HD For Indies

So while swapping video cards out of my G5 I dropped a screw down into the guts of the machine, and the screw got under the motherboard, between the motherboard and the (conductive) aluminum case.

After staring the machine with a screwdriver set in hand, I decided I wasn't up to the task of completely dissasembling my G5 to get the screw out. Once before I'd lost a little plastic straw off a can of compressed air into the power supply area, and had backed out of a dissasembly attempt and left it in there.

So what are my options? Fortunately, there's the Apple Store here in town. So I took it in and called the nice guy who'd helped me before. He says he's not sure when they can get to it. (I have an edit session booked for 1pm Monday, and I plan on gutting and relacing (re-running all the wires) in the studio tomorrow). So I pay $100 for ProCare, and he says they can do it NOW.

So if you're a professional and your livelihood depends on keeping your Mac up and running, if you have a problem that requires you to take it into the shop, ProCare (at that point of crisis) is DEFINITELY worth the $100/yr/machine.

So they fixed it in about an hour - primo service - and I got out of the store $234 poorer. $99 for ProCare, and $135 for the repair. Shit. Apple fixit rate is EXPENSIVE. Yes, I could have found some other Apple Authorized place in theory. But the benefit of Right Here, Right Now has a lot to be said for it. But beware, their repair rates are pretty high.

Got it home and I'm assuming all is golden - they got the screw out.

So what did I learn?

1.) Don't buy ProCare until you need it. Get an estimate on repair times (I didn't). If that isn't sufficient, THEN pop for ProCare and you'll get primo, cut-to-the-front-of-the-line service. Anybody ahead of me in line at the Genius Bar? My work will get done before theirs.

2.) When changing out cards, do NOT try to save time by swapping out cards with the machine vertical. Go ahead and disconnect EVERYTHING and lay the G5 down on a towel on a table or the floor with good overhead light. Then go about your business.

Anybody else have some Apple Store experiences or ProCare stories to share? Email me at mike@hdforindies.com.

UPDATE 8/1/04 - SUNDAY 1PM CST - So I've got the G5 all together again and working, and I'm driving both a 15" Apple Studio Display (older 1024x768 model) and the 23HD both off of an NVidia GeForce 5200 card. Graphics aren't as fast, but it all works, and that's what's important right now. I'll get my OEM 9800 card back tomorrow (hopefully) and take it from there. One minor note - the described behavior of the monitor driving the onscreen brighter/darker stuff isn't working. I'm supposed to be able to go into the Display Prefs and see an Options button that lets the hardware brighter/darker buttons drive the system level brighter & darker controls (the ones normally driven from the keyboard). I don't get that option at all - neither on my 12" PowerBook, nor on the G5 with Nvidia 5200 card.

--End Update--

Hi all -

So it's Saturday, and I'm having a great weekend so far - fantastic dinner with girlfriend last night, got up and went to hang out on set with Paul Alvarado, Jen White, and Dianne Murray during a shoot this morning. Got so inspired I decided to spend my Saturday reconfiguring my studio to be ready to do some HD stuff next week. Then I discovered that the new Apple 23" LCD won't work (or even boot under some circumstances) when driven off of a Retail Radeon 9800 Pro card.

I had previously tested my new 23" Apple LCD display while driving it off of my itsy bitsy 12" PowerBook. All worked fine.

I hooked it up to my Rev A Dual 2.0 GHz G5 test platform and had trouble. At first I thought it might have something to do with the PowerTron 24 I also had plugged into the same video card (Radeon 9800). The PowerTron is a rebranded Sony W900, a 24" 16:10 aspect screen that I run at the same resolution as the 23HD Apple (1920x1200). I've had it for years, I love it, it works great.

So I did a cold boot (rather than just a restart) and that didn't help. I reduced the resolution on the PowerTron, thinking two monitors driving the same resolution was either confusing it or using too much video RAM. Still no go - as before, the power light was on in the lower right corner of the Cinema Display, but no image whatsoever on the screen.

I disconnected the PowerTron, turned EVERYTHING off, let it sit there for a minute or two (to think about what it had done), and tried with just the LCD panel plugged in.

Now the machine turned on, but the fans slowly ramped up higher and higher - a sign I've seen before that something's wrong.

So I leaned over to look at the connections on the back. I had all the Cinema Displays stuff hooked up - power, DVI, USB, FireWire, I have a Seritek 1S2 card installed, I have a DeckLink HD card installed, and suddenly I noticed the S-video port between the DVI and VGA ports on the graphics card.

A-HA!

I had swapped out a Retail Radeon for my OEM card when I was working up at High End Systems earlier this year. So now I need to swap it out, otherwise I can't use my lovely display on my G5...

Borrowing a friend's NVidia card, I prepared to switch out video cards. In doing so, I dropped a screw down between PCI slots. In retrieving it with tweezers, it fell again, this time under the motherboard, between the motherboard and the (conductive) aluminum case. But that's another posting...

UPDATE Saturday, July 31, 2004 - Apple flip flopped, emailing many (not all) customers that their units will ship by the 2nd (Monday).

AppleInsider has this report on delays of dual 2.5 GHz G5s.

From their article, several customers received this email:

-------------------
To Our Valued Apple Customer:

Thank you for ordering the new Dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5!

The demand for this item has been incredible. We are shipping them as quickly as possible, but cannot meet the ship date we previously estimated for you. We now expect to ship your Power Mac on or before August 20th.

Please rest assured that we fulfill all orders in the order they are received.
If we do not hear from you prior to shipment, we will assume the revised date is acceptable, and will ship your order. We will notify you if there are any changes to the revised ship date.

---------------

Mike's Comments: Well....par for the course. I spoke with an inside source today that mentioned that the liquid cooling was leaking (or was it condensing water? Unclear.) on the processors. Um, that would be BAD.

So it's all still in the works...waterworks as the case may be.

Such is life...but I read somewhere that the Rev B dual 2.0 GHz are even quieter than the Rev A's (like I have).

If you need a machine in the near future for HD, I'd highly recommend the dual 2.0 GHz. It'll do what you need. Actual project processing will only be 15% or so faster in real world results (overall speed, don't forget, relies on bus speed, RAM speed, various cyclic latencies, hard drive speed, etc. etc. etc.)

UPDATE 7/30/04: Went and dug around on this site, including the testing methodology. Wow, this thing is good and thorough - even better than I would have done. ; p

Christopher Barry, my Aussie hookup, sent me this link to a site that has a nice set of samples of codec quality.

Useful comparisons of RGB to YUV rendered stuff, especially of note is the DVCPRO HD comparisons, so you can see what it does to your images.

I haven't read it all yet, but it looks competent and at least reasonably thorough. I'm going to add it to my permanent links on the site.

-mike

Buena Software today announced the Au Naturel set of plugins. Provides lens blurs, motion blurs, exposure adjustments (in f-stops), etc. Works in 32-bit floating point color space (this is a Good Thing), and is only $79 through the end of SIGGRAPH, August 12th. Works with Final Cut Pro HD, After Effects, and combustion. Mac & Windows versions both available now.

Mike's Comments: This looks handy. Their in-camera blur effect is better than the Gaussian Blur in After Effects, their directional motion blur looks pretty nice (but math is required to add it to a moving layer in AE I would presume), but the big deal is it looks very friendly for editor/shooters. Exposure settings are in f-stops, etc. Price is very reasonable.

Free demo download here. (That's the Mac version. PC version available on page linked above. Yeah, I'm being evil and typing all this rather than just giving a link to the PC version. Cuz I'm evil 'n stuff.)

; )

-mike

Media 100 today announced an updated feature set for their HD editing product, Media 100 HD. Real time RGB & YUV color correction, 99 tracks supported, realtime bidirectional format conversion, support for Media 100i stuff, lots of other useful goodies.

Mac Minute has this summary which nicely synopsizes the changes and history of the Media 100 HD system.

Mike's Comments: Media 100 used to be a leader in the low cost, high quality editing systems for standard definition video work for those in the multimedia and industrial video in the early and mid nineties. I myself used it for years happily. For 5 or more years, if you were doing industrial videos or high end multimedia work (I used to work for frogdesign in their new media group here in Austin, Texas, and we just beat the living snot out of that system day in and day out and it worked really well for us.

But....the arrival of FCP on the scene kicked them off their roost, and they were slow to adapt. They put more of their effort into their PC offerings for awhile, and have spent a over a year bringing their HD product to market (first announced in 2003). They got into dire financial straits and nearly went under not to long ago, and their 844/X system was plagued by low market take-up and reports of buggy performance....even though it was a realtime compositing monster for SD work.

Regardless of how strong the system actually is, alllllllllllllllllllll the buzz is in Final Cut Pro for indie production these days (from the HD folks I talk to). Avid if you have the money and the history with it, Premiere Pro is up and coming, Vegas is coming up even faster now that Sony owns it, Pinnacle and Leitch have their own interesting offerings available or coming soon.

