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New iMac G5’s – a couple of questions
Hi there,
I’ve recently looked in to purchasing a G5 iMac to do some basic editing on. I used to use Final Cut a lot several years ago, but since I don’t have a Mac at home I’ve grown very rusty with it (I’ve been using Premiere Pro, which I’m not overly happy with). I’ve had to turn down a number of small jobs simply because I don’t feel comfortable enough with FCP anymore. With the release of the new systems today, I’ve decided that I might want to purchase one sometime soon, mostly to do light-medium work on and learn the program again. It’s not something I intend to make a living off of just yet. Ideally I’d like a Powermac tower, however financially that’s just not possible right now and dollar for dollar I’m convinced I can get what I need from an iMac for the next couple of years (until the new Intel machines settle in). That said, I have couple of questions about the iMacs that I’m having trouble finding answers to. You guys have been great in the past, so I thought I’d check here.
1) I read somewhere that the iMacs share a BUS for the two firewire ports. I’m not quite tech-savy enough to know if this will effect me negatively when I’m trying to capture video from a DV source. I’d ideally be bringing in footage from a DV camera and capturing it to an external firewire drive. Would I have problems doing this if they share a bus? Dropped frames, etc?
2) The new PCI-E cards sound promising. I don’t intend to use Motion 2 seriously, however how do you think it would run on the new PCI-E cards. I tried using some of Motion 1’s basic tools on a G5 iMac last year (with a 64MB vid card) and it seem workable, just somewhat slow. Do you think the basics would be sped up a bit (I’d assume they would ).
Any input from you guys would be greatly appreciated. I’ve really come to value this site for the it’s friendly expertise. =)
Thanks,
Nick W
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11 Replies
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[Nick Westbridge] “I’d ideally be bringing in footage from a DV camera and capturing it to an external firewire drive. Would I have problems doing this if they share a bus? Dropped frames, etc?”
You should have no problems at all capturing / editing DV the way you describe.
[Nick Westbridge] “I don’t intend to use Motion 2 seriously, however how do you think it would run on the new PCI-E cards.”
It will probably run, but again will run slow. Dual processors are really needed to make Motion run faster. But you’ll be able to play with it, learn it and you’ll just need patience to work with it. If you can go to an Apple Store and fire up Motion on a sample machine, you’ll see how it performs.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
G5 Dual 2.0, AJA Kona 2, Medea FCR2X
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Thanks for the info Walter, it’s much appreciated. Yeah, I’m mostly just interested in learning how Motion works so I can add it to my list of skills. I certainly won’t be relying on it for any of the projects that I’ll do.
I think my mind is made up then, and iMac it is. I’m just going to wait until next week to see if Apple drops new Powermacs (I’ve heard some rumours growing this morning). If they turn out to be incredible, I might reconsider and try to find more $$. If not, I think an iMac is ideal (especially considering the tiny amount of office space my apartment affords right now).
Nick
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Hi Nick,
You might want to check dealmac.com and the Apple Store special deals section to see if you can find a good deal on a refurbed G5 Powermac. Factory refurbs (which are sometimes sold by other dealors also) come with the full 12 month waranty.
Here is a current deal on a single G5 system from the Apple store:
Refurbished Power Mac G5 1.8 GHz/ 256MB/ 80GB/ SuperDrive/ GigE/ 56K -
I just bought an iMac, a couple weeks ago, for the same purpose. I have had no problems with it. I run the full Final Cut Studio on it, haven’t had any trouble. Yeah, its a little slower than the PowerMac I use at work, but it is tolerable. The only drawback I see is re-adjusting to a single monitor. At work, I use dual monitors and I love all the space. I’ve read that the iMac can support a second monitor, but I haven’t researched it. Anyway, just wanted to add my 2 cents.
Joshua Booth
Editor
Apple Certified Pro.
iQ Digital
121 S. Main St
Akron, OH 44308
330-374-6799 ext. 247
https://www.iq-digital.com
Josh.Booth@iq-digital.com -
Thanks for the info Mitch. My only problem is that I’m in Canada and I’m not sure how much duty, shipping and added Canadian sales tax might be. Already that $1299 model is nearly $1600CDN. I will look in to it though, you never know.
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Yeah, I’ve really come to like the dual-monitors I use with Premiere right now. I’ve also heard about a tweak to cause the iMac to be dual screen capable, but I heard that it certainly wasn’t recommended on the original release (I seem to recall it had something to do with the video cards used – maybe that is no longer an issue with the new generation cards).
Just out of curiosity, can the iMac display simple transitions in FCP in real-time? I’m not really talking lots of layers of video, just simple transitions and text on one or two layers of video? If it does need to render, how are the render times? My PC notebook can do real-time cross-dissolves, etc with little to no problem, so I’m guessing an iMac would probably perform similarly.
Thanks!
Nick
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yeah, it will play simple transitions and test in real-time. The only thing I have had problems with is changing the speed of a clip. That has to be rendered or I drop frames. Overall, I am very happy with iMac.
Joshua Booth
Editor
Apple Certified Pro.
iQ Digital
121 S. Main St
Akron, OH 44308
330-374-6799 ext. 247
https://www.iq-digital.com
Josh.Booth@iq-digital.com -
Excellent news, thanks. I’m also hoping these iMacs will have a decent resale value. I only really plan on keeping it for a couple years at most.
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I would never use an iMac just because of #1. Not being able to separate drives and deck on 2 different buses is the way to go. I’d need to have my deck and HD daisy chained to monitor NTSC right? Naw, I don’t wanna do that. I’d rather have a cheaper tower so I can add a PCI card for an additional bus.
Or don’t you monitor to NTSC?
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
fcpworld.com -
I do monitor to an NTSC TV through the output on my dv camera. I don’t think that you’d need to daisy chain to do that, would you? It might be the same bus, but there are two ports (one for HD and one for dvcamera). As I understood it, that wouldn’t be a problem would it?
Nick
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