Can you edit a P2 feature on a Macbook Pro 2.16

[Shane Ross]

I have edited DVCPRO HD footage on my 1.67 Powerbook G4. Works fine. But I have a few FW800 drives. I hear that FW400 is sufficient, but I haven’t had the same experience.

Get enough RAM and you will be fine.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Markford Astina]

I’m assuming that your 1.67 Powerbook is the 17″ version? Is this correct?
(Coz I think FW800 is only available on them)

How much ram did you have?

How long was your project?

Did you chain your 2 FW800 drives or did you have a hub/switch to connect them to the powerbook?

Many thanks for the help Shane.

[Robert Ikenberry]

We are editing a 1-hr Documentary (720P24 – DVC Pro HD) with a Macbook Pro 17″ 2.16 (2GB memory) and a 1TB FW800 Raid0 external drive with very good success. Our primary editor says this system is faster on HD than his prior set-up was with SD. The show is broken up into 5, approx 10 minute chapters on separate sequences, mainly because that’s how the story lays out, but I would not expect problems with a 60-120 minute single timeline (sequence).

Rob Ikenberry

[Shane Ross]

[cinemacell] “I’m assuming that your 1.67 Powerbook is the 17″ version? Is this correct?
(Coz I think FW800 is only available on them)”

POWERBOOK….not MacBook Pro. 15″…G4 Powerbook. That has a FW800 port.

1.5GB RAM, 94 minute project (80 hours of footage)…daisy chained the drives. Now, a majority of the time I was on my Dual 2Ghz tower, only occassionally was I using my powerbook. That was when I had to be in Vegas for NAB and still edit, and when I needed the tower to do heavy rendering.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Scott Sullivan]

No problems here either. Ours was a lot of basic editing (two stream multi-cam, basic color correction, crossfades) and our G-Drive (FW-800) worked without a hitch. For capturing on set, at first I was hesitant, but I was even able to capture 15 minutes at a time direct to the G-Drive (via FCP) during the shoot. I was afraid to push it too hard so I babied it and broke it down into smaller captures since we had the ability to do so.

But on the editing side, no probs. Worst part is exporting the timeline to widescreen SD, DVD. We averaged about real time. For every minute of timeline, about one minute of rendering out from Compressor to a 16:9 SD format to bring into DVDSP. Editing was all done with full rez DVCPro HD in FCP 5.1 (this was a few months ago before the current update).

Hope that helps!
Scott

[Scott Sullivan]

Forgot to mention, we’re using a Macbook Pro 2.16 as well. 17″ and 2 Gig ram. Internal Hard Drive is a 7200 instead of the 5400. G-Drive was FW800.

Scott

[Gary Adcock]

[Scott Sullivan] “Editing was all done with full rez DVCPro HD in FCP 5.1 (this was a few months ago before the current update).”

I am still amazed some still think that editing HD on a laptop is not possible.

I first showed editing of 720p24 material on a laptop in Jan 2001,months before FCPHD, ( still V4 at that point ) and before there was an HD /Firewire compatible deck. While the first time I showed 720p on a laptop it was a still a science project. Panasonic and apple have greatly simplified process now with the advent of P2 and the 1200 and 1400 series decks from that now allows us direct access to the native DVCPROHD codec from the Varicam and HDX cameras also.

Oh, Did I mention that it was uncompressed 8bit HD in the first demo, at a Final Cut Pro UG meeting at Macworld SF

gary

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Gary Adcock]

[gary adcock] “I first showed editing of 720p24 material on a laptop in Jan 2001,”

Sorry I was typing too fast,
the correct date was Jan 2003, and it was done on a 1Ghz Tibook.

ga

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Gary Adcock]

[gary adcock] “I first showed editing of 720p24 material on a laptop in Jan 2001,”

Sorry I was typing too fast,
the correct date was Jan 2003, and it was done on a 1Ghz Tibook.

ga

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Urban Rhino]

Just do the bandwidth math. If your’re doing DVCPRO HD 720 you’re going to max out at 14 MBps at 60fps, at 24 fps it’s only 5.6 MBps so that’s not even twice the bandwidth of mini dv. Also DVCPRO HD is compressed 6.3:1 which more than DV. If you’re not going crazy with multiple streams you’ll be fine – even then you’ll only have to render. I would say stick with firewire 800 or faster drives. Get a SATA card for your express slot and go crazy. But with FW800 you should be well within your limits, just don;t go too crazy on dazy chaining.

We just did a field test for ESPN with 6 HVX’s shooting for a week in the mountains dumping and managing everything with one MBP using G-Drives with eSata and had no problems what so ever.

Nathan Beaman
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Trainer
Apple Certified XSan for Pro Video Technician
http://www.urbanrhinovisual.com