I'd file Media 100 HD somewhere at or below the Leitch and Pinnacle offerings. This is harsh - I don't know how good the product actually is, I'm basing this strictly on my read on the market. On top of a slow rollout of this product, the company's VERY spotty recent financial history (nearly went under, another company came in and scooped up their assets) makes me verrrrrrrry leary of recommending investing in this kind of a system. With scarce resources, how much effort can they put into client service, bug fixes and tech support? My experience is that financially starving companies put all their efforts into sales and skimp badly on support issues...because once they've sold you a system, they've GOT your money. Support costs them money. So they focus on sales of new systems. Promises, promises, promises....unfulfilled once you write that check.

Ever read the fine print on a software package? It wasn't by accident that Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet wrote in their book Good Omens (HIGHLY recommend it, hilarious & satisfying read) that a Devil on earth sends a software contract down to the guys in Hell that write the contracts for souls. He puts a Post It Note on top that simply says:

"Learn, guys, learn"

;D

-mike

Think Secret has this report claiming the first dual 2.5 GHz G5s are going to start shipping next week (by July 30th or so), which, for once, is actually in line with Apple's announcements. Only orders placed in approximately the first week after the announcement of the dual 2.5 GHz G5 computers are expected to ship in this first batch.

Mike's Comments: If this proves to be true, I'll be duly impressed with Apple. The last two top end Macintosh computers that I've bought, both ordered the day they were announced, both took over 3 months to arrive. If Apple can ship decent numbers of systems to plain Jane, average consumers, I'll be very impressed and happy with this improvement from Apple's prior history. This does not, however, mean that if you place an order now you'll get one soon. The ever-optimistic Apple online store quotes 4-6 weeks for systems ordered today. Optimistic. Remember that word.

I've contacted my local Apple Store to be informed when they get their demo units in, and they've been extremely non-commital as to when they'll get their first units in - they don't want to make any promises they can't keep.

In any case, when the first units do come in, I'll be informed and do my best to promptly check and see if their FireWire performance has been improved and is no longer hobbled. (G4 computers and current PowerBooks have FireWire 800 write speeds about twice that of current G5 desktop systems).

Reader Harrison Murchison read and promptly responded to my dual core G5 article.

He wrote:

Mike,
Good piece on the Dual Core 970MP. I don't think people realize how cool
this is going to be for us. As for the FSB at 1GB my further readings show
that Apple would have to choose either 1Ghz or 1.5Ghz for the FSB. Being
that memory throughput is the bottleneck and not the FSB(current G5s max at
6.4GBps bandwidth) we're not even getting close to the bandwidth limitation
of the 1250Mhz bus(which is 5000GBps up/down).

So the FSB shouldn't be a bottleneck but what "is" cool is the doubling of
the L2 caches for each core. The "chip to chip" communication will also be
much faster. Currently the two CPUs sitting right next to each other have to
communication by sending their data over the FSB and to the System
Controller and then up the other CPUs FSB and to the CPU. That's a lot of
latency. Now the chips are on the same die they can talk via high speed
linkage between the two. Check this link out

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1627893,00.asp

Note the "Code Cracking" ability. This can only be done efficiently when you
have very fast chip to chip communication. Cracking instructions and
processing them with each core quickly should benefit Pro apps greatly and
most other apps.

I'm willing to bet a small sum of money that this 970MP system was planned
for a while. The POWER5 derivative should be coming in 12-18 months. At
154mm squared the 970MP is as large as you want to go. But if IBM develops
the POWER5 derivative on a small 65nm process then dual cores,1MB cache only
take up say 70mm squared again. Then IBM can add in features like
Simultaneous Multithreading(SMT) and perhaps an ondie memory controller and
still be smaller than the original 130nm 970. It makes too much sense. But
it's good for the future of Powermacs and video editing because Quads are
going to be well supported in OSX 10.4.

[end email]

Mike's Comments: I'd kind of glossed over the chip to chip communication issues, now I see what a big deal that can be. I'm relieved that the FSB (front side bus) speed won't be such a crucial issue. The move to 65nm production could be tough, though - EVERYBODY has had a tough time moving to a 90nm process, and 65 is even smaller. Lots of tunnelling problems (electrons getting past the gates, burrowing mole-like through what is supposed to be an impermeable barrier) from what I've heard second/thirdhand.

This could easily take until next January's MacWorld to be ready to launch, though. So don't delay any present spending plans.

: )

-mike

Think Secret has this rumor report on the upcoming dual core G5 chips. This means two CPUs on one die (one piece of silicon). Smaller packaging (possibly some power & cooling savings too) are possible with this setup. This makes it possible to have a quad processor setup in a box the size of the current G5, although the present operating system can't handle more than two processors (and it'll be a chunk of work to handle that).

Other interesting features: chip speeds would start at 3.0 GHz and go up from there, but the bus speed mentioned is only 1 GHz - 1/3 of the chip speed, instead of 1/2 like current machines. This is curious, since the upcoming 2.5 GHz system is going to have a 1.25 GHz bus. I'm thinking perhaps the rumor report might be wrong, and that a 1.5 GHz bus speed will be possible. But then again, I'm just guessing.

Why does this matter & why should you care? These chips will POSSIBLY MAYBE be what gets announced in a product next summer, maybe at next year's WWDC in June 2005, with a likely availability in the September timeframe (same as they always do the last few years, a multi-month delay after announcement).

Dual core chips mean a smaller packaged machine. Which opens the possibility of a quad processor box. This will be good, since Intel's dual 64 bit chips should be shipping in that timeframe, and this will help keep Apple competitve in the heavy processing arena...like HD editing, color correcting, etc. This, combined with high performance GPUs (grpahics cards), and the upcoming OpenGL based effects acceleration in Motion (and presumably future iterations of Final Cut Pro) would create the possibility for systems capable of doing Digital Intermediate work, with real time editing, color correction, positioning, etc. Very very powerful, very very useful.

Wiebetech, long known for making a variety of smart little gadgets & add-ons, has released a their ComboGB 100GB pocket drive. It's based on a 100GB 2.5" mechanism (laptop drive), and has FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 (1.1 compatible) connectors.

Mike's Comments: Since it is bus powered, this MIGHT be a valid portable editing solution. I'm very curious to see what the drive's performance is like when connected to the USB 2.0 port. As I've learned with my 12" PowerBook, if you have only one external FireWire port (and it's a 400 port), your connections and storage options are limited to that one bus. But if you could connect via USB 2.0 and get acceptable speeds, you'd be in bidness. I think it's POSSIBLE (but not proven) to edit on one of the drives for DV content. Probably could do 720p24 DVCPRO HD work, could certainly capture HDV footage, and MIGHT MAYBE be able to to do 1080i30 DVCPRO HD work. I've read that the USB 2.0 circuitry in a G5 desktop will do about 17 MB/sec in real world tests. The drive is capable of much more, it's bus limited. 1080i29.97 DVCPRO HD footage runs around 14 MB/sec, so in THEORY this should be possible.

In any case, a nice (but pricey - $500) bit of Road Kit.

Update 7/28/04 4:15pm - I talked to the Apple Store in Austin, brought the unit in, and they made Everything All Better. Kudos to the Apple Store team at Barton Creek Square Mall for helping me resolve this satisfactorily. In their definition, a dead pixel is one that is black at all times. A discolored pixel is a stuck one. Not quite how I defined it, but it all got worked out OK. My monitor works exactly correctly now. (Thanks Apple folks!)

So I decided to go ahead and open it, even though right there on the receipt it said "$199 fee if returned opened."

Egads, what CRAP. That's just unacceptable. I hope this thing has no dead pixels.

Out of box experience:

Opening the box, there is a small cardboard fold up thing (like other Apple products have). There is the User Guide, Warranty, and a sheet on "USB and Your Apple Cinema Display". There is a lint free cleaning cloth packed with those. Nice touch Apple.

USB and Your Apple Cinema Display says this:

"Your Apple Cinema Display has two USB 2.0 ports and your Apple Keyboard has two USB 1.1 ports. You can connect your mouse to one of teh USB ports on your keyboard. The second USB port on your Apple Keyboard does not work properly when the keyboard is plugged into the display. For proper operation, plug your Apple Keyboard into a USB port on the Powr Mac G5 and not the display."

In the User Guide, there are tricks to setting up the display with a laptop (or desktop unit, for that matter). You have to have the computer (including laptop) shut down entirely, AND plugged into power (this applies to laptop as well).

Inside, underneath the styrofoam padding is the display and a power brick. The brick is about the size of two recent PowerBook power adaptors, or about 4 full size iPods.

The display has a permanent fixed cable, with 4 connectors on the end: a small funky power connector that goes to the power brick, and connectors for USB (2.0), DVI, & FireWire (400 not 800).

Saving draft document, will continue when powered back up...

...and as it powers back up, it calls up a photo I just took last week at the Grand Canyon for the desktop picture.

WOW. Great color, great clarity, GORGEOUS image.

NO color wavering as I tilt it up and down that I can tell. It's like a big light box. BIG light box.

Upon seeing it, the first thing I think is that it would make for a helluva changing picture frame to hang on the wall. Yeah. If I had tons more money.

Next: checking for dead pixels....

I downloaded Dead Pixel Identifier 5.0.0 from Nitrus Designs.

Running it through it's paces, I was discovered 1 dead green pixel in the lower left area of the screen.

SHIT.

One dead pixel. Harrumph.

