Switching to Mac / Review of Mac Pro 09 - Problems inside

[seer]

I am writing about my experiences making the switch to Mac whilst at the same time reviewing the Mac Pro 09 Quad 2.66

http://tf.erzz.com/2009/03/20/switching-to-mac-review-of-the-mac-pro-09/

I have a couple of early problems which are described in a little more detail in the blog, but they are essentially this:

1. Is it possible to have both Vista and OSX on seperate (via bootcamp) partitions of the same disk? I am pretty sure it is, but Disk Utility is being very flakey in that its failing to create the second partition

2. Anyone have much experience getting standalone MTS files imported into iMovie 09? Probably the wrong forum to ask this question so ignore if you want But my brief research seems to suggest this is down to them being standalone mts files without the rest of the AVCHD directory structure that is present on the camera's hard disk

Any other advice, useful tips or essential programs to try out, let me know!

 

[Tesseract]

1. Yes. I do so on mine. Half Vista 64 bit, half Mac OS X. Best way to do a Windows partition is through the Bootcamp setup assistant thingie (found either on your Mac OS X install DVD or in your Applications\Utilities folder). You still have to format the partition to NTFS via the Vista install CD, as Apple's Disk Utility can't/doesn't do so.

 

[seer]

Ahhh, so I guess what I did wrong was shrinking the partition first and then trying to create something new. I haven't even launched Boot Camp Assistant yet.... I thought I was being clever partitioning in advance

 

[seer]

Thanks Tesseract, it worked a treat!

I also found a semi solution for the iMovie 09 problem. I couldn't get iMovie 09 to spot my camera at all, but I realised the problem was you need to start iMovie first otherwise the camera just gets mounted as a normal harddrive. So new footage I can import from the camera, but still it looks like I will need to do a whole bunch of reencoding of the standalone MTS files that are archived on my other drive.

Anyway the blog is updated with new things from day 2, the worst of which is that goddam Hovercraft they call a superdrive. How the f**k can a DVD Burner be so f**king loud?

Anyone have a suggestion for a quiet replacement model?

 

[huussi]

I also found a semi solution for the iMovie 09 problem. I couldn't get iMovie 09 to spot my camera at all, but I realised the problem was you need to start iMovie first otherwise the camera just gets mounted as a normal harddrive. So new footage I can import from the camera, but still it looks like I will need to do a whole bunch of reencoding of the standalone MTS files that are archived on my other drive.

AVCHD (MTS) has to be the most irritating, and problem-generating format in the editing business

Importing that stuff, especially from diffrent cameras causes almost always some kind of problems.

If you have a MTS archive on another drive, and it won't import

- I usually just transfer it back to the camera using the manufacturers own software (windows?) - and then reimporting it when its back on the cam.

 

[seer]

AVCHD (MTS) has to be the most irritating, and problem-generating format in the editing business

You aint kidding there!

I kinda half-tried the method you suggested (and I had seen similar suggested in a few other places). I formatted the HD in the camcorder using the camera itself so that I knew all the structure was in place. I shot a few seconds of footage. Then finally I simply copied the stored MTS files on to camera hoping it would generate the thumbnails and whatever other crap iMovie is looking for. No luck, but at least I can import future footage now.

To be honest I just wanna 'prove it works' for the times I want to do some quick and dirty editing with iMove 09. Unfortunately a lot of the archived standalone .mts files I have waiting to edit is precisely the sort I want to do some quick and dirty editing on! Frustrating that iMovie has this kind of dumbed down to point nothing 'interesting' works anymore

If worst comes to worst I will just use Premiere, but I find premiere incredibly clunky for quick and dirty editing, yet excellent for doing more complicated things, especially with its seamless integration to the other stuff such as After Effects and Photoshop

But thanks for the suggestion, I will for sure try transferring it using the Sony software in Windows once I install it tonight.

 

[huussi]

i personally use final cut studio 2, so it pretty much handles everything i throw at it... Maybe you should try Final Cut Express ;-)

i hope things work out for you. I am also a happy camper with my new 2.66 quad nehalem!

 

[Bartman01]

AVCHD (MTS) has to be the most irritating, and problem-generating format in the editing business

Correction - Apples way of handling this data has to be the most irritating...

With my PC you just open up the TS/M2TS/etc file in the editing software and work with it.

With my Mac the data has to be on the camera or the entire camera HD has to be copied and mounted as a virtual drive.

If you start with a PC, copy the M2TS files off the drive (per the instructions provided by the MFG) you are fine until you try to use them on a Mac. Since there is no way (that I have seen) to get these files BACK to the camera once they are deleted I have no easy way to edit them on the Mac.

 

[Chrispy]

My 2.66 Quad Nehalem just restarted about a quarter of the way through an encode :-\ My 2008 dual 2.8 does not do this so I'm hoping a software update will solve the problem. Perhaps moving away from EEC memory was a bad call Apple...

 

[Eidorian]

My 2.66 Quad Nehalem just restarted about a quarter of the way through an encode :-\ My 2008 dual 2.8 does not do this so I'm hoping a software update will solve the problem. Perhaps moving away from EEC memory was a bad call Apple...

The new Mac Pros still use ECC memory.

 

[Chrispy]

The new Mac Pros still use ECC memory.

I stand corrected! Wonder what is making them unstable in large data work at the moment then? I have been reading various threads of people having this issue. Hope 10.5.7 fixes the stability issues.

 

[seer]

Correction - Apples way of handling this data has to be the most irritating...

With my PC you just open up the TS/M2TS/etc file in the editing software and work with it.

With my Mac the data has to be on the camera or the entire camera HD has to be copied and mounted as a virtual drive.

If you start with a PC, copy the M2TS files off the drive (per the instructions provided by the MFG) you are fine until you try to use them on a Mac. Since there is no way (that I have seen) to get these files BACK to the camera once they are deleted I have no easy way to edit them on the Mac.

Agreed, it's only iMovie 09 that seems to suffer from this problem though, Premiere and FCE seem to handle anything anywhere. Just a shame that a lot of my older footage would be perfect for some quick goofy videos made by iMovie.

 

[seer]

I stand corrected! Wonder what is making them unstable in large data work at the moment then? I have been reading various threads of people having this issue. Hope 10.5.7 fixes the stability issues.

I've only worked on short clips so far, but if you let me know what format you were encoding from and to, and an approximate length of file, then I can try something similar to see if its a general issue or something specific to your box if you like?

Also did you notice any temperatures before the restart?

 

[Infrared]

Ahhh, so I guess what I did wrong was shrinking the partition first and then trying to create something new.

As you describe it, that is not wrong.

 

[seer]

Ran a couple of 3dmark 06 tests....

With Bootcamp ATI drivers 15075
With ATI's own latest drivers 14591

500 points lower with ATI drivers .... WTF!

regardless the scores are very decent and I am pretty sure the 06 3dmark is not very (if at all) multicore aware.

TF2 is smooth as hell with everything maxed @ 1680x1050
Empire Total War is excellent with just about everything I could find swithed on

Turns out the Quad is a great gaming machine