Build your own HD workstation

[Jared VanLeuven]

Our very own Mike Curtis has authored a great article on rolling your own FCP uncompressed HD machine:

http://www.dv.com/features/features_item.php?articleId=196602702

Very good work, Mike! This is just what I've been looking for, myself.

[MikeCurtis]

Thanks for the luv...

[Martin Jäger]

... i wish i'd belong to group 3... i'm probably around 1.5 (well in this precise moment i'm definitely 0.5) ;)

martin

[Finner]

Great article Mike. You do a great job at breaking down all the information in an easy to read manner.

[Poi Boy]

Hey mike, what do you think of the matrox mxo ?
Aloha
-A

[Nik Manning]

Yeah Mike great article I stayed up late reading it. Now I am sleepy at work:). I joined this site to say thanks Mike I bought a dual 2ghz g5 just because you said it could do uncompressed. Even thou I have never used it for that it sure sounds cool when I tell people. Maybe you can write a modified version for red users of your article.

[Jared VanLeuven]

Maybe you can write a modified version for red users of your article.

That'd be great to see. I'd imagine that some items in those configs will be different/better/cheaper by the time NAB rolls around.

[Hrvoje Simic]

Great job. Appreciate the effort.

I'm really interested to check out the color accuracy tests of new line of plasmas. Panasonic's TH-50PF9UK pro model should provide 4096 steps - which diserves checking out, especially with 60000 hours life cycle and burn out issue solved.

[Ivan G]

Final Cut Extreme "Group 4" :biggrin:

[Clayton Harper]

http://www.hdforindies.com for president!

[Billy Summers]

Great article-

[Milan Nikolic]

Thanks Mike,
It is great article. Very useful for me, thou my configuration will be somewhat different.

[Nick Shaw]

Hey mike, what do you think of the matrox mxo ?

I know Mike had an MXO sent to him for evaluation, and he has started writing a review for hd4indies, but it's not finished yet. Can't blame him. I think it's a miracle he manages to blog as much as he does, and still earn a living!

The link to the MXO review in the article has quite a lot of info.

For what my opinion is worth:

I don't have an MXO but am considering getting one. I talked to the Matrox guys and played with a demo unit at IBC. It is a pretty compact unit – smaller than I had imagined from seeing pictures – so would make a nice portable system with a MacBook Pro. The main down-side people talk about is that it is an output only device – no SDI inputs. This of course is not relevant for RED. One significant problem for RED users is that it does not do 24p at the moment. This is not that big an issue for me (being in Europe) as I expect principally to be working 25p which it does. It could be a major stumbling block for US users and indie film makers. Don't know what the possibilities are for running 24@25 to get on set playback, albeit slightly fast. That could be done with FCP and Cinema Tools.

[Poi Boy]

Thanks for the feedback Nick, it sounds like a good product but no 24P would be a deal breaker. I also am amazed that mike manages to blog as much as he does.
Aloha
-A

[MikeCurtis]

It is a specialty gadget - good for laptops, great for live output of presentations or any on-screen activity, but has its limits. I'll get around to finishing that review as soon as the "actively on fire and gouting flames" pile gets knocked down to merely "smouldering but not yet actively on fire."

Lots to do...

-mike

[Damien Molineaux]

Thanks for the great article Mike.

If I recall correctly there is mention of the MXO in Mike's article. I remember him saying it only does 8bit and for the same price you could get a Decklink card which does 10bit.

Definitly looking forward to NAB, mostly to hear from Red of course, but also to find out what Apple has in store for us. I'll be upgrading my good old first gen G5 some time after that, getting ready to process 2k and 4k footage. I'll also have to change my Decklink and eSATA PCI-x cards!

Cheers,
Damien