First flight today, with some impressions and comments

[Rich Z]

First time flying the Skydio since I got it the other day. I ran it solely off of the controller connected to my phone, since that is really the way I am used to flying anyway. Pretty uneventful, running through two batteries. Video files are HUGE, though, so I haven't tried loading them into my video processing software (Vegas Pro 18.0). Speaking of which, I was a bit surprised to see the sequential (?) numbers on the 4 files created. Two were .LRV, and two MP4. Sequence starts at S1000134 and ends with S1000137. I guess I expected them to start at the beginning with S1000001 or something of that nature. Anyone else notice their files not beginning at 001?

Anyway, as I mentioned the MP4 files were pretty large. 11.85 gb on one and 9.22 gb on the other. I have a pretty stout PC, so hopefully it can digest them. I was recording at 4K 60 fps with HDR on. Just flew over the property, which is mostly pine trees, so I don't think anyone would be interested to see the footage. I may process some of it just to see if Vegas Pro can handle it and how it turns out when uploaded to YouTube. I was able to fly it down a footpath and back through a bamboo grove, and then down the driveway to the house and back. I never even would have attempted this with my other drones. For one thing, the video on my smart phone was pretty crystal clear, and any likely thin branches clearly visible to be avoided.

Video actually does look pretty nice with the color balance and shadows/highlights looking pretty darn decent.

Oh, I did get a "V .30 Sensor Issue" fault displayed briefly when I was bringing the Skydio back to my worktable. It was so fleeting that had I not been looking right at my cell phone at the time, I never would have noticed it. Might have something to do with the shut down procedure, perhaps. I always shut down the drone first, then the controller, then the cell phone.

Ah well, no crashes, and nothing unexpected, so that makes for a GOOD time flying. Supposed to have rain moving in over the next few days, so might put a crimp in flying time.

BTW, I can't remember EVER being this relaxed flying a drone before. Usually I am white knuckling the controller the whole time. So this was definitely a more enjoyable time than I had expected.

And I did have it disconnect when I tried flying it down my road at around 125 ft height to clear the pine trees. It just seemed to backtrack it's way back to me, without incident until it reestablished connection. I was surprised it didn't take a "as the crow flies" path back to me.

 

[VEGASROBBI]

I was a nervous wreck letting my S2 avoid things at first but 100+ flights later I'm totally relaxed and trust my S2 implicitly. Sometimes I do fly near small branches and my S2 has grazed them but that's the extent of it.

The video is very good IMO, better than my M2.

My files are usually 12-13 GB after 18-20 minutes of flight; I like one large file rather than multiple splices later. At first I didn't like the auto record but after forgetting to turn my camera on a few times with my Anafi and M2 I now appreciate it.

I use Movie Studio which I think is similar to VP. Oddly when I upgraded to the latest version rendering and editing slowed down with some screen freezes. Ironically the older version of MS works fine so I use it until the bugs are worked out with he new version.

The S2 takes a little time to figure out since it is smart. It will try to find you with GPS if it loses you, be patient and let it do it's thing.

 

[Rich Z]

Personally I would prefer that the video be broken up into smaller files. I believe it is just safer that way. Video files can, and do, get corrupted, so if that happens with the single large file, you have lost EVERYTHING from that flight. With multiple files, quite likely you will just lose one segment and have the rest of the files intact, so it wouldn't be a total loss. Not that anything I am likely to take video would be earth shattering, but I just really hate wasting my time. I would rather do 10 things and get it right the first time than to do even one thing over again.

I didn't have the nerve to try hand launching or hand landing. Seems like an easy way to lose a fingertip. I'm bad enough of a keyboard player now as it is without handicapping myself even more.

 

[Lifeisfun]

Personally I would prefer that the video be broken up into smaller files. I believe it is just safer that way. Video files can, and do, get corrupted, so if that happens with the single large file, you have lost EVERYTHING from that flight. With multiple files, quite likely you will just lose one segment and have the rest of the files intact, so it wouldn't be a total loss. Not that anything I am likely to take video would be earth shattering, but I just really hate wasting my time. I would rather do 10 things and get it right the first time than to do even one thing over again.