Will they replace it? Sounds like no...have to see how they do.

FINAL CUT PRO HD TESTING

Hooked it up to the 12" PowerBook and fired up Final Cut Pro HD.

Fired up the NAB demo 1080i60 footage and tried to play it back full screen, high quality in FCP HD.

Didn't work - choked and dropped TONS of frames.

Hooked up a FireWire drive (connected via FireWire 400) and played back the same footage, full screen, Render Quality set to high in FCP HD. Srta works - dropping some frames, skipping audio frequently. Even at high quality, it STILL is obviously dropping the quality of the video to play it back.

THIS IS CLEARLY the difference between devices like eCinema's One2One and BlackMagic Design's HDLink and the built in preview. The HDLink & One2One will play back a pefect pixel for pixel preview of the HD signal off of an HD SDI card, whereas the FCP preview is cutting a lot of corners to get it up on screen.

I'll hook it up to the G5 in the morning.

-mike

Hi all -

Today I was bored and frustrated with some stuff in my life, so there's the usual fix - go buy a toy. I bought one, but it's sitting intentionally unopened until I find out some more things. It's effectively a $200 piece of tape on the outside of the box, read on to find out why...

I read on MacinTouch today this thread about the availability of Apple's new 23" LCD displays. A couple of Macintouch readers lamented:

[Dennis Jenkins] I ordered one of the new 23-inch monitors the day they were announced. Originally my status was to "ship on or before 26 July." As of this morning it is "on or before 24 August." Fairly substantial delay...

{end excerpt]

So I called the local (Austin, TX) Apple store and asked if they had 20 and 23 inch LCDs on display to check out. Yes, they did. Did they have them in stock for purchase? Yes, they did. So I picked up Dianne (my movie geek buddy) and we headed over to Barton Creek Square Mall. At the Apple Store, I ran into a guy I met at SXSW who was doing stop motion animation. I always see somebody I know every time I go there.

First impressions in the store: the 20 and 23 inch monitors look small, especially compared to the preview generation 23" LCDs with their larger plastic frames. Somehow they didn't feel as impressive as I'd expected. I mistook the 20" for a 17" (they don't make a 16:10 17"), and the 23" looked like what I'd expect the 20 to look like. Harrumph. They are also thicker than I expected, but they aren't especially thick. I was led to expect something around an inch or less thick, but they aren't. The single foot design seems sufficiently stable, and leaves room for other stuff around the base of the monitor. The swivel mechanism is sturdy and acceptable, and most importantly, the colors did NOT shift noticeably, even when viewing from extreme angles, and didn't appear to shift even when tilting the monitor up and down (which is extremely UNLIKE the monitor on my 12" PowerBook (latest 1.33GHz model) which color shifts with ANY change in vertical viewing angle. Impossible to do color work on the laptop. But with 3 of us looking at the 23" display, I could feel comfortable we were all seeing the same thing. Very important for clients looking at color work. There seemed to be a slight vignette - that the edges of the screen were darker. But that turned out to be an artifact of viewing distance - the further back you got, the lesser the effect. This was because the closer you get, the greater the difference in viewing angle between looking at the center and looking at the edge.

It also has hardware brightness buttons on the side, which is nice, especially for the PC crowd. It connects with DVI, not Apple's proprietary ADC connector, and this monitor has dual USB & dual FireWire 400 ports. Looks like my iSight has a new permanent home.

I could TOTALLY see mounting this on the wall in my studio for clients to watch. In fact, that may happen in the next few months...

Also, based on the size of the 23", I see a 30" in my future as a primary editing screen.

The demo unit in the store didn't have a single dead or stuck pixel - I checked, using Dead Pixel Identifier 5, that I found on VersionTracker.com. You've heard of "When in doubt, pray to Google?" Now it is "when you need a widgety piece of shareware, pray to VersionTracker."

The Big Buyer Beware News: I specifically bought this monitor with the intention of using it with either an HDLink by BlackMagic Design or an eCinema one2one box (that link is for the EPD100, it's more costly big brother). When I specifically inquired about the return policy in case of dead pixels, I was told that if it was "all pimpled" they'd take it back. But if it had a dead pixel or two, he implied that was within specifications, and I could return it...but with a 10% restocking fee. THAT'S $200.

$200? OUCH!

That is the policy at the Apple Store (retail locations, anyway). So I'm going to scout around and see what the policy is with other stores. Seeing as how these are hard to get ahold of, I may go ahead and open it anyway. But if I find somebody else with a better deal AND with a better return policy AND that has it in stock, I'll buy it from them.

I was a bit surprised at this. I'm paying premium bucks for this screen ($1999), so I'd expect this sucker to work right out of the gate just fine, and if there's a problem a "no hassle" return policy. I failed to ask the return policy with desktop units, but I'd be surprised if there were a 10% restocking fee. I guess I could complain to the better business bureau, somebody I spoke to recently said there was a national "30 day return get your money back" law. Harrumph.

The store guy implied that one out of every 10 or 20 large LCDs has a dead or stuck pixel, and that stuck pixels tend to resolve themselves. I tried to press him on the exact # of pixels that Apple considered within spec, and I didn't get a specific answer. I recall from days past that on one size of Apple LCD (and this is years ago on laptops) that a total of 6 dead or stuck pixels was considered acceptable. Quality is better these days, so I'll have to see how it goes.

So I'll do some research and see what happens.

In the next few days I'll be comparing and contrasting and learning all I can about the eCinema vs. HDLink boxes.

A sales guy for a large HD equipment reseller told me the eCinema box had more processing power...but to do what? They'll both do 10 bit (or deeper) level CLUT loading (Color Look Up Tables) to calibrate the devices. Will be interesting to see.

-mike

MacCentral has this articleon the current status of HD-DVD.

HD-DVD is expected to launch in 2005. The format holds 15 GB, but can use H.264 or VC9 (a Windows Media 9 based codec). Both of these codecs are more efficient than the MPEG-2 to be used in Blu-Ray discs, which is being championed by a different set of companies than HD-DVD.

Mike's Comments: The competition between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will be interesting. Not having compared the Blu-Ray compressed content to HD-DVD compressed content, I can't say which will look better. Time will tell on that one. But I think two factors will be key in deciding which one wins in the market:

1.) The movie distribution companies are going to be very, very picky and interested in the copy protection and DRM (Digital Rights Management) used by the two competing formats. Whichever disc format offers more protection is likely to be the one that they will lean towards, all other factors being equal. Whichever format the studios back will probably determine which format will dominate the marketplace, because that'll be the one consumers will be able to buy HD versions of movies on.

2.) Consumers are going to care about what they usually care about - cost. HD-DVD discs will be cheaper to produce, existing manufacturing facilities can very easily be modified to produce HD-DVDs instead of the current DVDs. More importantly, the players for HD-DVDs will be about 3 times less expensive than Blu-Ray to start. Can you say Betamax, anyone?

While the Blu-Ray discs hold twice as much, they use a less efficient compression methodology - MPEG-2 rather than the more modern codecs offered by the HD-DVD group. The obvious solution, from a tech perspective, seems to be to offer the best of both worlds - why not offer H.264 and VC9 on Blu-Ray? Business alliance reasons and pre-existing contracts will almost certainly forbid this, but it seems all so silly. A disc capable of playing back VC9, H.264 and MPEG-2 would seem to be the killer app - right now the main battle is about the transport substrate, which is simply how to carry the bits. Decoding the bits is a firmware, hardware, and licensing issue. Not so big a deal technologically speaking. Unless Microsoft has an exclusive deal with the HD-DVD group, I don't see why they wouldn't be willing to sell their tech to the Blu-Ray group as well.

But the first choice to be made that matters for consumers is to see what format the studios decide to put the movies on. That'll determine demand for whichever flavor the studios pick, and consumers will follow to that.

The sad part is that Blu-Ray will also offer some recordable formats as well. And if it's a recordable format, I don't see a reason why other codecs can't be written to and read from those discs - so higher efficiency codecs could be used on Blu-Ray down the road, then it's a player compatibility problem. But 30GB is a nice chunky size that would offer all kinds of interesting new possilities for TiVO and the like.

-mike

This article over at barefeats.com has a great write-up of the Burly Drive Box from MacGurus. Talks about setup, talks about practical HD RAID setups, lots of good info, MANDATORY reading fro anyone considering SATA RAID for uncompressed hi def utilization.

The Los Angeles Final Cut Pro user group, one of the best, and certainly the most active (or actively vociferous) FCP user groups in the country, has an online survey where they are asking folks to pick their Top 10 Feature Requests.

It is very thorough and a bit confusing, so take your time. You can pick 10 and only 10 items from the list, and you can only vote once, so make it count.

Take the survey here.

Marathon Computing is offering two different rackmount solutions for G5 computers. One option offers a vertical solution allowing 1 G5 to sit left, right, or centered, or 2 G5s to stand side by side with no case modifications. This vertical option is $199. The second solution allows the G5 to sit horizontally and only take up 6U in the rack...but requires cutting the handles off with a hacksaw. Eew. The horizontal option is $250, and you get to cut the legs off your baby yourself. But if you want a short racked up solution, that will work.

