4 year old iMac and new to editing-stick with FC Express?

[Shane Ross]

Final Cut Express doesn’t work with ProRes.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Chris Gordon]

In Final Cut Express, you’d use Apple Intermediate Codec for the HD material.

[Nick Meyers]

i’ve got FCP on a THREE year old iMac (the silver ones, not the white ones)
and it works a charm.

do your iMac specs mean you CAN’T run FCP?

nick

[Jim Bachalo]

Thanks Nick
My iMac specs are 2 Ghz Intel Core duo with 2GB RAM.
SHould I be confident FCP will run ok?

What type of external storage do you have?
Not sure if I should invest in a 2TB Lacie or Glyph Technolgies external drive…limited to Firewire 400…

Local is the new global

[Nick Meyers]

Hi JIm.

my iMac is 2.4G intel core2 duo
with 4G of RAM

i cut 2 features on it in ’08 with FCP6,
(one a doc, one a drama)
now running FCP7 just fine.

i don’t use Color, and have dipped into Motion for a bit of slo-mo.

i used to teach FCP (6, i think) on the old white iMacs, and was very impressed with their performance.
that’s what made me get one.

i’d definitely get some more RAM if i were you. don’t get it from Apple, they charge like wounded bulls!

check out the FCP7 specs here:
https://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/specs/

storage i get depending on the job. generally get new drives for new jobs.

the doc had 4x1TB LaCies hanging off it (non-raided, media was DV captured from HDV)
got another raided 1TB for the finishing media which was all Prores.
plaid that out to tape quite a few times over FW800 no worries.

the drama was all DV media with a 25:1 ratio. 1TB did the trick,
plus another drive i think for exports.

generally i work with an assistant on a second system who has a duplicate set of the media.

oh, yes:
Walter Biscardi, a mod here, has quite a few iMacs in his studio, i beleive
running HD media over an ethernet network

cheers,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

Walter is a mod at the FCP forum, which is where i think this post started out.
nm

[Jim Bachalo]

Thanks Nick
I have one of those ‘old white imacs’, can’t justify upgrading until next year:(
You really have given me faith though that I will be able to get by with FCP on the smaller projects I plan on doing. My primary goal is to simply have fun and build my FCP chops.
And I doubt the Premiere would be a good investment for me given my limited hardware.
My primary bottleneck will be the Firewire400 …
You obviously invest in a lot of storage, and yes it is cheap, but I like to buy something that will last.
Lacie D2, 2TB…ok investment? Was looking at Glyph technologies, but twice the price for the same storage.
Regarding RAM, agreed, Apple makes big $ on opening the back of you Imac….not sure about replacing-upgrading SIMs myself but will search online.
Once brought my iMac in to the local Apple store to fix a stuck DVD drive and was charged $100 to be told it can’t be fixed…thanks!

Local is the new global