I didn't have the nerve to try hand launching or hand landing. Seems like an easy way to lose a fingertip. I'm bad enough of a keyboard player now as it is without handicapping myself even more.

If you are not completely clumsy don't be afraid to hand launch and land
Make sure the camera is facing away from you and you'll be just fine!

 

[SteveCJr]

Anyone else notice their files not beginning at 001?

And I did have it disconnect when I tried flying it down my road at around 125 ft height to clear the pine trees. It just seemed to backtrack it's way back to me, without incident until it reestablished connection. I was surprised it didn't take a "as the crow flies" path back to me.

I don't recall, but my first flight was 120 ish. Every flight after has been pretty much sequential.

When there's a disconnect, the drone will fly back to you in reverse as the antennas are located in the rear. If you fly straight out to your max range and attempt to turn around to fly back, often it will disconnect with the antennas pointing the other direction.

 

[LivinLarge]

Anyone else notice their files not beginning at 001?
I noticed this as well. Another odd thing I am seeing is that my files increment by twos.

 

[Ridefreak]

I've got allot of flights with the SD2, all my filming is in 4K/60 HDR. One video file per flight, much preferred IMO to my Hero 8 Black @ 4K which records 5 min and then creates a new file. I won't upload to YT in anything less than 4K now, the YT codec you want (VP09) is used on 4K all the time, with 1080P you may get the good codec but often it's the lower quality codec. I've never had a corrupted video file on the SD2, cant say the same for my top of the line GoPros. I've got to hand it to SD, their onboard video processor works well and has always been consistent.
I've also become very comfortable with the SD2 IRT running into stuff, I don't fly around wires and after many flights with zero drama I really don't worry about it anymore.
I was a Vegas Pro pro user for years which I liked but switched to FCP on an I7 Mac after a friend took some of my video and processed it on his Mac so I could do some side by side comparisons. It convinced me to go out and buy a used Mac. The learning curve took about 10 vids but once I was comfortable with it there's no way I'd switch back, this is from a guy that was exclusively PCs since the PC came out. I'm still a PC guy except when it comes to video editing. The 4K files are large but once you get your editing workflow perfected it isn't bad, just takes a little longer. Good luck with the new drone.

 

[skydioconvert]

Until I read your above account of switching from a PC to Mac to do video processing I was also firmly in the PC camp. Now I'm beginning to waiver....

What model MAC would you recommend consider buying?.... the only iOS piece of equipment I've ever owned is the latest iPod Touch but I have to admit I really like it.

How much trouble was it learning a different OS?

P.S. Can you recommend other forums that I could check out to help me determine if a switch makes sense for me?

 

[Rich Z]

I've got allot of flights with the SD2, all my filming is in 4K/60 HDR. One video file per flight, much preferred IMO to my Hero 8 Black @ 4K which records 5 min and then creates a new file. I won't upload to YT in anything less than 4K now, the YT codec you want (VP09) is used on 4K all the time, with 1080P you may get the good codec but often it's the lower quality codec. I've never had a corrupted video file on the SD2, cant say the same for my top of the line GoPros. I've got to hand it to SD, their onboard video processor works well and has always been consistent.
I've also become very comfortable with the SD2 IRT running into stuff, I don't fly around wires and after many flights with zero drama I really don't worry about it anymore.
I was a Vegas Pro pro user for years which I liked but switched to FCP on an I7 Mac after a friend took some of my video and processed it on his Mac so I could do some side by side comparisons. It convinced me to go out and buy a used Mac. The learning curve took about 10 vids but once I was comfortable with it there's no way I'd switch back, this is from a guy that was exclusively PCs since the PC came out. I'm still a PC guy except when it comes to video editing. The 4K files are large but once you get your editing workflow perfected it isn't bad, just takes a little longer. Good luck with the new drone.

