What computer is everyone using to edit 4K video?

Phantomix · May 31, 2016

PC here.
I7 quad core 4.0 ghz
nvidia gtx970
water cooled
1250 watt psu
1TB hard drive, 264gb SSD
1080p monitor xD
great with 4k, but the cheap monitor doesnt show it
i ran out of money after everything else so had no money for the monitor

MichaelS · Jun 1, 2016

LuvMyTJ said:
I use a beautiful 27" iMac.

I also have a maxed out IMac 5K Retina. I get very juttery video playback.

Adamation · Jun 2, 2016

MichaelS said:
Water cooled?

Yep full custom loop

airwindow · Jun 5, 2016

MichaelS said:
I also have a maxed out IMac 5K Retina. I get very juttery video playback.

View attachment 55776

You get jittery playback in editing software or in player?

If it's jittery playback in software, perhaps the problem is in a graphics card with only 4GB of VRAM that drive that display and help drive the performance of editing software. This machine seems more focused on wowing the production world with a "5k screen" instead of putting more horsepower behind that screen which would make it even more useful.

You're pretty much stuck using FCP on this machine. Premiere is a completely different animal with or without the Mercury engine, which means you need Nvidia graphic card. So "software-only" Premiere is going to crumble dealing with AMD.

MichaelS · Jun 5, 2016

airwindow said:
You get jittery playback in editing software or in player?

If it's jittery playback in software, perhaps the problem is in a graphics card with only 4GB of VRAM that drive that display and help drive the performance of editing software. This machine seems more focused on wowing the production world with a "5k screen" instead of putting more horsepower behind that screen which would make it even more useful.

You're pretty much stuck using FCP on this machine. Premiere is a completely different animal with or without the Mercury engine, which means you need Nvidia graphic card. So "software-only" Premiere is going to crumble dealing with AMD.

I get Jittery playback in Quick Time and in FCPX and Premiere. I believe you are 100% correct about the graphics card. I bought this 5K iMac thinking it would be a 4K monster. It is not, not even close. $4,000 worth of junk. I can't even get it to work in Target monitor mode to use with another computer. Thanks for the reply.

airwindow · Jun 5, 2016

MichaelS said:
I get Jittery playback in Quick Time and in FCPX and Premiere. I believe you are 100% correct about the graphics card. I bought this 5K iMac thinking it would be a 4K monster. It is not, not even close. $4,000 worth of junk. I can't even get it to work in Target monitor mode to use with another computer. Thanks for the reply.

Hmmmm...you get jittery playback anyway? Maybe problem is in HDD.... Is it near full? OS needs to be at least 10% free, add some buffer for other stuff....

airwindow · Jun 5, 2016

airwindow said:
Hmmmm...you get jittery playback anyway? Maybe problem is in HDD.... Is it near full? OS needs to be at least 10% free, add some buffer for other stuff....

I assume that the codecs are updated?

MichaelS · Jun 5, 2016

airwindow said:
Hmmmm...you get jittery playback anyway? Maybe problem is in HDD.... Is it near full? OS needs to be at least 10% free, add some buffer for other stuff....

It's a 1TB SSD that is only half full. It is also much faster than any of my external drives.

MichaelS · Jun 5, 2016

airwindow said:
I assume that the codecs are updated?

Yep.

airwindow · Jun 6, 2016

MichaelS said:
Yep.

Ok. "Smells" like AMD issue after all. I'm in the PC world , but I would like to help if I can ...

Lets try something...iOS likes ProRes codecs.

When you play video, your computer needs to de-compress every frame in realtime so you can see the full quality playing. That is done by the GPU. When you work with an edit-friendly full-frame codec such as ProRes 422, the GPU does not need to work hard to decompress the video frames on the fly. But when you work natively with very compressed and high pixelcount XAVC, AVCHD or H.264 video, the GPU will have to work much harder.

If you optimize footage to ProRes before editing, I belive you won't have any issues...

MichaelS · Jun 6, 2016

airwindow said:
Ok. "Smells" like AMD issue after all. I'm in the PC world , but I would like to help if I can ...

Lets try something...iOS likes ProRes codecs.

When you play video, your computer needs to de-compress every frame in realtime so you can see the full quality playing. That is done by the GPU. When you work with an edit-friendly full-frame codec such as ProRes 422, the GPU does not need to work hard to decompress the video frames on the fly. But when you work natively with very compressed and high pixelcount XAVC, AVCHD or H.264 video, the GPU will have to work much harder.

