Jeff Bellune’s hd2sd in Mac?

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Carlos,

Fellow HD2SD user here, and curious, what is the motivating force driving you to the other side?

Thanks

Jeff

[Carlos Angeli]

Hi Jeff,

I’m thinking about going mobile for my next computer because there are times when I need to work on the go. After a lot of reading I narrowed my options to either Dell precision models or MacBook Pro.

I already own an old Dell and a MacBook Pro 2013 and the MBP beats the Dell regarding materials, portability and overall quality.

However, the lack of specific software options for OS X (like this hd2sd workflow) makes me want to be sure before making any decision.

Even though professional software like Adobe is available for both platforms, sometimes little applications are the ones that make a big difference in workflow and time.

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Carlos,

I liked what HP was offering with their EliteBook line, which was mil-spec and had a ton of accessory ports (USB 3.0, eSATA, Firewire, ExpressCard). Those are being replaced with the new Zbook line, but if you can still find a new EliteBook with Nvidia graphics (for Mercury GPU acceleration in Premiere), those are pretty nice units to consider.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Walter Soyka]

I’ve got a couple EliteBooks. I love them and they are great machines, but they are not as sleek and light as the MacBook Pro Carlos is considering.

Of course, there’s always Boot Camp, or native EFI [link] (which I have not tried!).

It’s not hd2sd, but you might take a look at Miraizon Reframe [link].

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Carlos Angeli]

Jeff, those EliteBooks look good! I’ll look into them.

Dell also launched a new model called M3800. Though it’s supposed to be thinnest mobile workstation ever, the fact that the XPS I own seems built on cheap materials (already had problems with the screen and battery), and that it comes with only 16 GB and a standard Quadro card doesn’t exactly strike me as impressive for a brand new workstation. On the other hand, the more powerful models, the M4800 and M6800 both look like a brick.

Walter, may I ask the specs on your EliteBooks and what do you usually do with them? In my case I mostly work with the Adobe suite (Premiere, After, Photoshop) with the exception of this particular hd2sd workflow and an occasional render.

Thanks for that EFI link. Does it mean you can either boot on OS X or Windows from a Mac? That sounds really interesting. I’m already downloading the Miraizon Demo as well to try on the MBP.

Overall, I’m not leaning towards one or the other. I guess I’m just looking for the best of both worlds: something portable enough and yet powerful to ditch my huge desktop PC and take on the go. My biggest fear with Mac however, is that afterwards everything might have to be Mac related, while in a Windows PC, you can run almost anything.

[Walter Soyka]

[Carlos Angeli] “Walter, may I ask the specs on your EliteBooks and what do you usually do with them? In my case I mostly work with the Adobe suite (Premiere, After, Photoshop) with the exception of this particular hd2sd workflow and an occasional render. “

I don’t have them here in front of me now, but I think they are quad-core mobile i7s with 16 GB of RAM and Quadro 2000M from a couple years ago. I am mainly a motion designer, and I travel with these when it’s not practical to ship out one of the big Z-series workstations.

I also have a MacBook Pro of similar vintage and specs, and performance is comparable.

I like that the HPs have numeric keypads. It constantly frustrates me that the MBP does not

HP also has better support. I needed a replacement mainboard on one of the HPs, and HP had a technician in my office the next day. When I needed a similar repair on a MacBook Pro a couple years ago, it had to get shipped back and forth to an AppleCare facility in Texas, but maybe this has changed?

Disclosure: I started using PCs alongside my Macs a couple years ago when HP sent me a Z800 workstation to test, but I liked it enough that I’ve since bought several more.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Carlos Angeli] “Thanks for that EFI link. Does it mean you can either boot on OS X or Windows from a Mac?”

I forgot to address this before.

Apple ships a utility called Boot Camp that allows you to partition your hard drive and install 64-bit Windows on your Mac hardware. You choose whether to boot into OS X or Windows by holding the Option key at startup, or by choosing a system from the Boot Camp preference pane or control panel and rebooting. I’ve been using Boot Camp for years to have first Windows XP and then later Windows 7 on my Macs.

The EFI link is a way to install Windows that apparently allows significantly faster booting by using the system’s EFI directly instead of the emulated BIOS that Boot Camp offers. I haven’t tried it.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Carlos Angeli]

Walter, you’ve given me a lot to think about. I’ll look further into Boot Camp and EFI since that might be a good way to go.

How did your Macs perform on Windows? Was it too different from running OS X?