Apple just launched the three latest versions of Apple silicon: M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max. The computers that use them haven’t shipped yet, but will they be “the fastest ever?” Yes. Do you need them for media production and post? THAT is a much more interesting question. Here are Larry Jordan’s thoughts.
Kevin asks: “Does my current CPU have enough power to run programs like […insert program names here…] or should I upgrade to something faster? The answer is both simple and complex.
A few days ago, MacWorld published a review titled: “Best Mac For Video Editing.” This review was unhelpful at best, and misleading at worst. When computers costs thousands of dollars there’s no excuse for a review that is vacuous, uninformed and useless. We deserve better.
This is the time of year for upgrades and new releases for Mac users. However, it is important to remember that our job is to get our work done – on time and with minimal stress. Don’t rush to upgrade – wait for software to settle down.
Help needed: Robin is seeing black frames in his video which fail to export in Final Cut Pro 10.6.x and display severe artifacts in Premiere Pro. Why is this happening?
Hard drives stored on a shelf can lose data over time. This simple macOS Terminal statement will restore and re-energize any hard drive.
Interesting trivia on hard disks, SSDs, servers and LTO drives. The world will not end if you don’t read this, but you’ll enjoy it if you do.
This is a big deal for media creators: Intel announced Thunderbolt 5. Here are the details.
Larry Jordan suggests some performance and hardware tips to consider when the time comes to upgrade your Apple computer.
RAID chunk size affects performance by determining the size of data blocks that are written to an SSD or HDD RAID. Here’s an explanation of chunk size with a recommendation of which size to choose when optimizing a RAID for media.
The OWC Jupiter Mini server is a capable, cost-effective, general-purpose desktop server that, once you get it setup, provides high-speed performance with the ease-of-use that you expect from a server. Here’s my detailed review.
This webinar, and excerpt, focuses on video editing, specifically organizing and backing up media, optimizing preferences, and the other small decisions you make at the start of a Premier or Final Cut project. Presented by Larry Jordan.
This webinar focused on video editing, specifically organizing and backing up media, optimizing preferences, and the other small decisions you make at the start of a Premier or Final Cut project. In this short excerpt, Larry Jordan discusses the difference between USB-C and Thunderbolt.
The OWC MiniStack STX is fast, convenient, and capable way to expand storage for a Mac Mini or a Mac Studio. It expands the number of available Thunderbolt 3/4 ports, and provides user-upgradeable HDD and SSD storage capacity. Here’s my review.
Digital signage is a part of everyday life – but have you ever wondered how it works? Larry Jordan goes behind the scenes at the Peppermill Hotel & Resort to see how they do it.
Lou asked: “Should I partition the internal drive of a Mac to get the maximum speed for video editing?” The answer is no – but not for the reasons you might suspect. Larry Jordan provides the details on maximizing system speed.
As video images get bigger, faster and bigger storage becomes critical. Enter the RAID. In this short illustrated video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains what computer RAIDs are and the differences in speed, capacity and data protection between the different RAID types.
For video editors, any M-series Mac computer is a vast improvement over any Intel system. In this detailed review, Larry Jordan looks at setup and performance tests of the M2 Mac Studio computer using Adobe Premiere Pro.
For video editors, any M-series Mac computer is a vast improvement over any Intel system. In this detailed review, Larry Jordan looks at setup and performance tests of the M2 Mac Studio computer using Apple Final Cut Pro.
Discover top laptop choices for US media creators. Consider popular brands, factors to consider, and integrating technology. Unleash creativity with the right laptop Guest post written by Angela Wellnes.
With its latest releases, Apple now offers M2 versions of the Mac mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro. This article is to help you decide which hardware best meets the needs of media creators, then provide tips on how to best configure the system.
About a month ago, I purchased a BenQ PD2725 monitor because I wanted a color accurate monitor for scanning still images and video editing. Based on what I’ve learned and seen, I’m comfortable making color and composition decisions based upon what I see with the BenQ PD2725U.
The need for EXTREMELY fast storage is a special case. Most of us will be fine with a single-bus Thunderbolt device. But, if maximum speed is your need – this dual-drive SSD lash-up is amazing – and faster than Thunderbolt!
The purpose of this review is to answer the big question: Just how fast is this? The answer: As fast as it gets. Here are the details.
CZUR has thought carefully about the features a book scanner needs to offer. The CZUR ET24 Pro is fast, flexible and provides key output options. It has limitations, but, for the price, it will do what needs to be done for most of us.
