I've been waiting a long time for the new Power Macs and now that they're here, I'm a little nervous about taking the plunge. I have several questions and not being technically inclined don't always understand what the Readme and pdf's are saying. I'm just an end user. I turn it on, then use it. Forgive me if my questions seem ignorant.

I'm currently running MC 2.8 on my old Dual G5 setup. I've got a Mojo with an old Panasonic DV deck, a VHS and DVD Player connected to it. Now, I don't use my Avid a lot at home, but when I have to I like having it. I don't think I've done an actual job on it in over a year. I'm usually working at production companies. But let's get to my list of questions.

The latest MC 3.5.1:

Does it play HD material without need of other hardware (like FCP)? Not that I have HD material or even an HD deck, but I'd like to future proof it for when I finally get an HD camera or even a deck. Or if I receive HD material on a drive. Would I need a different Mojo, or maybe no Mojo at all. To be honest I never noticed a difference in performance with the Mojo on or off.

New Mac Pro:

Should I wait a couple months for bugs to get worked out or buy now?

Does it make sense to have a triple boot setup? One for Avid, one for FCP, one for general use? I don't want to install something on one that will affect the other.

What about installing Vista 64 bit on a partition and running Avid from that? If I want to run MC on a PC why not just get a PC? Well, I'm trying to cut down on the number of machines around my desk. I used to have 4 computers (laptop included). One for Avid, one for FCP, and a general use one for games and everyday use. If I can get down to one machine that will do it all, that would save me space and all the extra wires hanging behind my desk.

Which video card? Nvidia or Radeon? I do play games, and would probably have a Windows partition (plus there are several programs I like that are Windows only). On my PC's I've always had Nvidia cards (except about 10 years ago when I tried an ATI and hated it).

Storage and Raid:

I've got so many firewire drives and old internals lying around it's not even funny. I've never had a raid setup, and honestly when people have tried to explain it I just nod my head and go "uh huh." It's like in math class, the info just doesn't stick. I can put things together and follow instructions, but I don't neccessarily understand it. Anyway, I'd like to save on space and wires by having some kind of dedicated storage setup. Sure, I can load up the interior with internal 1 TB drives, but isn't it better to have something that's swappable?

This isn't a case where "money is no object." I have some, but not enough to build a post facility. As I said, I rarely do work from home, but like having it here. And again I'm trying to get down to one machine that can do all the stuff I do with several. If there are other questions I should be asking please let me know, because I'm sure I've left something out.

Thanks

 

Newbie07:

The latest MC 3.5.1:

Does it play HD material without need of other hardware (like FCP)? Not that I have HD material or even an HD deck, but I'd like to future proof it for when I finally get an HD camera or even a deck. Or if I receive HD material on a drive. Would I need a different Mojo, or maybe no Mojo at all. To be honest I never noticed a difference in performance with the Mojo on or off.

Playback of HD material in real-time without hardware is possible.  Attaching hardware will give you more streams of real-time playback capability, but your Analog Mojo or Mojo SDI (you don't specify which you have) will not playback or ingest HD material anyway.  So, for your current hardware you would have to rely solely on the capabilities of the software for monitoring/ingest.  

Newbie07:

New Mac Pro:

Should I wait a couple months for bugs to get worked out or buy now?

Does it make sense to have a triple boot setup? One for Avid, one for FCP, one for general use? I don't want to install something on one that will affect the other.

What about installing Vista 64 bit on a partition and running Avid from that? If I want to run MC on a PC why not just get a PC? Well, I'm trying to cut down on the number of machines around my desk. I used to have 4 computers (laptop included). One for Avid, one for FCP, and a general use one for games and everyday use. If I can get down to one machine that will do it all, that would save me space and all the extra wires hanging behind my desk.

Waiting is debatable.. in a couple of months there will be something new out - then something after that and so on.  Just bite the bullet.  

Triple-boot is not necessary.  Avid and FCP can co-exist if you're willing to sacrifice FCP's "up-to-date-ness" in favor of Avid.  The biggest factors to be aware of is the OS and QT versions.  If you set it up to match Avid and FCP's req's and can deal with not updating FCP everytime Apple says to, then you should be fine.  

Running Avid on a Mac as a PC is kind of silly to me, just install the Mac version.  If you want to play games, keep your gaming computer and at worst you have two machines at your desk.  

As for GFX card, whatever card comes with the MacPro (earlier in your post you referred to it as a PowerMac - those haven't existed for a long time) is generally okay for Avid.  I have an nVidia 7300 in mine, but newer systems seem to have the ATI cards.  

For Storage, get the GSpeed eS, I see now that they offer a 6TB version.  It's super easy to set-up - you'll just have to order the one with the RAID controller card and install that into your new Mac.  The RAID controller they give you has 4 ports on it, so theoretically you could attach 4 of these bad boys to your system and coupled with your internal drives have over 24TB in RAID storage!   

 

I've got the analog Mojo (not sure which revision, maybe F). I saw there was a Mojo DX (been awhile since I looked at the new hardware on Avid). Is that something I'd need for more streams, or would I need a whole system like an Adrenaline? If it will play fine in with just the software version, that would be fine. I pretty much stick with straight documentary or reality. No fancy graphics work or anything.

I've got a couple G-Tech firewire drives that are pretty nice. But these are the older ones where the power cord falls out if you sneeze. That Gspeed looks pretty good.

