best system to watch and edit native 5d2

PerroneFord said:
Drive format is a non-issue. I have an HFS+ external hooked to my PC right now, and just transferred some color graded 5D files to it (as DNxHD). Easy as pie.

And yes, CUDA based DNxHD transcoding would be great, but Avid would have to deprecate it's Nitris hardware somewhat. Not sure we'll be seeing that any time soon. But we can hope.
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Do you use macdrive? I had that erase a drive on me a few years ago (cringe) good thing I had the tape and was editing on avid or I would have been screwed!
 
Just picked up an Acer 8940g i7 laptop for $1350 and it works great with NEO Scene and Premiere Pro. I shoot and edit TV commercials and I love having a mobile editor to review and edit footage on set.
 
saneproductions said:
Do you use macdrive? I had that erase a drive on me a few years ago (cringe) good thing I had the tape and was editing on avid or I would have been screwed!
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I am using MacDrive 7. Version 8 is out. MacDrive 7 has been BULLETPROOF for me for over 2 years now. I wouldn't be without it. Might be worth another look for you.
 
Curious if the i7 will handle native AVCHD playback and if you are able to edit your 7D footage natively in Premiere CS4.2 or if you still need to transcode with Cineform.
 
mhood said:
Curious if the i7 will handle native AVCHD playback and if you are able to edit your 7D footage natively in Premiere CS4.2 or if you still need to transcode with Cineform.
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I shoot on the 5D so I transcode both for the codec and the framerate conversion. I can play back the native footage very smoothly right from my CF card but it won't edit in CS4 very nice. Still is choppy. But after transcode, it edits smooth as butter.
 
NextWaveG said:
I shoot on the 5D so I transcode both for the codec and the framerate conversion. I can play back the native footage very smoothly right from my CF card but it won't edit in CS4 very nice. Still is choppy. But after transcode, it edits smooth as butter.
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I wish we could sticky this...
 
I can certainly understand why you would want to transcode your 5D footage and would expect the Cineform codec to play nicely on dual cores as well. But I was hoping for native editing of 7D AVCHD footage with the i7. I can do it now with SD 7D footage but HD chokes my CS4.2 on a Dual Core.

Have you tried working natively with 5D AVCHD files off a 7200 rpm drive instead of the CF card? Probably not huh?
 
mhood said:
I can certainly understand why you would want to transcode your 5D footage and would expect the Cineform codec to play nicely on dual cores as well. But I was hoping for native editing of 7D AVCHD footage with the i7. I can do it now with SD 7D footage but HD chokes my CS4.2 on a Dual Core.

Have you tried working natively with 5D AVCHD files off a 7200 rpm drive instead of the CF card? Probably not huh?
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The i7 is not fast enough. The 8 core is not fast enough. NOTHING right now is fast enough to get smooth editing of the 5D and 7D. Professionals have said every way possible.

We are just not there yet. Maybe the next generation of processors. But not now.
 
mhood said:
I can certainly understand why you would want to transcode your 5D footage and would expect the Cineform codec to play nicely on dual cores as well. But I was hoping for native editing of 7D AVCHD footage with the i7. I can do it now with SD 7D footage but HD chokes my CS4.2 on a Dual Core.

Have you tried working natively with 5D AVCHD files off a 7200 rpm drive instead of the CF card? Probably not huh?
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I have tried editing it natively straight from the hard drive. It runs a lot better then my old quad core Q6600, but it is still far too choppy to edit, running at 2-5 fps. I haven't tried the GPU Decoder software from Divide Frame, but I don't feel like dropping another $100 just to do what I already can do with Cineform.

PerroneFord said:
The i7 is not fast enough. The 8 core is not fast enough. NOTHING right now is fast enough to get smooth editing of the 5D and 7D. Professionals have said every way possible.

We are just not there yet. Maybe the next generation of processors. But not now.
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It's not speed, it's the way it's processed. I use an 8 core Mac Pro at work and it edits native 5D footage fine in FCP. ...but that's because the Mac's process H.264 footage differently then PCs.

Transcoding is your friend with the 5D/7D on PCs. Get an i7 and you'll transcode in seconds and then drop it into Premiere Pro.
 
I have NeoScene and use it on HD AVCHD but am still hoping against hope for some Nvidia Cuda-enabled accelerator of some kind that can handle the decoding of the long GoP stuff. You're right though, it won't come with faster processors...that's a superficial understanding of the problem...
 
You wouldn't want to do it anyway, as soon as you did any kind of effects of processing it would turn to Sh*%.

I don't even understand why you would want to do this. If you want to edit native files shoot DVCPRO HD. It is a much better codec with better color. Renders fast too!
 
mhood said:
I have NeoScene and use it on HD AVCHD but am still hoping against hope for some Nvidia Cuda-enabled accelerator of some kind that can handle the decoding of the long GoP stuff. You're right though, it won't come with faster processors...that's a superficial understanding of the problem...
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See but that's just the thing. The 5D and 7D don't shoot AVCHD. If they did, you'd be fine with a hot processor. I can edit them in real time.

Maybe the Divide Frame is just what you're looking for. Not sure which NLEs it supports. Frankly, I'd rather transcode for the same reasons NextWave and SaneProductions do. The codec is terrible for editing and especially color work.
 
I don't have the slightest desire to suffer your arrogance and try to explain why the codec is just fine for most of the work I do...but it is and editing native files on location would be a very good thing FOR ME.
 
@mhood

I would recommend looking at Divide Frame. From what I understand, their GPU Decoder plug-in for Premiere Pro allows you to edit native 5D/7D footage while taking advantage of CUDA based GPUs.
 
mhood said:
I don't have the slightest desire to suffer your arrogance and try to explain why the codec is just fine for most of the work I do...but it is and editing native files on location would be a very good thing FOR ME.
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Well, you can ignore my "arrogance" all you like. It won't change the reality one bit. If the codec is fine for you, that's terrific. For many of my projects, it would be as well.

But the fact remains that an i7, a quadcore, a dual quadcore, or whatever is not going to be enough on it's own. Stuff like the Divide Frame, that can leverage the GPU to help out, might get it done for you and that's been mentioned at least twice. You will need a CUDA based graphics card though.

So best of luck to you. Regardless if you want to hear what people who've been there are saying to you.
 
@NextWaveG

TYVM. My GPU checks out...I'll load the trial version when I get some down time in a few days. I don't see any requirements for an i7...maybe my dual core will work. Fingers crossed.
 
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