First, the backstory...
I was at the Apple Store drooling over the 15" TiBook and was talking with the nice people there about what I'd love to do with a TiBook and/or 17" Powerbook. My original thoughts were to have the PB capable of editing DV footage and eventually HD Footage.
The salesperson told me that for a TiBook the solution would be to realize that the actual editing and rendering of HD footage still is not possible on a PB due to the size of the files and the Firewire400 speed.
For the amount of work needed to render such big files the salesman did mention that PB's processor is still not strong enough and I would probably want to do the rendering on a G4 desktop.
Fine. That sounds good enough. He also suggested that I consider the PB for task of simply creating my FCP edit decision lists and then export the EDL to a G4 desktop and run the final rendering overnight or for however long it took to assemble the final footage.
Now, that sounds fair enough. 60GB of HD on a PB isn't too much when thinking about DV media. I could always get a 200GB External firewire drive to carry the footage with me and then edit to my heart's content with the PB in a low res format. I think.
So here's the question...
Question: What would be the best configuration to have G4 Powermac(s) if someone wanted to cut down FCP rendering time?
If I wanted to have the PM do all of the rendering work and I wanted to edit again at the desktop, could PM's (or a bunch of them) be set up as a network (render farm?) to cut down on the amount of time it took to render the FCP footage? Or for that matter, 3D modeling programs...
If so, how is this accomplished? Would additional cards be needed? Where would I begin to learn about such things?
Personally, I would like to believe that the indie filmmaker's editing workplace will eventually evolve to have a standard setup wherein most of the editing could happen in near-real time because of a network of PMs and Hard Drives that would cut down rendering time and allow for up to HDTV quality or 2K resolution.
Perhaps this is simply wishful thinking right now. Perhaps one will need to wait until the 970's come out to make the difference. But given the increasing size of storage devices and the increased speeds of such connecting devices as Firewire800, is this really so far off?
I appreciate anyone's comments on this. Thanks!
I was at the Apple Store drooling over the 15" TiBook and was talking with the nice people there about what I'd love to do with a TiBook and/or 17" Powerbook. My original thoughts were to have the PB capable of editing DV footage and eventually HD Footage.
The salesperson told me that for a TiBook the solution would be to realize that the actual editing and rendering of HD footage still is not possible on a PB due to the size of the files and the Firewire400 speed.
For the amount of work needed to render such big files the salesman did mention that PB's processor is still not strong enough and I would probably want to do the rendering on a G4 desktop.
Fine. That sounds good enough. He also suggested that I consider the PB for task of simply creating my FCP edit decision lists and then export the EDL to a G4 desktop and run the final rendering overnight or for however long it took to assemble the final footage.
Now, that sounds fair enough. 60GB of HD on a PB isn't too much when thinking about DV media. I could always get a 200GB External firewire drive to carry the footage with me and then edit to my heart's content with the PB in a low res format. I think.
So here's the question...
Question: What would be the best configuration to have G4 Powermac(s) if someone wanted to cut down FCP rendering time?
If I wanted to have the PM do all of the rendering work and I wanted to edit again at the desktop, could PM's (or a bunch of them) be set up as a network (render farm?) to cut down on the amount of time it took to render the FCP footage? Or for that matter, 3D modeling programs...
If so, how is this accomplished? Would additional cards be needed? Where would I begin to learn about such things?
Personally, I would like to believe that the indie filmmaker's editing workplace will eventually evolve to have a standard setup wherein most of the editing could happen in near-real time because of a network of PMs and Hard Drives that would cut down rendering time and allow for up to HDTV quality or 2K resolution.
Perhaps this is simply wishful thinking right now. Perhaps one will need to wait until the 970's come out to make the difference. But given the increasing size of storage devices and the increased speeds of such connecting devices as Firewire800, is this really so far off?
I appreciate anyone's comments on this. Thanks!
