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budget Mac for FCS2
as a recent convert from avid to final cut pro, I need a mac that can handle “most” 2-3 layer fcp/motion stuff. in most situations, I will not have a client looking over my shoulder so I can wait for renders.
I do not have the budget for a mac pro now but hope to next year.
I’m starting 2 sd jobs with media captured at 720/480 from minidv. These will be multicam and 2 layers only.
THen I will be starting an 1080 job with hd media from a Canon that will be transcoded to prorez or dvcprohd at ingest.
I would appreciate anyone’s recommendation on a “interim” mac that I might be able to get from ebay that might run well with fcp with this level of prosumer video.
I will not be using external AJA or Blackmagic stuff…just firewire in for DV and card based files converted…no uncompressed HD or anything else.
I could get a 2ghz imac intel core duo with 2ghz of ram…if you think that’s a decent machine???
how about a mini or older imac?
any advice appreciated.
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5 Replies
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[Van Kowalski Burdge] “THen I will be starting an 1080 job with hd media from a Canon that will be transcoded to prorez or dvcprohd at ingest. “
This will require either a Mac Pro or an AJA Io HD. You cannot perform this conversion with an iMac or MacBook Pro to my knowledge. You cannot perform a conversion to DVCPro HD during ingest without a capture card.
If you intend to do any conversions during ingest, you need a Mac Pro and preferrably an AJA Kona board. The Io HD will require an Intel based machine if you go that route.
Saving some money on eBay now is not what you need to do if you are already planning conversions to ProRes and DVCPro HD during ingest.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Theoretically it should work to use an older mac, but you may find yourself waiting around a lot. But if that works for you, or if that’s all you can afford at the moment, then that’s the bottom line. If you decide to go with the older iMac, go for one with the 256MB video card.
You might consider doing a financing type thing. I think Apple is offering 6-months no interest. That’ll give you some time for the money to come in.
Best of luck.
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thanks for the replies. I forgot to mention that the Canon is avchd on a sd card and did seem to work today with “log and transfer” on my first gen mac book pro 1.83ghz intel core duo…it does play back pretty well but this was a quick test…and I certainly do not want to edit on this laptop.
I will look for an older or refurb imac with the 256meg video card.
I also was hoping the prorez would play back well from firewire 800 drives so I do not need a raid??? All my media has a backup with the original sd cards.
the final will be blu-ray and hd vimeo.
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just checked the apple page and this 17′ at 2.5mhs with 512 on the video card and firewire 800 seems like it might work???
are these specs good enough for prorez?
thanks
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How much ram do you have on that thing?
I also recommend getting an esata card for the MBP and connecting your media drives that way.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!
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