I'm curious about what sort of difference you saw in videos rendered using a MAC instead of a PC. I've come close to buying a MAC over the years, but always found a reason to decline. Actually, I was real hot to buy the very first Macintosh when Apple first came out with it. The Apple II was a real good seller and I figured they would build on that platform and produce something truly extraordinary. But then I found out it didn't have a color display. Eh??? And Steve Jobs was saying something to the effect that he didn't believe that anyone really needed a color display on a computer. And look here at the Macintosh! It is monochrome but it has SQUARE PIXELS!!. Yeah, right..... To make things even worse, Apple refused to allow anyone else to make ANYTHING compatible with their platform, so everything was sole sourced through them.

I think it is those chiclet keyboards that they tend to try in obscure in the ad copy, that turns me off. Then last time I looked their main machine was shaped like a cylinder.

So Apple just hasn't impressed me any. But I am willing to be corrected if I am overlooking something substantial.

As for 4K/60fps video, I just refuse to buy anything any longer that can't meet that minimum standard. I believe a moving platform like a drone just NEEDS to have this. Horizontal panning at 30fps is just awful, IMHO.

 

[Ridefreak]

I'm curious about what sort of difference you saw in videos rendered using a MAC instead of a PC. I've come close to buying a MAC over the years, but always found a reason to decline. Actually, I was real hot to buy the very first Macintosh when Apple first came out with it. The Apple II was a real good seller and I figured they would build on that platform and produce something truly extraordinary. But then I found out it didn't have a color display. Eh??? And Steve Jobs was saying something to the effect that he didn't believe that anyone really needed a color display on a computer. And look here at the Macintosh! It is monochromeS!!. Yeah, right..... To make things even worse, Apple refused to allow anyone else to make ANYTHING compatible with their platform, so everything was sole sourced through them.

I think it is those chiclet keyboards that they tend to try in obscure in the ad copy, that turns me off. Then last time I looked their main machine was shaped like a cylinder.

So Apple just hasn't impressed me any. But I am willing to be corrected if I am overlooking something substantial.

As for 4K/60fps video, I just refuse to buy anything any longer that can't meet that minimum standard. I believe a moving platform like a drone just NEEDS to have this. Horizontal panning at 30fps is just awful, IMHO.

Sounds like your against a Mac because it's not a PC. I get it, switching operating systems and learning new software is a PITA. I don't regret doing it though,

 

[Rich Z]

Sounds like your against a Mac because it's not a PC. I get it, switching operating systems and learning new software is a PITA. I don't regret doing it though,

I guess I'm not looking at it that way at all. Apple just needs to give me a good reason to buy one. So far, they haven't been able to do that. Unless it can do something significantly better than what I am currently able to get out of my PCs, why should I?

To be honest, sometimes Apple designs just strike me as being odd, with the tone being set concerning their first offering of the Macintosh and their judgement of offering a color display. I knew back then that is was just a bone-headed decision if ever there was one.

 

[Rich Z]

Seems like Vegas Pro handled the large files just fine, and looks like the 4K/60fps HDR processed OK too. But now that I think about it, how the heck would I know? I know my monitor was made before HDR was common, and certainly is not displaying HDR to me. So trying to play around with the settings in Vegas Pro 18 to get the best out of the HDR video might be a fruitless effort until I can get a HDR capable display. Which brings to mind, heck, how many other people will even have a HDR capable screen to see the effects of HDR themselves? So maybe I am just wasting my time fiddling with that aspect of the video now.

Anyway, I did upload a 13 minute segment of parts of the first flight to YouTube, and honestly, when viewing it on YouTube, it doesn't look all that impressive. Especially with the skips in the video stream every 6 seconds, which are NOT in the original video off of the drone or when processed through Vegas Pro.

The first flight and video was just to play around with the 4K/60fps doing panning shots, and then putting the Skydio down as low as it would go and flying up and down the driveway and then down a path through one of my bamboo groves just to see how it fared. I never moved a foot myself while flying it, all the time using the controller like I would normally fly a drone in the past. Honestly, been a while since I had flown, so I had to call up the muscle memory thing in my hands. Which made this a WHOLE lot less stressful knowing that the Skydio would probably bail me out if I made a mistake.