In the old days, to monitor video to see exactly what it looks like for color grading required an external video monitor. Today, that’s no longer necessary. Here are three different techniques to view full-screen video from cheap to high-quality.
Most USB drives are formatted as FAT32. This older format is highly compatible, but very limited in terms of file names and size. A better option is to reformat the drive as ExFAT which is supported natively by both Windows and Mac systems.
I like this Levitouch Dual-arm Monitor Mount from Gabor a lot. It is solidly built, easy to assemble, and supports two computer monitors from 17 – 32″ and up to 19.8 pounds each. Here’s my detailed review.
It seems counterintutive, but you don’t need massive amounts of RAM for video editing. This explains why the duration of your video project does not determine the hardware you need. It also explains what DOES require faster hardware.
The Apple Studio Monitor is an amazing display. But, as a monitor, it has too much — and too little. This could be the perfect monitor for you – or it could be far more than you need. It’s complex. Here are my thoughts.
If you want power to burn in a space small enough to fit on your desk and still have a desk left, the 2023 Mac mini with the M2 Pro SoC is impossible to ignore. Here are my thoughts on strengths, weaknesses and configuration.
I am often asked which NLE is “better.” That question can’t be answered, except to say “It depends…” However, we CAN test render and export speeds, along with multicam streaming support using the new 2023 M2 Pro Mac mini. I did – and here are the results.
The new 2023 Mac mini is a powerhouse – especially when equipped with an M2 Pro SoC. In this detailed analysis, Larry Jordan looks at the performance of the M2 Mac mini specifically for use editing media in Apple Final Cut Pro.
This you won’t believe. I tested to see how many streams of 4K media Final Cut Pro can edit in a multicam clip. The answer blew me away. These are the details.
A frequent question is whether a computer has the power an editor needs. Here I look at what Apple Final Cut Pro needs for 4K multicam editing and the speeds your storage needs to support. The answer is not what you expect.
Digital video no longer requires state-of-the-art hardware. We no longer need the biggest, fastest, most powerful system to get our work done. Here’s what you need to consider for a video editing system today.
Here are the top ten media tutorials on the LarryJordan.com website for Dec. 2022. These include links and short article descriptions.
The Synology WRX 560 Wireless Router is fast, powerful and amazingly flexible. It is designed for networks that need lots of controls. But, installation is a challenge.
macOS Ventura is significantly (masses of megabytes!) slower than macOS Monterey for both ExFAT- and APFS-formatted SSD drives. No one know why. Worse, formatting drives is now harder than before. Here are the details.
If you are wondering whether it is time to upgrade, 13.1 is a good place to start. Just give yourself time to get everything sorted once the upgrade is complete. Here’s a detailed look at what to do, the problems I ran into and links for more information.
“Ask Larry Anything!” is a free-form conversation about video editing technology. In this short tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates real-world speeds for SSDs and RAIDs, along with details on how much storage speed we actually need for editing video smoothly. The answers will surprise you.
This tutorial measures and illustrates the difference in speeds between different SSD (Solid State Drive) RAID levels. This also provides definitions of these different levels and recommendations on which to use for your storage.
How fast does our storage need to be to edit video successfully? In other words: How fast is “fast enough?” Surprising, the answer is: Not as fast as you think. Here’s what you need to know.
Measuring the speed of storage is an exercise in futility for a whole lot of reasons. Here’s what you need to know when you want to measure the speed of your system.
Here are the step-by-step instructions for creating or deleting a multi-disk RAID 0 or RAID 1 storage system using Apple’s Disk Utility, which ships with every Mac.
The OWC Thunderblade is a four-blade SSD RAID with speeds that more than meet the needs of virtually all video editors or audio mixers. This thing is plenty fast – the trick is figuring out exactly HOW fast. Read a detailed product review from Larry Jordan.
There is a large, significant difference in measuring storage speeds when using Blackmagic Disk Speed Test versus AJA System Test Lite. The problem is that we don’t know which one is more accurate. Here are the details.
Is there a speed difference between the three Thunderbolt ports on an 16″ M1 MacBook Pro? Larry Jordan tests his system to find out.
In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains that Thunderbolt, though very fast, still has speed limits, especially for video editing. And those speed limits vary, depending upon what you are doing.
In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains what affects computer system performance for video editing, what can slow down your data and what speeds we should expect from our gear. There’s a lot that can affect the performance of your system.
