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dradeke
dradeke
Participating Frequently
November 25, 2009
Question

Technology Sneek Peek: Adobe® Mercury Playback Engine

  • November 25, 2009
  • 19 replies
  • 134049 views

Hi guys,

Been working on this blog post for what seems like forever.  I hope you enjoy it.  Please be sure to post comments there and not here...or at least if appropriate post in both places. 😉

http://blogs.adobe.com/genesisproject/2009/11/technology_sneek_peek_adobe_me.html#more

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Dennis

      This topic has been closed for replies.

      19 replies

      J
      joshtownsend
      Participating Frequently
      February 11, 2010

      The Nivida stuff was cool because it gives me a good idea of what FX will be sped up by MPE. Noticed the curves being used on 4k RED footage real time cool, but it makes me wonder why doesn't Premiere add some more powerful CC fx? AE's curves is way better than PR but nowhere near as good photoshop's. I know it can't be that hard to beef up some of the color correction plug-in..hell most AE plug-ins work in Premiere fine if you drag them into the CS4 common folder.

      Right now with DVCprohd footage I can color correct way faster in Premiere than AE. It's mostly realtime including 3rd party stuff like MB Looks and Colorista. But in AE it's slow as hell. Seems like this tech would be better suited for AE in my mind. I understand that RED 4k and heavily compressed consumer codec's (AVCHD, HDV, H264) will benfit from this alot more than anybody else and the RED people are the only ones that would spend $300+ on a videocard to edit footage (the consumer codec folk would've spent money on a better camera).

      Also all this 4-8 track realtime is something most of use never use. That many tracks at once is only for two people Wedding shooters (that MPE demo video with 8 PIP screens looks early '90s stuff) and Compositors. The only time I have more than two tracks at once is when I'm compositing stuff and then I only do it in AE.

      Sorry for being Mr. cynical I think it's a great step forward but I also think it's a miss-step that is going to Keep Premiere #3 behind FCP and Avid.

      Also don't wanna shower to much praise on Adobe till the Final Product comes out. I wantto keep these guys on there toes. Maybe if the 4 grand RED SCARLET was coming out anytime soon I'd be stoked but I'm pretty sure it'll be next year till we see that.

      Keep up the good work.

      tclark513
      tclark513
      Known Participant
      February 11, 2010

      After reading a few articles I am starting to think there will be an extra charge to activate MPE inside of Premiere...lets hope not!

      J
      joshtownsend
      Participating Frequently
      February 11, 2010

      Yeah that might explain there reluctance to say it 'will ship with CS5'. I'd still buy it and so will 70% of RED users on top of the $300 plus card.

      Chuck_A__McIntyre
      Chuck_A__McIntyre
      Known Participant
      February 11, 2010

      tgdaily.com is running an article on Adobe's MPE:

      http://www.tgdaily.com/gpu/48373-nvidias-quadro-gpu-accelerates-adobes-mercury-playback-engine

      tclark513
      tclark513
      Known Participant
      January 22, 2010

      I would be real curious to know how well the MPE works with multiple AVCHD video layers.  In the video he only shows playback from ONE layer.

      Dennis?

      PaulieDC
      PaulieDC
      Inspiring
      December 14, 2009

      My first computer (1985) had 128K of ram and a TV with bent rabbit ears for a monitor...

      Harm_Millaard
      Harm_Millaard
      Inspiring
      December 14, 2009

      Just shows that you are 2-nd or 3-rd generation. I started out on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800 and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_5100.

      Till this day APL is still one of my favorite languages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_%28programming_language%29

      PaulieDC
      PaulieDC
      Inspiring
      December 14, 2009

      Woohoo! You win Harm, I'm a total late bloomer in the computer world. My Commodore 128 was way too sleek and polished to fit in with the first gen crowd. However, I did get a calculator for Christmas in 1973 which blew my mind. Four functions and it didn't even have an "=" button... you typed your first number, hit "+" to get it registered in memory, then typed the second number and hit the function you wanted, such as division. I wish I kept that thing.

      OK, that's totally OT, just havin' some fun! Back to Gigabytes of memory and Megabytes of data rates... the Thirty-somethings are getting a headache from rolling their eyes.

      PaulieDC
      PaulieDC
      Inspiring
      December 10, 2009

      Funny, I started out on a 24" 1920x1200 monitor using Premiere so I'm hooked. All my video footage is 16:9 because of the 5D2 output, so the widescreen monitor allows me to get bigger Source and Output views. A second standard monitor like a 19: 1280x1024 monitor is nice to put other items (like a browser with Adobe Forums... ) and maybe a PDF doc with some editing tips, etc. But it also gives me a monitor to run a completed project on a non-widescreen monitor so I can see how it fares. Guess that's a habit from webpage design.

      Anyway, HARM: that JVC doesn't state if it's an IPS panel monitor, which it should be for that kind of money I would think. This Eizo is half the price and uses true IPS panel technology: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/651901-REG/Eizo_CG243W_BK_ColorEdge_CG243W_24_1_Widescreen.html. But, educate me here since I come from a still background... is that not as necessary for video work? For still work in PS the IPS panels offer the truest color on the planet at the moment.

