Mac Software

[Deisel 37]

Any DZ managers or manifest peeps out there using Mac software for DZ ops? I'm starting from the ground up and considering going all Mac for everything from the start. Are there any known compatibility issues with any of the popular manifest or video editing programs? Anyone have any experience building a manifest and DZ ops tracker using the Mac business suite? The sales dude I talked to thinks its awesome. Figured I'd ask around some first.

D

The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

[DSE 3]

For video editing, it's a foolish move in a busy DZ environment.
You cannot process more than one video at a time per machine. Ergo, three tandems on a load means three machines.
In the PC world, you are only limited by CPU, and on occasion, we're processing as many as 7 videos at once. Running 3 at a time is a cakewalk. And, it's fully automated.

[Arvoitus 1]

I've never used a Mac so I've gotta ask why is that? Is it the lack of editing software or is it some artificial limitation put on by the system?

Your rights end where my feelings begin.

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Arvoitus

I've never used a Mac so I've gotta ask why is that? Is it the lack of editing software or is it some artificial limitation put on by the system?

Well they're the same processors these days and the underlying system (UNIX) was multitasking when Bill Gates was in diapers, so it's got to be a limitation of the software that was being used.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[DSE 3]

Issues are twofold;
~Apple OS and applications won't allow more than one instance of a program to be run at the same time.
~Apple refuses to pay royalties to MPEG LA, therefore realtime decoding of MPEG-based media is not possible with Apple software. It has to be converted at some point in the process. The latest OS allows for viewing but not editing the source.

It's one of the reasons that people bitch a lot about most camera formats (specific-ally Sony, Canon, and Panasonic saying "they're not Mac-compatible formats" when in truth, Apple chooses to not be standardized-format compatible.

The conversion merely takes a little time and horsepower. It's not a *huge* deal. Not being able to run multiple instances of the software applications however...that's a non-starter in any high turnover environment.

If you want to open multiple copies of Edius, Vegas, Movie Studio, Film Factory...all doable on a PC, so it's like having 3-5 separate computers.
I know nothing about manifesting software on a Mac.

[faulknerwn 37]

It also depends on how many tandems and video you have. We aren't a huge drop zone and use 3 Macs for editing and they work excellent. It's very easy to make customized videos for everyone and quickly. But we aren't a huge tandem mill turning out 200 tandems a day either

For small drop zones macs work quite well.

We would love to find manifest software which worked on macs so that we could get rid of our last windows box. The one windows box takes up 98% of the IT tech support calls on the dropzone( and tech support is me so I would love to see it gone.

[grue 1]

DSE

Issues are twofold;
~Apple OS and applications won't allow more than one instance of a program to be run at the same time.

This is incorrect. It can be restricted at application level but the OS is more than happy to allow you to run multiple instances with the caveat that you must duplicate the application and run each manually -or- in a separate user account.

For the record, neither FCP7 nor FCPX will allow you to run multiple copies with either of those cases.

Premiere Pro CS6 will work with either, or at least appears to from a brief test. I'm not gullible enough for Creative Cloud so I can't test against that.

cavete terrae.

[Arvoitus 1]

DSE

Issues are twofold;
~Apple OS and applications won't allow more than one instance of a program to be run at the same time.
~Apple refuses to pay royalties to MPEG LA, therefore realtime decoding of MPEG-based media is not possible with Apple software. It has to be converted at some point in the process. The latest OS allows for viewing but not editing the source.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious here, but isn't it possible to run non-apple editing software on Mac's?

And that limitation, my admiration to Steve Jobs just keeps growing everyday. That guy was a genius in his ability to tell people what they need and don't need and what they should have and expect to get from an apple device. I can only imagine the shit storm that would start if M$ tried to pull off something like that.

Your rights end where my feelings begin.

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Arvoitus

Maybe I'm missing something obvious here, but isn't it possible to run non-apple editing software on Mac's?

And that limitation, my admiration to Steve Jobs just keeps growing everyday. That guy was a genius in his ability to tell people what they need and don't need and what they should have and expect to get from an apple device. I can only imagine the shit storm that would start if M$ tried to pull off something like that.

Probably, but if the platform's that unfriendly, would you even bother?

I ran an OSX box for a while but I mostly use open source software and one or two games. The video card on the aluminum monstrosity I bought had an apparently-well documented tendency to not spin its fans up fast enough and burn itself up. No problem, I thought, I'll just drop a third party cooler/fan on the replacement card and carry on. Popped open the case and there's not a single damn power connector anywhere in there. Now I'm dual booting a comparatively cheap Dell machine between Windows for games and Linux for software development.

I experimented on Linux with DVD burning a few years ago. At the time it didn't have any nice graphical programs for that, but once I got the hang of its command line programs (ffmpeg as the mpeg decoder IIRC) I could crank out a DVD that would play on my DVD player pretty quickly. If you like to give your video guys some creative control that wouldn't be terribly useful, but if you just want to dump video to DVD, it's a very automated and consistent way to do that. So if you wanted to roll a menu with your DZ logo, put your tandem video in chapter 1, and make a space with photos they could download to their computer, you'd still have a ton of space where you could add a commercial for your DZ or the local wind tunnel.

The local wind tunnel has switched to putting all their video on thumb drives. That way they don't need a computer with 8 DVD burners in it, don't need to reencode the video and don't need to license any software to make the DVDs. It's also way easier to get your video up to youtube.

I don't think there are many games in town for manifest software. You either roll your own, which is a huge pain in the ass or you find a commercial one to license, which is probably also a huge pain in the ass. Whenever computers are involved the only thing that's guaranteed is that ass pain will somehow be involved.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[3mpire 0]

Quote

~Apple OS and applications won't allow more than one instance of a program to be run at the same time.

This is just a quibble but it isn't the OS it is the application.

I've written simple document based apps for Mac OS and you can have multiple instances open, each with their own context.

This doesn't change the overall answer, but I wanted to just make that clarification.

[DSE 3]

The OS precludes the application from decoding multiple streams of video simultaneously due to Apple not using the OEM decoder built into Intel chipsets.
My answer is strictly related to video.
IMO, having three separate machines to edit three videos simultaneously is bad business management, but to each his own. One operator processing six videos, all customized, turned in 2.5 minutes is a pretty economical and efficient use of time.
If you're a small DZ that doesn't need to turn 50 videos on a slow day, then have at it. The question was about efficiency, and neither is having multiple machines cost effective nor time-efficient.
If you want to use an Apple machine, go for it. My primary systems are Apple, all running BootCamp. When I need to get work done fast and on budget, I use the Win side. when I want to be light hearted, browse the web, read email, I use the Apple side.
It's just a tool. Nothing more. If you want a cute tool that isn't efficient for media ingest/edit/export, then go for the cute tool. If you want to get work done, go for the ugly workhorse.