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Prores HQ on Macbook Problems, Please Help.
Hi Guys,
I’m trying to edit a student film at home on my Macbook 2Ghz Core 2 Duo with 2Gb of Ram with an external hard drive (USB 2). It was shot on a Sony F900 @ 1080p 25fps (PAL), which I offlined in DV PAL.
When I recaptured for grading and such, even some minor tweaking with the edit, I used the Prores HQ codec as I had been told that this codec would allow my tiny system to comfortably edit the HD footage. However anytime I play the footage back on the timeline it stammers very badly, to a point were I can’t properly edit anything.
Can you please advise as I have a impending deadline. I apologize in advance if this is basic stuff, its the first time that I have you ventured down the 1080p route and I don’t have access to the proper edit facilities at the moment.
Scott
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8 Replies
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[Scott J] ” with an external hard drive (USB 2″
NO, no, no, no,……
Scott, you will go nowhere with an USB HD.
For working in DV you need FW 400.
For working with ProRess you will need FW 800.
Rafael -
Thanks Rafael,
I have a Firewire case that I will swap over. Is there a way to tell if I have a Firewire 400 or 800?
Scott
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[Scott J] “Is there a way to tell if I have a Firewire 400 or 800? “
By the cable. The FW 400 cable connector is different from the FW 800 connector. if you have both FW 400 and 800 on your Macbook just look on the side to see the connector differences. At least one of those connectors will be on your FW external drive.
– Don
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[Scott J] “external hard drive (USB 2)”
Like what was said the USB drive is the problem.
FW800 is the slowest connection on a drive that that will work with ProRes.
[Scott J] “Macbook 2Ghz Core 2 Duo with 2Gb of Ram”
And your computer does NOT have FW800 on it.
So as I see it there is NOT really anything you can do on your machine that will let you edit ProRes with out any headaches.
The MacBook was not designed with the power that you need to edit video, in laptops you want to get a MacBook Pro.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity! -
“Sorry but it is never recommended to edit from the footage drive.”
He means the boot drive, the internal drive with the OSX operating system installed on it that is inside the laptop.
A better alternative for you is eSata drives, get an express34 card with 2 eSata ports for your laptop. Twice as fast as FW800.
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Thanks everyone for all your advise. I done my research based on what you both said and I’m trying to find some other arrangement with edit equipment. One last question, would the Hard Drive within the actual Macbook be fast enough to deal with the prores footage?
Scott
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[Scott J] “would the Hard Drive within the actual Macbook be fast enough to deal with the prores footage”
Sorry but it is never recommended to edit from the footage drive. That drive has plenty do do already, run the OS, run the application etc. When ever I have seen people attempting to edit from the system drive they get a lot of dropped frames while editing.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity! -
[joe hedge] “He means the boot drive, the internal drive with the OSX operating system installed on it that is inside the laptop.”
Yes you are correct I ment the system drive.
[joe hedge] “A better alternative for you is eSata drives, get an express34 card with 2 eSata ports for your laptop. Twice as fast as FW800.”
Yes that would be much better but the bigger issue hear is that he is on a MacBook not a MacBook Pro. So unfortunately he has no express card.
I personally will only edit from esata drives as I am unwilling to let my camera and drives share the same firewire bus. I have had to many issues with dripped frames on both capture and sending back to camera in the past to teach me that the camera and drives should be connected to completely different buses on the computer.
There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!
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