I also have a contact that also will make road cases with room for the G5 and has additional room for 4 or 5 U of extra space for drives etc. if anyone is interested in that, email me at mike@hdforindies.com.

Digital Voodoo has announced a new SD (standard definition) capture card with 8 or 10 bit SDI input/output, the SD | Flex.. But for $2500, there are multiple HD cards available that also do 12 bit and do SD & HD.

I'm not, at this point, impressed with this card at this price point, and don't see any reason to recommend it over other vendors' setups.

They are touting best image quality - but if it's an SDI signal, you're just catching or pushing ones and zeroes. The codec is more important than the hardware...right? (Presuming the card is stable & behaves.)

SanCube now has a FireWire SAN (Storage Area Network) product that connects via FireWire to up to 4 Macs at a time. This could be useful for multiuser editing setups.

PROS: Multiple simultaneous users to the device, which holds 240 to 720 GB depending on model. Connections are via FireWire. 33MB/sec with the standard model, 65MB/sec with the X-Stream, which simply adds a second FireWire 400 PCI card to double throughput.

CONS: I can already get that kind of throughput via Gigabit Ethernet if the drives are fast enough. Max 4 users. Only FireWire 400, not FireWire 800. Limited capacity - 720GB.

Semi-interesting product. I plan on doing some multi-user editing testing once I get home between 2 G4s and a G5 on Gigabit Ethernet. If those tests work OK, it makes me question the validity of this setup. As always, depends on the pricing. The 4 user 720GB model is $3800. Hmm. If I had a spare G4 with Gigabit Ethernet sitting around, I'm not sure that's such a good deal. However, I need to test the real world performance before making such a decision. I need to realistically price it all out.

They promote it as a DV editing solution. Since DV is only 3.5 MB/sec, and DVCPRO HD is only 5.4 MB/sec for 720p24 footage, it could be a good multi-user editing solution for that as well.

So I just posted the article about the XL-2, and I'm embarassed and miffed (OK, pissed) that I was wrong, I posted incorrect presumptions about the upcoming product, that my source told me info that he stated as fact that was conjecture. Now I don't know what's correct, I'll have to go back and check to see if the XL-1 and XL-1S availability are still OK - I'm NOT a shooter, I'm a post guy, and cameras are not my primary area of endeavor.

I really want this site to be useful information, and I keep catching myself posting incorrect stuff. On one level, I feel bad that I might be misleading people by posting inaccurate information. I also feel embarassed to be wrong on this stuff.

Some things I've been wrong about:

-6 drive SATA RAIDs - not yet viable for 1080 res HD work the way I thought they'd be
-PCI-X SATA cards - where oh where are they? I was led to believe they'd be on the market by May. Still months away.
-HD data rates - I pulled info from one vendor's site, turns out I was way off, the numbers were higher

It's all a learning process. I'm posting stuff as best I understand it, and I'm still learning how all this stuff works. I'm really trying to push the envelope in terms of what works to generate high quality results for minimal dollars, and it's still an emerging field.

I was just about to order 6 drives at about $450 apiece when I discovered my RAID setup wasn't going to deliver the throughput I was hoping it would. Better that I discovered it now rather than after plunking down my own cash.

So where am I going with all this crying in my beer?

Caveat emptor, man. Or reader beware - this is a blog, it's my best info I have, but unless I say I've done it hands on myself, don't take what I say as gospel. Everything has to be carefully tested, theories are only that - theories, until proven by careful testing and research.

OK, back to it.

TOTALLY EXTRANEOUS BULLSHIT AND WHINING BELOW, WITH PERSONAL EXCITEMENT TOSSED IN:

I'm still on vacation with my family, 7 people are sharing one condo and one car, I'm the default IT guy for everyone ("Mom, click on the Finder" "What's that?" Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.). My internet access is spotty, but I hope to crank out some more writing tomorrow on idealized HD setups (with my new "RAID no workie" info) and I'll take it from there. I will DEFINITELY not be posting anything later this week - I have to drive 4 hours in a rental car (or take a bus - UGH), fetch my car from the dealership in the hinterlands, drive BACK to where I'm writing this to load up all my crap and spend the night, then drive 12 hours to fetch my new girlfriend (yay!) to go hike the Grand Canyon for a day or two (bliss bliss bliss). THEN I get to drop her off at an airport 4 hours away, and drive back from the Grand Canyon to Austin, Texas (HD For Indies World Headquarters). So I won't be back until the wee hours of super late Monday night at the earliest, Tuesday more likely. So maybe Wednesday next week will be the earliest update unless something weird/bad/strange/heroic occurs.

Have a good weekend all, I hope to myself.

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 7/14/04: MacNN is reporting the 16:9 mode records in 962x480 pixels - how's that work? It will ship in August for $5000. Eeek. So the HD version will obviously be more, something like $8K? Here is their nice summary article.

Canon introduced their XL-2 camera today, the successor to the XL-1 and XL-1S. And dammit, it is NOT HDV as my sources had indicated. But it's still a very nice DV camera for those who want a lot of control. Since it isn't HD, my heart just isn't in it, but below is the feature spec rundown anyway. Click here to see their full feature list for the camera.

XL-2 Features

16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio shooting formats-user selectable
Variable frame rates-24p (OK, that's totally cool), 30p, and 60i all in the same camera
Customizable Cine Look-nice
Total Image Control-lots of tweaky video setup stuff like higher end cameras
XL Mount Interchangeable Lens System-nice options, lotta lenses
Flourite Zoom Lens with Optical Image Stabilization-nice
SMPTE time code-very nice - finally REAL timecode on a DV based camera
Custom Presets-nice to save, just like the big boys do
Professional Audio Connections-XLR w/Phantom power
Open Architecture Design-cool.

To me, the biggies are user selectable aspect & frame rate (mix & match as desired), SMPTE timecode, and impending Final Cut Pro 4 support.

What's that? Oh yeah - their website has some obfuscating comments about support, but it seems to be that FCP 4 isn't directly supported yet. I'm betting it's because of the funky frame interleave to lay 60i to tape when shooting 24p. They're stuttering their frames as written to tape the same way the Varicam does.

But the big bummer is that this camera does NOT include HDV as I had believed. I can understand my source's confusion, seeing as how it does shoot 24p and 30p as well as 16:9, but it is still a 3 1/3" CCD camera with DV only resolution. This leaves open the door for the Canon HDV camera that is supposed to come out this summer. I'm betting it'll be in the $7500-$8000 dollar range. Why do I say that? Just a gut feeling.

La Cie announced this summer it will ship a 1.6 terabyte version of the Bigger Disk with dual FireWire 800 and one FireWire 400 port.

Mike's Comments: 1.6 TB is a very convenient size - that would back up a 4 drive RAID made of 400 GB disks (such as the new Hitachi 7K400 drives, which is almost certainly what they're using in ths device). It would also more than back up a 6 drive array made up of 250 GB drives. It is $2200 for the 1.6 TB model, which is $1.38/GB. Their prior capacity champ that used 4 250 GB drives was $1200, or $1.20/GB. For 18 cents/GB more, the convenience of a 1 drive backup is awfully nice.

This device can also be configured as a RAID 0 - so you might be backing up your RAID 0 with another RAID 0 that uses the exact same drives. Why bother? Because it is a removable FireWire device, so can easily be unplugged, put on a shelf, etc.

La Cie claims speeds of up to 85 MB/sec with these devices configured as RAID 0. This is plenty sufficient for uncompressed SD work, DVCPRO HD work (only 14 MB/sec max), and direct 720p24 uncompressed capture (which is around 55 MB/sec roughly). The speed of the Bigger Disk when it gets full might be a different story, however.

The sucky part about all this is that in theory, it should be possible to hook up a bunch of FireWire 800 drives and get uncompressed HD throughputs with a single PCI or PCI-X card combined with the onboard FireWire800 interface on a G5. In practice, the FireWire 800 circuitry of G5's is messed up and hobbled - you can't get more than about 80 MB/sec with the G5's FireWire...even though much more should be possible.

-mike

title says it all - but the devil is always in the details. Due to the intricacies of the G5 PCI-X setup, the 6 drive array I've been planning on (and was about to purchase in the next week) will NOT work at the data rates I've surmised and still capture to an HD PCI-X capture card. Read on for the details...

Using QuickBench, the Seagate 7200.7 drives whupped up on the Hitachi 7K250 drives 230 to 214 MB/sec in a 4 drive SoftRAID RAID zero sustained read test.

However, when it came to write speed, the 7K250 was 247, the Seagate 7200.7 was 233. And out of nowhere the Maxtor Plus 9 came in at 292, but far the best, even though it had the WORST read results.

The highest average performer, giving best guaranteed read and write speeds was the Western Digital WD2500JD. It made 200 MB/sec in the read test, and 248 in the write test.

Of course, the ultimate test is how it does capturing HD to disk from Final Cut Pro.

I was all set to order 7 (one spare) Hitachi 7K400 drives, but now I may hold off.

The penultimate test will be to graph how these SATA setups capture to disk as they get full - how much of the drive capacity is usable? I still need to think some more on that.

Another EXTREMELY important tidbit was learning that you don't want to put 2 Seritek cards in slots 2 & 3 as I'd planned - it is a SERIOUS performance hit since they are sharing the bus. Drat. From his article:

"Remember if you are using dual PCI SATA controller cards on a G5 Power Mac, you must put one in the #4 slot (PCI-X 133MHz) and the other in either the #2 or #3 slot (PCI-X 100MHz). Otherwise, you will take a big performance hit. If you have a DeckLink card, it wil have to go in either slot 2 or 3. In a few months, when the 4 channel PCI cards are shipping, you can put your DeckLink card back into slot 4."

This of course won't work with the DeckLink HD card - if it and a Seritek card are in slots 2 or 3, both slots are pulled down to PCI speed and the DeckLink HD card loses it's HD capabilities.

So my 6 drive array idea will NOT WORK for HD capture. Dammit. This now requires waiting until 4 port SATA cards come out for Macs. DAMMIT. I was planning on buying gear and doing some 1080 testing in the near future, and now this puts that off. 4 drive arrays, howver, are just dandy for 720p work. But it looks like 1080 work with SATA arrays is going to be limited, due to the inability to maintain sufficient throughput at full-on (1080i30 10 bit 4:2:2) HD data rates, as well as the limited amount of a 4 drive array's capacity capable of sufficient data rates for 1080 HD work.

Apparently, I've been working with obsolete information about the eCinema HD-SDI to DVI converter/processor boxes.

I've been saying that they have 1 product and it is $8000. That is incorrect. At one point they had a product at that price point, but that is no longer the case. At NAB I saw their one2one box and asked about it but never got any hard facts. At this point, they have 3 products:

EDP-121 is a basic box that has no control panel. It is a converter
only with some user control through a computer. $3295.00

EDP-100 is their basic unit $5295

EDP-100-1 has user controllable radical generator $6295

This pricing information came from the Band Pro sales department.

The eCinema website is here.

The sales guy I talked to also said that the eCinema box had more "processing power" than the HDLink product, which accounted for the pricing differential between eCinema and HDLink. I asked if that had to do with CLUTs (Color LookUp Tables) and such, and he said yes. But both the EDP-121 and HDLink can be configured via USB connections to load new CLUTs, so I don't know what the processing power difference is really supposed to be. I'll try to follow up with Jeff Cree from Band Pro, he was extremely knowledgeable when I spoke to him at NAB...

Missed this one last week - when the DVD Forum approved the HD DVD format the other week, the H.264 AVC (Advanced Video Codec) was part of that package. Apple was showing an H.264 codec at NAB this year, and it looked GREAT at low bandwidths.

Here's the Apple press release:

----------------------------------------------

H.264 Video Codec Adopted for Next Generation DVDs


MPEG Developed Video Codec Key to Future High Definition DVDs



CUPERTINO, California—June 23, 2004—Apple® today announced that the DVD Forum has ratified the H.264 Advanced Video Codec (AVC) to be included in the next generation High Definition (HD) DVD format. The H.264/AVC codec was jointly developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and has been ratified into the MPEG-4 specification as the next-generation video codec. H.264/AVC is based on open standards and will ship in Apple’s QuickTime® software in an upcoming release next year.


“Apple is firmly behind H.264 because it delivers superb quality digital video and is based on open standards that no single company controls,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “QuickTime 6 has already topped 250 million downloads, making it one of the most successful media standards ever, and we will be adding support for H.264 to QuickTime next year.”


H.264/AVC is an extremely scalable video codec, delivering excellent quality across the entire bandwidth spectrum—from high definition television to video conferencing and 3G mobile multimedia. As shown in a preview at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in April, video encoded at full high definition resolution (1920x1080 24p) was played back between 6.8 and 8 Mbps on a dual-processor Power Mac® G5 delivering full HD quality at up to half the data rate of MPEG-2.


As the platform of choice for content creators worldwide, QuickTime delivers the full media experience for thousands of unique software titles, enhanced music CDs and hundreds of digital camera models. More than 250 million copies of QuickTime 6 have been downloaded in less than two years since its release. According to Frost & Sullivan’s 2004 Global Media Streaming Platform Report, between 2002 and 2003 Microsoft’s and Real Networks’ worldwide market share percentages were either stable or declining while QuickTime’s market share increased to 36.8 percent, a close second to Microsoft. Real Networks came in third place with less than 25 percent of the worldwide streaming market share. QuickTime 6.5, which also includes enhanced support for 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and 3GPP2 mobile networks, is available as a free download for Mac® and Windows users at www.apple.com/quicktime.


Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.

------------------

Based on what I just posted up, here's what I'd suggest for the tightly budgeted 720p editor wanting uncompressed capabilities:

Tight budget 720p system:


• Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
• 512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
• 160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
• ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM
• Apple Studio Display (17" flat panel)
• Bluetooth Module
• 8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
• Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
• Mac OS X - U.S. English
• Final Cut Express 2 preinstalled

$3368

Add another 2 GB RAM from crucial.com for $400

Add a La Cie Electron Blue IV monitor for main screen - $700

Add an HDLink to drive the 17" LCD Studio Display purchased with the G5 - $1300

6 x Hitachi 7K250 250 GB array (1.5 TB capacity) - $1675

Add a 250 GB FW800 drive to boot from - $280

Add a DeckLink HD card (assuming they maintain the $1000 deal) - $995

Upgrade your FCP Express purchased with G5 to FCP HD - $699

TOTAL COST: $9410 for about 9 1/2 hours of uncompressed 1280x720 8 bit 4:2:2 24fps footage, previewing pixel for pixel on an LCD monitor, editing on a 2048x1536 resolution display with FCP HD.

THINGS I'D ADD TO THAT, BUDGET PERMITTING, in order of money prioritization:

-Logitech mouse - $30
-Contour XPress or ShuttlePro - $60 or $130
-.Mac - $70/first year
-2nd monitor for bins etc. - $250ish for a decent 17" CRT monitor
-Bluetooth module - $50, only $20 if you drop the modem (you'll never use it, trust me...)
-FireWire backup for this: 1 La Cie Bigger Disk Extreme and 1 Big Disk Extreme (1.5 TB total capacity) - $1200+$550=$1750
-better capture card with more capabilities - add $1500
-more storage: upgrade the 250 GB drives to 400 to increase capacity to 2.4 TB for 15 hours of uncompressed 720p24 4:2:2 8 bit - add $1250 to RAID cost

That's my thinking of the moment. Quibbles, disagreements, want to through the Bullshit Flag down on the field for a 10 yard penalty? Email me at mike@hdforindies.com.

And, as before, if you'd like a copy of my modular/configurable Excel sheet that helps me generate these, email me at mike@hdforindies.com and I'll send it to you.

A few months back I suggested what I'd get for an uncompressed HD editing system. I'm updating it to what I'd buy in the next few weeks if I were shopping from scratch. Cost? How about under $10K for an uncompressed 720p system with nearly 10 hours of uncompressed footage? The systems I describe would handle any standard HD SDI footage including 1920x1080 29.97 interlaced at 10bit uncompressed. Storage? Over 6 hours hours of uncompresed 1080p24 storage. LCD based pixel for pixel monitoring of the HD SDI signal.

What I'd buy if purchasing an uncompressed HD system now:

CPU: Dual 2.0 GHz G5 configured as such:

- Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
- 512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
- 160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
- ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM
- Bluetooth Module
- 8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
- Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
- Mac OS X - U.S. English
- Final Cut Express 2 preinstalled
- .Mac Promotional Bundle
- APP for Power Mac (w/ or w/o display) - Enrollment Kit

COST: $2987.95

PROS: Fast, proven, stable, reasonable price

CONS: Not the fastest (dual 2.5 not available as of this writing), known USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 write speed limitations.

DETAILS ON WHY:

The 2.0 GHz machines are fast, stable, proven technology. The new machines appear to be almost identical to the older ones. There are some known flaws, such as the USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 write speeds (less than 1/2 of what they should be).

RAM: I'd stick with the 512 MB standard from Apple. Here's why: Apple charges a FORTUNE for their upgrades, and I don't feel they cost justify the cost. We'll upgrade elsewhere, described later.

INTERNAL HARD DRIVE: You're going to be pulling this one anyway, so get the smallest one you can, the standard one. You can't get a G5 without it. What to do with it? I dunno, eBay it off, keep it as a spare, something.

VIDEO CARD: The stock NVIDIA 5200 card has been described as wimpy. I see two viable choices: either upgrade while purchasing online with the upgraded Radeon 9600 XT card, or purchase an ATI 9800 Pro Retail card. The two other options available on the Apple online store are the 9800 XT w/256 MB RAM or the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL card. BOTH of those cards are so large they intrude into the space of the first PCI-X slot (Slot 2 in Apple parlance). Since we plan on using all the slots, these cards, while great for games and Motion, are not ideal for our usage. If/when better PCI-X SATA cards ship, the machine can be upgraded to a better graphics card.

BLUETOOTH MODULE: Not strictly necessary, but I find it EXTREMELY useful to have the built-in unit. I sync my Sony Ericsson T616 cellphone so that I always have my latest calendar and contacts (phone and email) with me at all times. Amazingly useful and convenient. By specifically dropping the modem (I've never used a desktop's modem, and if I ever need to my problems are LARGE) you save $30, so the Bluetooth only costs you $20 net. Totall worth it, even if you don't have a Bluetooth phone yet. Opens up the possibility of wireless keyboards, mice, etc.

