Jumping the Vegas ship catch me Edius

[sonisfear]

Hello,

I love Vegas GUI but the render times has been killing me.

Just loaded the Edius 3 demo and wow what a difference in performance. I mean not even in the same ball park. I love the way i detects the capabilites of my pc (HT dual cpu SSE) and utilizes it including the GPU.

I like the fact that I could fiddle my way around the basic workflow without craking the manual.

I am using less than the minium requirements so it stop playing from time to time anysujjestion on how to get around this?

The output seemed better aswell (first impression no real test yet)

The fact Edius for has multicam is a deal closer for me.

I am now planning on selling stuff to get Edius.

What is your sujjestion Hardware wise?
Edius NX HD, or should I wait for AVDC700

Does the GPU help with EDIUS? would a nvida7900 help with this system?

How can I make my CPU the fastest HD machine for the buck

I have a quad AMD opteron MB with currently only one dual core Opteron CPU
1 gig RAM

any tips would be nice?

BTW I was looking for a soften or glow effect is it in there?

[stabwound]

I haven't seen the soften or glow effect.

It does have the soft-focus filter which gives a "Captain Sky" or "Minority Report" look to the footage. Might be the effect you were looking for.

I use it to soften the background in my green screen composites, just enough to separate the character from the background.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/petermhsu/sky.jpg

My only complaint about Edius is that it exports jpg stills that look slightly lighter and washed out when compared to the footage.

Someone mentioned Edius doesn't render out true 0.0.0 black. Just wondering if that is the case.

Nevertheless, it generates really nice wmv output (through procoder) that looks almost as good as the original footage. My quicktime footage has that washed out look.

[sonisfear]

Hey.. I like that...thanks for shareing that idea...

Another question...does eduis have a sync to timecode funtion in the timeline?

[stabwound]

Sonisfear:

I dunno if there is a synch to timecode on the timeline.... I ain't seen it, but doesn't mean it's not there. Edius tends to hide the menus, and I'm still kinda new to it.

Brandon's the guy to ask.

I do recommend downloading the trial version (that's what I'm using) and trying it out.

Two months ago you couldn't pry me off Premiere... but now... I can't seem to figure out why I liked premiere so much.

I suspect Edius isn't as feature filled as Vegas (haven't used it, but heard lotsa good things) but it seems to get the job done fairly quickly.

[bhiga]

EDIUS works in YCbCr space, so rendering out stills to RGB requires conversion which will result in some color shift.

As for black, it'll render out pure zero if that's what you're using, but stuff like its colorbars are designed to be in the safe range.

There are Motion Blur, Blur, High Quality Blur and Soft Focus filters.

You can combine these with the Region filter to affect certain regions, and when EDIUS 4 arrives you'd also be able to do more complex effects using masks (though how you'd generate the masks still requires some external influence unless you have Chroma-keyed stuff).

Brandon

Brandon

[sonisfear]

Brandon it sounds like you know Edius very well. The number one reason I am switching is render performance. I am now considering the hardware to buy to make my editing system boogie.

Will The Edius NX be enough or do I need a quatro card?

Anybody Edius user join in and tell me the most bang for buck or just bang period?.

With Vegas I was using cineform which converted the M2T files to AVI. These avi files don't seem to work in Edius. Does Edius perform better with AVI files than M2T? If so does anyone know if Cineform will make a plug/codec for Edius?

I use to juggle between two pc to get work done with Vegas. I am hoing that the perforamce will be dramatic enough for m to sell one my pc (dual xeon 2.4 1.5GB ram 1 tereabyte harddrive space) to pay for the parts I need to get Eduis charged up.

[bhiga]

Technically the EDIUS hardware doesn't accelerate performance (except in DV editing mode, where the hardware DV codec can be used). One thing it does do is perform the line-scaling from non-1920x1080 output to 1920x1080.

For example, HDV and HDCAM have resolutions of 1440x1080, while DVCPRO HD uses 1280x1080.

By performing the line-scaling in hardware instead of software, we achieve a much crisper and more accurate HD video output free of the "shimmer" or "in and out" type effects often seen in detail areas during slow horizontal pans.

Brandon

[sonisfear]

What video card is the best choice for Edius?
It seems to be rendering faster than Vegas, Am I doing something wrong?
Does the Edius NX with the HDkit help render faster?
How do I do slow mo?

[bhiga]

Best video card: Depends. EDIUS uses CPU power and not GPU power, except in the case of Xplode for EDIUS effects.

Faster rendering: Dunno what Vegas is doing, but our codecs are pretty well-optimized.

Slow mo: Right-click the clip in the timeline and choose Speed.
Less than 100% will be slow-mo. Negative percentage will go backward.

