Full HD is coming...
There will be some extra delay before the next videos start coming out because I'm finally making the switch to HD. I know people have been screaming for something higher than 720p... Making the switch, however, is not trivial. Although my existing system was capable of doing it, my cameras were not really good at it (the bitrate was barely any better in 1080p) and the computer I use for editing was a 2010 Mac Mini with 8 GB of RAM, which ran like molasses on 1080p or higher.
One reason I've been putting this off was I was debating possibly switching to a windows machine with Adobe Premiere instead of sticking with a Mac and Final Cut Pro. However, after watching many videos comparing the two, I decided to stick with Final Cut Pro. And that decision meant sticking with a Mac.
Several people suggested building a hackintosh for a more powerful system at a cheaper price. But ultimately, I have had bad luck with this before with stuff not working correctly. This is my job now, so I need things to "just work" because I don't have time to screw with it. I'm supposed to be spending my time screwing with the stuff I'm showing you in the videos.
So, I've got a newer Mac Mini I'm setting up right now with an i5 CPU in it and 16GB of RAM. This is on loan, and if it doesn't work out I'm going to give it back and buy a Mac Mini Server with an i7 quad-core.
I have a new camcorder on order, which should be here shortly. It's a Panasonic 4K model, but at this point I'm only planning to do 1080p 30fps.
I also have to create new intros for both of my channels since the footage was filmed in 720p. I'll probably make the intros in 4K just for future-proofing.
Anyway, it is going to take a while to get everything transferred over and setup and working the way I need before I can get down to business. Hopefully this will have a positive outcome! So wish me luck!
Comments (19)
Thanks for the upgrade to HD! For me personally, I hadn't even considered it much, since watching videos normally means the content is moving too quickly for resolution to matter. The one place where it's nice to have HD is if I pause to read something - for example when you put close-ups of PCBs, or screenshots. All the best with the upgrade. :)
I find it odd you had trouble on a 2010 Mac with HD. I use to edit 1080i video in Final Cut 6 on a black MacBook (I think it was like a 2008 era) and that was the only machine I could edit 1080i video on. I later switched to a Quad-Core Hackintosh which made editing a LOT easier/faster, but even on the real MacBook I could leave a 10 minute render on overnight and it be done by morning (granted that was 1080i and not 1080p .. had to run a de-interlace filter). I haven't had a Mac in years though and have been using Davinci Resolve on Windows lately. You can do 1080p on it for free or get a license and do 4k (my i7 MSI laptop from 3 years ago can do 1080p fine; not sure what the requirements are for 4k). Honestly I don't think 4k is that big a deal for your broadcasts and some of the other comments have said. I mean it's a nice to have, but not totally necessary. Also 720p is HD!! :-P It's not 1080p, but it's certainty not bad quality at all. Oh and if you want to go the Open Source route, Blender has a great video editor that can work on Win/Mac/Linux.
"This is my job now, so I need things to "just work" because I don't have time to screw with it." - A hugely underrated thing when it comes to occupational productivity. Skimping on product reliability is a huge drain on resources.
That was my thought. At home, I use Linux and various homebrew apps for almost everything I do; if something breaks, it doesn't bother me - both because I know my own system inside and out so I can fix it fairly quickly, but also because nothing really important happens there. So, at home, I can take my high and mighty "Open source FTW" attitude to whatever extremes I like. I would never consider doing the same at work, though. The bottom line there is stuff needs to get done, it needs to get done on time and within budget, and it needs to get done without major bugs in a way end users can deal with. Most of the time, that means turnkey anywhere that's an option.
I'd like to make a very strong plea for either 4k or 60p shooting. This isn't future-proofing -- the future is *now* and our computers, mobile devices, and smart TVs are capable of either of these. I prefer the smooth aesthetic of 60p, but I would actually recommend you shoot 4k because it will give you more options during editing.
Transitions like that take time. Sounds like you are doing it right. Best of luck!
Glad to hear that you're upgrading to full HD, it will be a huge improvement of the quality image. Lower resolutions videos tend to be seen as outdated or old even if they are new. The specs of the machine you say will suffice for full HD editing, and shooting intros in 4K is a good idea. Even if you are not able of editing them now in real time (the computer will handle the files fine, but will have problems on playing them on real time) you'll get good 1080p material and will have the originals for future editing. Good luck and keep the good work!
Your video quality has always been fine with me, but hey, more is better!
I am quite satisfied with your content as it is and how it appears but all the best with the upgrade.
Good luck sir!
I never noticed you werent 1080p.. Anxious to see how it goes with the new Mini, I always thought Final Cut would block you if you werent on a Mac with a dedicated GPU.. I had a 2012 i5 iMac w/2GB 6970m that worked pretty good with 1080p .. I love the videos regardless we all know its about the content in the end (y)
Thanks, I enjoy these behind the scenes posts. Always interesting to see how others create
Best of luck David! For reference, I do occasional video editing on a late 2012 Mac mini with a quad 2.6 GHz i7 and 16 GB RAM and 1 TB Fusion drive (plus a 4 TB external 7200 RPM media drive). Raw footage is 1080/30p (sometimes /60p). I think render times with this setup are acceptable for daily work, but 4K work would probably require better GPU coprocessing (such as on a newer 5K iMac probably).
Seriously, I never noticed if the videos weren't in HD. I generally watch the videos on my phone, so I don't think an HD version will look that much different to my eyes. I'm more interested in the content.
Or perhaps you should really make this the 8-bit channel and all video is at 320x200 resolution with a 16 color palette.
Full-time videographer here. How the clips handle on your computer has a lot to do with the codec it's recorded in. You can always convert your clips into a more computer friendly codec before editing them and this should help the process for you. I edit full 4K footage on a 16GB Ram MacBook just fine. I'm always willing to give advice if you need it!
I'd love to see at least one episode in 1080p60 just to see how different your videos would "feel" then :P
Wow. I didn't even realize you weren't in full HD all this time. Best of luck with the new setup.
I tried so hard to build a Hackintosh for my grandma. I even tried it on a prebuilt barebones system that many had successfully done the same thing with, but it just never worked no matter what I tried. I ended up just installing Windows 7 on her computer and surprisingly she had no problems with it(I was concerned she would have trouble with the switch). I think you made the right call considering how much trouble a hackintosh can be.