      Lastly, for an amzingly low price, you could get a 24" 1920x1200 monitor that you'd be happy with for a long time and still have a few bananas left over to spend on something else: The Dell U2410... lists for $599, insanely great picture, and boasts a 110% Color Gamut (even a 96% AdobeRGB Gamut. Whoa!). It also has an unbelievable 80,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio... that's some seriously rich blacks! And, it has a 3 year warranty that gets you a replacement if ONE pixel goes white on you. Very nice:

      http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Monitors/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-8277

      Harm_Millaard
      Harm_Millaard
      Inspiring
      December 10, 2009

      Paulie,

      Based on a recent test the Eizo shows weaknesses in SD mode. Sure it is a nice one and has attractive pricing, so it definitely is worth to look at, but for real post work, albeit at completely different prices, three alternatives are the JVC DT-V24 L3D (glossy display), the Panasonic BT-LH 2550E (cumbersome to operate) or the Sony PVM-L 2300 (extravagant price and bulky format). They all offer much better build quality and better results than the Eizo, but require deep pockets. The Eizo is far better than any Dell, HP or similar. Eizo is best in its price class, an absolute winner.

      PaulieDC
      PaulieDC
      Inspiring
      December 10, 2009

      I figured you'd know the answer.

      tclark513
      tclark513
      Known Participant
      December 8, 2009

      Can anybody speculate on how true HD monitoring (external monitor) would be achieved through the cards mentioned?  Would there still be a need for a third party?

      Chuck_A__McIntyre
      Chuck_A__McIntyre
      Known Participant
      December 8, 2009

      ATI's new line of cards (5800 series) support 3 monitors running simultaneously. 2 DVI for your regular computer screens and 1 HDMI output for an HD monitor. I checked on Nvidia's website and couldn't find a Quadro card that supports 3 monitors running at the same time. If I didn't just miss it, hopefully, they will provide this feature in the near future.

      Although we would enjoy ATI's 3 monitor capability, We're holding out for Mercury's release and going with Nvidia.

      tclark513
      tclark513
      Known Participant
      December 8, 2009

      Chuck A. McIntyre wrote:

      ATI's new line of cards (5800 series) support 3 monitors running simultaneously. 2 DVI for your regular computer screens and 1 HDMI output for an HD monitor. I checked on Nvidia's website and couldn't find a Quadro card that supports 3 monitors running at the same time. If I didn't just miss it, hopefully, they will provide this feature in the near future.

      Although we would enjoy ATI's 3 monitor capability, We're holding out for Mercury's release and going with Nvidia.

      I noticed that also.  The computer at work has one dvi out that we utilized a "y" adapter that seems to work pretty well for the dual monitor situation.  I wonder if the same could be used on the cards supported?

      tclark513
      tclark513
      Known Participant
      December 6, 2009

      I wonder why Adobe and Red used resources to write the previous plug in for Premiere?  It seems like you wont need any of that with the new Playback Engine.

      Powered_by_Design
      Powered_by_Design
      Inspiring
      December 3, 2009

      When would be the best time for Adobe to release CS5

      What is the next BIG show ( like CES )

      Any guesses ?

      what would they shoot for ?

      were all dreaming after seeing that video.

      Enjoy:  Glenn

      Harm_Millaard
      Harm_Millaard
      Inspiring
      December 3, 2009

      Either NAB or IBC would be logical for the announcement. Like CS4 was announced at IBC and availability some months later. CES is not the most attractive place IMO.

      Powered_by_Design
      Powered_by_Design
      Inspiring
      December 3, 2009

      Will the new playback engine use SLI

      Can you get 2 graphices cards and make it even faster ?

      Also do you know what the yellow line above the timeline means in the new version ?

      Thanks:  Glenn

      Harm_Millaard
      Harm_Millaard
      Inspiring
      December 3, 2009

      The yellow line means that the format is not identical to your sequence settings, but does not need to be rendered for RT preview.

      Are you seriously considering dual Quadro 4800+ cards in SLI mode? I think the new Intel SCC (Single-chip cloud) CPU with 48 cores may be more interesting, but even more expensive. http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20091202083704_Intel_to_Demonstrates_48_Core_Microprocessor.html

      Powered_by_Design
      Powered_by_Design
      Inspiring
      December 3, 2009

      not thinking about dual cards but just wondering if they are building for it.

      I think my next rig will just be a core i7 920 with 12GB

      I think that shoud due for awhile.

      but i might have to look at a CUDA card with the new mercury engine.

      Glenn

      Powered_by_Design
      Powered_by_Design
      Inspiring
      December 3, 2009

      WOW

      That video was great.

      I noticed 16 cores when he pulled up the CPU

      Is he using a Dual Quad Core with hyperthreading ?

      Does anyone know the exact RIG that they are using for the preview ?

      Im sure glad they are showing these previews of the Mercury Playback Engine.

      Im about 2 months away from building a new system and this changes everything.

      Thanks for the preview:  Glenn

      dradeke
      dradekeAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      December 3, 2009

      Glenn,

      Dave is using an HP Z800 box.  They're really one of our favorites and the design of it is superb.  You are correct - it is a dual-quad with hyper threading with a Quadro 4800.

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