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1080p on MBPro using Raid via Express Card?

C

Chris Pickle

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Does anyone have experience cutting long form Apple ProRes 1080 HQ on a Macbook Pro using a Raid drive connected via the Express Card?

If so, what Raid Drive are you using? A raid with a built-in multiplier so you can use 1 cable to an Express Card?

Is it possible without something like the Kona IO via FW 800 port to accelerate the ProRes Codec?

How does it perform without the Kona?

Without the IO, I suppose monitoring options are limited to a second desktop cinema display?

Cheers,
Chris
 
My MBpro is older -- 2.33GHz C2D, 2GB, ATI x1600... It will edit 1080p ProRes, but can be clunky and will grind to a crawl if I try layering two or more 1080p clips. It handles 720p much better. A fast RAID is necessary, but it doesn't have to be anything amazing. My 2-drive CalDigit S2VR eSATA in RAID-0 mode will handle just fine. Connecting to an 8-drive CalDigit HDPro (over 450MB/s) doesn't speed up the process either. The bottleneck is in the system. Presumably, newer MBPro systems would work better, but don't expect full workstation performance from them.

The AJA IO/HD (the Kona IO you speak of) will accelerate the rendering of ProRes and the conversion of other formats and incoming feeds into ProRes. It does not accelerate the playback or any effects / transitions done with ProRes. ...If you want that sort of acceleration, you will need a workstation with an internal Kona card.
 
Agreed,

The FSB on a lappie is only 800mhz... the Imac makes it pretty hard to use any Raids at all, So at least get yourself a Quad MacPro. There really isn't another option.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
My MBpro is older -- 2.33GHz C2D, 2GB, ATI x1600... It will edit 1080p ProRes, but can be clunky and will grind to a crawl if I try layering two or more 1080p clips. It handles 720p much better. A fast RAID is necessary, but it doesn't have to be anything amazing. My 2-drive CalDigit S2VR eSATA in RAID-0 mode will handle just fine. Connecting to an 8-drive CalDigit HDPro (over 450MB/s) doesn't speed up the process either. The bottleneck is in the system. Presumably, newer MBPro systems would work better, but don't expect full workstation performance from them.

The AJA IO/HD (the Kona IO you speak of) will accelerate the rendering of ProRes and the conversion of other formats and incoming feeds into ProRes. It does not accelerate the playback or any effects / transitions done with ProRes. ...If you want that sort of acceleration, you will need a workstation with an internal Kona card.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, especially on the IO.

So with the 2-drive CalDigit S2VR eSATA in RAID-0, ProRes 1080 seems fine on the MBP?

We thought about going to 720, but it seems that if we struggle through 1080, that we would less likely need to do a true online back to the 4k, since the 1080 would cover so many uses--including a festival print if needed.

The project is a feature with mostly straight cuts and a handfull of some basic FX work. Maybe some easy comps like sky replacements.

I'm trying to find a way to get the project done with our existiing MBPros, of which we have several. Our towers are all fairly dated G5s.

Thanks,
Chris
 
I edit prores 1080p on my mbp with an 8 drive raid 5 (HDOne). Plays fine for me. I haven't done anything other than one channel of video however.

Craig
 
ProRes422HQ is around upto 30MB/sec, so if you connect S2VR eSTAT which will perform little over 100MB/sec transferring rate, you could do two streams safely. I have the firewire version, so I can't do the test for you, but with LaCie's Little Big Disk, I can do the test to see it really handles okay. I'll do that on this weekend.
 
Kaku Ito said:
ProRes422HQ is around upto 30MB/sec, so if you connect S2VR eSTAT which will perform little over 100MB/sec transferring rate, you could do two streams safely. I have the firewire version, so I can't do the test for you, but with LaCie's Little Big Disk, I can do the test to see it really handles okay. I'll do that on this weekend.
Click to expand...

That would be much appreciated. Hopefully we can figure out a how to do it without an upgrade to a new tower.

Cheers,
Chris
 
KnockOutFilms said:
That would be much appreciated. Hopefully we can figure out a how to do it without an upgrade to a new tower.

Cheers,
Chris
Click to expand...

Hi KO,
I just did a test on my own MacBook pro running Mac OS X, 10.5.4, 2.44 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 BG 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, FCP 6.0.4, QT 7.5 (149.5),
Esata Card to Lacie Biggest Quadra (RAID 5) 2.05 capacity, and it plays 3 streams of Apple ProRes, 1920 x 1080 24 fps, with cross dissolves, in real time.
 
wilenkin said:
Hi KO,
I just did a test on my own MacBook pro running Mac OS X, 10.5.4, 2.44 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 BG 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, FCP 6.0.4, QT 7.5 (149.5),
Esata Card to Lacie Biggest Quadra (RAID 5) 2.05 capacity, and it plays 3 streams of Apple ProRes, 1920 x 1080 24 fps, with cross dissolves, in real time.
Click to expand...

Hey that's fantastic. Thanks for running the test.

I wonder if a RAID 0 would run even faster and allow a few more streams?

Thanks,
Chris
 
I've got a 2+ yr. old MBP (2.16 Dual Core) and it's handling the 2K QT Ref. files like a champ. If you push the envelope, it'll slow down and response time suffers. Normally with long format, in this case it's an Indie completely shot w/Red, I'll cut scenes w/the lappie, and piece the movie together on my MP... But it's been working so well I just prefer to stay home and cut. For the most part, the MBP works w/no issues... However, I do run into issues when I've got to many sequences open in the timeline window... And, like Jeff mentioned, when you layer up. As for storage, I'm running a two eSata Lacie 1TB's in a Raid 0 config. Occasionally, especially when I'm on the road, I'll work with a couple of FW800 drives. Other than skipping more frames, it works well enough to cut-on-the-run.
 
wilenkin said:
Hi KO,
I just did a test on my own MacBook pro running Mac OS X, 10.5.4, 2.44 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 BG 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, FCP 6.0.4, QT 7.5 (149.5),
Esata Card to Lacie Biggest Quadra (RAID 5) 2.05 capacity, and it plays 3 streams of Apple ProRes, 1920 x 1080 24 fps, with cross dissolves, in real time.
Click to expand...

Wow. I guess it's time to upgrade my Macbook Pro... As soon as Apple releases new models, I guess.

Mine can handle two streams, but as soon as I start throwing in a third stream or any dissolves, it slows down. It's definitely usable and if I were cutting a feature in 1080p ProRes, I wouldn't be opposed to doing it on a few of these systems. It's just not as elegant as a more powerful tower / workstation class system, or the newer MBPs.
 
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