Adobe has published this page of hardware recommendations for Premiere and AE users:
https://helpx.adobe.com/content/dam/help/attachments/hardware-recommendations.pdf
Of interest:
- GPU should have at least 4GB VRAM.
- PP and AE will use all GPUs available (including eGPUs) for rendering and export. More GPU = more speed rendering and exporting. Notice they didn't specify NVDIA or AMD. On Macs, Metal implementation is better, but still not there 100% for what I can experience.
- As before, three drive optimal configuration: System Drive, Media Cache Drive, Media Drive. The fastest the drives, the better. NVMe flash > Sata Flash > Spinning Drive for both System and Cache. RAID Array best for Media.
- Intel i7 and i9 (Quicksync capable, best for h264/h265 encoding/decoding*) or AMD Ryzen recommended. 8 cores optimal count.
- 32 RAM minimum, 128 for high end systems. PP and AE are RAM mongers.
* That's nice and dandy, that said pro editors do not cut with h264/h265 Media.
* For h264/h265 exports with Premiere/AME, I did not see much of a difference between my Mac mini i7 4 cores and my Xeon 6 cores MacPro. OK that was two years ago and maybe I should try again. On the other hand, the Mac mini did smoke the MacPro when encoding with Compressor. See the older post here.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
COVID-19
Work slowed to a halt because of the pandemic. Stay safe!
As a reminder:
1) Wash your hands regularly with water & soap.
2) Avoid touching your face.
3) Clean surfaces regularly, especially keyboards, mice, controllers, monitors, phones, cameras, microphones, door knobs, handles, desks, tables, etc.
4) Get outside at least once a day (unless it's not recommended depending on your conditions.)
5) Maintain 6ft distancing with others. (That's a three seater sofa length worth.)
6) Don a mask in public space, keep your distance.
LA County Ressources Page with lots of good infos here: https://covid19.lacounty.gov
As a reminder:
1) Wash your hands regularly with water & soap.
2) Avoid touching your face.
3) Clean surfaces regularly, especially keyboards, mice, controllers, monitors, phones, cameras, microphones, door knobs, handles, desks, tables, etc.
4) Get outside at least once a day (unless it's not recommended depending on your conditions.)
5) Maintain 6ft distancing with others. (That's a three seater sofa length worth.)
6) Don a mask in public space, keep your distance.
LA County Ressources Page with lots of good infos here: https://covid19.lacounty.gov
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Documentary Filmmakers, Do You Want Your Post-production To Go Smoothly?
Here are 10 organizational tips to make sure the post-production on your new project will go smoothly and not slow down to mollasses or cost a small fortune:
1) Shoot everything at 23.976fps. OK, except for high frame rates to be used as slow motion.
2) Stick to the same frame size, format, codec, picture profile, LUT as much as possible. Expose properly, strive for consistency.
3) Take the time to set your camera(s) properly so that the same clip name is not repeated at nauseam across days and cameras, no one wants to deal with a gazillions of "Clip0001".
4) Record Time Of Day time code, and jam-sync your cameras and main sound recorder several times a day. Imperative after powering-off, battery swaps, power outages. If that's not possible, use whatever clock your device has, and manually adjust the timing information on each piece equipment so that they are in close proximity. Watch for the pesky 12hrs. difference.
5) Always record proper temp audio (decent signal, not saturated, not garbled) on all cameras. That's another way to sync the footage in post if timecode is missing or wrong. Use a decent microphone on each camera, do listen.
6) Always record PCM uncompressed audio at 48k and at 32bit or 24bit if you your recorder allows it. Else 16bit.
7) There is no need to record 12 tracks of audio when 11 of them are empty. Learn how to use your sound recording equipment and turn off any empty/useless track.
8) Be generous with Preroll and Post roll.
9) Offload your footage with a proper offloading software like Hedge, and keep camera cards structure intact.
10) Organize your footage in folders by day: 2020_01_30, 2020_01_31, and by device/card: A001 (camera A, card 001), A002, B001 (camera B card 001), S001 (sound card 001), etc.
1) Shoot everything at 23.976fps. OK, except for high frame rates to be used as slow motion.
2) Stick to the same frame size, format, codec, picture profile, LUT as much as possible. Expose properly, strive for consistency.
3) Take the time to set your camera(s) properly so that the same clip name is not repeated at nauseam across days and cameras, no one wants to deal with a gazillions of "Clip0001".
4) Record Time Of Day time code, and jam-sync your cameras and main sound recorder several times a day. Imperative after powering-off, battery swaps, power outages. If that's not possible, use whatever clock your device has, and manually adjust the timing information on each piece equipment so that they are in close proximity. Watch for the pesky 12hrs. difference.
5) Always record proper temp audio (decent signal, not saturated, not garbled) on all cameras. That's another way to sync the footage in post if timecode is missing or wrong. Use a decent microphone on each camera, do listen.
