Re: FCP > Premiere users...should I wait for CS 6?

[Philipp Hampl] "and surely hope cs 6 will solve the problems (e.g no external monitoring when working with codecs other than those which are cuda-supported! That means: whether monitoring or mercury engine - and as prp is a resource eating monster you need the extra speed -at least on a Mac!!); but untill that: not "pro" enough."

...this statement is incorrect.

There are no "CUDA" supported codecs or unsupported codecs...compression/decompression is done on the CPU...that's not Adobe, that's every company who has created a video codec...

CUDA helps in a variety of ways with general workflow in that it handles much of the scaling and effects work, freeing up the CPU to be able to concentrate on the decode/encode activities...which does help you play back video of course...but it's secondary to the transfer of the other functions to CUDA.

When you say "external monitoring" I assume you mean an I/O card like AJA or Black Magic?

You can create a sequence for these cards and put any sort of media you want on it, but those cards interact with the computer through the PCIe buss...the motherboard. CUDA accelerated effects and functions that happen on the display card, and need to be piped back to the motherboard to go out the card. The bottleneck is being attended to by the hardware vendors and Adobe, but it has nothing to do with codec support within CUDA.

This isn't an Adobe restriction...and there's been some progress, but overall this is a computer architecture situation that is evolving. The CUDA processor cores are not on the motherboard (unless you are running a Tesla system), they're on the display card.

I can slap a 4K RED file on a Kona sequence and see the images come out on the HDSDI monitor (I'm on Windows...so Mac may have different circumstances), it's just that it isn't as fast as running in non-I/O mode because of the frame back haul through the motherboard.

I understand what you're attempting to say, but this is how some of the misinformation about how PPro actually works gets started. With so many people migrating from FCP, it makes it very difficult for them to sort out what's real...and make an informed decision.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor