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G5 / final cut studio 2
Hey all,
Mac Novice here- I used to cut professionally on PCs with Avid. Have since left the industry, and used and loved FCP. Want to buy a really cheap home computer to cut some basic family movies, and a few low /no budget simple sequences on – probably 1 camera job, 3 tracks video, 6 tracks audio max
Have been looking on ebay at G5s which i can buy for approx UK£200 – occasionally one comes up with Final Cut Studio 2 and goes for around £300. Specs for these seem to be around 2.0 dual core, 2GB RAM.Was just after some advice really…
1. Will these machines serve the purpose? Are they reliable? Not bothered about anything with Motion / COlour etc.
2. Could I edit HD footage on them or would it be best to stick with DVCam SD – probably shooting on Sony Z1 camera or equivalent.
3. Any minumum specs i should look out for?
Thanks for your help
Best wishes -
3 Replies
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Will be just fine for cutting HDV from a Sony Z1. Make certain to get yourself an external firewire 800 media drive for playback of all audio, video, stills, and graphics. And, search this forum for the zillion posts about using ProRes instead of cutting native HDV. You’ll find that simply switching the compressor in Sequence>Settings from HDV to Pro Res 422 renders faster and causes less issues when editing.
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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The internal SATAs would be 3 or 4 times faster than FW800, no? A regular internal ATA would be faster too.
In any case plenty of speed for HDV and XDCAM EX. Both almost the same data rate as DV.
But not only is that an old system, it’s doubly dated because it’s a different platform. Won’t be able to use newer apps or os. And looks like we’re making a new leap into thunderbolt sooner or later.
Go with an old Mac pro for super cheap. I have one and it runs everything. Just renders a little slow.
Get at least 4gig RAM.
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thanks for these replies- very helpful. i’ll research pro res then- never heard of it before- thanks for the heads up guys
best wishes
jamie
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