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How much iMac do I need and does this editing workflow seem right?
Hello, I’m a new member but have been reading the forums for a while now.
And here we go…
Present Day Hardware & Software
-I have 2 Canon HV20 camcorders and a Nikon D5000 DSLR.
-My editing workstation is a 15″ Powerbook G4 1.67GHz w/ 1GB of RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 9700(128MB). I had ordered an extra 1GB of RAM from OWC but it seems to crash my system, maybe I need to buy the same module so my memory matches. They told me that wasn’t necessary when I bought the GB stick. Any thoughts?
-My OS is 10.4.11 and I’m using FCS2 and Adobe CS3.Future Hardware & Software
-I would like to get an iMac 27″ 3.4 GHz Quad-Core i7(+ $200 upgrade over the 3.1 GHz Quad-Corei5). My software would be OS X Snow Leopard, FCS3, CS5 and possibly Avid MC 5.5
-Is it worth upgrading the graphics card to the AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5(+ $100) for editing in 1080p/1080i/HDV/ProRes? I know it’s important for gaming and 3D(which I don’t do) and I don’t plan on doing uncompressed HD or 2K/4K anytime soon on this system(does the graphics card have a huge affect in this area?). I will be doing some compositing and have multiple video layers, as well as color correction, will the 2GB graphics card give me a boost here? A $100 isn’t a huge add-on so I don’t mind adding it if I’m going to see a bump in productivity.
-Should I stick with the standard 1TB HDD now that Thunderbolt is here and I’ll be able to add a RAID externally or is upgrading to the 256GB SSD and having a 1TB(+ $600) or 2TB(+ $750) drive worth the expense? Again, I’ll be editing 1080p/1080i/HDV/ProRes as well as adding stills from my D5000.
-I’ll max out the RAM at 16GB. I won’t buy this from Apple, but from OWC, Crucial or NewEgg. Any other suggestions?Editing Workflow
-My Powerbook G4 would become my assist/capturing station and I’d do my editing on the new iMac. I’d run FCS2 on the Powerbook and FCS3 on the iMac.
-I’m planning on shooting 1080/60i and 1080/24p in a 60i wrapper, depending on the project, with the HV20’s and using the D5000 for photos(JPEG, possibly RAW in the future).
-I would be capturing HDV 1080i60 Firewire Basic from the HV20 into FCP so I can keep timecode and recapture the tapes in the future if necessary. I would perform the reverse pulldown on the 1080/24p footage via Apple’s workflow thru Compressor(I’ll use the new iMac for this, as the Powerbook is excruciatingly slow for this process).
-I was planning on making my sequence for the 1080/60i material HDV and have the Render set to ProRes 422. Is there a reason I should set the sequence to ProRes from the start? And if so, I’m assuming I set it to ProRes 422 1440×1080 60i not 1920×1080, since HDV is 1440×1080. Is that correct? Since the 1080/24p material is now ProRes after the reverse pulldown that will be my sequence settings for those projects.Side question… With the new Thunderbolt port, will the multi connection I/O boxes hooked up to them be able to capture HDV in ProRes and keep the timecode? Maybe this can’t be answered until it comes out and people have had a chance to use them, just thought I’d ask.
-I’ll be editing in FCP, and bringing shots into Motion, Photoshop and After Effects for various reasons. I’ll be doing basic color correction in FCP, possibly Color(I don’t know it, but will probably play around with it).
Final Source Material
-Not really sure where my projects will end up right now but I want them to be able to be output to HDCam or HDCamSR if necessary, as well as bluray. In the beginning they’ll probably just be uploaded to the internet(Vimeo, Youtube, etc..) and SD DVD’s for family and friends. I want to keep it at the highest quality it can be for the whole process, which I know is only HDV/ProRes.I know about FCP X and Lion, but I don’t feel like being a guinea pig for them. I’ll upgrade to them after they’ve been out for a few months and the bugs have been worked out. I’ll do the “Perfect setup for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion” that David Roth Weiss gave the tutorial on(Thanks for that). Plus one of the screen grabs that was floating around showed the menu under “File” and I didn’t see “Log and Capture” as a choice. Not good considering my source material is from my HV20’s via Firewire. But don’t worry I’m not making a judgement based off of one screen grab and I’ll wait and see how FCP X is when it comes out. I’m actually excited to see how it is. And please don’t turn this into an FCP X discussion, I was just letting you know I know about the upgrades coming very soon, thanks.
My biggest concern is the new iMac. Should I go all out and get it fully loaded or only do certain add-ons like the graphics card and Ram from other vendors now that Thunderbolt has arrived?
Thanks in advance for the feedback, these forums are fantastic.
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3 Replies
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Just to give some more info if needed…
In 1080 60i I’d be shooting nature/outdoor documentary style shows, as well as home improvement/cooking/do-it-yourself style shows in a controlled environment.
In 1080 24p I’d be shooting scripted material, but nothing that involves effects or CGI.
I’ll be adding titles/lower thirds and effecting the stills I have, again nothing fancy.
Let me know if you need more details.
Thanks again, I appreciate your time.
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Hi Keith,
sounds like you have already done lots of research! The iMac will speed you up massively from a G4. In terms of your questions:-The supplied card in the iMac will be fine for editing ProRes and HDV, although for what its worth i would aways convert your HDV to proRes for the edit. When you get FCP7 it will come with versions of ProRes that take up less space then the HDV for better quality.
-I wouldn’t necessarily upgrade your internal drive. External Drives are a must with video, being able to fill them up with rushes and then stick them on a shelf. And as you say new thunderbolt drives will be coming soon.
-Think about partitioning your drive into a system drive and a backup system drive, and maybe a partition for your projects.
-Bear in mind that the FCP7 wont work on your G4 – you can still use FCP6 with it and then FCP will update the project on your iMac to a FCP7 project, but you wont be able to go back to the G4 with a FCP7 project, although i imagine you would need to anyway
-you can capture HDV straight to ProRes with a firewire lead. Check it out on the CoW. Again i wouldnt bother capturing as HDV.
oh and get more RAM than it comes with but for FCP 4GB is the max it will use. But CS5 apps will use more if you have it. 16gb if you can afford it but but i might spend the money on 2 x decent hard drives and get 8gb RAM.
cheers
Nick -
Thanks for the reply Nick.
After reading your response and others, from other forums, I’m not going to upgrade the system drive, standard 1TB internal should be fine with external drives via firewire as my scratch disks. And as you say I can just store the drives if necessary on a shelf.
The only reason I was thinking of upgrading the graphics card is because of Color and Motion, everyone says they like more VRAM. I don’t use these programs much, it was more of a future proofing thing because I’d like to learn them more. Plus, I’m sure I’ll eventually get FCP X and those programs may be incorporated, again future proofing, and hopefully we find out about that this week. So the card will be a decision I’ll make when I finally pull the trigger. But it’s great to know I don’t need to upgrade it for my workflow now.
As far as capturing HDV as ProRes via firewire, I was keeping it HDV so I could go back and recapture if necessary. Firewire doesn’t keep the timecode if capturing ProRes, correct? Or did this change with FCP7?Again, thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
Keith
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