Mac Pro Vs PC

[Qframe]

Hi,

referring to a previous thread about fitting the NX into the Mac Pro… from a work flow point of view for full time professional users (broadcast industry) is this a reliable option?

I am thinking of moving to FCP as I’ve found Edius just does not have the quality I need for Broadcast (too many keying error, noise, no High-end tools and many other small problems that are costing us too much time and money). But we still have thousands, yes thousands of jobs that were built in Edius so the transition would be gradual. To be able to have the “best of both” worlds for a year or two would be a big advantage, but I need to know if it’s going to work. I don’t want the 20% downtime (with 4.51 45%) we currently get with our three PC Edius systems.

I’m also concerned about the “slower rendering time” of FCP that was mentioned. And why do people refuse to compare Edius with FCP?

And advice would be much appreciated.

[STORMDAVE]

Just to let you know, you're on your own if you install the NX on a Mac Pro...that is, if you have issues and call GV support, they might not be able to help you out.

As far as reliability, it's working great for me for the past few months. This machine is rock solid...as usual from Apple products.

As far as comparing Edius to Final Cut....FCP has more features (Professional wise) but Edius is much more realtime. Just try them both and be your own judge. You can try FCP at an Apple Store.

[Qframe]

Thanks STORMDAVE,

Yes I know… but I can’t continue with Edius it’s killing my business and I’m getting desperate for a better solution… sorry to sound morbid but I can’t keep staff as they are refusing to use Edius.

As we produce TV commercials and are on tight deadlines we need our systems to JUST WORK! and quickly. We have to use too many “third party” applications to do simple things… and then get them back into Edius... just to zoom up a logo with a key channel… Edius can’t do it properly. Also most of our earlier jobs will not load into the newer versions of Edius… HOW RIDICULOUS!

It’s a dam shame but I have no choice! … sorry if I sound angry but desperate is more the case.

[STORMDAVE]

I've loaded a 3.x Edius project in Edius 4.5 without issues.

But if your company doesn't want to use Edius and knows for sure that FCP is for them, then give it a go. Do you guys have a local shop there that handles FCP systems? Tell them that you're going to invest alot of money and they should give you a good demo.

Nowadays Apple's "Mac Pro" line is very much the same as a PC, except it doesn't have a BIOS...and it's a much more "closed" system than any PC. It just works, and I have no regrets when I bought my Mac Pro. I mostly bought it for motion graphics, but I do alot of editing both in FCP and Edius (Mostly events and an unfinished documentary that I am working on right now in Edius). A similar specced PC (Check my signature) would cost me the same if I built it...so I opted for the Mac Pro. It's a very stable machine, nonetheless. Under Windows (via Bootcamp) I can't guarantee anything since it's still beta.

[Qframe]

Thanks Dave,

I will do as you say... give it a go.

If Edius improves down the track we may swing back... who knows.

But for now I will give FCP a try on one machine and see if it improves things for us.

ps. the problems with old projects in 4.51 happen if you used Eduis Quick Titler with included GFX, Imaginate, Title Motion Pro or VST plug-ins. All of our projects use these.

[STORMDAVE]

Welcome :)

I hear there is an Imaginate fix coming in the first week of October, so don't get your hopes down. What happens with the QuickTitler files? TMPro etc work ok for me...but I have not went beyond 3.x projects, so I can't comment. As far as VST, it still uses the same bridge (troublesome one that is) so VST should be ok as well?

Post some info on the projects and what errors you have and we might be able to help you out.

[Qframe]

Dave,

We upgraded from 4.2 to 4.5… I think this is one of the problems.

I did post a few of the errors back when 4.5 was released and there was no obvious conclusions. There was heaps of people saying the same thing.

I did find a few work-arounds but they are very unreliable and time consuming.

The most problematic is if you had any external graphics in the old QT file it crashes 4.5 when you move the timeline marker. I now open the projects and immediately turn off “Thumb Nail View” for the bins and timeline and this stops it crashing strait away, but you have to basically delete all QT files and re-build them to stop the crashing.

[Qframe]

Sorry I should explain that by QT I mean Quick Titler.

[pjsssss]

As Dave said, Hang tight as a fix should be out in just over a week.

[Romigo]

Thanks STORMDAVE,

As we produce TV commercials and are on tight deadlines we need our systems to JUST WORK! and quickly. We have to use too many “third party” applications to do simple things… desperate is more the case.

I work with Edius since version 1.0 and in many aspects Edius is very unskilful and awkward. Solving bugs that should be solved in the begining costs us a lot of time and money.

Relising 4.5 with so many bugs is very unprofessional from my pount of view.

[Geoff]

I've been running a MacPro with both FCP and Edius (under Bootcamp) for some months now. The only crashes that I've experienced have been with FCP, Edius has been solid. FCP is more sophisticated and, in my opinion, far more time consuming with long render and conform times. The choice of system will of course be influenced by the type of work that you do, but why not get a MacPro and run both software.

Geoff

[STORMDAVE]

I recommend that people not buy the Mac Pro right now...if they really need it right now, just get a Refurbished one (which are as good as "new") and get AppleCare (Get it from ebay > Cheap). The refurbs sometimes even have extra stuff in there, such as a bigger hard drive or more RAM.

Or you can wait a month or two (maybe a bit more). The Mac Pro line has not been updated for over a year, and since Apple uses Intel CPU's now, the new 45nm 1600Mhz FSB Penryn processors are about to come out, and Apple is going to have to upgrade the Mac Pro line.

[Qframe]

Yes Dave I agree.

The more research I do the more I can see that running both systems (FCP and Edius) would be great (it would possibly sold my problems).

I was told by one of the Mac shops in Australia that there is a package out for the Mac that allows you run Mac OS and WinXP together at the same time and you can drag files between the two I think it’s called “Parallels Desktop for Mac”.

Herd of it?

[STORMDAVE]

Yes but it is not the real thing. Its emulation. Bootcamp is the real thing.