If you optimize footage to ProRes before editing, I belive you won't have any issues...

Thank you for your help. I will give your idea a try and report back with my results. Although I believe I have tried what you are suggesting and I still got a few what seems like dropped frames. This has been going on for more than a year now and I'm very frustrated.

airwindow · Jun 6, 2016

MichaelS said:
Thank you for your help. I will give your idea a try and report back with my results. Although I believe I have tried what you are suggesting and I still got a few what seems like dropped frames. This has been going on for more than a year now and I'm very frustrated.

Don't be....it's only machine

Here's some link to free ProRes sample footage. Download and try to play:

Ultra-high Resolution 4K Video Before Your Eyes with Elemental

cheers

cheebs · Jun 6, 2016

@MichaelS I have a MacBook Pro with about half the processor (quad [email protected]) and 16GB of RAM and it plays back and edits 4k video flawlessly in QT, FCPX or imovie. I use an external Thunderbolt SSD. Have you benchmarked your drives? Here's a decent app for that:
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on the Mac App Store
It's not normal by any means for a 5k imac to judder on 4K playback.

MichaelS · Jun 9, 2016

cheebs said:
@MichaelS I have a MacBook Pro with about half the processor (quad [email protected]) and 16GB of RAM and it plays back and edits 4k video flawlessly in QT, FCPX or imovie. I use an external Thunderbolt SSD. Have you benchmarked your drives? Here's a decent app for that:
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on the Mac App Store
It's not normal by any means for a 5k imac to judder on 4K playback.

I also have a fully loaded MacBook Pro 15" Retina that works flawlessly. I think I might take my iMac to my local store and see if i can get some answers.

Fourman · Jun 15, 2016

I have an older Dell T7500 workstation with dual 6 core Xeon processors E-5645 running at 2.6GHz. 48GB RAM. The OS/programs are loaded on SSD and the process drives are 4 RAID 10 SATA drives. Video is GTX570 with 1GB RAM which I am thinking of upgrading later.....

Adobe seems to process 4k okay...I may need to get a better video card. I got this system for free so I really can complain.

mnewxcv · Jun 15, 2016

Fourman said:
I have an older Dell T7500 workstation with dual 6 core Xeon processors E-5645 running at 2.6GHz. 48GB RAM. The OS/programs are loaded on SSD and the process drives are 4 RAID 10 SATA drives. Video is GTX570 with 1GB RAM which I am thinking of upgrading later.....

Adobe seems to process 4k okay...I may need to get a better video card. I got this system for free so I really can complain.

The T*500 series are great workstations. The T7500 tower is massive though! In any event, nice thing is if you ever need more power, you can upgrade to the X5690 or add a second CPU. I imagine a modern graphics chip would do wonders for you though!

Fourman · Jun 15, 2016

mnewxcv said:
The T*500 series are great workstations. The T7500 tower is massive though! In any event, nice thing is if you ever need more power, you can upgrade to the X5690 or add a second CPU. I imagine a modern graphics chip would do wonders for you though!

I already have dual CPU so Windows 10 sees 24 processors with HyperThreading turned on

chazzm · Oct 31, 2016

I have several computers for various functions, but my main is an Alienware 17R2, with 16 gig ram, and an Alienware graphics amplifier holding a GeForce 1070 Founders edition 8 gig card with a 34 inch ultraHD 4k monitor,(THAT set me back some dinero!), yes it screams!!! but like I said I have several, I used to build them for a living until the big business people put me out of business lol, retired now on disability. So I fly instead of sitting here in pain! And CyberLink PowerDirector 15 (64-bit) I bought a bundle deal which gave me the latest of everything they have, I find it really simple to use as well!

DrillRX · Oct 31, 2016

td119 said:
My current laptop is a Asus windows 7 which has an older I7 cpu running a 2 ghz. I know the issue is with the type of memory and video card. What type of OS is best to edit 4K video? I am looking for a laptop but not sure which OS Apple or Microsoft? And which model laptop?

I use a Mac Pro (iMovie and process into theater) to edit.

GadgetGuy · Oct 31, 2016

Adobe Premiere Pro CC is available in both a Windows and a Mac version, so whichever platform floats your boat will work fine, with the best hardware. Editing video is comparable to gaming, so any top of the line gaming machine will be ideal. In addition to lots of RAM and a capable video card, you need lots of storage, too, including extra storage for backups!