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Maybe my eyesight isn’t what it used to be. Where do you read a minimum purchase of 5 units ?
Cheers
TWThere’s been a stack of debate about buying & selling “second hand” discreet software on other user forums, one guy even got a letter from Autodesks legal team telling him to pull a discreet edit* off eBay.
Bottom line is, when people buy Discreet software, they’re actually just buying the right to use it, but not own it. Therefore, you can never re-sell it ‘cos you don’t own it (make sense ?!)
So, before you can even think about upgrading, you have to transfer the software into your name. Again, I don’t know US pricing but over here discreet charge $88K just for the flame license transfer, no upgrades included. I don’t know how strictly they enforce this and they might be flexible if you’re buying a whole bunch of other stuff from them. But if they want to play hardball, that’s up to them.
Regarding HD I/O, there are no physical connectors on the Octane 1 to plug HD VTR’s into. You can import HD material from other systems into your flame and view HD on your desktop, but no way of viewing it on an external broadcast monitor. The flame software is resolution independant, so it can work with any res but in your case you have no way of getting HD in or out of the system except via file import/export. The video I/O connectors on the back of the Octane can only handle SDI NTSC/PAL.
Ultimately, to get your flame up to ver 9 with realtime HD I/O is going to cost a bundle. ($88K transfer fee, $66K for the upgrade, about $120K for a sgi Tezro with fibre storage).
Probably not what you wanted to hear 😕
Cheers
TW.Hi Alfafa,
Firstly, yes it is possible to upgrade from 6.x to flame 9. I can’t comment on US pricing but on this side of the pond it’s $66K (providing you’re the original owner of the software)
As for hardware, it should be possible to run 9 on any configuration originally supplied by discreet. I guess you’ve currently got either an Octane 1 or 2. You should have at least 2.5Gb RAM and you should look at getting new fibre storage if you’re still running SCSI stones. (Not just for performance, but because discreet won’t support SCSI based systems any more.)
If you’ve got an Octane 1 there’s no HD I/O. 🙁
I don’t know how much cash your boss is prepared to throw at upgrading your flame suite, but with NAB looming you might be able to get a really sweet deal on upgrading your hardware to Tezro & fibre storage at the same time as the software upgrade.
Cheers
TW.One other suggestion. Do a Google search using “directory flame post production” . It’s not brilliant, but there are quite a few online directories of post houses etc. Any of them with flame invariably list it in their equipment line up.
Don’t bother with “directory discreet post”, it’s amazing how many companies are prepared to “post” you something in “discreet” packaging 😀TW.
If you’re going to NAB, then attending the fxguide event on April 17th would put you in touch with a fair number of IFF users. Otherwise just hang around the Discreet booth and see who the sales guys are “schmoozing” ! 😀
Good luck !
Majik has a good point, directors are expecting the kind of realtime interactivity that only “boxes” in the IFF league can deliver at film res. Not only that, but when HD really takes off for tv work, they are going to expect (even demand) the same kind of HD performance they are currently used to for NTSC/PAL work using “desktop” applications. Waiting for a simple 25frame dissolve to render is going to be unthinkable to them. It won’t help trying to explain file & frame sizes to them, if they want a realtime page turn then you better be able to deliver.
It’s all about constantly raising the bar. The hardware gets faster, the software more powerful but then the expectations rise as well. If this cycle ever stops then these “debates” will as well.Just MY 2 cents worth.
TW.Maybe they were looking for a “retro” kind of feel. If that video had come out 20 years ago, we’d all be amazed 😀
Bottom line is, like it or not, it’s got this forum talking about it and I can’t think of any other music video that’s hit the fxguide headlines.
I remember a seriously low budget “action” movie along the lines of Indiana Jones called “Arc of the Sun god”, hell it was terrible, the car chase sequences consisted of two plastic toy cars being pulled across a “desert” made of sandpaper by fishing line (no wire removal there). Still, I couldn’t go a month without hiring it from Blockbusters.
Sometimes, it’s seeing something that makes us feel “uncomfortable” that creates more of an impact than the overly polished stuff we kind of expect.TW
John,
I don’t know if this is relevant to your DTF problem. But apparently discreet changed something in stone+wire in the latest releases that make them incompatible with previous releases. (eg, clips on a smoke 6.5 stone cannot be “wired” to flame v8 and vice versa)
But I haven’t seen any kind of bug-list that confirms or denies this.
Can you back-up and restore a project thats been done entirely in flint 9 ?
Cheers
TW.A similar thing came up during a smoke “roadshow” we did last year when a potential client wanted to know about exporting MPEG’s out of smoke. The demo artist said “why would you want to tie up a $150K system doing something that could be done on any cheapo PC using cleaner?” (And make multiple file formats at the same time)
Good point I guess.
TW =^..^=Well, I guess that’s how discreet might be aiming to differentiate between apps. It used to be based on hardware (remember when flint only used 1 proc on an Octane while flame used both), with IFF/SF all set to run on the same hardware the only way they can maintain those “product identities” is via software. In this case, the 32/64bit code.
Or, (as has been rumoured in this thread,) is the goal to ultimately move smoke/flint and flame onto Linux and just keep inferno & fire on IRIX ?
And maybe Autodesk are still intent on disposing of Discreet, and sgi are about to go bust and Elivs is still alive, George W Bush is really a pacifist and Van Halen were better with Sammy Hagar 😀
Send your answers on next weeks winning lottery ticket to….TW.
I totally agree. One of the cool things about going to NAB and IBC is watching the effects showreels and thinking (in a vague kind of way), I wonder how they did that ? It also inspires vfx artists to raise their game trying to reproduce a “kick-ass” effect. Highlighting that kind of work can only help. Maybe even lead to an fxguide award for the favourite vfx 😉
cheers
TWHi,
Have you downloaded the flint 9.03 patch ? That seems to fix some of the clip history problems.
I haven’t spoken to anyone else who’s tried 9.03, and if it improves the stability. Maybe you can let us all know.
Cheers
TW 😀Hi,
As far as I can remember, flame has always been able to use 2 processors. flame on Tezro hardware will use all 4 processors. I think the gripe in the past was that flint was locked down to a single proc even if you ran it on a dual proc Octane. That was one of the ways discreet differentiated between flame and flint on the same Octane platform.
Cheers