FINAL CUT EXPRESS 2 - This is the cut-down, prosumer version of FCP 4. DV only, no batch capture, no offlineRT, etc. Why would you want this? Because if you buy it when ordering a Mac, you get if for $99. For $699 more, you can upgrade to Final Cut Pro HD. Why bother? Because it is $200 cheaper than buying FCP HD straight out.

.MAC PROMOTIONAL BUNDLE - saves you $30 over the cost of buying it normally. This gets you a .Mac email account, web page, etc. for a year. It also gives you one click simplicity to post movies, pictures, etc. on your .Mac web page. As a filmmaker, the ability to post comps, roughs, continuity photos, etc., super easily with tightly integrated software is a huge boon. Totally worth the money. Do it.

APPLECARE PROTECTION PLAN - this is an extended warranty. Why mess with these? Two reasons - better service in case of equipment failure, and since you ARE going to be buying a display at the same time as you purchase the computer, it covers the display as well. A two for one.

I am inclined to order from the Apple Store for the following reasons: it's the only way to get a build to order system (which I usually want) that isn't straight stock config, and you get slightly better service under some circumstances if you order from Apple as opposed to a reseller. For instance, if purchased from Apple directly some sytems are replaced, sometimes the same problem requires return and repair if purchased through a reseller.

Third party upgrades:

RAM: I prefer to buy my RAM from crucial.com. Their prices are reasonable, the quality solid, and I haven't had problems with their RAM (OK, once with 15" PowerBooks, but lots of vendors had problems for the same reason). Presently, 512 MB modules are $97/each. RAM must be added in matched pairs, so you need to buy two at a time. I recommend adding at least a couple of gigs more to bring your total up to 2.5 GB (or more).

COST: $400 roughly for 4 512 MB sticks

PROS: perfectly reasonably valid quality RAM for a much better price

CONS: minor issue - it isn't an Apple supplied part, so Apple can point the finger at the RAM if there is some wierd, hard to resolve problem.

KEYBOARD: Matias Tactile Pro. Great clicky key action. I'm a fast tough typist and most keyboards that ship with computers are lame. I like this one. For a Final Cut Pro specific keyboard, there are a number of them out there with colored and labelled keys for the shortcuts. I don't have a specific one to recommend, but it's a great way to learn all the keyboard shortcuts.

COST: $100

PROS: great key action if you're a touch typist. You can always stick the supplied FCP keycaps onto this keyboard if you wish, even though they have a habit of falling off.

CONS: expensive, no FCP specifically labelled/colored keys, wired (not Bluetooth, but I don't like the idea of on/off switches and batteries on keyboards)

MOUSE: I like this Logitech 4 button model, but mice are such an individual thing, find your own favorite. Same thing for keyboards, depends on what you like.

COST: $30

PROS: Great hand fit (for me, anyway), two regular buttons with clickable scroll wheel, and a fourth button just above the scroll wheel. I like to configure mine to use the click on the scroll wheel to active the Expose "this app only" window scaling, and to use the fourth button for "all apps". That way I can use Expose without having to let go of the mouse. But configure it however you like...

CONS: not wireless (personally I don't like Bluetooth mice, hate the idea of batteries and on/off switch, so not a negative for me), not a good fit for every hand

OTHER POSSIBILITIES: I would consider getting either the Countour XPress or Contour Shuttle Pro v.2. These are USB peripherals that give you jog/shuttle and playback controls for Final Cut Pro.

COST: $60 for XPress, $130 for ShuttlePro (MSRP)

PROS: dedicated hardware never hurts, and once you're used to it, the speed is GREAT.

CONS: the smoothness and weight/heft is not magnficent - it's a $100ish dollar USB peripheral for a niche market.

OK, moving on....

COMPUTER MONITORS

Primary monitor

IF ON A BUDGET:

La Cie Electon Blue IV monitor. Huge, sharp accurate, comes with an ambient light hood, very reasonably priced 22" CRT based monitor.

COST: $700, and standard shipping is only $5 (whew!)

PROS: large, bright, sharp, very high resolution, good display capable of up to 2048x1536 resolution display (and I think the ATI 9600 cards will drive it at that resolution, too!)

CONS: big, heavy, deep (not flat), not as bright/sharp as LCD. If placed next to another CRT, interference patterns on both screens possible.

IF CAN AFFORD IT:

Apple 23 HD Cinema Display (the new one, although if you can get a deal on the old one that's fine too). 1920x1200 is enough to see every pixel of a 1080 res HD signal. Very bright, very sharp, very high contrast.

COST: $2000

PROS: bright, sharp, high contrast, can double as an HD monitor as well (more on this later), looks totally badass professional. NO interference with another CRT monitor placed near it, a perpetual problem with two CRTs placed close to each other.

CONS: expensive, not CRT phosphors for color critical work (I'm not convinced this is a terminal problem, though)

I DO NOT AT THIS TIME RECOMMEND AN APPLE 30" LCD FOR HD EDITORS PLANNING ON USING SATA ARRAYS IF YOU NEED A LOT OF STORAGE AND/OR PLAN ON WORKING WITH 1080 RES FOOTAGE. If a Mac compatible 4 external port PCI-X card hits the market, I'll rescind this stipulation.

Secondary monitor:

any good 15 to 19 CRT for palettes and bins would be fine. I'd be most picky about how sharp and contrasty the monitor is and can it drive a high resolution (fit more on the monitor) and still display the bin text at a comfortably readable size and clarity.

IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT:

An Apple 20" LCD would be a VERY nice secondary monitor, plus you could use it for 720p HD previewing (more on this later)

HD VIDEO MONITOR:

At this time, I'd recommend an LCD based monitoring solution for indies, since the cost is lower and the detail is sharper. I am NOT recommending using the "full screen mode" in FCP HD to do things like color accurate work or subtle filter settings. The full screen mode is PREVIEW of your HD content, and the quality of the image shown can vary depending on a variety of factors, including your render settings. Issues like gamma and white point also are important to consider, and are NOT correct with the default setup on the Mac. I'm talking about previewing your HD footage off of the HD-SDI capture card in your system with an LCD monitor. To use them as such, however, you need an HD SDI to DVI-D converter/processor box. There are two presently on the market, described below.

eCinema was the first to market. My understanding is that they have one unit on the market, the EPD100, and it costs about $8000. While at NAB however, I saw a device that said One2One on the side of it (this in the Apple booth), was told it was their new product coming to market. I haven't heard a thing about it since.

BlackMagic Design's HDLink costs $1300, but there has been some legal scuffling. eCinema claims BlackMagic is in willful infringement of eCinema's patents pending, so I am a little concerned about how long this product might be on the market, and if it gets pulled how it will or won't be supported in the future. Hopefully this can all be worked out favorably. Assuming it clears any potential legal hurdles, this looks like the one to get. Or get it and risk it, your call.

For 720P work:

If on a budget: get the Apple 17" Studio Display. It's a helluva deal, it is natively 1280x1024 so it can display a 720p signal pixel for pixel. I THINK that this will work with the HDLink, I don't have written confirmation from them on that yet. Don't buy it until I confirm.

For 1080p/i work (as well as 720p work):

Apple's new 23-inch Cinema Display (not the 20, not the 30) at 1920x1200 can give you a pixel for pixel preview of your HD footage. If you can get a deal on the older model, that is a known working solution. I haven't read that the new LCDs are explicitly supported by HDLink and eCinema as yet. But I expect them to be, either as is or with minor firmware/CLUT tweaks or settings.

HD CAPTURE CARD:

There are three primary contenders:


1.) Blackmagic DeckLink HD Pro card - my sentimental favorite. I've been working with their DeckLink HD card and had good results. It does 4:4:4, it is capable of 12 bit (although no codec exists AFAIK and FCP HD doesn't support this bit depth yet), and it is possible to use PhotoJPEG for offline work, including 1080p24. It offers up/down conversion for working on HD timelines and previewing on SD monitors and vice versa.

2.) AJA Kona 2 card - Looks really good. Also 4:4:4 and 12 bit, they claim superior quality up/down conversion, they've stated it'll have realtime DVCPRO HD conversion on the fly when capturing from HD-SDI, offers an excellent breakout box for rackmount installations, QRez (4:1 hardware codec). All sounds great. BUT as of my conversation at NAB with Ted Schillinger, they don't have a 1080p24 offline solution that let's you actually work at 1080 res (maybe QRez fixes this, dunno). For post/effects heavy projects such as I do, this might be a problem.

3.) Aurora Pipe HD card - this is the dark horse contender - I do not see mention of 12-bit color nor 4:4:4 capabilities as the other two cards do, but this card is otherwise quite similar, and $1000 less.

All of these offer at least 10-bit quality, analog monitoring, RT effects, two HD-SDI outputs (monitor and deck), deck control, and are similar in general specs. As always, the devil lies in the details, and all those details have yet to be uncovered.

