Streaming Learning Center

In the first edition of this month’s Affordable HD enewsletter, we keep the focus on the Apple Mac Pro, specifically analyzing the optimal memory configurations for editing and encoding with Apple Final Cut Studio, Adobe Creative Suite 4, and Telestream Episode Engine. I looked at several scenarios.

A Windows 7 upgrade can cost more than $300 for the software alone -- is it worth it if you're a streaming producer looking to shave encoding times? Well, that's what I detail in this article.

By way of background, I had a great testbed for this - a dual processor, quad core 3.33 Ghz Xeon (Nehalem-based) computer from custom workstation manufacturer Puget Systems. Puget supplied the workstation with three system drives in an easily swappable drive bay so I could change operating systems in a matter of moments. Thus equipped, I loaded a number of programs on the three system drives, including Adobe Media Encoder, On 2 Flix Pro, Rhozet Carbon Coder, Sorenson Squeeze and Telestream Episode, and ran the encoding trials on each platform. Click over to the main article to see the results.

On March 30, 2009, Hewlett Packard announced three new workstations that leverage Intel’s new Nehalem line of CPUs. To assess the significance of these new computers to the streaming market, I tested two Nehalem-based systems against older generation dual core, quad-core and eight core systems, using a range of encoding programs, including Adobe Media Encoder, On2 Flix Pro, Rhozet Carbon Coder, Sorenson Squeeze and Telestream Episode.

Though performance varies by the task, on average, Nehalem outperformed a similarly configured eight-core system based upon the previous Intel Xeon architecture by over 40% in four of five tests, with an 18% performance boost in the fifth.

Producers in mission critical, time-sensitive encoding applications should immediately start purchasing Nehalem-based systems like the HP Z800 over systems based upon Intel’s previous Xeon architecture. If current throughput levels are an issue, you should also consider retiring your current workstations, and installing Nehalem-based systems. Producers who are considering expanding their render farm facilities to meet encoding demand should also consider swapping out current systems for Nehalem-based systems, which are more powerful and more power efficient. High volume producers should strongly consider a dual-CPU system, which typically perform much faster than single CPU solutions.

Finally, if you’re a small producer who’s been putting off purchasing a system for editing and encoding, boy, are you going to be glad that you did.

I produce a lot of screencams and other narration-type recordings, and workstation noise is a constant concern. I also have multiple computers around my office, most off testing some software program or rendering some project. While "cacophony" is definitely too strong a word to apply, less noise is always good. For this reason, I was excited when HP called to offer a quick spin with its new liquid-cooled Z800 workstation.

When some people get a powerful new computer, they want to produce a new video, play games, or show it off to their friends. I just want to run as many tests as possible to analyze its performance, which I guess means that I’m well suited for this portion of my job description.

Have a multiple processor Mac or Windows Workstation? Here's how to make it fly when producing your streaming media files.