Gonna Change Everything!

J

Joe_Hicks

Well-known member
I'm in the process of building a new computer and changing NLE's from Premiere to Avid Xpress Pro with Mojo. I'm tired of hitting the render button and going out to watch the grass grow.

At this point, I plan to go with:
- Dual AMD Opteron 254's
- Tyan Thunder K8WE Mobo
- 2 gig of Ram
- WD 74gb Raptor for system drive
- SATA RAID 0 (or 5) for video drive (any input on RAID levels would help)
- Another cheap monster drive for storage
- M Audio Delta 66 Sound Card

First, does anyone see any issues with this system and Avid Xpress Pro. Secondly, I didn't mention a video card because I'm freakin lost when it comes to choosing a video card. I don't want a cheap card that won't keep up, but... I don't want to overspend for power that I won't need (I don't do any serious 3d modeling). Any suggestions? Is there a card in the 250.00-400.00 range that will do the trick?

Any input would be appreciated.
 
Absolutely. Certified systems are there to minimize problems. When Avid is stable, the systems are great. But when you start introducing items into the pipeline that create bottlenecks, then you start to pull your hair out -especially if it happens around midnight.

The mojo is a stop gap -it doesn't handle HD other than through the firewire which means DVCPro HD. You can monitor downcoverted material via the Mojo, but at this time it's not a really good I/O. Because we do a lot of HD stuff, it's OK to use as an off-line in SD mode.

The other thing with Mojo/Avid and real-time functionality comes down to hard drives -if using uncompressed you need to have SCSI drives- otherwise you run into playback/performance issues. External firewires arre OK for offline resolutions though...
 
Joe_Digital said:
The other thing with Mojo/Avid and real-time functionality comes down to hard drives -if using uncompressed you need to have SCSI drives- otherwise you run into playback/performance issues. External firewires arre OK for offline resolutions though...
Click to expand...

I shoot strictly with the DVX100 and have been told that DV will work fine with SATA drives with no bottlenecks. If this is not true, I'm all ears. I was initially going to go with SCSI drives, in fact I've got a couple of brand new Maxtor Atlas V's sitting here that were going to go into this box, but... after considering storage needs, it can get astronomically expensive with SCSI drives.

What I'm seeing as the big issue is the AMD Opterons. And according to Avid's website, they're not too interested in fielding calls about compatibilty and refer you to their knowledge base, which doesn't offer a whole lot about the AMD processors.

How about our Avid moderator here, do you have any light to shed on this?

Thanks,
Joe
 
There's usually a lot of info on AMD's on Avid's forum page, and in the archived forums.

What you will find is most people advise against using AMD proc's though some say they are using them with no issues. Just know that if you go ahead with an AMD and later encounter problems, the first suspect will always be the unsupported processor. If you're intending to use your Avid for financial gain, then I'd suggest going supported all the way. The couple dollars you save in the beginning will come back to bite you when you start having troubles.
 
editron5000 said:
What you will find is most people advise against using AMD proc's though some say they are using them with no issues. Just know that if you go ahead with an AMD and later encounter problems, the first suspect will always be the unsupported processor.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input-

editron5000 said:
If you're intending to use your Avid for financial gain, then I'd suggest going supported all the way. The couple dollars you save in the beginning will come back to bite you when you start having troubles.
Click to expand...

Actually, the AMD is a bit more spendy, but... all the comparisons out there show the AMD to be a faster, more efficient processor. And a lot of these speed results had a decent margin in them.

I just finished reading a 4 segment (Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov) article in Event DV magazine and quite interestingly Premiere came out scoring higher overall than Avid XPress Pro. Granted, Premiere didn't come out ahead in each individual test, but did rate higher overall.

So, given this information and the fact that I'm really stuck on going with the AMD processors, I think I'll save myself a lot of money and stay with Premiere.
Although, I am going to go and take a look at the Apple G5 and FCP.
 
Joe_Hicks said:
So, given this information and the fact that I'm really stuck on going with the AMD processors, I think I'll save myself a lot of money and stay with Premiere.
Although, I am going to go and take a look at the Apple G5 and FCP.
Click to expand...

FCP can't use AMD's either!!:laugh: j/k

FWIW, I used to use Premiere as well and couldn't see the justification of going to Avid, (then XpressDV3.5). But, now after having used Avid for well over 3 yrs I can honestly say that it meets or exceeds all my needs. I have never been disappointed on my Avid system. But it really comes down to what market/niche you're in and getting the tools to do your job effectively. I'd imagine that XpressPro didn't fair as well in the overall Event DV article because it's not really best suited towards the "one-man band" operation as Premiere and FCP (and now Avid Liquid) are.

Good luck, no matter what system you choose.
 
I would imagine you may have problems with the soundcard, even though avid has aquired m-audio i beleive there are still issues with their cards and avid. I am running a very similar homebuilt setup to what you are building only with xeon's. I have not had any problems editing DV footage. The only issues i have had were with my E-MU 0404 soundcard I had to change all my audio settings back to the poor motherboard sound to get avid to playback sound. I have since put in an inexpensive 24bit SB Live card that works much better for playback and has no issues with avid. I am planning on purchasing an M-Box 2 and Protools when student loan money comes in then I hope to be fully compatable.
 
