just stick with either bootcamp or a native Win7 install, either one will work, as you already know.

Cheers.

Dave.

[Paranova Films]

ok Again Thanks Steve, Steve, Dave and everybody...




and here we are: Mr Hernando (our tech guy) and me, and we agree to not even test parallell.

about using bootcamp or diffrent bootable drives we found this:

this MACPRO has space for 4 physical disks,

we have 1 for generic data like libraries, driver installers, audios, graphics or other common files we need in Windows and/or MAC; 1 partitioned from MAC and bootcamp and it has the OS (Win7 64 bit and MAC and 2 drives form a RAID un Windows (as a single drive of course) so, in this moment, we do not see the choice of having another drive for booting OS.

The only thing we doubt is to form a RAID that we can use in the two OS.

BTW: this system (EDIUS in a MacPro) is the most stable of all we have here