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Advice for a HD editing station
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Shane, thanks a lot for the very in depth post.
But I guess you may have slightly misunderstood my question. I wasn’t really asking what I lose on an iMac but what I lose on a G5 (Tower)
instead of editing on a new Intel Mac? I already understood that rendering times will be longer and I’m fine with that since I can render over night. But will I lose any real time features or normal features from Final Cut Studio? Will all programs from Studio run fine? Like Motion etc? I’m thinking of installing Color Finesse too and maybe even Shake in a future. All I’m worried about is quality and “editibility”. Will I have to render every single transition or effect to preview it? Things of that nature. I’m mainly looking at getting a dual 2Ghz G5 tower with at least 2GB RAM.
Thanks in advance. -
I have a Dual 2.0 Ghz G5 (PCI-X) and I am running the current FCP (5.1.2) and all the other current software. I edit DVCPRO HD, have a Kona card installed and an eSATA card and can output uncompressed HD, downconverted SD…no problems.
The only drawback…speed. The newer machines will be faster. Oh, and they have the new PCIe lots…older mac has PCI-X.
That’s it.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
When you say faster you are strictly talking about render times right? Not real time.
How much RAM do you have?
What -
[Adamcj] ”
When you say faster you are strictly talking about render times right? Not real time.”Render times. I have lots of RT effects. Drive speed helps with that.
[Adamcj] “How much RAM do you have?”
3.5 GB
[Adamcj] “What
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“Faster bus speed.”
Which translates to faster render times I would think. Or does it impact something else?
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[Adamcj] “Which translates to faster render times I would think. Or does it impact something else?”
Faster communication with external drive arrays for better performance. More data throughput so that capture cards can do 2K and 4:4:4 HD.
Render times are only powered by processor and RAM. Slightly by bus speed.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
I see.
Not that I’m doing it, but based on what you just said I would think G5 wouldn’t do 2K and 4:4:4 HD?The more I think and research the more I think I will get more bang for my buck if I just buy a G5 and stick as much RAM as I can afford in it as opposed to buying a lower end Mac Pro.
For what I need, mainly HDV1 plus occasional uncompressed HD using Final Cut Studio, Color Finesse and Shake, it seems it will do the trick.
As long as I don’t have to wait during editing (render everything instead of having it RT), have all features from the programs available (I know G4’s are limited on some features like HD features, so I was worried G5 would be too at some extent but I see they are not) and image quality is not affected, I don’t mind longer render times. Time after editing I have most times. But waiting for rendering during editing is counter productive and impacts creativity.A hardware question:
1,8Ghz/4GB RAM G5 or 2Ghz/2GB G5 or 2.5Ghz/1GB RAM G5?
Just trying to have an idea of what matters most.
Thanks again. -
[Adamcj] “Not that I’m doing it, but based on what you just said I would think G5 wouldn’t do 2K and 4:4:4 HD?”
Correct.
[Adamcj] “1,8Ghz/4GB RAM G5 or 2Ghz/2GB G5 or 2.5Ghz/1GB RAM G5?”
Dual 2.0 Ghz with 2GB RAM.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
“Dual 2.0 Ghz with 2GB RAM.”
So I guess processor speed and RAM are equally important then.
Thanks.
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By the way, does FCP have any sort of storyboard editing feature like Liquid or SpeedEdit?
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