Mac or PC

[SF Geek]

I usually use Macs but it seems that a fully stocked 17" PC notebook would provide better performance in RedCine than a decked out Mac Book Pro. The biggest difference being the video card. I'd love to hear from people more knowledgeable than me.

thanks

 

[laguun]

osx is on pcs and windows is on pcs, there are no "real macs" anymore, they are totally usual pcs. Apple dropped their own architectures (Motorola 68x000 basing and IBM/Motorola Power basing) ~2 years ago and switched to the pc platform.

So, its basicly a question of the os, software and hardware combination you intend to use.

redcine uses a lot of the graphics. on osx redcine is better with ati, redcine on windows is better with nvidia, and therefore for mobile solutions you certainly will find more powerful gpus on the windows platform

redalert is osx only (but seems somewhat slower).

red only wants to support apple 2K editing at this time, so for native 2K editing with fcp is easier.

If you want to go mobile 4k editing however, then you would probably go with windows, as cineform and adobe allow that (i didn´t try if cineform is also doing 4k on adobe osx yet).

for stationary systems osx pcs can use more powerful ati cards, so there redcine will run much faster.

for "desktop replacement"-class portables, you certainly would want to use windows, there are several 8 core mobiles (and up), or you can even easily have one custom built.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

redalert is osx only (but seems somewhat slower).

RED ALERT is slower, it doesn't make use of the GPU and I'm not sure if it's designed to scale to as many CPUs or threads as REDCINE is. REDCINE is the superior application, RED ALERT was a temporary solution, but it still has some functions that REDCINE does not.

red only wants to support apple 2K editing at this time, so for native 2K editing with fcp is easier.

I'm sure RED wants to support 4K editing on Apple too. It's just that final cut is limited to editing at 2K res and lower. At this point there is no direct application for conforming on Final Cut anyway, just as there isn't for Adobe or Avid. Various tools are in the works and not just from RED. I think we will see a lot of good solutions when NAB rolls around.

 

[laguun]

At this point there is no direct application for conforming on Final Cut anyway, just as there isn't for Adobe or Avid. Various tools are in the works and not just from RED. I think we will see a lot of good solutions when NAB rolls around.

Adobe CS and Avid DS 4K conforming works well on the Windows platform.
For multichannel uncompressed realtime 4K editing, monitoring and conforming there is DVS clipster.

Doesn´t adobe premiere pro on OSX also offer 4K already now?

 

[Gbabymogul]

For multichannel uncompressed realtime 4K editing, monitoring and conforming there is DVS clipster.

I'd settle for true 1080p rgb.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Adobe CS and Avid DS 4K conforming works well on the Windows platform.
For multichannel uncompressed realtime 4K editing, monitoring and conforming there is DVS clipster.

Sorry, I meant conforming natively with R3D files. But yeah, 4K conform works just fine with those you have stated, and more, if you generate a proper EDL and feed it DPX, TIFF, etc..

Doesn´t adobe premiere pro on OSX also offer 4K already now?

I believe so, haven't checked it out on OSX. It's 4K on Windows.

 

[Alex Carr]

PC's run leopard just fine, better than an Apple because I can go to any computer store and get better quality Hardware at a more affordable price. Simple as that, a 8 core Mac Pro is 2 years behind an Avid bay with Dual Xeon... So why buy a Mac when your Avid bay is a Final Cut Bay too? And a better one at that!! If anything you would need to swap the processors out of a Dual processor Xeon to something Quad Core and 3.2ghz

 

[jaadgy akanni]

PC's run leopard just fine, better than an Apple because I can go to any computer store and get better quality Hardware at a more affordable price. Simple as that, a 8 core Mac Pro is 2 years behind an Avid bay with Dual Xeon... So why buy a Mac when your Avid bay is a Final Cut Bay too? And a better one at that!! If anything you would need to swap the processors out of a Dual processor Xeon to something Quad Core and 3.2ghz

Please expand. So, let's say I call Dell and order Dual Xeon system with the intention of running both Avid and FCP- what do I do next in order to have my system pimped out for cutting on both editing platforms. I'm a total layman, so please keep it as simple and precise as possible, maybe provide a graphic layout of the whole contraption. I'm really intrigued by this.

 

[Alex Carr]

Since apple switched to intel they are using generic Hardware in their Computers now. It is a very grey area as to whether the process is legal, I bought a copy of leopard and still have not opened it, you cant use Apples disk. You have to download a .iso from a private / public tracker. And use a disk from a developer called IATKOS, 1.0i for 10.5.1 . It is available all over the internet (tpb). Google iatkos, its the first thing that comes up (uphuck.com)

visit osx86project.org to look at the systems and components supported. Basically the only procedure is installing drivers for network/video/audio like any other PC in the world. Including the Dell you would buy if you intended to run Windows. The issue with most people is related to not being competent enough to figure out what audio/network/video chips are on the motherboard. Basically get extremely specific system specs and compare with drivers available and test them out. When I buy a motherboard from newegg.com Technical specifications are readily available. I build machines to Run OSX normally, but some systems have what it takes. Most laptops with a core2duo run OSX fine, just finding network and audio drivers is the only question and unbelievably THERE IS TECH SUPPORT!!!

Even finding drivers for a Windows Operating system can be a challenge, so finding OSX drivers is the same but actually easier now that many people have adopted Mac OSX86. Google will take you all the way.