Recommend Apple Hardware for Editing NanoFlash Files

[Lance Librandi]

Hello fellow Nano users,
What hardware configuration should one buy for editing the higher date rate files of the NanoFlash. In the past the Mac Book pro was great for DV25 but now with the higher data rates, add effect’s, titles etc it runs like a dog. I have decided that I now need to invest in new editing hardware.
I edit with Final Cut Pro on the Mac. I have been reading reviews on the Apple 8-Core"Nehalem" processor Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processors, only to find that it is slower for video editing. The Quad-Core One 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon appears to be faster for rendering.

I would really appreciate any suggestion or advise on what others are using to edit the higher data rate Nano files.

Thanks

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by Lance Librandi

Hello fellow Nano users,
What hardware configuration should one buy for editing the higher date rate files of the NanoFlash. In the past the Mac Book pro was great for DV25 but now with the higher data rates, add effect’s, titles etc it runs like a dog. I have decided that I now need to invest in new editing hardware.
I edit with Final Cut Pro on the Mac. I have been reading reviews on the Apple 8-Core"Nehalem" processor Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processors, only to find that it is slower for video editing. The Quad-Core One 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon appears to be faster for rendering.

I would really appreciate any suggestion or advise on what others are using to edit the higher data rate Nano files.

Thanks

....Hi Lance. I don't have a nano, but I do have a Flash XDR, which records the same kind of files. I have been editing high data rate up to 160 Mbps Long GOP on my high end iMAC in FCS 7.0 running on Snow Leopard without issue. I have a 24 inch iMAC topped out with 8 GB of DDR 3 1066 MHz RAM running on a 1 TB 7200 RPM Sata drive with an Nvidia GT 130 GPU with 512 Megs of on board Video RAM and a Core 2 Duo CPU @ 3.06 GHz with an L3 of 6 MB of RAM.

.....I also strongly recommend using Avid Media Composer running on a *qualified* MAC or PC. AMC will handle all your nano files if you set your nano to record in the MXF file standard.
Avid will not recompress or transcode your video and should allow you to fast import your video onto whatever media drive you have setup.

[Lance Librandi]

Thanks Mark that's very interesting about Avid I was under the impression that it was a very difficult work flow.

[Lance Librandi]

Well I think I have decided on a capture card the spec on the Blackmagic DeckLink HD Extreme 3 look really good. The main use I have for this card is to be able to output my timeline via SDI to the NanoFlash to produce a real time DVD or BD streams and monitor on my HD & SD monitors.

The dealer that supplies my equipment recommend AJA but in my opinion they are over priced for the features you get.

Has any one had any experience with this card or are there compatibility issues that I should look out for?

Thanks

[Alister Chapman]

Hi Lance.

I use an older decklink extreme card in a Macpro and it works very well indeed. I have no problem playing out from FCP to my NanoFlash.

[Lance Librandi]

Thanks Alister that great.

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by Lance Librandi

Thanks Mark that's very interesting about Avid I was under the impression that it was a very difficult work flow.

....Well, Avid takes some getting used to, since it has an entirely different editing paradigm more closely related to film editing than drag and drop video trimming. Once you get it, then there's nothing beating what it can do. I also use FCS 7.0 as already mentioned, which has many improvements over the older versions. If you run FCS 7.0 on Snow Leopard on the MAC, then you're dealing with a totally new 64 Bit operating OS and Final Cut Pro definately is way more realtime and zippy on this OS.