[sonisfear]

Thanks Brandon for being such a great resource. It sounds like you work for Edius.

Can I import clips to the timeline accoring to their timecode?

What are you favourite features of Edius?

What are your favourite feautres of the up-and-coming version 4?

[bhiga]

Actually, I should be clear... I do work for Canopus, although I'm here only in a semi-official manner. Let me add to that the fact that I was a Canopus customer before I became a Canopus employee, so I do try to "keep things real" as much as possible. Actually, all the folks in the San Jose office do. We may have "platforms" but we're not drones by any means.


I'm not sure what you mean about importing clips by their timecode? My production skills aren't necessarilly as high-end as the folks here, heh.

Clips imported into EDIUS, whether P2 or otherwise, will preserve their original tape timecode as long as it was available to EDIUS. In general this means if you've captured from a digital source in EDIUS or you've captured with timecode via RS-422 (on EDIUS SP) or SDI (on EDIUS SD and EDIUS HD), then the timecode info is available in the file.

In the Information settings you can determine whether source timecode is shown along with timeline (sequence in EDIUS 4) timecode. With that you can do match frame jumps to Player or Timeline.


Favorite feature? Hmm... That's a tough one... In the "grand scheme" my favorite aspect of EDIUS is that it's WYSIWYG editing, meaning that EDIUS always processes full-resolution, full-framerate output. What you see on-screen and out to your video monitor if you have hardware, is really what you'll get, barring any technical aberrations, of course.

Beyond that, I really like the fact that I can switch between different processing resolutions, like switching a 4:3 project to 16:9, without having to reconstruct things. The flip-side to this is being able to mix clips of various formats together on the same timeline without them getting converted or otherwise mangled in the process.

And by far, the Layout function is one of my favorite useful things. Chrominance is my favorite "cool" things.


So far, my favorite feature of the upcoming version 4 is the multi-camera mode. It's very flexible and has a definite "wow" factor for those who shoot with more than one camera. For those that don't shoot more than one camera, the Time Remap function which allows rampable speed changes is very fun to play with.


Brandon

[Barry_Green]

Brandon, let me just say this: the P2 implementation you guys put into Broadcast is HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE.

To draw a camera comparison:
P2/MXF implementation in EDIUS Broadcast is like 24P implementation in the DVX.

P2/MXF implementation in Avid is like "frame mode" in the Canon.

P2/MXF implementation in FCP is like "CineFrame 24" in the Sony.

EDIUS does it RIGHT.

If you guys could deliver all the features and power of Vegas, but with your obvious attention to doing stuff like the P2 import tool, I have to believe you would really expand your market share.

[bhiga]

Thanks Barry!

I like it when things make sense...

[sonisfear]

What package should I be gettin the Edius NX, Broadcast or will pro work for me?

The demo says play stopped from time to time does this mean my requirements are too low?

[sonisfear]

You know...

Me thinks me like the Edius...
I am having trouble getting the preview to work with my HD100 JVc is that because its the demo?

[sonisfear]

Sorry for all the questions Brandon..

is there a training video or book I can buy? I am so comfortable with Vegas I need the down time to be as short as possible.

[sonisfear]

Is there a release date on Edius 4?
Need Beta testers? :^)

[bhiga]

Hehehe, questions are good...

What package should I be gettin the Edius NX, Broadcast or will pro work for me?
Essentially there are two choices to make:
Q1) Which EDIUS hardware, if any, do you need?
Q2) Which EDIUS software do you need?

A1) The EDIUS software will run completely fine without an EDIUS hardware board, but the hardware board gives you I/O and your SD/HD video output for true WYSIWYG editing. The on-screen display, even though it's been processed full-res and full-framerate, just isn't the same as seeing a true SD or HD video signal output to a video monitor.
So here you'd choose between EDIUS NX, EDIUS SP, EDIUS SD or EDIUS HD solutions.
If you don't need/want SDI, AES/EBU audio, or downscaling of HD output with the MIP* then EDIUS SD and EDIUS HD are out (unless you have tons of money to spend)
* this means an HD project would be output by the MIP in both HD and downscaled SD - it's a big time-saver if you need to make both HD and SD outputs, since you can leave the project as HD. Without this ability, you'd need to switch the project setting to SD, then fix any titles, positional and scaled elements for SD resolution.

Now is a good time to throw in the tidbit that the EDIUS SD system can do everything the EDIUS HD system can do except HD-SDI I/O. You can still edit with HDV and other HD formats like HD P2 and VariCam, you just don't have HD-SDI output.
Well, without the MIP you don't get any HD output since you only have SD SDI unless you have the MIP. Realistically though, everyone with an EDIUS SD or EDIUS HD system really should get the MIP.

