geniusweb wrote:Speegs, I've heart that Magewell doesn't consume so much CPU because it scaling the video directly in its own hardware. BM Mini recorder don't do this in hardware but software installed on Macbook. So does this mean that BM mini recorder takes more CPU than Magewell?
Because I didn't do any scaling with the BM mini recorder I couldn't say the CPU was lower. Basically I could only get a BM Mini recorder working @ 1080 50i and it was very fussy about the signals from GoPros for instances gave me hell, along with capturing computer screens. Magewell just worked with every camera or computer, because of the scaling of course. That scaling seems to come at no additional CPU cost. Whereas I found I couldn't get signal from the BM Device if it didn't like the Camera.
So CPU usage was the same for both. One just worked with more sources and no drivers.
geniusweb wrote:
If yes, there have to be a really big difference in using 2x Magewell XU100DUSB or 2x Mini recorders.
On that I say no difference on the CPU/GPU.
geniusweb wrote:
Is this really true. Today I have to finally pay for Macbook Pro 2.5 GHz, but still not sure if it is better than Asus ROG 751JY. But there are people like you Speegs, who already tried macbook pro, but no one tried Asus 751 and I don't really want to be a first one :)
If I read the specs on that asus laptop correctly, it has:
Ports: 4 x USB 3.0, HDMI, audio, DisplayPort, VGA, Ethernet
Therefore it has many of the ports I get via an extra dock to carry for the MBP. However when I don't need all the ports on a smaller job. I can just not bring the dock. The dock adds to the price as well of a MBP. So I'm kind of saying that Asus kind of is approximately in the same territory as a MBP with a thunderbolt 2 docking station from Belkin.
I use my MBP for more than just VMix, so I truly appreciate using it as "just a nice laptop" via Mac OSX mostly, but it runs Windows too when I need it. I use it as a ordinary laptop 60% of the time. 40% of the time to run Vmix.
At home base, I have a Mini Tower Computer running VMix with 4 hdmi inputs and 4 sdi inputs available. So kind of only use the MBP as a backup for that when at home base and to do other general IT work. It has more grunt than a MBP, but if I'm willing to drop from 8 cameras down to about 4. The MBP will do the job (without much excess anything left). FFMPEG has eased the CPU on the MBP since it seems better than FMLE on the CPU.
geniusweb wrote:
Btw, are you able to run your macbook with 3x Magewells also on battery?
Yes, but NO. I can run the laptop off battery and yes run 3 x Magewells with the aid of a powered thunderbolt dock with a laptop sized power brick (see here
http://www.gizmodo.com.a...ock-australian-review/).I can run 2 x Magewell and 1 x BM Mini Recorder via Battery. Never done it for very long only due to a power failure really. Don't really care which laptop I use, for VMix I would plug the power in :) Having a laptop is just like having a built in UPS :)
See the problem is without expansion a MBP only has 2 USB 3 ports. Two very fast ones.
I can't tell you what to buy, you have two very capable items on your shopping list there. It really depends on how you intend to use them. If it was VMix only, I would go towards the ASUS. If you are wanting to do double duty like me, the MBP would be cool as well.
Just remember although the MBP via Bootcamp works. I would say some people may quite frankly say if you have a problem you are on your own it's an unsupported platform. I use plenty of ASUS laptops around our office not for VMix. The are ASUS are mostly good laptops in my opinion, but some have given me quite frustrating faults. The ones I'm comparing are Zenbooks and things like that. Not really in the same class as the MBP which I think to be superior to most ASUS Zenbooks, but a MBP costs more. It's not as portable as a Zenbook.
I'd say if the ASUS ROG G751JY and an ASUS Zenbook were to produce a child it would be 15" MBP with in my experience a slightly lower failure rate than a Asus product. So I would dare say Apple produce slightly more resilient hardware over ASUS in my experiences. Mostly due to the effort Apple do put into design.
The ASUS will NOT run OSX, not sure if that is a factor. For me, I find it handy as I need to test websites, wifi, printers and things on Mac from time to time. Plus become somewhat useful at using a Mac to complete my IT knowledge :)