I would probably like to constantly update the FCP. Just like I'd want to update the OS, and Avid usually takes awhile to qualify the new OS (how long did it take before we could use Leopard). So I could certainly have a separate Avid partition.

I think that the only HD capable hardware for Media Composer that provides any kind of increased RT performance is either the Adrenaline or the NitrisDX.  

Newbie07:

I pretty much stick with straight documentary or reality. No fancy graphics work or anything.

 That's my bread and butter too, and I layer the heck out of my clips with "non-fancy" graphics.  Color Correction, Sapphire, BCC, Alpha Channels, etc, all to create the "look" I'm going after.  I'm waiting on a render right now where I've applied and tweaked Sapphire film effect and film damage to some World Trade Center footage to make it look circa 1960's.  I'm on MC 3.0.5 with NitrisDX, right now.  

Newbie07:

I would probably like to constantly update the FCP. Just like I'd want to update the OS, and Avid usually takes awhile to qualify the new OS

Well, that's totally up to you - for me, I don't use FCP all that often, so I don't need to worry about keeping things up to date as much.  On my home system, I'm still on 3.0.5 and OS 10.4.11  I probably will update to Leopard and whatever Avid is out at the time near the end of the year, when things slow down between Christmas and New Year's.  I'm a firm believer in the "if it ain't broke" axiom.

 

 

This is where you're at. Your G5 is not supported in any way for MC 3.5. Avid plain hasn't released any version of 3.5 for PowerPC. Now to answer some of your questions. Your G5 can run up to MC 3.1. This version of the software gives you HD capture only via firewire or import. Firewire means HDV or DVCPRO HD (requires fast drives). Playback of HD material is dependant on several factors; How fast a G5 do you have and what is your graphics card. Currently I run a dual 1.8 G5 with 4 GB's of ram with a ATI Radeon 9600 (256 MB's video ram) along with a analog Mojo. I can play back HD material fine. Now your Mojo has more life for HD than was posted above. The analog Mojo is an SD product. However, Avid does a great job of downconvert so that you can use a G5 as a editor with HD material. I do it all the time. In fact I very often I switch my project to HD to either injest HD or render graphics in DNxHD codec and then return to SD 30i NTSc for playback on my production monitor. The analog Mojo does not playback HD only SD but since we online our HD stuff elsewhere that's fine for us. Here's another nice thing about the analog Mojo...real-time out to firewire....good for roughs....

FCP

I have FCP 6.05 running on the same partition as MC 3.1 running on my G5 and MC 3.5 running on my MacPro and my MacBook Pro. All run my analog mojo. It's just better not to use them at the same time because both products try to grab the firewire port though if you do it's not the worst thing.

glitch:

Your G5 is not supported in any way for MC 3.5.

I believe that's why Newbie is asking advice about getting a new MacPro.  

Newbie07:

New Mac Pro:

Should I wait a couple months for bugs to get worked out or buy now?

It seems to me that Newbie knows full well his/her G5 will not run any newer versions of MC.

Correct, I know my current Mac won't run the latest software. It also doesn't support other software that I'd like to upgrade too.

I should clarify my HD question. I'm used to working in low res in my work (15:1s MXF usually). Now say I finally get my own little HD camera for my own stuff. I can still work in low res to save space, but when I finish I'll want to be able to up res and output myself (be it tape or Blu Ray). So as long as I'll be able to do a final output in HD without needing more hardware, that would be swell. Where I'm at now, we're using older HP's 8400's and Mojo's that can only go as high as MC 2.8.1 (that's what our tech tells me). These also can't do HD, so we go out of house for up res and online.

I've also been reading that folks have been able to put an 8800GT graphics card in the Mac Pros. The current Nvidia 120's are supposedly the older 8700's (if I remember correctly). Of course, I may just go with the Radeon. I'd talk to a reseller, but last time I did that (albeit years ago), they talked me into getting a Panasonic DV deck that they swore would be qualified by Avid (and to this day it has never qualified). This is why I like to get info from end users and not the sales people. At work, if I have a problem I can call tech support. At home, there's really just me and the forums.

I'll probably replace my current Dell 24" monitor as well. My 2nd is a 19", so I'll get rid of that and make the current 24" my bin monitor, and a 2nd 24" as my Composer window. Plus I want to get one that's HDCP compliant and maybe has some HDMI inputs. I never liked the Apple Cinema displays. They're ok, but I had one briefly a few years ago and sent it back. They're way overpriced for what you get (at least they were when I looked at them).

I really appreciate the input and if anyone else has suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks

For what it's worth, I just upgraded my system from a G5 to a refurbished Mac Pro 2.66 Dual Xenon from Apple Australia for half the price of the latest unit.  Very happy with it. I added an 8800GT and 16GB RAM and it runs great!  I also have a new Unibody 2.93 17" MBP that is running 3.5 really nicely.

I have a hundred or so intel macs out there and you will be happy with anything you buy. 4 cores are a huge leap from G5. The extra drives inside and cheap ram are awesome.

A lot of dealers have deals on the last Gen 3.2 intels. You will never be sorry buying the last version of a logic board as opposed to the first version of the new one... they are simply less buggy.

Vid cards don't make a huge difference in my experience unless you are doing HD and or other graphics apps. The avid's seem to crank along fine on any decent card.

 

If you pop for the new hardware, go nitris DX, by the time you buy the converters and the faster mac to do DNX (its not native in the mojo dx hardware) you will have paid for the nitris.