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Final Cut vs iMovie
I know, apples and oranges … but hear me out. I’m moving from PC to Mac, as I have had 3 PC notebooks die in the last 18 months. I do hi def video editing today on my PC’s with Sony Vegas. But, because it is sooooo slow, I haven’t done much in a long time, and the tapes are stacking up.
To remedy the speed issue, I’m looking at the Mac Pro 8 core in a RAID 0 configuration. I’m told that will take care of the speed issue (will it?). To replace Vegas, I was going to move to Final Cut, but I really don’t do anything complex. It is all family video that I make DVD’s from. Based upon that, do I really need Final Cut, or can I get away with iMovie?
Thanks in advance from a soon to be “Mac Rookie.”
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4 Replies
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You will probably be fine with iMovie. I’d try it on a project or two and see. If it works, use it.
If you are feeling constrained by iMovie I would look at Final Cut Express. Express is much less expensive than Final Cut Pro as part of Final Cut Studio, and will likely have all the functionality you need for your projects.
One note on RAID 0, which you probably already know – make sure you have a back up of any data you can’t lose. If one drive in the RAID 0 set fails, you will have nothing.
Best,
Tom
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That’s great Tom. Thanks. Understand about RAID 0. Do you think the RAID 0 is necessary for the speed? I was going to try it without it and if not happy, then move to it.
My other thought was to use RAID 0 during the project, but keep the raw data and final project on a normal disk set up with back up to make that easier. Thoughts on that as well?
Thanks again!
Greg
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RAID 0 is probably not needed for HDV – it has a low data rate, but is very process intensive, so the bottle neck is usually the CPU, not the hard drive.
Having a second drive to back up your media is a pretty good idea, regardless. You can always go back to tape, but with drives as inexpensive as they are now, it makes sense to spend a little more up front to not have to go back to tape.
One down side to FCE and iMovie is the inability to batch capture. This is particularly troublesome if you do have to go back to tape, but probably won’t effect your workflow otherwise.
So, you’d probably be better off with two regulardrives, one to edit from, and one to back up your media, than with one RAID 0 drive.
Best of luck.
Tom
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Thanks Tom. This is exactly what I am going to try.
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