Notice all those pine trees on my property that would just love to eat a drone? And how little open space I have to play around with this stuff with a drone that doesn't have obstacle avoidance? With the other drones, I was white knuckled just about the entire time, and it actually exhausted me flying. Now with this Skydio, not nearly as much stress involved.

So anyway. I'm at the bottom of the learning curve trying to get the best out of the video at all levels. I just may skip the HDR stuff completely to make things a bit easier on this old soggy brain of mine.

Oh, I found out that Vegas Pro 18 does have a method to produce much better rendered files (Magix Intermediate), but when I tried it, this 13 minute video above took 7 HOURS to render, and then I couldn't get any of my video players to play the 134 GIGABYTE .mov file created. So yeah, definitely at the bottom of that learning curve.

 

[Lifeisfun]

Seems like Vegas Pro handled the large files just fine, and looks like the 4K/60fps HDR processed OK too. But now that I think about it, how the heck would I know? I know my monitor was made before HDR was common, and certainly is not displaying HDR to me. So trying to play around with the settings in Vegas Pro 18 to get the best out of the HDR video might be a fruitless effort until I can get a HDR capable display. Which brings to mind, heck, how many other people will even have a HDR capable screen to see the effects of HDR themselves? So maybe I am just wasting my time fiddling with that aspect of the video now.

Anyway, I did upload a 13 minute segment of parts of the first flight to YouTube, and honestly, when viewing it on YouTube, it doesn't look all that impressive. Especially with the skips in the video stream every 6 seconds, which are NOT in the original video off of the drone or when processed through Vegas Pro.

The first flight and video was just to play around with the 4K/60fps doing panning shots, and then putting the Skydio down as low as it would go and flying up and down the driveway and then down a path through one of my bamboo groves just to see how it fared. I never moved a foot myself while flying it, all the time using the controller like I would normally fly a drone in the past. Honestly, been a while since I had flown, so I had to call up the muscle memory thing in my hands. Which made this a WHOLE lot less stressful knowing that the Skydio would probably bail me out if I made a mistake.

Notice all those pine trees on my property that would just love to eat a drone? And how little open space I have to play around with this stuff with a drone that doesn't have obstacle avoidance? With the other drones, I was white knuckled just about the entire time, and it actually exhausted me flying. Now with this Skydio, not nearly as much stress involved.

So anyway. I'm at the bottom of the learning curve trying to get the best out of the video at all levels. I just may skip the HDR stuff completely to make things a bit easier on this old soggy brain of mine.

Oh, I found out that Vegas Pro 18 does have a method to produce much better rendered files (Magix Intermediate), but when I tried it, this 13 minute video above took 7 HOURS to render, and then I couldn't get any of my video players to play the 134 GIGABYTE .mov file created. So yeah, definitely at the bottom of that learning curve.

What kind of editing machine you use? Do you have SSD drive in it?

 

[dougcjohn]

Probably way more info than desired... but I get this question a lot working within IT. What's a good video editor system, modeling system, etc. Best Bang for Buck, but reliable and stable... want the newest & best at price that barely covers an avg system.

Using an aerial sUAV, the Video and video editing is a high interest. The S2 has great potential, but it can also be used in other aspects of image capture. Many discover more interests in forms of image capture; Photogrammetry in the specialties of creating 2D Orthogrammetry (Mapping) and Stereophotogrammetry (3D modeling) might be a developing interest in many sUAV Owners: construction surveys, Ag projects, structure inspections or just wanting to get into Modeling structures from aerial. Creating 2D Orthogrammetry and Stereophotogrammetry programs requires a lot of processing power in CPU, fast IO, fast storage and especially GPU. Several will opt for cloud services, offloading the skills or processing but if you want to process on local hardware it takes processing power. Many options to consider for hardware, but if selecting a new computer system... keep your options open if wanting to explore more than Video Edit production. Also keep in mind that a fast high end graphics system tailored to gaming focus doesn't always perform better in video editing or stereophotogrammetry. You can obtain great video editors by modifying older systems at a substantial cost reduction. Older PC systems are great... but I normally go with older Macs for both Mac OS & Windows OS.

