Final Cut Studio 2

Wagsy,

I can confirm, tha elements of the FCS2 are using all 4 cores, mainly during rendering, compressing. I installed a small app which shows in the menu bar the cores and how they work.

So, do not hesitate, be a switcher

Jules

Do you mean using all 4 cores of 2xdual core or using all 8 cores of 2xquad core?

From my (all be it limited) understanding true 8 core processing will only arrive with Lepoard. But hey I'm just the mac newbie so I'm probably wrong!

Cheers, Simon

Jules

 

Do you mean using all 4 cores of 2xdual core or using all 8 cores of 2xquad core?

 

From my (all be it limited) understanding true 8 core processing will only arrive with Lepoard. But hey I'm just the mac newbie so I'm probably wrong!

 

Cheers, Simon

I have a 4*2,66 (aka 2xdual core), so not the octo mac. One of my friend has an octo, but - according to his opinion - the additional power is only about 1.5x, or less using the FCS apps, so, imho it is better to spend the extra money for more ram. I am also considering to buy an extre 6 gigs ram, to have 8 gigs, because the motion likes the ram very-very much. It can give more power and shorter worktime.

the additional power is only about 1.5x, or less using the FCS apps, so, imho it is better to spend the extra money for more ram

FWIW these tests indicate the 8 Core does have some advantages. I guess depending on the workflow the extra power may be worth it right now, probably more so when Leopard and revisions to the Studio come down

http://barefeats.com/octopro5.html

http://barefeats.com/octopro4.html

http://barefeats.com/octopro1.html

http://barefeats.com/octopro3.html

But you can never have enough RAM either. In addition to fantasys about certain dive trips, I have now added an Octo with 16 Gigs of RAM to the list

Jules

 

Do you mean using all 4 cores of 2xdual core or using all 8 cores of 2xquad core?

 

From my (all be it limited) understanding true 8 core processing will only arrive with Lepoard. But hey I'm just the mac newbie so I'm probably wrong!

 

Cheers, Simon

By the way Simon, congratulations to your winning film also! I hope we can see it soon.

Yes Simon, congratulations on your film. Also, i am excited to see what you will produce on your new system!

Drew, saw the same barefeats.com test. For multi-tasking and cluster rendering sounds like even 8 cores can be utilized. I think there is still a ways to go to really take advantage of those cores, something a 64bit OS should address.

Drew, saw the same barefeats.com test. For multi-tasking and cluster rendering sounds like even 8 cores can be utilized. I think there is still a ways to go to really take advantage of those cores, something a 64bit OS should address.

Will be nice if Leopard takes care of it. I am going to get the Octo, just trying to hold off as long as possible, but just the boosts in the barefeat tests at this time will make it worthwhile for me to make the jump even if the cores are not fully used yet and it is getting to the point where I could use the speed now. It is becoming more a need than a want at this time.

Have played a bit with the clustering on some of my machines (G5 and MacBook Pro) and I really like it so far.

Thanks guys

I'm having some problems uploading to my website at the moment - well it's not really at the moment as it's been going on for a couple of months! I really need to sort that out.

Hopefully I'll get it online in the next few days - if not they should (maybe?) post it on the competition site.

I can't wait to get my mac. I think it will be a fairly steep learning curve, so don't expect anything from me for a few months! I've had a G4 iBook for a couple of years now, but it still feels a bit 'alien' to me after using Windows all my life. Looks like I'm in at the deep end now though!

Cheers, Simon

I am eager to see it, you can upload to me:-)

Back to Motion: as I saw it, the smoothcam works "better" in Motion, since it analyze only the clip, not the whole sequence.

Simon

You can load it here if ya want.

FTP = www.pcwags.com

Usname = hdv@pcwags.com

Pasword = floppy

Link will be then

www.pcwags.com/HDV/simon.wmv etc

Ha ha just had a look at that directory on the server, seems some other people have bene loading up some other stuff....

Thanks for the upload offers - it's not actually the server that's been a problem though - just my software - I've been trying to update my site for months but something seriously has gone wrong it seems!

I managed to ftp the file up though, so it's online now - will start a new thread.

Cheers, Simon

Hey Wags..

Got any 'honeymoon night' clips on that site..Or is it on the other one...

Dive safe

DeanB

NO we have not but some guy had loaded up about 1 GIG of mp3 songs and other software/cracks to that FTP address

Of course we had to delete them all.

On the PC side of things with Vista I don't think there is any NLE software yet that will use all the cores with a Quad just yet.

Sony Vegas uses all four cores for rendering. I just bought a quad machine, Intel Q6600 processor. It's supposed to render something like 10 times faster than my current 3.0C machine. Will report more on the results after I've got around to actually turning it on.

One good way to make it easier to use the smooth cam feature in Final Cut is to export just the in and out points of the clip that you want 'steadied' as a self contained QT clip. Then import that and apply the smooth cam filter to it. This way you are not rendering the entire media file but just the part of it you want to use. It could save an hour or two of rendering time.

Steve B)

Yesterday upgrades for Studio 2 were released so you can go to your software upgrade or Apple sites to get them. Always repair permissions both before and after downloading anything.

If this has been discussed before..please forgive me.

But can you in anyway use FCP on a PC..As i am only interested in the software. Just tried a comparison spec for P.C and Mac and the Mac would be £2700 more for what I need than the P.C...

Dive safe

DeanB

If this has been discussed before..please forgive me.

 

But can you in anyway use FCP on a PC..As i am only interested in the software. Just tried a comparison spec for P.C and Mac and the Mac would be £2700 more for what I need than the P.C...

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

Dean

FCP only runs on a Mac (there was discussions that people maybe tryin to port OS X [Mac OS] to a PC, but do not recall it actually happening

As to the cost, yeah the Macs lean more expensive than PCs. BUT the differences are not as great as they used to be after the Intel chip conversion. It is always the ongoing debate about how much more Macs cost. Seems the gap is not as much when spec'ing out machines that are similar.

I have both, and hands down Macs and more stable and easier to use. In fact I laughed when someone suggessted I get a Mac (had an old Mac way before then went the PC route for work and used PCs alot for a few years) Glad I got the Mac again and most of the time if I want to use a PC, I just boot Paralells on the Mac and run Windows

£2700 is alot, what type of machine are you getting? The base Mac Tower starts at $2,499 US and I run Final Cut on a machine that is older and alot less powerful than that one (of course upgrading the specs on a new mahcine is cool )

Here's a question I am curious about..can a Mac used in the US where everything is NTSC run in the UK where PAL is king? Or are their different versions?

Steve

Here's a question I am curious about..can a Mac used in the US where everything is NTSC run in the UK where PAL is king? Or are their different versions?

Steve

Steve,

I do not really understand your question. How comes a mac (as it is) to the question of PAL//NTSC video standards? I am using also mac in Hungary and in Switzerland, where everything is PAL.

I think that what I am asking is whether my Mac in the US would plug in and play in Europe? Or would a special converter be necessary?

steve B)