6) Always record PCM uncompressed audio at 48k and at 32bit or 24bit if you your recorder allows it. Else 16bit.
7) There is no need to record 12 tracks of audio when 11 of them are empty. Learn how to use your sound recording equipment and turn off any empty/useless track.
8) Be generous with Preroll and Post roll.
9) Offload your footage with a proper offloading software like Hedge, and keep camera cards structure intact.
10) Organize your footage in folders by day: 2020_01_30, 2020_01_31, and by device/card: A001 (camera A, card 001), A002, B001 (camera B card 001), S001 (sound card 001), etc.
Monday, January 20, 2020
Is Vimeo Not Reseting 5GB "Plus" Weekly Quota In Time?
It's Monday January 20, 2020 in Los Angeles, I uploaded my last video on January 17.
Vimeo alerts: "You've used 81% of your weekly storage limit, Upgrade". "Quota 4GB of 5GB, Upgrade". "Your weekly limit will reset on January 18 at 11:50 PST."
"WILL RESET ON JANUARY 18" ??? What? Hello?
Vimeo alerts: "You've used 81% of your weekly storage limit, Upgrade". "Quota 4GB of 5GB, Upgrade". "Your weekly limit will reset on January 18 at 11:50 PST."
"WILL RESET ON JANUARY 18" ??? What? Hello?
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Single External Rotating Drives Speed Wall
I often have to explain to friends and clients that no matter the connections on your SRHD (Single Rotating Hard Drive), USB 3, Thunderbolt, whatever, the read/write speed is limited by the drive itself.
See this BMD Disk Speed Test on a Thunderbolt connected 2TB LaCie Rugged portable drive. The port is capable of up to 10Gbps, 1250MB/s data transfer speed.
Lame speed due to the limitations of the hard drive itself. It has a USB-C connector as well, and the speed is exactly the same. As of today, single rotating drive won't give you anything above 130MB/s at best.
If you want more speed, you can only get it with a SSD or a Raid drive array.
As a reminder, the max speed of the various connecting protocols are tabulated below:
USB 2.0 480Mbps (60MB/s)
USB 3.0 / USB 3.1 gen1, 5Gbps (625MB/s)
eSATA 1.5Gbps (187.5MB/s), 3Gbps (375MB/s), up to 6Gbps (750MB/s)
USB 3.2 / 3.1 gen 2 / Thunderbolt v1 two channels 10Gbps (1250MB/s)
Thunderbolt v2 20Gbps (2500MB/s)
Thunderbolt v3 40Gbps (5000MB/s)
A single rotating modern drive is the limiting speed factor using all but USB 2.0 protocols. As a reminder USB 2.0 was implemented in 1996!! eSATA in 2004. Hard drives have some serious catch up to do.
See this BMD Disk Speed Test on a Thunderbolt connected 2TB LaCie Rugged portable drive. The port is capable of up to 10Gbps, 1250MB/s data transfer speed.
If you want more speed, you can only get it with a SSD or a Raid drive array.
As a reminder, the max speed of the various connecting protocols are tabulated below:
USB 2.0 480Mbps (60MB/s)
USB 3.0 / USB 3.1 gen1, 5Gbps (625MB/s)
eSATA 1.5Gbps (187.5MB/s), 3Gbps (375MB/s), up to 6Gbps (750MB/s)
USB 3.2 / 3.1 gen 2 / Thunderbolt v1 two channels 10Gbps (1250MB/s)
Thunderbolt v2 20Gbps (2500MB/s)
Thunderbolt v3 40Gbps (5000MB/s)
A single rotating modern drive is the limiting speed factor using all but USB 2.0 protocols. As a reminder USB 2.0 was implemented in 1996!! eSATA in 2004. Hard drives have some serious catch up to do.
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Avid ProTools and Media Composer Pricing 2019
I'm seeing the new prices for ProTools and MC on Avid website. They are leveling the offer for ProTools and Media Composer "vanilla" at $34.99 per month on a month to month basis.
There is still a $10 pricing difference though between ProTools ultimate at $84.99 and MC Ultimate at $74.99 Avid figures it can still milk sound editors and mixers for more money.
I'm using the month to month as the only relevant $ figure. At the end of the day all the yearly, multi-year, advance payments schemes are just discounts. These guys (Avid, Adobe...) model of software as subscription is not to be fully trusted anyway.
There is still a $10 pricing difference though between ProTools ultimate at $84.99 and MC Ultimate at $74.99 Avid figures it can still milk sound editors and mixers for more money.
I'm using the month to month as the only relevant $ figure. At the end of the day all the yearly, multi-year, advance payments schemes are just discounts. These guys (Avid, Adobe...) model of software as subscription is not to be fully trusted anyway.
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Every Time I Quit Premiere
Every time I Quit Premiere... It does not quit and instead it hangs.
I have to Force Quit, and every single time...
Thanks for nothing Adobe.
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