Regarding the focus of question... are there any benefit to Macs.
Macs if "new"... the cost offsets many benefits, Windows boxes can be obtained for less.

Beyond the cost element, the older Macs, in my opinion add a degree of stability over PC, much less headache on updates, simplistic ease to restore Mac OS or copy environment at zero cost to move between OS versions. A iMac can be built and easily make copies and insert SSD into other iMacs or MacPro's without any extra work... simply plug in SSD into any Mac Interally or Externaly, power up and go. A full built Mac OS environment on new SSD HD or better yet, on a USB3 NVMe SSD Samsung T7 external 1TB drive without limitations (NVMe SSD coupled with USB3 or TB3 provide near motherboard NVMe performance). Even SSD HD's have become inexpensive, although performance is lower than newer NVMe SSD's. Place 4x M.2 NMVe SSD's on a PCI board using 4 lanes and you can obtain well over 16GB/S on an older Mac PCI Gen 2 system.... more than a 8K editor needs for smooth throughput editing.

On a Mac you can copy over your WkSta environment to an external drive in less than 45 minutes, plug into a different Mac... such as a MacBook Pro and boot normally... no SW complaints, hardware or license validtion issues, then return home and plug into an iMac and boot up to use as the OS or simply run OS to copy back to internal SSD to apply any changes or new software versions... try that on a dedicated WindowsOS box. Ya, Windows 10 finally offered a USB boot feature... but not as clean, still complains of license and at a performance hit. I'm in a large Windows AD Enterprise & VMWare environment so I'm playing with multiple environments daily.... they all certainly have their Pros & Cons, but at home I run 2009-2013 Mac hardware with MacOS & Windows 10 v2004 for personal use at a moderate cost. My work includes a 2019 Surface Pro, 32GB, 2TB NVMe SSD, and 2018 MacBook Pro i9 Radeon Pro 560X GPU, 32GB RAM, 2TB NVMe SSD able to drive 3 4K monitors or 2 5K but they pale in comparison to my personal Mac Pro 5,1 systems.

Since the Intel processors arrived on Macs; I prefer a Windows 10 OS on a Mac over a native Windows Branded box... the drivers are more specific to the hardware components. Run a Windows, LINUX or Mac VM environments on 1 or multiple Mac hardware. Run MacOS or Win10 VM builds without problematic VM Mac Hacks as needed on Windows hardware. Macs are essentially UNIX core within a nicely developed End User environment. I can run Win10v2004 with no issues on a older Mac better than on newer PC Brand old systems. The Macs can provide the Best of both worlds, Run Mac OS or reboot to Windows 10... no issues.

Lowest cost option, the 2013 iMac 27" Retina with i7 Quad Core, 32GB RAM was the "only" year offering a Nvidia GPU, these had the GeForce GTX 780 4GB as an option, later generation iMacs all upper GPU options are AMD Radeon. The newer iMac 5K 27", i7 or i9 are also nice but constrained to Readeon GPU's. All Mac's run FCP, DeVinci, Premier, etc... all run nicely limited only by the GPU option or various IO hardware limitations like anything else.

A 2013 iMac 27" Retina, i7 Quad, Nvidia can be found for a low price... apx $1000 bucks! Although, most iMacs & Macs have negatives too.... lack of Nvidia GPU's on newer models limits the bulk of the programs for photogrammetry, 2D Ortho mapping or 3D modeling. Agisoft MetaShape is about the only remaining photogrammetric program for Mac OS that can create 2D ortho or 3D modeling. Although the newest MetaShape 1.7 version nicely supports CUDA and Metal (AMD) GPU's. The Capturing Reality's Reality Capture photogrammetry program is also a super program with a great PPI method to obtain full version without the high program costs, but it's Windows OS only.

