• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Best hardware setup for HDV

  Posted by Kevin Boyd on October 12, 2007 at 11:11 am

  About to move from Premiere Pro CS3 on Windows to FCP on the Mac. So what is the best hardware setup for editing HDV in FCP Studio? Are two or four dual-core processors best or do you need a hardware card like Blackmagic to get real-time editing of HDV?

  Also how much RAM do I need?

  Thx

  Kevin

  David Roth weiss replied 18 years, 7 months ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
• 5 Replies

• 

  Shane Ross

  October 12, 2007 at 12:57 pm

  [personalmovies] “So what is the best hardware setup for editing HDV in FCP Studio?”

  You can edit HDV on pretty much ANY Mac you buy. It has the same data rate as DV (yet 4 times the resolution, what does that tell you about how compressed it is?), and is capturable via firewire. An iMac with a firewire drive would work.

  But the Best? The best to do any sort of editing is always the fastest MacPro…but any MacPro will do.

  And an HD Capture card from AJA or Decklink will not get you any more RT performance. What they do is let you capture HDV as DVCPRO HD or ProRes, far superior codecs to work with than native HDV.

  3GB to 4GB of RAM is all you’ll really need

  Shane
  
  Littlefrog Post
  http://www.lfhd.net
• 

  Walter Biscardi

  October 12, 2007 at 2:15 pm

  [Shane Ross] “And an HD Capture card from AJA or Decklink will not get you any more RT performance. What they do is let you capture HDV as DVCPRO HD or ProRes, far superior codecs to work with than native HDV.”

  Actually in the case of the AJA Kona boards, you do get a bit more RT performance in HDV. The Kona handles realtime scaling of the HDV anamorphic format which allows the processors to perform more realtime effects. How much more RT you will get depends fully on the speed of the processors.

  This is also true of DVCPro HD.

  Walter Biscardi, Jr.
  https://www.biscardicreative.com
  HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

  All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

  Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
• 

  David Roth weiss

  October 12, 2007 at 3:15 pm

  [Shane Ross] “3GB to 4GB of RAM is all you’ll really need”

  I’d slightly revise that to read 3 to 4gb of RAM is the very minimum you will need, with 8gb being optimal.

  David Roth Weiss
  Director/Editor
  David Weiss Productions, Inc.
  Los Angeles

  POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™

  A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
• 

  Shane Ross

  October 12, 2007 at 8:42 pm

  [David Roth Weiss] “I’d slightly revise that to read 3 to 4gb of RAM is the very minimum you will need, with 8gb being optimal.”

  SO, FCP now addresses more than 3GB of RAM?

  Shane
  
  Littlefrog Post
  http://www.lfhd.net
• 

  David Roth weiss

  October 12, 2007 at 9:16 pm

  [Shane Ross] “SO, FCP now addresses more than 3GB of RAM?”

  Okay, I guess should have been more thorough… And the original poster did ask about “the best” hardware setup.

  1) If FCP is all you’re using, and you never have other open apps, then the minimum RAM is just dandy.

  2) Compressor is capable of addressing each processor as a virtual machine, but that requires at least 1gb of RAM per core. So, if you don’t want to use that capability the minimum RAM is also just fine.

  David Roth Weiss
  Director/Editor
  David Weiss Productions, Inc.
  Los Angeles

  POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™

  A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

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