HD video on a MBPro??

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

HD video on a MBPro??

Posted by Lawrence Vaughan on July 22, 2007 at 1:21 pm

Hi everyone,

I am looking at buying a macbook pro for editing very soon. However, I have been told that the Macbook pro cannot edit “true” HD video (in Final cut studio 2) due to it’s resolution and graphics card / capture device. However, i have been told it can edit “compressed HD”, can anyone tell me the difference and enlighten me on this?

The last thing I want to do is spend

Ben Holmes replied 18 years, 10 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
4 Replies

Walter Biscardi
July 22, 2007 at 1:33 pm

Compressed HD – DVCPro HD, HDV and maybe ProRes 422

Uncompressed HD – 8bit / 10bit Uncompressed HD, 4:4:4 HD.

Laptop can do compressed, not uncompressed.

Laptop will be much slower to render and generally work with HD than a desktop.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

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Oliver Peters
July 22, 2007 at 9:18 pm

There is no such thing as “true” HD. There is compressed and there is uncompressed. The issue with uncompressed is having the necessary throughput. This means a fast drive array.

The processing/RAM/graphics card on a MBP are just fine, since a new one will outperform an older G5 desktop. Older G5s can handle uncompressed HD, so it’s merely the fact that you can hang a fast array off of a desktop system, but not a laptop. MBPs will handle all flavors of compressed HD without issue.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
Lawrence Vaughan
July 23, 2007 at 11:10 am

Thanks everyone. The picture is becomming a little clearer now.
Ben Holmes
July 23, 2007 at 3:37 pm

Since no one else has invoked it this thread (although it’s been mentioned the other 2000 times this has been asked) the impending release of the IO-HD around the end of this month (ho ho – well sometime anyway) will enable you to capture COMPRESSED HD using the ‘visually lossless’ ProRes codec. This codec allows you to work on 1080i60 material at the kind of bitrates supported by SATA arrays which could be connected via expresscard to MBP.

All of this is well and good – but if you want to edit HD, you should still buy a MacPro, a decent capture card and an external HD video monitor. Editing HD on a MacBook Pro will be like trying to paint a Picasso with a crayon. In the dark. IMHO.

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd

EVS & FCP specialists for live broadcast.

OB Server 1 HD – Mobile FCP editing done right.
https://www.editecuk.com/OBServer2.html

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