Other than the very pricey iMac Pro ($10K avg), the Best Mac setup for video editing & photogrammetry is a older MacPro 5,1 (2009-2012) [aka Cheese Grater]... a base 2x Dual Xeon core system available $300-1200 to build up to less than a $3K system that can compete nicely with much higher priced ($5K-12K) systems for 4K Video Editing Power system. These MacPro build-ups will easily outperform even the iMac Pro when configured nicely... some approaching the newer out of sight priced MacPro. With some easy to perform upgrades and mods... you can have a 2x Dual Xeon CPU, 24 cores, 128GB RAM, BT 4.2, USB3, WiFI AC, PCI NVMe SSD RAID at blistering IO speed, and NVIDIA 1080Ti or Vega 64 10-12GB RAM GPU's. Add a dedicated network segment, 10GBe Switch, PCI 10GBe NIC and a Synology 10GBe NAS and your able to "fully edit" multiple tracks of 4K/6K video located on the NAS drives without pause, hesitation, or drag... Running either on a MacOS or Windows 10 OS. Mac Pro 5,1 systems have multiple large quiet fans, very ample quality PowerSupply and hardware that's simplistically beautiful to access or modify. MacPro 5,1 systems take down with hardly a screw involved, all parts slide together as a nicely fit puzzle. NOTE: running a 1080Ti or Vega64 GPU at full gate requires a PS Pixlas modification.

The newer upper GPU Windows systems may be a bit faster, more focused on Graphics for Game machines... that often don't provide a substantial benefit for Video Edit or Modeling projects and at a much higher cost! Apple's biggest (admitted) mistake was the design of the Mac Pro 5,1... too expandable; since then, they've made everything not as upgradable or expandable... they prefer trade-in for new higher priced systems. These older Mac Pros have become so popular to up-build for video systems that the price of the old MacPro 5,1 has gone up. The 2011-13 iMacs were also upgradable to a degree... screen popped off via magnets. The 2014 upward iMac's are still upgradable but more limited and requires cutting & separating the 5K screens from hardware. If considering a MacBook... focus on the MacBook Pro Retina units. Avoid the Mac Pro 2013 upward "Trash Can" models, not very upgradable.

 

[dougcjohn]

Surprisingly, a very good video multitrack editor that runs on an iPad Pro nicely is LumaFusion. I purchased it with low expectations and have been very impressed. Price of a decent iPad Pro with ample storage, Apple pencil and $30 App you can edit your videos with the majority of features full scale Editors. Provides a very portable, light easy travel editor.

LumaFusion - LumaTouch

LumaFusion - Professional Video Editing If you are a professional or aspiring producer, journalist, or filmmaker, and if you have a video story that’s begging to be told, LumaFusion is the premier professional video editing and effects app for you. If you’re not a “Pro” yet, our video tutorials...

luma-touch.com

 

[scrampker]

I'm also curious what visual/quality differences there were from simply switching from PC to Mac, that isn't a direct result of the software or personal preference. I mean, they're both x86 hardware, and I doubt the OS makes *that* much of a difference in the actual editing process.

I'd be dubious of the recommendation to get an older/used Mac for video editing, as I can't see it being capable of real-time, high-quality preview playback while making edits. Even my "top-of-the-line" PC from a year ago struggles with the massive 4k footage the drone creates. I even run RAID0 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD. Editing without a high-quality real-time/instant playback is a huge pain in the butt. I couldn't imagine anything less than that.

Even cheap software like PowerDirector works fairly well. If I was 'serious,' I'd invest my life-savings into some Adobe products. I'd love to hear what discernable difference there is in output quality by switching from PC to Mac. I get that each piece of software has a unique experience, but looking for something specific/tangible pure as a result of the platform change.

 

[dougcjohn]

I'm also curious what visual/quality differences there were from simply switching from PC to Mac, that isn't a direct result of the software or personal preference. I mean, they're both x86 hardware, and I doubt the OS makes *that* much of a difference in the actual editing process.

I'd be dubious of the recommendation to get an older/used Mac for video editing, as I can't see it being capable of real-time, high-quality preview playback while making edits. Even my "top-of-the-line" PC from a year ago struggles with the massive 4k footage the drone creates. I even run RAID0 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD. Editing without a high-quality real-time/instant playback is a huge pain in the butt. I couldn't imagine anything less than that.

