Reactions to Apple's new MacPro announcement.

I'm curious to see reactions to the announcement by Apple of it's new MacPro (late this year) with the new Zeon processor (12 core), 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports (20mb), fast RAM, PCIe SSD drive controller, compact size, edit full res 4k video, should make Final Cut Pro X fly, see here:

[www.apple.com]

My thoughts:
[www.digitalrebellion.com]

I don't think we know enough yet to properly judge it.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

But its fun to judge it. Jon makes many valid points here in his blog. Hard to say how other companies will respond and hard to say how Post houses will use this devise. Kind of feel the gripe about all those cables coming out of the tube will present a problem. No it wont. There are gadgets for that. As noted, Ram and HD are upgradeable. If indeed the AMD cards will not play nice with Cuda optimized apps, would not these companies respond somehow? Otherwise the choice is to drop Mac support at least for the Mac Pro. And my goodness, would BMD or Adobe do this? Not being an engineer, what do Adobe and Blackmagic and others need to do in order to respond?

Michael Horton
-------------------

Adobe doesn't need to do anything quite honestly. They already support the ATI cards very nicely with CC so they're good to go.

BMD is the lone man out with the nVidia only support needed for Resolve. Knowing them they will have an answer before the Fall.

I think the strongest use of these new machines will be for remote situations. Compact power to take into the field vs. a laptop or lugging a 27" iMac. I could totally see using it on location for a series. I don't think I'll get any for the shop and continue adding iMacs for primary editing. Then drop in a 16 Core PC for the final render.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

I guess the question is how much are people willing to sacrifice for an OS? Some amount of sacrifice has always been necessary when purchasing Apple products but we'll have to wait and see if Apple has pushed the balance too far.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Thanks Walter. Feel smarter already. Jon - Once folks get hooked on an OS it's pretty tough to get them off. Kind of like Crack.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Seems nice enough for an office use desktop mac. I'm not sure sure for uses outside a traditional office one due to "how the hell do you rack mount it". Moving to SSD has done wonders for my old style mac pro speed, so I'm happy enough there and dual GPU sounds nice too. A smaller, lighter package sounds great, but I'm not so sure on all the thunderbolt stuff, and where the hell do I put my Rocket card?

It really seems to be another example of Apple telling us what we want, and ignoring what we say we want. This can work well, but it can also go badly wrong....

Would not this work for a Red Rocket? Think there are other solutions too.

[www.mlogic.com]

Michael Horton
-------------------

How much do we really need the Rocket any longer with the strong power of the nVidia cards? Via thunderbolt adapter with this machine or via a PC tower or via their new VCA? I was under the impression these cards have almost caught up to the speed of the Rocket especially with two or more GPUs in the machine.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

BMD already working on OpenGL support for the new MacPro. Good news for all of us so we don't HAVE to have nVidias to run Resolve.

[forum.blackmagicdesign.com]

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Damn Walter how do you find all this stuff? Well then, what is there to gripe about here besides wont fit on a rack? And looks like a modern rendering of R2 D2.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Endgadget has some COOl picts of the new Mac Pro. It ain't black. It's really is a thermonuclear thermos bottle that R2-D2 might use. [engt.co]

Michael Horton
-------------------

All this talk about Thunderbolt 2 but where is Thunderbolt 2? From what I gather it is not slated to ship until 2014.

[bit.ly]

Michael Horton
-------------------

It's backwards compatible.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Oh. So I dont get it. You know me. What is all this talk about Intel's Falcon Ridge and late 2013 - 2014 shipping? A PC thing? And do any devices support Thunderbolt 2 now or "later this year?"

Michael Horton
-------------------

As far as I'm aware no devices support Thunderbolt 2 because Intel only just announced it. It's really just a tweak to the design so that the bandwidth is used more efficiently.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

But Intel is acting like it wont produce chips until later in 2013 and into 2014. Meaning these new Macs might not ship until 2014 at earliest. Why I don't get it

Michael Horton
-------------------

No, they said later this year. Remember that Apple had a special deal the first time around and got them exclusively before they came to the PC.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Regarding Resolve, it seems Grant Petty have already be testing it on R2D2 and likes it.
[forum.blackmagicdesign.com]

Seems Walter found this link first.

It will look and work great in a home-studio. I have a hard time to picture it in a pro environment due partly to the form factor.
After Final Cut X, I personally thinks that Apple clearly indicates its choice to target indie filmmakers and small prod companies. Way more money to be made with this demography.
I guess I'll start practicing Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V instead of Cmd-C / Cmd-V!