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System Recommendations for Feature Performance
Some features of Media Composer, Symphony, and Newscutter have specific system requirements in order to perform properly. This chart explains each feature and what the requirements are.


Last Updated : February 26, 2012
Products Affected : Media_Composer, NewsCutter, Symphony

Why are certain features (like HD RGB, QuickTime AMA, and Ancillary Data) not performing on my system as expected?

A number of features included with this editing application release are processor-intensive. As a result, you might experience problems if you are working on an older system. The following chart shows the hardware that Avid has successfully qualified when using these features.

Feature

Version Introduced

Description

Recommended System

Stereoscopic 3D

MC/SY 3.5

Enhanced Functionality in v6

For optimal performance with

Stereoscopic 3D, use these higher

performance systems. Avid

recommends a minimum of 12GB

RAM when using Stereoscopic

3D.

HP z800 Dual Quad Core, or Dual 6 Core, with Hyperthreading On

• HP z400, 6-core with Hyperthreading On

• Dell T5500 Dual, 2.93GHz QuadCore with Hyperthreading On

• Mac Pro Dual 6 Core“Westmere”

HD RGB

MC v5.0
Symphony v5.0
NC v9.0

HD RGB capture requires a high end workstation with Nitris DX and fast storage. (The HP z800 and the Dell T5500 have been qualified to successfully play back 2 streams with PIP and Color Correction effects. The Mac Pro Dual Quad Core "Nahalem" successfully plays back 2 streams with PIP.)
  • HP z800 Dual Quad Core, or Dual 6 Core, with Hyperthreading On 64-bit OS
  • Dell T5500 Dual, 2.93GHz QuadCore with Hyperthreading On64-bit OS
  • Mac Pro Dual Quad Core "Nahalem" or Dual 6 Core "Westmere"
  • Storage: 10Gb Ethernet ISIS,VideoRaid II SR or two VideoRaid II ST striped together. AIC StudioRAID 16re or two 5Te  or 5Ti units striped together

XDCAM HD50 Capture

MC v5.0
Symphony v5.0
NC v9.0

Baseband capture through Nitris DX or Mojo DX. (only ones that have successfully worked with)
  • HP z800 Dual Quad Core, or Dual 6 Core, with Hyperthreading On 64-bit OS
  • HP z400 Single 6-Core, with Hyperthreading On 64-bit OS
  • Dell T5500 Dual, 2.93GHz Quad Core with Hyperthreading On 64-bit OS
  • Mac Pro Dual Quad Core "Nahalem" or Dual 6 Core "Westmere"

AMA (RED)

MC v5.0
Symphony v5.0
NC v9.0

AMA is a processor intensive operation. Older platforms may not offer optimum performance.
  • HP z800 Dual Quad Core, or Dual 6 Core, with Hyperthreading On 64-bit OS
  • HP z400 Single Quad Core, or Single 6 Core, with Hyperthreading ON 64-bit OS
  • Dell T5500 Dual, 2.93GHz QuadCore with Hyperthreading On 64-bit OS
  • Mac Pro Dual Quad Core "Nahalem" or Dual 6 core "Westmere"

AMA (QuickTime)

MC v5.0
Symphony v5.0
NC v9.0

AMA is a processor intensive operation. Lower end platforms may not offer optimum performance. Highly compressed codecs such as H.264 will exhibit minimal real-time performance.

Recommendation of qualified systems depends on your planned use of this feature. Heavy usage of highly compressed codecs requires the high end systems.

Ancillary Data

MC v5.0
Symphony v5.0
NC v9.0

Ancillary Data and Nitris DX: Due to software DNxHD codec performance requirements, you must have a dual quad core system in order to capture DNxHD 220 or 220x with ancillary data on the Nitris DX platform. If your system does not meet the system requirements, the only way to capture DNxHD 220or 220x is to make sure that ancillary data is not enabled.

Dual Quad Core or Dual 6 Core Systems

DVCPro HD Capture

MC v5.0
Symphony v5.0
NC v9.0

You will get better performance with a dual quad core or dual 6 core system.

Dual Quad Core or Dual 6 Core Systems

AVC-Intra

MC v5.0
Symphony v5.0
NC v9.0

AVC-Intra(AVC-I) is a high quality, low bit-rate HD codec and as a result very CPU intensive. All requirements are the same for local storage and ISIS. There is no performance delta between AVC-I 50 and AVC-I 100. Also, with AVC-I, full quality mode (Green/Green) is easier to play than Draft Quality or Best Performance. All qualifications are based on full quality mode. Multicam playback and Four stream playback performance with AVC-I is only supported on Media Composer 5.5, Symphony 5.5, or NewsCutter 9.5 or higher.
For more information on AVC-Intra, please see the following article:AVC-Intra Performance and Media Composer, Symphony, and NewsCutter [371871]

4-Way MultiCam Playback

• HP z800 Dual Quad Core or Dual 6 Core, with Hyperthreading On - 64-bit OS

• Mac Pro Dual Quad Core “Nahalem” or Dual 6 Core “Westmere”

Four Stream Playback:

• HP z800 Dual 6 Core with Hyperthreading On - 64-bit OS

• Mac Pro Dual 6 Core “Westmere”

Two Stream Playback:

• HP z400, single 6 Core with Hyperthreading On

Single Stream Playback:

• Systems listed above.

• HP z400, single 4-core with Hyperthreading On

• HP 8600, dual 4-core without Hyperthreading On

• HP 8740w/8760w laptop, i7  4-core with Hyperthreading On

• HP 8540w/8560w laptop, i7 4-core with Hyperthreading On

• Dell Precision M6500 laptop, i7 (2.00 GHz) 4-core with Hyperthreading On

• The MacBook Pro 17" laptop, i7 (2.66 GHz) 2-core with Hyperthreading On

• iMac 27", i7 (2.8GHz) 4-core with Hyperthreading On

 

 

 
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