DIT Pre-Pro questions

[N_Villers]

Why MAC?

J

Clipfinder !!!

Really there is now less and less of a specific need but the support from both RED and 3rd party players seems to continue to be mac based. Without getting into the whole mac vs. pc thing which I've never been interested in (they are all just tools anyway - it's not the sword that makes the samurai) I think that for a lot of creative professionals mac is both more familiar and allows more time to spend on the work at hand and less on updates, compatibility problems, driver conflict, etc. Macs just seem to work. On the other hand, with the continuing emphasis of apple on consumer market oriented istuff and less on their traditional base of professional content creation this is becoming less and less true. Will I be mac based in a year? Well to be honest if the next generation mac pro's don't meet certain requirements, ie. more pci-e slots (unlikely), lightpeak etc. then my long time mac involvement will be coming to an end. :violin:

-noel

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Clipfinder is in itself a very good reason to stay Mac in a RED workflow.
The single best RED tool out there + it interlocks with anything else you might need.

 

[Chris Ratledge]

Why MAC?

It would seem almost every DIT station I am hearing about is MAC based. Yet so far I have not heard of a MAC specific task.

As I understand it, a lot of you suffer wth a lack of card slots, limitations on graphics cards, etc..

So explain to me (And others) why MAC?

J

I have been asking myself this question more and more lately. Everyone has the same complaints with Macs, and it's all hardware complaints. I don't really hear anyone complaining about the OS. The three biggest things most people complain about regarding the MacPro are:

1) Too few PCIe slots
2) Not easily rackmount-able.
3) Mac Tax

I've been thinking more and more of building a hackintosh system, so I can get the hardware I want with the OS I want.

Instead of buying a new MacBook Pro and one of the PCI expander boxes from Maxx digitial or iStoragepro, I've been thinking of building a "lunchbox" style portable machine, like the attached photo. They're WAY overpriced for what they are, but not so much when you factor in the above two purchases. I would most likely operate it as a portable station that I *could* throw the rocket into if requested or if I wanted, but mostly just to give me more power and expandability in a portable data management package that could also operate as a full-blown DIT system, or a very robust backup to my MacPro.

And if/when I do this, in the initial configuration, it will be a windows machine.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Anyone else remember these.
The perfect companion to a RED workflow on set! -

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

Oh God... I do remember those...

Ok Alexia uses Prorez.. And Clipfinder.

MAC it is.

For now....

Jay

 

[Dustin Cross]

A masters in CS and 20 years professional computer experience and everytime i have had to use Windows since NT 3.51 has been painful. My background is with large unix systems and super computers and they are asier to work with than Windows. For years I used Linux, but when OSX came out bqsed on BSD i gave it a try and it just works. No tweeking like Linux or fighting like Windows.

My job is to use the computer as a tool and not to work on the computer. Mac just works and i can work within all the hardware limitations. Those limitations are part of what makes Mac just work.

Granted I havent done much with Windows in the last few years, so maybe it is better, but Mac does what i need, so i have no interest in finding out.


Dusty

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I haven't used Clipfinder in months...

I still prefer Mac for my DIT cart (although, I do have a Windows system on the cart as well). I'm with Dustin on this one, the Mac is a very stable and robust unix environment. Sadly, most Mac users don't have a clue about the power which resides underneath Finder. I've been tinkering with computers ever since I was a kid and got my hands on an Apple II. I've been using computers professionally for over 20 years. And in much more of a capacity than simply "using" them. I've been a hardware designer, integrator, programmer, and more. I hardly had anything to do with Apple and Macs for many years while the company and their products were in the doldrums. OSX was my only reason for ever going back to Apple. I never owned a PowerMac until the G4, and then only by necessity for a particular job. I did buy the G5 Quad and it is still a fine computer by today's standards and still would be rather capable even now, 5 years later, but it's EOL and I have long since retired both of the G5 quads I ended up owning.

That said, my primary two uses for the Mac are: 1> Industry preference in terms of ProRes, R3D tools, etc..

2> Robust and stable unix environment. Does not suffer from Windows vulnerabilities or the lack of mainstream support we see with Linux and Solaris.

I'm an old school unix guy -- SCO, Solaris, SGI Irix and originally cut my teeth programming in languages like Fortran, Cobol, ADA and C, also direct assembly code on systems like the VAX, and the others I just mentioned above. I went to college for my BS in Computer Science -- as well as one in Civil Engineering. I occasionally teach CS courses, mostly programming or algorithm design. Actually was supposed to teach an iOS development course after the holidays, but the local university decided they're not going to offer that class now.

Coming up in the immediate future, the best reason to primarily focus on the Mac as the preferred DIT platform is STORM. It's beta release is imminent and, as an alpha tester, I can say that people will be flocking to this tool. Initially it is Mac-only, but will be ported to Windows once the Mac version has stabilized and their development team is able to make the transition.

Ultimately, there is no one perfect platform, OS, etc.. All of them have issues and compromises. I spend a lot of time ripping on Apple and many of their "one size fits most" hardware choices. I suppose that's also why I still have several Windows systems as part of my every day business efforts and keep a Windows workstation on the DIT cart. I personally can't see how anyone in this industry can survive when limiting themselves to either Windows or Mac. In the RED DIT biz, if you have to choose one system to put on a DIT cart, that system will be a Mac Pro. But you might want to plan for a bootcamp partition that runs Win7 Pro 64bit.

 

[Jody Neckles]

I've been thinking of building a "lunchbox" style portable machine, like the attached photo.

This is exactly the box Assimilate roll with when they are doing Scratch Demo's in the UK. Very impressive indeed. They have an internal SSD raid to playback uncompressed DPX or stereo R3D files etc.

 

[Lonny Danler]

I use Clipfinder every Red job and many others (Alexa and 5D) that also use .mov. Easy to scroll through thumbnail clips (many directors and DPs will come check in just to see how their coverage is looking). And it's "monitor" feature is invaluable for checking transcodes.

Yet another good reason to use Mac.