Even cheap software like PowerDirector works fairly well. If I was 'serious,' I'd invest my life-savings into some Adobe products. I'd love to hear what discernable difference there is in output quality by switching from PC to Mac. I get that each piece of software has a unique experience, but looking for something specific/tangible pure as a result of the platform change.

Typical response from many; you make my point, newer hardware often lacks any significant improvement to edit 4K. Curious, what was the investment in the high end hardware? I'd agree, an old "stock" unit might be challenged, not a updated modified system. You omitted to mention your hardware specs, other than drive storage, which wouldn't be the primary component while editing... and the PCIe model board and configuration make a difference in IO performance... see many Gen4 not configed to full potential. A Xeon CPU using 1 core (benched) pales to i7 or i9 due to design, 2 Xeon 12 cores providing 24 cores provides great performance and the 24 cores is an additional benefit as well separating simultaneous processes versus stacked processes within 4-12 cores. I can easily state a modified Mac Pro 5,1 can handle as well or better than than the majority of newer products that aren't at an out of reach price for most on their personal investment.

Several YouTube are around that clearly demonstrate the MacPro 5,1 modified system handling 4K easily. Several are created by professional video editors and they indicate often that the system preforms equal or better than their newer "X" brand system.

Video editing is CPU intensive only when the GPU often included in newer systems is not that impressive. Offloading the majority of the work to the GPU releives the CPU. Add in 128GB RAM and fast Storage improves the performance... the 128GB RAM provides much more operating room than say 32 or 64GB.

There's a few YouTubes I've stumbled across that have compared a spectrum of 4K editing tests and there's a significant difference in the editing programs too. Often Adobe Premier is normally found highest demanding and when same tests on FCP, DaVinci, etc perform better. Plus, the yearly cost of Adobe... I flushed them after CS6 with the introduction to new yearly subscription marketing and haven't missed the photo or video tools.

But... to each their own, someone needs to purchase the new hardware... just saying, new doesn't always equate to overall better performance. Is a modified Mac Pro the "best" offering, certainly not... no question. Although, I'll stick with my modified Mac Pros and smooth workflow and use the extra cash towards other toys!

 

[scrampker]

I guess it depends how old, and how expensive the Mac Pro is (they're hella expensive.)

My system is an AMD Ryzen 3900X, Nvidia 2080 Super, 32GB high-spec RAM, etc. edit: It's one of the fastest video rendering system I've seen, other than seeing people with the latest Mac Pro stuff. This is stronger than my dual-CPU 24-core Xeon 192GB RAM setup that's aging a bit, but I have a feeling it has a lot to do with lack of proper GPU on the Xeon.

Also, I wasn't dogging the Mac hardware -- I was just asking what specific benefits were seen by moving from PC to Mac, other than software options. If that's the case, then so be it. Software preference is obviously VERY important.

 

[LivinLarge]

I guess it depends how old, and how expensive the Mac Pro is (they're hella expensive.)

My system is an AMD Ryzen 3900X, Nvidia 2080 Super, 32GB high-spec RAM, etc. edit: It's one of the fastest video rendering system I've seen, other than seeing people with the latest Mac Pro stuff. This is stronger than my dual-CPU 24-core Xeon 192GB RAM setup that's aging a bit, but I have a feeling it has a lot to do with lack of proper GPU on the Xeon.

Also, I wasn't dogging the Mac hardware -- I was just asking what specific benefits were seen by moving from PC to Mac, other than software options. If that's the case, then so be it. Software preference is obviously VERY important.

I have been looking at a similar system. Can I ask what you paid for it? Did you build or buy?

 

[scrampker]

I have been looking at a similar system. Can I ask what you paid for it? Did you build or buy?

Built. I'm eagerly waiting for the 5950X and 6900XT to drop within the next 60 days to build a new system. The current system serves as home server for Plex, DVR for security cameras, and many other services. Additionally I play games on the projector, connect my VR headset, and even do video editing over RDP.

Most likely, I will take the 3900X + 6900XT for my desktop, then the server/VR machine will be 5950X + 2080 Super.