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Editing full HD on MacBook Pro ?
Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and this is my first post here.
I want to know if the Mac book pro can edit uncompressed HD? I mainly use windows and edited standard definition videos but I want to transfer to mac because it seems way better.
I will use the canon 5D MarkII with the “Convergent Design nanoFlash HD/SD Recorder/Player” to capture higher resolutions.
If it doesn’t can the mac book pro handle the normal capture format of the canon (H264).
I would also like to know the minimum system requirements to edit uncompressed HD? -
10 Replies
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FCP, ProRes and MacBook Pro play well together. Look at the many posts regarding h.264 and editing. Always transcode to ProRes.
Uncompressed HD, no. You need a very fast processor and very very fast RAID configuration. ProRes is the alternative and maintains quality.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Thank you Steve I read some posts about this subject and quite understood the idea.
Just out of curiosity can you please give me the minimum system requirements for editing uncompressed HD? how much RAM? CPU’s? Capture cards? Hard drives?
Thanks again -
The search tool is a great forum feature.
You could use it to find the million other times these common questions (and others) have been asked.By the way, no need to worry about uncompressed HD. The 5D output is compressed, and so is the Convergent Design nanoFlash HD/SD Recorder/Player. 4:2:2 color space = compression.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[Steve Eisen] “Uncompressed HD, no. You need a very fast processor and very very fast RAID configuration. “
Well Steve, that statement is only partially accurate.
Actually, editing uncompressed HD does require a fast RAID configuration, but fast processors are a luxury, but not actually required. The processors in today’s curent crop of laptops are vastly superior to those in the G5 towers of just a few years ago, which were quite capable of uncompressed editing when equipped with the proper RAID.
So, editing of uncompressed HD or above is definitely possible on a laptop with the right RAID. Today, this means a 17″ MacPro with an Express card slot that can handle an SAS interface card.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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“I would also like to know the minimum system requirements to edit uncompressed HD?”
https://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/specs/
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
Thank you Scott really appreciate it
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Since we are on the topic of compression.
You should check out (if you haven’t yet) this thread:
“Uncompressed and pixel resolution.”
Which is just a couple of threads down from this one. It has an interesting discussion on the blurry line of what is or isn’t compressed.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
A MacBook Pro 17” including external SATA storage can do uncompressed HD.
But if your source is H264 Canon 5D files. ( 8 bit ) Don’t bother. It’s useless!!!
Go ProRes and you will be fine on any MacBook Pro with a dedicated FW800 drive -
Forget about the Nano for use with the 5D. The HDMI signal out isn’t clean. It sends out the LCD display. All the text overlays. And if you turn them all off, you still have those grey bars. Press record, BAM, the signal becomes a 480p SD signal.
Oh, and you lose you LCD display, so you can’t see what you are shooting.
HDMI out is for connecting a bigger monitor. And the only way to get a clean image is to playback the recorded image from the card. But by then it is already compressed.
No way to get a clean signal from HDMI.
And after you shoot, convert to ProRes. Going uncompressed buys you nothing but large file sizes.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
To do uncompressed in real-time you will need a fully loaded machine:
– a fast RAID, something like a CalDigit HDPro2, or a RAID that supports 10,000k RPM drives – you’ll probably want to configure as RAID-0 for maximum speed, but make sure there are no bottleneck issues holding this down
– fastest processor you can get your hands on (spend the money now, you can’t easily upgrade later)
– maxing out on RAM will only help with your processing and rendering, I’d say 16gb at minimum, but 32gb+ is really where you want to look
– a SSD boot/system drive is ideal
– I’d recommend an AJA Kona3 video I/O cardIf money isn’t a factor, an SSD RAID would probably be even better.
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