upgrading from software only

S

sean90291

Veteran
Having only worked with my own software-only versions of Xpress and then Media Composer, I'm now finding that in my HD world, some of the third-party real-time plug-ins just won't play entirely real-time in my software-only Media Composer.

And so, I'm considering some additional Avid hardware. But I'd be looking for used and as economical as possible. (Should be possible given everyone's selling off their Avids for FCP.)

However, I'm more than a bit confused by the Avid product line (even after 2 years of working intensely with Avid). Is Avid hardware the way to go? I'd rather find a non-proprietary solution. Would upgrading my dual-core to quad-core make any difference in playback? I'm not sure if Media Composer even relates to Quad Core.

Anybody have a recommendation?

I'm a little concerned about committing too much money to proprietary hardware when software and non-proprietary hardware is advancing so fast (e.g., buy a Mojo only to find that in three months time Premiere with an off-the-shelf ATI graphics card does a lot more).
 
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Contrary to popular belief, Avid's hardware does nothing to accelerate effects. Your ability to play back effects in realtime will be limited to your processor speed, drive speed, and the resolution of footage your trying to play back.

If you have HD footage and you're trying to stack some effects you'll have much less realtime playback than if you're cutting in DV25. The footage alone is requiring more processing power, so there's left to calculate the effects.

Which effects are you wanting to playback in realtime? Most third party effects require a render, but the renders are typically very fast. Upgrading your system might help, but we need more info on what you're currently running.

If you need to bring Analog video into your system you'll need a Mojo at least, and you'll need a Mojo or Adrenline to output your video to a broadcast monitor. Otherwise, it won't help with your effects at all.

Michael.
 
There's a new set of effects from Red Giant called Magic Bullet Looks, which is a green dot effect in Avid. Similarly, Tiffen DFX effects are green dot. But none of them play back entirely real time (all my Avid standard green dot effects do, however).

That's really good info about the Mojo and Adrenlaine, butcher. Thanks! I didn't know that about Mojo or Adrenaline.

So looks like processor speed is the way to go...which means 2 Dual Xeons or something.

As far as you know, how is Avid software handling multi-core processors? My current dual-core runs everything just great. It's not a Xeon though.
 
Avid isn't currently programmed to really take advantage of multiple processors/cores. I don't think rendering, exporitng, and importing can take advantage of multiple processors. Playback--maybe, but I'm not entirely sure. The biggest benefit I've seen from multiple processors is that the more you have the more horsepower you have to take care of all the other little processes that are constantly running, leaving more for Avid to use.

I'll try to run some render/export tests later this week to see how my processors are used (I have 2 x dual-core 3.2 processors). I'll let you know what I can figure out.

Michael.
 
Thanks Michael. I see posts in Avid forums discussing the mutli-processor + Avid question. But haven't seen any definitive answers. Love to hear about what you discover! I guess it's worth knowing if some multiple processors even SLOW DOWN Avid. I did read something about that being a possibility. Ugh. Another attractive possibility for multi-processors is running other apps that CAN take advantage of the extra CPU power on the same machine as an Avid (and as much as I try to keep the Avid machine pristine, sometimes it just makes sense to have other applications running with it, like After Effects, RedCine, etc.).
 
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