The AJA & DeckLink cards offer 4:4:4 and 12-bit....but FCP doesn't support it yet. But since the hardware does, I'd say clearly the intent is to support it in time in FCP HD. These companies wouldn't throw those features in there blindly (would they? Nah. Right? Nah.). Support must be forthcoming I'm presuming, the question is when. Might be next NAB for all we know.

So I plan to test and doodle with all of these. I've discussed review units with two of the companies and need to do so with the third to get the full scoop on all of them. Which is "best"? As always, will depend on your particular needs and work habits. I'll have to work with them in order to find out.

AJA Kona 2 seems to get the slight overall nod at the moment...but still isn't shipping. Woops, none of them are! So this is all speculative at the moment.

It really depends on your project - if you are doing 720p work, AJA looks great. If, like me, you specifically want to do 1080p24 with an offline codec that is actually 1920x1080 pixels, BlackMagic's PhotoJPEG is the only shipping, known to work solution for that. But then there is no RT acceleration when working with PhotoJPEG, unlike 8 bit uncompressed and DVCPRO HD. Kona 2's QRez might work, but I don't know enough about it. When talking to AJA at NAB, they didn't have a recommendable 1080p24 solution for offlining that was 1080 instead of 720 res.

If I needed something TODAY, I'd buy the $995 BlackMagic DeckLink HD card and get an HD-SDI to analog component adaptor. That price ended...yesterday. Woops. Supposedly it's up to $2000 again today, but I bet you could get away with it.

Cinewave is still out there, but I don't hear ANYBODY talking about buying their systems, only those that already have them mention them. I don't see them as a heavy contender in the near future.

But let's assume the purchase of a 10bit, uncompressed, twin HD SDI output (deck and monitor) card with analog outputs (for your monitor) for now.

COST: $1500 to $2500

DeckLink HD Pro -
PROS: competitive price, PhotoJPEG at all resolutions support, 8/10/12 bit and 4:4:4 support for future upgrades, analog monitoring
CONS: no BOB, no QRez or equivalent (PhotoJPEG sorta is), no stated RT DVCPRO HD conversion on capture, possibly not quite as good at HD/SD up/down conversion.

Kona 2 -
PROS: competitive price, DVCPRO HD live transcoding on capture/playback, QRez 4:1 codec, 4:4:4, 8/10/12 bit, analog monitoring, proven broadcast quality up/down HD/SD conversion, nice BOB (BreakOut Box) for $300 extra,
CONS: Unless QRez does it, no offline 1080p24 codec w/RT support

Pipe HD -
PROS: most affordable by $1000, does 8/10 bit, analog s-video and composite previewing for SD work (the other two don't offer this), analog HD monitoring
CONS: no 4:4:4, no 12 bit (but that's OK for now since FCP HD doesn't support anyway), and I don't recall seeing HD/SD up/down conversion mentioned

STORAGE:

SCSI interfaced systems linking to ATA or SATA drives are the current status quo for HD work. But I think those are still too expensive for most indies, so I recommend a more affordable SATA based system. Yes, it's RAID 0 only, yes, it's got a lot of cabling all over the place. But it is undeniably more bang for the buck.

Here's my suggestion for a 6 drive SATA disk array:

HARD DRIVE ENCLOSURES, INTERFACE CARDS MacGurus external SATA casing: these guys seem to have the whole kit. From this one page I can order the 4 bay enclosure, 2 Seritek 1S2 cards, and the Dual SATA Cable with PCI brackets (2 of 'em). Total cost: $387. You can even order a pre-built unit with 4 Hitachi 7K250 250 GB drives, but they charge about $40/drive more than zipzoomfly.com does.

HARD DRIVES My plan is to get 6 Hitachi 7K400 400 GB drives. 2 go internally, 4 go in the external case. I'm having trouble finding these in stock at a decent price. I've seen prices anywhere from $405 (not in stock) to $479 (maybe in stock) apiece. If I didn't need quite that much space, I'd consider getting the Hitachi 7K250 250 GB drives. Performance per drive is just about identical, just smaller capacity.

(If you're only doing 720p work, consider a 4 drive array. MacGurus has 2 drive enclosures on that same page as well.)

RAID SOFTWARE SoftRAID 3.x Was at version 3.0.3 last time I checked. This will let you set up your RAID 0, partition it, and get optimal performace results (Apple's Disk Utility won't partition an array, and I've had some underperformance issues with RAIDs larger than 2 drives sometimes).

ARRAY CAPABILITIES: With the Hitachi drives, I expect to be able to get a sustained transfer rate as high as 325 MB/sec at the beginning of the array, and no less than 160 MB/sec when the array is almost full (but not fragmented). This should be satisfactory to capture 1080p24 10 bit uncompressed for 80-90% of the capacity of the array. This would be nearly 5 hours of 1080p24 10 bit 4:2:2 uncompressed footage. For 720p24 10 bit 4:2:2 footage, it would be nearly 11 hours of footage. Either way, enough to work offline/online on a feature length project. To handle this "not fast enough at some point" problem, partition and test the array, then re-partition to segment off the "not fast enough" part so that it isn't use as capture space. Use that part for offline codec capture or other not as throughput critical storage.

BOOT/AUDIO CAPTURE DRIVES: Now, with both internal bays full, where do I store my OS & apps and boot from? I have two FireWire drives - a kit built FW400 enclosure with a 100GB drive, and a La Cie d2 Hard Drive Extreme. I got the FW 400/800 250 GB version, but I should have spent $10 more and bought the La Cie d2 Triple Interface Hard Drive. Duh. For $10, yet more connectivity. And options NEVER hurt. I'll boot off one and capture audio to the other. Probably best to boot from the FW800 drive for better speed, although I'm set up the other way right now and not worrying about it.


COSTS: $500 for RAID chassis, SATA cards, cabling, RAID software, $2500 for 6 400GB drives, so $3000 for 2.4 TB (2227 GB formatted capacity) RAID 0

PROS: Fast, cheap, good. Compared to the traditional solution, such as a RAID from Huge Systems or Medea, it's about $1.25/GB of storage, as compared to $5/GB for a 2 TB RTR X RAID from Medea.

CONS: RAID 0 only (data unsecure - 1 drive dies all data on RAID dies), messy cabling, NOT expandable beyond this capacity at this point in time. Unlike the more expensive SCSI solutions, it does NOT maintain more than 200 MB/sec across the entire capacity of the drive (only 80%+). Fills all available G5 PCI slots. With 2 PCI cards in Slots 2&3, might saturate the shared 100 Mhz bus. Untested by me as yet.

DATA BACKUP/PROTECTION:

I've written extensively on this site about backup theory, basically I advocate putting your FCP projects, Photoshop artwork, and other original/unique/non-batch recapturable stuff on a non-RAID volume and back it up regularly to CD/DVD/server/removable hard drive. On the RAID itself, only store replicable/recoverable data - captured footage from drives that can be recaptured via batch capture, renders from programs that can be re-rendered in the event of catastrophe (but at what time cost? Maybe back those up too!). At that point, you can decide whether you have the budget and time to back up or not back up. If any single drive develops a problem in the array, the contents of the entire are toast. The more drives in the array, the greater the chance of failure. Therefore, you should either back up regularly or be FULLY prepared (both in capability and in time available) to recapture/regenerate all your lost data. OR you need to back up all your data. If you're using something like the La Cie Bigger Disk (1 TB capacity), a couple of these will back up all your data. Either use some kind of sync software, disk imaging software, or Retrospect to manage your backups. It takes about 8 1/2 hours to back up a terabyte at an uninterrupted 35 MB/sec. Fortunately, it's very unlikely that you'd be generating that much new data in a day, so each day's data can easily be backed up overnight. Even on uncompressed batch capture day, 1 TB is a LOT of footage. The good thing about FireWire backup is that you can (and should) stick it disconnected on a shelf when not in use, so even a lightning hit won't get it.

COST: $2680 for two La Cie Bigger Disks (1 TB each) and a d2 Hard Drive (250 GB) to back up the entire 2.4 TB array. Zero to $100 for unattended schedulable sync/backup software.

PROS: Combined with the SATA RAID described above, you have 2.4 TB of high speed backup. A 2TB RAID 3 array from Medea lists for about $10,000 including SCSI card. So the SATA RAID with FireWire backup is less than half the cost per GB of storage as compared to a Medea RTRX 10 drive 2000 GB array.

CONS: Wow, what a big cabling and box mess. Two BIG and one standard FireWire 800 drives to backup offline/overnight instead of an integrated, as-you-go backup solution with a RAID 3 from Medea or Huge.

EDITING SOFTWARE:

Apple's Final Cut Pro HD. Umm, hello? There's Avid, then there's FCP, then there's everybody else. And Avid is way too expensive, so there you go. The obvious best bang/buck uncompressed HD solution with good 3rd party support, widespread acceptance, and just plain rocks for the money. Lots of helper apps and plugins. Avid is waaaaaaay too expensive for indies to own their own system, and on a cost/benefit analysis just too much money except for the most time critical deliveries (like broadcast). Premiere Pro? Much better than before, but the feature set isn't quite there, the high level user base isn't there, there isn't any DVCPRO HD support, there isn't any HDCAM support (only Sony's XPRI has that), and it just isn't taken that seriously...yet. Vegas shows future promise, it's scary fast, but the toolset needs to mature significantly before it's ready for the big time. Leitch, Pinnacle, and others are just that - Others. Not enough market share, user support, interoperability, integration with other apps, etc. Apple's Tiger (OS X 10.4) due next year promises some very interesting capabilities like Core Video where filters and effects are executed on the graphics card at high speed. Very very promising for Mac based editors.