Going a bit offtopic here, I would advise against Mbox because it is still only USB 1.1 and you will have latency if you're going to use it to record sound on a location or set. Of course, the good part about is that you can use ProTools, and if you just plan on listening through it and recording occasionally, it will do the trick. Still, if you would want to record from multiple sources simultaneously, it's not a very good choice.
Still, I myself would go with an M-Audio unit and ProTools M-Powered.
 
Pro Tools M-Powered cannot take advantage of the DVToolkit to give you timecode options in PT and to allow the import of OMF files from Avid.

Dmitry is right about latency in Mbox, but I've used Mbox for years, and it's never been a problem for me, and it's great for a portable unit.
 
Oh.. Interesting. I haven't tried either of the ProTools, and there is nothing about the timecode on the comparison chart between M-P and LE. Bloody Avid.. hehe. Thanks for letting me know, because this is quite crucial, and I was considering M-Audio ProjectMix as opposed to Digi 002 for audio recording.
 
Ya thanks krest, i stated looking at M-Audio stuff and after knowing that I will definately stick with the m-box, at least untill i can afford a digi 002. Are there any other audio programs that will work with OMF files??
 
sparereel said:
Are there any other audio programs that will work with OMF files??
Click to expand...

Not to my knowledge. There are some that claim OMF import / export, but from my understanding the support is and overstatement. ProTools TDM systems or LE systems with the DVToolkit option are pretty much the alpha and omega for OMF workflows.
 
I also forgot to mention i will be getting the M-Box 2, according to digidesigns website it is supposed to be zero latency? Is this a far fetched claim or a new feature to the new model?
 
Hm ... I hadn't seen the "Zero Latency" claim before. I'm still on Mbox 1, so I can't say if that's true or not. Honestly, with computer speeds what they are today, there's no real excuse for latency, even on USB 1.1 speeds, it's got plenty of room to push audio around.

That's a big plus for Mbox 2, but the thing that bugs me about Mbox 2 is that the 1/4 inch line out jacks are unbalanced. They're balanced on Mbox 1. Two steps forward, one step back I guess.
 
i went with a dell workstation.. it has xeon processors, which is i would say highly recommended for HDV editing.
 
Joe_Hicks said:
I'm in the process of building a new computer and changing NLE's from Premiere to Avid Xpress Pro with Mojo. I'm tired of hitting the render button and going out to watch the grass grow.

At this point, I plan to go with:
- Dual AMD Opteron 254's
- Tyan Thunder K8WE Mobo
- 2 gig of Ram
- WD 74gb Raptor for system drive
- SATA RAID 0 (or 5) for video drive (any input on RAID levels would help)
- Another cheap monster drive for storage
- M Audio Delta 66 Sound Card

First, does anyone see any issues with this system and Avid Xpress Pro. Secondly, I didn't mention a video card because I'm freakin lost when it comes to choosing a video card. I don't want a cheap card that won't keep up, but... I don't want to overspend for power that I won't need (I don't do any serious 3d modeling). Any suggestions? Is there a card in the 250.00-400.00 range that will do the trick?

Any input would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

I've worked with the full line of Avid products from Media Composer to Xpress Pro, to a several million dollar Symphany lab, and in my opinion, Premiere Pro and FCP are way more intuitive editing programs, they are very easy to get the hang of and just MAKE SENSE. I understand the differences between a software program and a software/hardware platform, but I worked on Avid for 2 and a half years and will never go back if I can help it. Right now I'm running PPro 1.5 and editing MiniDV HD footage with the help of Aspect HD and it's smooth. If you've never edited on Avid, you'll be spending that extra time learning how to edit rather then watching the grass grow. I understand that a lot of people who work on Avid think it's the god of editing, so maybe this is just a rant on my behalf, but it's just my two cents :)
 
CLD said:
i went with a dell workstation.. it has xeon processors, which is i would say highly recommended for HDV editing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I've read. But... I have yet to read one article or find one test that rates the Xeon above the Opteron. In many tests the Xeon can't hold a candle to the Opteron.

Don't get me wrong, I've always been an Intel person, but I have to throw out any bias and simply look at what is fastest. Time is money. And am now considering any potential compatibility issues. So far, none to speak of with Premiere and AMD.

After reading many of these posts and other areas of this forum, I will stay with Premiere as I can't see any advantage in spending the money and going to Avid-- there's no justification.
 
Joe_Hicks said:
I have yet to read one article or find one test that rates the Xeon above the Opteron. In many tests the Xeon can't hold a candle to the Opteron.
Click to expand...

That's true, but if the software making you money won't run on Opterons, then ... :laugh:

After reading many of these posts and other areas of this forum, I will stay with Premiere as I can't see any advantage in spending the money and going to Avid-- there's no justification.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you're making an informed decision so I'm sure you'll be happy with Premiere. It's not the tool, but the person behind it that makes a great cut.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top