HD For Indies

Hey all -

So there's a bunch of different machines out there, and folks want to know what does and doesn't work, and I can't STAND some of the test results I'm seeing out there (example links withheld to protect the guilty - but Wind Filter, I know where you hide!).

What I think REALLY matters to editors doing long form is this:

1.) Realtime playback at high quality - if it won't play, never mind.
2.) Realtime cross dissolves. After that, all other transitions are pretty much gravy. How often do you use anything but a cut or cross dissolve in long form? I mean, REALLY?
3.) Real Time Color Corrrection - the 3-way color corrector is the standard, and working some sliders rather than others can decide whether the results are realtime or not
4.) Titling - again, in real time
5.) Letterboxing - realtime

In the indie productions that I've worked on, not having these things realtime (even if for rough use, like color correction if you're going to do better later) is a huge time killer, so I consider this The List. I consider that items 1-3 are the Must Haves, and ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Items 4 and 5 in conjunction with the others is damned useful, but not quite as essential in my opinion, in my experience. But if you can't take two color corrected clips and get a realtime cross dissolve, you're in trouble as far as time efficiency goes.

So I want to know exactly which formats, with what combination of 1-5, will or won't play realtime full quality, or realtime with Dynamic RT, etc. So how to find this out?

What I'd like to do is:

1.) Get together any gear that I don't have, or can't have plugged in simultaneously
2.) Put together a test regime that is more realistic for editing than what I see out there (anyone who proposes Lens Flare or Wind Filter testing will be summarily shot)
3.) Standardize the machines on OS, QT, FCP, AJA/BMD driver versions
4.) Set up a Master File, ready to roll for testing
5.) Copy that to all the Macs in question
6.) Do relevant testing on the gear and get some solid benchmarks, do pass/fail testing and stopwatch testing
7.) Document and post all that stuff

Formats I want to test
-DV (NTSC & 24p)
-HDV (720p30 and 1080i)
-DVCPRO HD (720p24, 720p60, 1080p24 (you can hack it, more on this later), 1080i60)
-uncompressed 720p24 8 bit 4;2:2
-uncompressed 720p60 8 bit 4;2:2
-uncompressed 1080p24 8 bit 4;2:2
-uncompressed 1080i60 8 bit 4;2:2
-uncompressed 1080p24 10 bit 4:2:2 (already know no RT)
-uncompressed 1080p24 10 bit 4:4:4 (already know no RT)

...and as long as I'm testing stuff, I want to know about:

-uncompressed 2Kx1080 10 bit RGB 4:4:4 (on Kona3 and MultiBridge Extreme)
-uncompressed 2Kx1556 10 bit RGB 4:4:4 (on Kona3 and MultiBridge Extreme)
-compresssed 2Kx1080 and 2Kx1556 (on Kona3 and MultiBridge Extreme)

....and see how they work. But that's probably another day.

What I've already got

so I now have inhouse

-a dual 2.0 GHz PCI-X (early model) G5 with a ??? graphics card
-a dual 2.5 GHz PCI-X G5 with aATI X800 XT card in it
-a quad 2.5 GHz PCIe G5 with an nVidia GeForce 7800GT card in it
-a 1.25GHz G4 12" PowerBook
-a 2.0 GHz MacBook

They all have uncompressed HD capable RAIDs attached

They all have FCP 5.0.4 (soon to be 5.1) installed

Then I have the following HD capture cards:

-one Kona2 card with K-Box (PCI-X)
-one Kona3 card with K3-Box (PCIe)
-two BlackMagic DeckLink HD Pro cards (PCI-X)
-one BlackMagic DeckLink HD Pro cards (PCIe)
-one BlackMagic Multibridge Extreme box (PCIe)

Then I have a JVC 19" broadcast CRT

Then I have an AJA HDP (and the DVI output from my Multibridge Extreme) for HD-SDI to DVI conversion for display

Then I have four HD capable RAIDs

Then I have the following SATA cards:
-two Highpoint RocketRAID 1820A cards (PCI-X)
-two Sonnet eSATA Tempo X PCIe cards (4 external port multiplying eSATA ports)
-two Sonnet Tempo X 4+4 PCI-X cards
-one Sonnet Tempo X 8 port eSATA card

...and a bunch of LCD and CRT monitors.


What I'm missing and would like to find locally:

-another PCIe Mac that isn't a Quad G5
-an Intel based iMac
-an Intel based Mini
-MacBook Pros of any size

What I'm NOT interested in doing:

-testing on old gear - if FCP 4 or 5 can be made to run on a G3, I don't care - it isn't fast enough to do any of the work that I care about

WHEN

I dunno, maybe in a couple of weekends? On a Saturday, and make it be a beer-n-pizza kind of a gig? Open to suggestions, nothing locked down at this point.

WHO

this is a call out to all my local regulars (Craig, Zane, Luis, etc.), but open to any readers who'd be down with this idea.

WHERE

I'm thinking of just doing it at my house (that's in Austin, TX, for those who don't know), I have LOTS of monitors, power cords, and table surfaces. While files could certainly be distributed around (and I'm thinking about that possibility), it'd be more efficient to do it here in a more controlled circumstance, plus beer and pizza and hang out factor.

If you're local and/or have gear to contribute from the list and want to be involved, contact me - email me - mike at hdforindies dot com.