COST: $1000 on it's own, $800 the way I recommend purchasing it (buy your G5 with Final Cut Express 2 pre-installed, upgrade for $699 to FCP HD)

PROS: Inexpensive, powerful, VERY scalable, native DVCPRO HD codec support, can do compressed/uncompressed as well as offline/online, not tied to one vendors capture card, not tied to any storage type, LOTS of codec choices for HD & SD work, fully QT compliant for easy media sharing across programs and platforms, huge user base, great interoperability, etc. etc. etc.

CONS: Hmmm....ok, here's one - it doesn't run on PCs. Requires a G5 for uncompressed HD work. OK, I really can't think of any others. It has it's bugs, but all software does.

DECKS: This is outside of my definition of an editing station since I always just rent decks for the minimal amount of time in a project at the beginning and end of a project. The category is pretty open, depending on what you're doing. In terms of bang for the buck, however, it's tough to beat the $25000 Panasonic AJ-1200A, a DVCPRO HD deck that is $21,000 base price, $4,000 for the FireWire capable upgrade, and $6,000 for the HD-SDI capable upgrade. So $25,000 to $30,000 configured.

COSTS: $25,000 to $31,035 depending on configuration

PROS: DVCPRO HD deck, so efficient native codec support in FCP HD, does 720 res, does 1080i (but NOT 1080p at ALL, so no 1080p24), does Varicam HD footage including all supported frame rates (from 4 to 60 fps), connects via FireWire to Macs (including laptops!), records and plays back all Panasonic formats from miniDV to DVCPRO HD, including DVCAM, DVCPRO, & DVCPRO50.

CONS: no 1080p support. Can't insert edit. 8 bit codec on tape only. Compression algorithm downsamples 1280x720 to 960x720 THEN does 4:2:2 colorspace reduction THEN does DCT (JPEG like) compression.

AUDIO MONITORING: Sheesh. Lotsa options, not exactly my area of expertise. I've been EXTREMELY happy with my Alesis Monitor Ones I bought when an audio shop went out of business several years ago. I'd recommend some Alesis or similar quality pro brand studio near field reference monitors if you want accurate audio. If audio accuracy isn't important, STILL pick up some nice used studio reference monitors, even if you're just powering off of your consumer receiver/amp. Consumer speakers? Yeah, sigh...if you gotta. Just don't expect accuracy.

So that's my current favorite config.

When buying a Mac, I recommend going through the Apple Online Store, although if you want a standard config you can usually get a bunch of free stuff (upgraded RAM, free printer, UPS, stuff like that) if you go to Fry's or a reseller online or somesuch. Since I'm cheap AND I (think) I know what I'm doing, I don't go through VARs (value added resellers). If you don't know what you're doing, get a VAR or system integrator to help you with all this. Interestingly, I've been told by one VAR that he steered clients away from solutions like the BlackMagic cards and SATA arrays because they were so inexpensive he didn't feel he could make enough margin on them to support his business model. So he recommended more expensive stuff and made a bunch of noise about how these things "weren't serious enough." So be careful. This stuff works. I've successfully captured and played back a bunch of uncompressed 720p60 footage on a $500 RAID I built out of 4 spare 160 GB drives lying around, a couple of SATA cases, a Seritek card and some cables. A simple Fry's run.

It can be done. You can do it. Now all you have to do is go out and shoot a great film. Excuse me - MOVIE.

-mike

PS-I have an Excel sheet I used to put together a lot of this pricing - items, quantity, where from, etc. Very very handy for putting together the system of your choice. Want it? Just email me at mike@hdforindies.com.

Working on the bigger blog entry of "What would I buy for uncompressed HD editing station right now?" I came across a special Apple is offering - if you buy a computer from Apple, you can get Final Cut Pro Express 2 pre-installed on the system for $99. FCP Express is essentially the cut down version of FCP 4 - no batch capture, no OfflineRT, only DV format (not HD, not uncompressed SD), etc. So why should you care? Because you can upgrade to FCP HD from that for $699. When all is said and done, you've saved $200 - enough for a gig of RAM from crucial.com or other similar vendor.

The only downside is that you have to wait to get your upgrade, and I'm not sure exactly how long that takes. It appears you can order the FCP upgrade at the same time as the CPU order, but I'm not positive that will work flawlessly.

-mike

So I'm getting down to brass tacks on stepping up to a full-on HD rig.

Here's what I plan:

CPU: Dual 2.0 GHz G5 (1st gen) - I already own it

Displays: Presently I have a 24" Sony W900 16:10 aspect monitor (no longer made) that I use as my primary display, and I also have an older Apple 15" LCD (no longer made).

Monitoring: To start with, I'm most interested in the new LCD monitoring options, so I'm going to buy one of Apple's new 23HD Cinema Displays. To use it as an HD monitor, I'll need a BlackMagic HDLink

HD Capture/Playback Card: This one's still up in the air. One of the following:

1.) Blackmagic DeckLink HD Pro card - my sentimental favorite. I've been working with their DeckLink HD card and had good results. It does 4:4:4, it is capable of 12 bit (although no codec exists AFAIK and FCP HD doesn't support this bit depth yet), and it is possible to use PhotoJPEG for offline work, including 1080p24. It offers up/down conversion for working on HD timelines and previewing on SD monitors and vice versa.

2.) AJA Kona 2 card - Looks really good. Also 4:4:4 and 12 bit, they claim superior quality up/down conversion, they've stated it'll have realtime DVCPRO HD conversion on the fly when capturing from HD-SDI, offers an excellent breakout box for rackmount installations, QRez (4:1 hardware codec). All sounds great. BUT as of my conversation at NAB with Ted Schillinger, they don't have a 1080p24 offline solution that let's you actually work at 1080 res (maybe QRez fixes this, dunno). For post/effects heavy projects such as I do, this might be a problem.

3.) Aurora Pipe HD card - this is the dark horse contender - I do not see mention of 12-bit color nor 4:4:4 capabilities as the other two cards do, but this card is otherwise quite similar, and $1000 less.

All of these offer at least 10-bit quality, analog monitoring, RT effects, two HD-SDI outputs (monitor and deck), and are similar in general specs. As always, the devil lies in the details, and all those details have yet to be uncovered.

The AJA & DeckLink cards offer 4:4:4 and 12-bit....but FCP doesn't support it yet. But since the hardware does, I'd say clearly the intent is to support it in time in FCP HD. These companies wouldn't throw those features in there blindly (would they? Nah. Right? Nah.). Support must be forthcoming, the question is when. Might be next NAB for all we know.

So I plan to test and doodle with all of these. I've discussed review units with two of the companies and need to do so with the third to get the full scoop on all of them. Which is "best"? As always, will depend on your particular needs and work habits. I'll have to work with them in order to find out.

STORAGE I'm really looking forward to getting further into this, since monitoring, capture cards, and storage have been the big "gotchas" in this field. Here's my for my 6 drive SATA disk array.

HARD DRIVE ENCLOSURES, INTERFACE CARDS MacGurus external SATA casing: these guys seem to have the whole kit. From this one page I can order the 4 bay enclosure, 2 Seritek 1S2 cards, and the Dual SATA Cable with PCI brackets (2 of 'em). Total cost: $387. You can even order a pre-built unit with 4 Hitachi 7K250 250 GB drives, but they charge about $40/drive more than zipzoomfly.com does.

HARD DRIVES My plan is to get 6 Hitachi 7K400 400 GB drives. 2 go internally, 4 go in the external case. I'm having trouble finding these in stock at a decent price. I've seen prices anywhere from $405 (not in stock) to $479 (maybe in stock) apiece.

RAID SOFTWARE SoftRAID 3.x Was at version 3.0.3 last time I checked. This will let you set up your RAID 0, partition it, and get optimal performace results (Apple's Disk Utility won't partition an array, and I've had some underperformance issues with RAIDs larger than 2 drives sometimes).

ARRAY CAPABILITIES: With the Hitachi drives, I expect to be able to get a sustained transfer rate as high as 325 MB/sec at the beginning of the array, and no less than 160 MB/sec when the array is almost full (but not fragmented). This should be satisfactory to capture 1080p24 10 bit uncompressed for 80-90% of the capacity of the array. This would be nearly 5 hours of 1080p24 10 bit 4:2:2 uncompressed footage. For 720p24 10 bit 4:2:2 footage, it would be nearly 11 hours of footage. Either way, enough to work offline/online on a feature length project.

BOOT/AUDIO CAPTURE DRIVES: Now, with both internal bays full, where do I store my OS & apps and boot from? I have two FireWire drives - a kit built FW400 enclosure with a 100GB drive, and a La Cie d2 Hard Drive Extreme. I got the FW 400/800 250 GB version, but I should have spent $10 more and bought the