#RazorPro NT vs. Avid,etc
9 messages in this thread
Jamie,
What is your opinion regarding the soon to be released RazorPro NT vs.
the big guns of non-linear; specifically Avid and ImMix?
With a dual pentium or DEC Alpha system, a PVR, and lots of ram and
hard drives it seems the quality issure is a mute point but editing efficiency,
i.e. rendering speeds still might point some towards the propietary/expensive
Avids & VideoCubes, both of which offer real time effects!
How fast will RazorPro NT be on a system as described? How fast will
the dve/fx renders be? near real time? Could you give us a good ball-park
performance outlook?
By the way I don't know if you remember me I am the friend of Steve
Dupuis with a production co. in Pensacola, Fl (currently running a VideoCube,
but dying to return to a pc based platform…..hopefully your answers will
point me in the right direction).
Regards, Craig Meadows, Florida Production Group, Inc.
Craig,
I would personally stay away from Avid, especially their Media Suite Pro. We
have one at work, and have recieved very little attention from Avid. They
almost seem ashamed of it (very buggy), wanting you to upgrade to a composer.
The ImMix, on the other hand, is fantastic. We just got a Turbo Cube, and it's
a dream. Like the "regular" Cube, all 2D DVE's, transitions, flying audio
levels, color correction, keying, titling, etc. etc… are all REAL TIME! This
is WONDERFUL, in comparison to all the other NLE's that render everything.
(Like our AVID MSP) Wow, it's soo much more productive. Soo much more
creative, and a dream to work on. (And I'm not even an editor!) The Turbo
Cube has realtime 3D DVE's, like page turns, etc. and the highest video
quality I've seen. It's incredible. The "regular" cube is great as well, but
with a lesser quality video. (comperable to similarly priced NLE's though)
One downside to the cube is that you have to "flatten" video channels if you
want more than 2 channels of video. (3 channels including alpha keyed,
uncompressed title track) On the TC, it's not bad though, taking as long as the
clip is in length. (1min video flattens in a minute, etc.) Not bad. Another
downside, is that all the really wild transitions and filters are not realtime,
but rendered by the PowerMac. (Actually, not sure if that's an option. I'd
check on that..) If you're into long projects, with little need for the flash
of rendered effects, I'd highly recommend an ImMix. If you're into :30 type
spots, with lots of flash, etc. RP/NT may be what you want.
Running RP/NT, I'd think that a dual Pentium, or Alpha 266 would be a great
thing, if you rely on lots of complicated effects, etc. (not sure about 100%
photoshop plug-in compatability with an Alpha though. Jamie?) But for long
form, I'd personally rely on ImMix over a patchworked NT NLE system.
good luck!
JNJ
John,
Interesting what your impressions on the ImMix. One solution I will be
watching VERY closely is PLAY's Trinity system. By this time next year they
should be shipping the online NL system. It would be capable of being a hybrid
system .. similair to the way Matrox NL Studio and Fast DPR works .. but it has
3D DVE's and effects that are out of this world. Needless to say if they make
what I saw at NAB work … its going to be the most incredible system … even
more impressive the ImMIx Turbo .. which impressed me greatly.
Ang, President, Dynamic Technologies, Inc.
An Autodesk Systems Center for Multimedia in MD
Ang,
The Trinity system sounds interesting as well. I'm not really into hybrid type
systems though. Each type (linear/nonlinear) both have their weaknesses, and
it seems that a hybrid would have the hassles of both. (?) Never used one,
just my thoughts. (supposedly could have advantages of both too, if computers
were logical..) The Turbo Cube's great, people are fighting to get their
projects booked for it, and "play" time, etc. And everytime I walk in the room
(graphics, non-editor) they give me the evil eye. 🙂 I guess we need a couple
more.
JNJ
JOhn,
>> I'm not really into hybrid type systems though.<<
Well .. I pretty much agree .. but what you get when you have a system built
around a hybrid approach is multi-channel DVE and switchers that are hardware
based and realtime. Basically .. if you want to look at it from the standpoint
of building an Online NL system .. you basically get all these hardware
produced realtime effects in an Online system and get ABC roll for free <g>.
Both the Fast and the Trinity system would allow you to mix and match digital
streams with analog pretty much transparently .. alot of flexibility and it
basically comes along for the ride.
Ang, President, Dynamic Technologies, Inc.
An Autodesk Systems Center for Multimedia in MD
>if you want to look at it from the standpoint of building an Online NL system
.. you basically get all these hardware produced realtime effects in an Online
system and get ABC roll for free <g>.<
True, but you still have to re-edit if you want to change the beginning of
something though, no? But certainly better than straight linear.
JNJ
Craig,
When you weigh the fact that the amount of money you spend on
the AVID or the IMMIX is several times the amount you would
spend on a RAZOR PRO system then there is no reason why if
you want near/real time performance you can't up the processor
for really fast results.
The DEC Alphas, and Aspen Alpines are really fast when
compared to a PC. At around $10,000 they are still easily less than
buying an IMMIX or AVID system. The 275 MHz Aspen Alpine has
extremely good data throughput and it is running several times
faster than the base 166 MHz DEC Alpha.
A major improvement though in RP for NT is that the straight cuts
happen in real time – no rendering to a new file – its just there
Effects have to be rendered – this will always be true but with some
enhancements we are working on these are rendering very
quickly. I will get you some times as soon as we reach our next
beta level (the end of this week)
With real time output and a PERCEPTION board and the improved
version of RP, it looks really sweet and definitely stands out against
the competition.
Jamie Carr
in:sync
Jamie, Thanks for getting back to me. Can you get me some contact info on the
Aspen Alpines you mentioned? Also don't foget to post the rendering times on
the next beta level, I am really looking forward to that.
By the way if your alpha version really works as fast and effecient as I hope
it will how would you like some testamonial advertising/marketing from the guy
who traded his VideoCube for RP? Made you smile, now did'nt I?
Regards, Craig Meadows.
Craig,
Aspen Systems contact:
Randy Perry
randyp@aspsys.com
(303) 431 4606 x107
> By the way if your alpha version really works as fast and effecient as I
hope
>it will how would you like some testamonial advertising/marketing from the
guy
>who traded his VideoCube for RP? Made you smile, now did'nt I?
I chuckled loudly !
Jamie Carr
in:sync