I am looking into purchasing the software (v4) to use with my mac book pro. I know you have to use a dongle in order to use it, but say I end up getting a different computer, can I still use that same dongle or is it only good for one computer?
Ryan
Printable View
I am looking into purchasing the software (v4) to use with my mac book pro. I know you have to use a dongle in order to use it, but say I end up getting a different computer, can I still use that same dongle or is it only good for one computer?
Ryan
If you have a dongle, you can use in any mac computer what have the Catalyst software and a Dongle driver.
What kind of MacBook Pro ?Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanww
I have a 2 ghz core duo with a gig of ram. Does anyone have any experience with this one running cat? I was thinking of getting one of the Matrox vga Dual head boxes. I am not needing to do massive amounts of layering and video affects, but I am mostly looking for video playback with like scale and rotation and such. Also, I was wondering if anyone new an approximate price of the Pro software.
what Kind of catalyst version would you think to buy ?Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanww
Do you know that there are different versions ?
Emiliano
Yea, I would love to just get the Pro. I would eventually like to get a Mac pro and have my own little set up. But for the time being, I would like to just use my current computer, and just not run it at full capacity. Ultimately it will be up to the price if it is easier for me to just purchase a copy or to just keep renting for some up coming shows.
Will work just fine,...
The only problem i can see is if you wanna play too many layers, than your videos will slow down. I have a MacBook (non pro), and I had a situation with one G5 with problems, and I used my MacBook and save me the day.
Dual Head or Triple Head to go will work on macbook without a problem, just do not know how the Graphic Board wiull handle, since is a 256Mb I belive will go OK, may be some one has the experience on that.
If you have a Macbook Pro with a Firewire 800, you definitly wanna use a external Hard Drive for CONTENT, like the LaCie (already 2 RAID internaly) Big Disks or so,...
Yea, I assumed that since it is somewhat built in and limited. Thats why I had asked if the dongle would be able to go to another machine should I need more power or when I upgrade to a mac pro.
Unfortunately I only have firewire 400, which kind of sucks. But again, eventually I plan on upgrading. I already have 2 10,000 rpm drives (can't remember who makes them. They are ultra scsi though and 30 gigs a piece. But raided together, they will be fine and I would be willing to get better drives anyway down the road.
In the time being, I will probably only be doing 2 maybe 3 actual video playback layers, and a couple more for image shaping and such if that, so I think I will be fine with my Macbook pro.
Does anyone know how much it is going to be about? At least like a $1,000 or like $5,000?
V4 upgrades are about $2500.... so full version is probably a bit more I think
However - the whole idea of running catalyst on a Macbook Pro worries me slighty..... for the cost of a desktop system, you can run with a better graphics card and SCSI drives... which really are much better than firewire. + theres no decent way of capturing SDI or Comp video....
Apart from as a backup system - I wouldnt even consider running on a Macbook - unless I'm programming on a tour bus between venues!!!...
Theres also the issue of reliability... While Catalyst is SOLID - other software and drivers that you may insall on your macbook (which you wouldn't get on a rental system or dedicated server) may cause unforeseen issues. I configure servers with the minimum of software, turn off most other features - unless you're going to keep your macbook as a dedicated catalyst system - personally, I would always use a desktop system.
Good luck either way - I'd be interested on your feedback.
Simon
Yea, I defiantly agree with you on that. I am wanting to build my own system eventually, but thats a maybe. I would defiantly build a very nice powerful system. And if I do need a video input, I can always capture off of the firewire bus. Even my built in isight works! (I have been playing around with that just messing around and it is fun)
I have been messing with all the latest versions on my Macbook pro, and have yet to run into anything that has caused it to mess up. And it has been fast just messing with the effects.
One of the things I am looking to do for the first show is just play back 3 different media clips that are less then 20 minutes long each independently. They also want a logo over layed that is "dimable" which will replace a gobo and s4 fixture. They also have LED's around the room that sync with the video. They have the leds sync with the video so when the video clip changes, the lights do as well. Both of the outputs will be identical content wise, but one of the outputs has to be scaled to fit something like a picture frame and the other has to rotate 90 degrees to fit on a vertically oriented plasma display. Thats no problem with catalyst. And it shouldn't be very process hogging since it is only one media clip playing at a time.
Might be worth looking at Seritek as an interim storage solution
http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-2en2/
They have a Sata Card for a PC Express slot and you could run a pair of Raptors as your content drives.
Cheers
Toby
That is a really cool case. I have been looking around for hard drives myself and have found some decent single ones.
Lacie has some Sata 74 and 160 gig drives that are 10krpm for about 100 bucks (us) but it has a seek time of 11ms where the raptor only has 4.5 or so. How much of a difference would that make? Do you normally raid 0 or 1?
RAID 0 gives you the only advantage but in bandwidth only. As stated in many previous threads, beware hard drive specifications as they can be misleading. Random access and spindle speed are what counts.
Cheers
Toby
Just out of curiosity, how is using firewire 800? I am just looking at enclosures and most of the dual HD have that. Plus it would make it a smidge more universal between machines.
Are you using a Mac at home ? Or are you using PC ?Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanww
I am all mac.. well mostly.. stupid hog 3pc. Lol. But yea, all of my computers have firewire on them.
Hey Ryan,
I'm using a Macbook Pro 17" with a 7200 rpm disk, a 2.33 Ghz Dual Core and 2 Gigs of Ram. Aditionally a Lacie Big Disk D2 (7200) and a Matrox Triple to go.
Running on this Catalyst Pro DV gives me the Possibility to run three videos correctly Coded, at the same time. Also keyed Image Overlays work well.
Of course you need to know where the limits of you're system are but actually this entire Catalyst System fits into a backpack.
Best
Rolf
www.chaoscenter.net