About to move from G5 to Macbook Pro… a few concerns

[Michael Sacci]

First do you need to be mobile? If yes let’s go on, if no think about getting a Mac Pro instead.

Any MBP will be faster with any computer task than you system. Rendering and encoding will be a lot faster. There are RAID systems that will work on the MBP with esata cards but the express34 slot that is needed is only available in the 17″ models so you need to stick to that plan. Data streams are limited more than they are on the towers, even you G5 would get faster data rates but don’t let that scare you, less you are doing some major multicam work with a lot of angles you will be fine. HD with ProRes will work just fine with eSata drives. There is a Sonnet Pro Express34 Card that is solid and would do great.

Yes you can upgrade from any versions of FCP you have for the $300 bucks, check some good online stores and you maybe able to save $25-50 bucks.

But unless you have to upgrade right now I would wait. The MBPs are due for an update soon. So if you can wait and not lose $$ than I would recommend holding tight, these MAYBE a major upgrade.

[Micah Mcdowell]

Thanks, that’s exactly the type of info I wanted to hear.

I would prefer this system to be mobile. It will be my home system for projects on the weekends, not my work system (anticipating having new Mac Pros in the department one of these days).

I started thinking about an upgrade probably 6 months ago, figuring that there’d be a new MBP after the holidays. My G5 has had some issues (replaced the Superdrive) since then, and it’s not getting younger. If it wasn’t a G5 I’d probably keep it even longer, but there’s so much Intel-specific stuff now (FCS3, Snow Leopard, even Netflix). I’ll try to hang on another month or two and save up but after that, I’m buying whatever they have.

[Don Walker]

Micah,
You didn’t mention any outboard self-contained capture card. Since you already know your going to be using your Express 34 slot for you eSATA connection. You’ll want a AJA IO HD or Io Express for monitoring and some tape capture purposes. This would run off your Firewire 800 bus, however it is the only thing that runs on your firewire bus. You would have to disconnect it to capture with firewire.
Do you have an AJA, or Blackmagic design card in your G5.
Don Walker

John 3:16

[Michael Sacci]

[Micah McDowell] “and it’s not getting younger”

The good thing is it really isn’t getting any older either, it is just in a holding pattern.

The other thing to ask yourself, is how would you feel if you got the system next week and in March they released a new faster system for the same money. this is probably what is going to happen. Now there is no right or wrong answer here. I know people that would be totally pissed off for as long as they had the system, those people should only but a system with a month of it being released. Then there are others than buy what they need, when they need it and if something like that happens they understand that it is the nature of the beast. But their system is fine and is making them money.

One other way to easy the risk if you want to get a system now, look at the refurb MBP on apple.com, they have some good deals at a every low risk. (vs eBay) I have purchased both ways and been happy. In fact my MBP that I use now is from eBay, had apple care on it and had to use that twice and it was a great deal.

I think it will be worth the wait but between now and then if you have to get one, get one and don’t look back.

[Micah Mcdowell]

I never used a capture card… I’ve always captured via Firewire and monitored through a DV deck hooked to a Sony BVM. If I do need to do HD monitoring for broadcast, I will definitely look into one of the AJA solutions plus a shiny new Flanders Scientific monitor. I don’t anticipate needing this immediately though.

[Micah Mcdowell]

Good point… I do paying work infrequently on this system, so no matter what I do it’ll take a while for me to make back the investment.

I’m an avid eBay user and have been watching for deals on a system. However, the refurbs from Apple are surprisingly cheap so I’ll probably go that route. One benefit of getting out of my current system ASAP is that G5s still have a surprisingly high resale value, and mine’s among the last of the breed. So, that would drop my total investment in a new MBP significantly. Regardless of what I do, I sure won’t be looking back. Thanks for your advice!

[Bret Williams]

I think I’d look into a matrox mx02 monitoring/capturing system. Most bang for the buck, plus it has some built in LCD calibration tools that allows decent color correction on any LCD.

If you’re doing SD work, I’d think a G-RAID would be a good choice. Try it with FW800 and if you’re having problems, then buy the express card and run it as a true esata raid.

B&H Photo was the best pricing I could find this December when I upgraded studio, CS4 production premium, and bought the GRaid. VideoGuys is about the same. Their ad is usually here on the left.

[Joe Paolo]

I have a 1st generation unibody 15″ MBP with the 3/4 express slot, MXO2 and a Flanders 1760. I deliver 1 hour 1080i shows for broadcast with this system. It works fine with these caveats:

You are limited to FW 800 for your drives. Not a problem for me as I work in DVCPRO HD. I can usually get 2-3 streams of realtime playback. I think Prores work work too but maybe not HQ.

I don’t do many effects. Just color correction. Motions works but not very well. The video card just doesn’t have the guts for it. But you can do simple things like text animations and chroma keying.

Rendering out approval files can be slow. You can get the MXOs with an h264 accelerator if you do a lot of that. I you have to render out a lot of different file types then a quad or octo core Mac Pro would be much faster.

I use a 24″ second computer monitor as the 15″screen is not enough real estate to work efficiently. And add a real keyboard and mouse.

So you could get a new 17″ MBP and have a very workable system. However for around the same $$$ you can get a quad core MacPro with a much better video card if you plan to do effects.

joe
editmojo.com