Premiere + Quadro + Elemental H.264 & Mpeg2 Accelerator
 

Earlier this summer, Elemental released an updated version of their Premiere CS4 plugin which now works with nvidia Quadro FX1800, 3800, 4800 and 5800. This plugin accelerates H.264 and MPEG2 decoding and encoding and is bundled with the Quadro's for about an extra $100.

So, has anyone used this new plugin and which card?

I am looking at either the FX1800($600) or FX3800($950) which will also be used in AE CS4 and Cinema 4D 11.5.

Thanks

The updated software works a lot better than the prior versions. The h.264 encoding is now much faster and is stable. Image quality is good. Mine is with the Quadro CX card.

If you expect to use the accelerator a lot, then I recommend the 3800 as it is far more powerful. There is a significant performance difference between the 1800 and the 3800, but the next step to the 4800 is marginal in most cases. The 3800 is the sweet spot in the current Quadro line, bang for buck. Just make sure you have good ventilation since it is a single slot card, but generates as much heat as the larger 4800. (With less surface area to allow it to cool)

Hi Mike. I see that you also have a DreamColor. I am tossing my Matrox Mini because it slows my Premiere editing, so I am looking to use Premiere's output to either a 24" JVC DTV24L1U ($1600) or a DreamColor for monitoring. At the moment, everything is destined for the web but within a few months, each video will need to be CC for broadcast and web. I don't foresee a need for 10bit as I use an EX1 + Nanoflash but the color space presets on the DreamColor sound very helpful.

So, does Premiere output progressive and can the Quadro's output RGB so the DreamColor engine works?

One other quick question: would the FX3800 provide a better AE CS4 experience vs a $200 consumer card? (or C4D?)

THANKS

If you hook the Dreamcolor to your video card via DVI, it is RGB and progressive by default, so you can set it to REC709.
If you hook it to a new card via Display port, you will also get 10bit color support in the future once the software catches up to support it.

Quadro should provide some level of extra benefit in AE CS4 as well, and definitely in C4D.

Thanks Mike!

One more quick question: I recently learned of the Eizo CG243W 24" LCD. It is very similar to the DreamColor in that it has several color presets(rec 709 & others) and displays 10bit(via Dp). Don't know if this matters, but the Eizo also has 16bit internal processing and 12bit LUT. The Eizo is $300 more than the HP, too. Do you know of this LCD and/or have any thoughts?

Do you know if you find a Nvida 8800 you can reflash it to a FX3700 Quadro?

I have and it works a treat

you just need to go there and see what Geforce CPU has equivalent in a quadro card and reflash.
C:\Documents and Settings\GIROUDF.DUPONTNET\My Documents\Nvidia Quadro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.mht

InsanelyMac Forum > 8800 GT to Quadro FX 3700

Tech ARP - NVIDIA GeForce To Quadro Soft-Mod Guide Rev. 4.1

Dave, using a FX 3700 is no good for using the Elemental accelerator because the pulg-in requires FX x800 series. In addition, the plug-in is $500 by itself or only $100 when bundled with a Quadro. Several months ago, I looked into soft-modding my 8800GT, but I didn't see any benefits for Premiere, AE or C4D.

Apparently, CS5 will have much better support and implementation of the GPU. I saw a video on fxguide showing 5 r3d clips plus 8 filters being played in real-time in Premiere using some form of Adobe's new implementation. Also, after reading about nvidia's new "Fermi" gpu design, I think it would be good to wait til CS5 specs are known and how well various cards perform.

They have released a 2.2 version that supports the FX3700

Accelerator Product Specifications | ELEMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES

David, I really wish you hadn't done that. Now, I am going to spend several hours trying to flash my 8800GT.

Steve its a 2 min job. All the flash does it change the ID of the card.

I used the flash files on that site. You also need NVflash and a bootable floppy disk. The FD was the hardest thing I had to do.

Who uses them these days!

Looks like I'm buying a FD drive tomorrow or Monday. Just need to find a place that still sells them.

Thanks David!

No problem please let me know how you get on.