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Configuring your workstation


32 vs 64-bit OS

Choosing RAM configurations

Windows 7 performance for Premiere Pro and Vegas

If you're a Premiere Pro or Vegas editor, and you're thinking about purchasing a new system with Windows 7, or upgrading to the new Microsoft OS on a current system, you might want to check out an article that I wrote for Millimeter/Digital Content P...

Windows 7 Performance for Streaming Encoding

puget.jpgA 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.

Better buy 64-bit systems from here on out

I got an interesting e-mail from Adobe today, which I've pasted in its entirety below. The key message is this:

"Adobe today confirmed that ... Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and Adobe After Effects CS4 are the last versions to support 32-bit operating systems. Future versions will be native 64-bit applications which will run only on 64-bit operating systems."

This has some interesting implications about future hardware investments and provides a preview of what CS5 will bring. You can read the full release (and my short analysis) in the complete article.

Snow Leopard for Video Producers

Apple's Snow Leopard is short of the usual bling that Apple ships with new operating systems, but for video producers, power users and others with multiple core computers, it's a very significant release -- if you don't mind waiting until software developers support the new plumbing that Apple implemented. I took a deep look at the technology for Millimeter magazine, which you can read all about here. This is the Cliffs Notes, teaser version.

Hewlett Packard's Nehalem-based Z400 and Z800 speed encoding performance

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

Accelerating Encoding on Multiple Core Workstations

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

CS4 and 64-bit Systems

This article describes the advantages of a 64-bit operating system when running Adobe CS4, and tests CS4 performance with different RAM configurations. If you're producing HD video with CS4 running a 32-bit OS and feeling frustrated by slow performance, this article will tell you why and how to fix it.