Between EDIUS NX and EDIUS SP, if you need RS-422 device control (and timecode), balanced audio and/or SD component input, then EDIUS SP is the way to go.

A2) Assuming you'll be using a P2 (or VariCam, or XDCAM) camera with EDIUS, then you'd need the EDIUS Broadcast software.
EDIUS NX comes with EDIUS Pro, so if you got EDIUS NX, you'd need to get the upgrade to EDIUS Broadcast software too.
EDIUS SP, EDIUS SD and EDIUS HD come with EDIUS Broadcast, so you'd be fine there.
And of course if you decide you don't need EDIUS hardware, then you just buy the EDIUS Broadcast software instead of EDIUS Pro.


The demo says play stopped from time to time does this mean my requirements are too low?
Essentially it means one of two things:
a) You're trying to do more effects than your system can handle in realtime so more CPU power would alleviate this, or scaling back on the number/type of effects you're using.
b) There's some kind of drive transfer problem "starving" the CPU of video data to process


I am having trouble getting the preview to work with my HD100 JVc is that because its the demo?
It shouldn't have anything to do with demo/non-demo.
I assume you're running FireWire out from the system to your HD100?
That ought to work for DV. It won't, however, work for HDV.

Nothing out there so far (at least that I've seen) has realtime HDV preview output. Remember when systems weren't fast enough to generate realtime DV output on their own and no hardware DV compressors were available? That's where we're at with HDV right now.

So, nothing has realtime HDV output until after you render an HDV output file.

Don't fret too much though. Even if you did have realtime HDV output, because of HDV's long-GOP format, it would be painfully slow and delayed. It's semi-acceptable for DV because DV is intra-frame compressed - you only need a single frame to compress and decompress before you get output. In HDV, that's not the case - you need 12-15 frames to compress and decompress before you get ouput. That equates to "lag time" of more than half a second, accounting for the lag to compress to HDV on the CPU side and decompress the HDV on the camera/deck side.


is there a training video or book I can buy? I am so comfortable with Vegas I need the down time to be as short as possible.
Have you taken a look at the training videos on our website? We also have them on DVD that we can send out to you.

Some dedicated users on the Canopus forums have also put up how-tos and such on their own websites.


Is there a release date on Edius 4?
Need Beta testers? :^)
No specific release date yet.
EDIUS Pro version 4 and EDIUS Broadcast version 4 are scheduled for release end-June.
The EDIUS Pro and Broadcast version 4 software supporting the EDIUS hardware is scheduled for release end-August.
What this means in "regular people terms" is...
If you're not going to use EDIUS hardware, you can get EDIUS Pro version 4 and EDIUS Broadcast version 4 at the end of June.
If you are going to use EDIUS hardware, then you won't be able to use version 4 until end-August.

As for beta testing, Joshua (Canopus_JH on the Canopus forum) is handling that stuff, at least for the US side.

Brandon

[sonisfear]

can I load flash text from like wild tangent presentor into the timeline.

[bhiga]

You can load Flash SWF into the timeline, but audio will be lost.
Has something to do with how audio is handled in Flash. I haven't seen anything that preserves audio with Flash import yet.

[sonisfear]

The tutorials are great! goingthrough bit by bit each video. haven't located the options to order the dvd yet.
Great work...

[bhiga]

I forgot exactly where the request page is, but you can call our Sales guys and request one too.
http://www.canopus.com/canopus/contact/contact.php

[sonisfear]

Is explode transitions and FX a separate application to buy?

[bhiga]

EDIUS includes "Xplode for EDIUS" effects. These are the only Xplode effects which work in HD. There used to be a separate Xplode Professional package a long while ago, but it is no longer available (and hasn' t been updated in a while, either).

Note that the Adorage effects from Prodad.de will plug into EDIUS.

Brandon

[sonisfear]

I have made my order on Edius Pro3 and procoder.
I must congratulate Canopus for a great sell with a one two punch combo.

1) A unlimited trial app that I can use to actually complete a project while learning, rather than playing around wasting time then go back to work with my previous platform.

2) A GOOD online video manual that makes me feel comfortable with making that transition.

Brandon... Thanks for the tip on Adorage.

[Larry Rutledge]

Hey Brandon, I work in Pleasanton (just a hop, skip, and a jump from San Jose). Any chance of getting a "tour", or at least a chance to peek behind the curtain and see what's going on over there?

Also, I am a computer programmer by day, doing any hiring? :)


Peace,
Larry

[bhiga]

@sonisfear:
Thanks! It's been a long while since someone said something nice about our marketing efforts... I am pleased. *grin*

@Larry:
Unfortunately there's not much magic going on in our office (save for the eventual mental breakdown and subsequent destructive rampage by me), as all the Canopus hardware and software engineering is done in the main headquarters in Kobe, Japan.

Brandon