Hi Marianna and Avid users! :)
Thank you for your quick responses to my previous posts! Much appreciated.
So I'm moving to 4K content production with a Panasonic GH5. I shoot in UHD 60P and then transcode all media to Avid DNxHR UHD 60P LB to keep the bitrate.
I import all the files in the Avid no problem. However, upon playing back of the footage, sometimes I see some red bars appear on the timeline, indicating dropping frames. Also, when I try to do a digital cut, the application reports "Some frames were dropped."
Using my previous workflow of filming in HD using XDCAM 50 MBPS 4:2:2, i never have this problem.
Here is my computer specs (shown below)
My computer was built in October 2013. What CPU do I need to upgrade to playback UHD 60P DNxHR HD LB without dropped frames please?
Thank you.
The move from XDCAM at 50 Mbps to UHD at 60 frmaes per second is a masssive increase in data throughput.
I suspect the system or drives are being taxed beyond their capabilities at that datarate.
Don't forget even a simple timeline will need to be playing back mpore than one stream of video for say a disolve and more if you have effects. You may have to mixdown to achieve a sinlgle video stream playback rate.
Broadcast & Post Production Consultant / Trainer Avid Certified Instructor VET (Retired Early 2022)
Still offering training and support for: QC/QAR Training - Understanding Digital Media - Advanced Files * Compression - Avid Ingest - PSE fixing courses and more.
Mainly delivered remotely via zoom but onsite possible.
T 07581 201248 | E pat@vet-training.co.uk
Thanks Pat! What would you recommend I upgrade? Which CPU would playback the 60 frames per second smoothly? Very much appreciated!
AsafBlasberg: Thanks Pat! What would you recommend I upgrade? Which CPU would playback the 60 frames per second smoothly? Very much appreciated!
There's been some recent testing done on the performance of various CPUs in terms of playback performance and rendering, which has shown the latest 10 core i7 (6950X) is beating dual E4 Xeon setups (E5-2690).
Take a look at this report from Puget Systems......
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Should-you-use-a-Dual-Xeon-for-Premiere-Pro-CC-2017-932/
The 'Live Playback - Maximum Resolution' reports at the end should be of interest.
Yes, I looked at those, but the problem is they didn't test these machines specifically with Avid Media Composer and UHD 60P footage.
Take a look at the new X299 Intel Chipset and i9 processors. All new so might be risky -
OK thanks.
It's not only a matter of CPU, the hard disks have to be able to feed enough data as well. And what is good for premiere is not necessarily good for MC as well.
peace luca
yes first off you need drive throughput and drive interface throughput.
Then its down to the decoding of the content And thats where it gets complex.
Avids playback engine isn't the newest on the block so I suspect it isn't able to take advantage of the newer processor technolgies. Unlike the Mercury engine Adobe have.
So its really down to how MC best uses the processors for playback decoding.
In the past I found fewer faster cores worked better than more slower cores. But that may not hold true today.
Thanks to all of you for these great replies. So here's what i'm thinking for my new build, is this going to be fast enough for DNxHR LB UHD 60p?
I am not an expert - but make sure you have enough slots - get a good raid controller card - check on how many lanes you will have - power supply needs to be able to handle all your power needs - better to have a little more now in all areas of the computer for future.
Just my 2 cents
If you are looking at a PCIe RAID card (or controller card) make sure it and the slot are fast enough (bus speed) and you have enough "lanes" onn the slot to match tyhe card or you will see that as a bottle next. But I suspect with a 4 way RAID that is unlikely.
I'd also check the actual spec of the HHDs in the RAID. to have a 4 way RAID that can deliver 400MBps each drive would have to deliver a sustained (not burst) 100MBps and thats only available from 15 top end drives.
Not wanting to hijack the original post.I have a similar situation, that our suites here are struggling to playback UHD 25p DNxHR HQX footage with effects on in real time without rendering.A single stream plays fine, but as soon a you drop an alpha'd graphic on it, or a colour correction etc, it stutters and drop frames galore, with the red line under the timeline.We've just upgraded our connection to our shared storage to 8gb fibre, in the hope that it would ease the UHD pain we'd seen before.Is there somewhere in windows or avid that needs changing?Drive tests in windows are showing 480mb/s write and 510 mb/s read. So drive speed isnt an issue surely, as that 4x faster than we had before?
My current Hardware RAID Controller is:
AVAGO MegaRAID SAS 9271-8i
I have 4 x 4TB WD Black mechanical hard drives stripped as RAID 0 - Blackmagic Speed Test around 380 MB/sec read 400 MB/sec write
Other editors I talk with use RAID 5 - not as fast as 0 - but offers back up. Also as far as back up goes - nothing is ever for sure - I always back up original footgae on at least 2 -3 drives.
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