What mac for editing?

[Dream Master]

this really needs to be posted in FCP Basics….

But Here ya go…

I suggest either a Macbook Pro (only if you want/need to edit wherever) otherwise, I suggest get yourself a good G5 with 4gig of ram, and at least two 250GB SATA drives internal. That along with the FCP package, all you will need is a camera or deck to hook to it.

Your format is dependent on the deck or camera you hook up to it.

My setup is a G5 W/ a 250 Sata System Drive and a 750gb Sata Data drive. I have a DSR25 DVCAM Mini DV Deck hooked to it through the firewire port, and I can hook up any other video drvice to the input of the deck and use the deck as a pass through for whatever format I choose if it doens’t go in via firewire itself….

Unless you have special output card the output will be on your firewire port. So i output back to my deck, then use the video out of the deck to feed A/V to my NTSC Monitor.

Hope this helps you figure out what you need to do…

P.S., Welcome to the Light! You’ll love editing on the mac with FCP.

[Jeff Carpenter]

If you’re editing DV only, any of the Macs will do fine. For that I suggest either the Macbook Pro or the 24″ iMac (because of the firewire 800 port) and, yes, I suggest keeping an eye out for iMac updates…it’s been awhile. For either of those you would use a firewire DV deck or camera to convert the signal to an analog signal for an external video monitor.

For any other video format, getting a laptop or an iMac can do some things with it, but not other things. For anything other than DV I suggest a MacPro tower. (For example, and iMac can edit HDV just fine, but there are no external video monitoring options for you.)

The more you tell us about what you’ll be editing, the better our advice will be.

[Lawrence Vaughan]

OK. Basically, I am sick to death of premiere crashing, unstable windows XP (and 98, me, vista the list goes on!). I tried final cut the other day and just have to make the switch.

I am filming currently on a Sony PD150 Mini DV, I occasionally use Canon XL1 and Sony DSR370 DV. I am looking at the near future of filming on mini HD (Sony HVR-V1E or A1E). I will be wanting to preview video on a tv / monitor. Which, as suggested I could output to via either the camera itself or DV deck.

Unfortunately I just cannot afford a macpro tower at this moment in time. If I were to edit using Mini HD could I output to a HD tv/monitor if I ran the output signal through the camera itself?

I would like the portability of a macbook pro, BUT – I don’t NEED it. And knowing me and my clumsy way’s I would end up dropping it. A desktop would more than likely suit me – of course, I won’t buy just yet, I am actually waiting for the new ones to be released.

When I do buy it I was thinking of only getting 2 gig of ram to begin with (and 250gig HD, purely for editing and apps), everything else on external HD for backup and music etc…

[Shane Ross]

[l_vaughan] “If I were to edit using Mini HD could I output to a HD tv/monitor if I ran the output signal through the camera itself?”

That format is called HDV. And no, you can’t monitor this like you can DV. For this I’d suggest the Matrox MXO. This will convert a DVI to HD SDI, component, composite, and eve output a DVI signal to an Apple 23″ or Dell 2407 and get you broadcast colors. Perfectly designed for what you are trying to do…edit HDV on a laptop.

[l_vaughan] “would like the portability of a macbook pro, BUT – I don’t NEED it. And knowing me and my clumsy way’s I would end up dropping it. A desktop would more than likely suit me – of course, I won’t buy just yet, I am actually waiting for the new ones to be released.”

If you want to use FCP and have it work well, you really need either a MacPro tower, or MacBook Pro. iMacs, Mac Minis, MacBooks are all consumer computers that are very limited in what they can do. The only expandibilty they have is RAM…period. A MacPro can have a capture card or eSATA card or additional firewire cards added. And a MacBook Pro can also have an eSATA card or additional firewire card added via the PCIexpress 34 slot. All macs have ONE firewire bus, and typically trying to hook up a camera and drive to the comptuer with one bus causes dropped frames and other issues. Not all the time, but often enough.

If you want to use FCP professionally, get the right machine. MacBook Pro, or Mac Pro should be all you are looking at.

[l_vaughan] “When I do buy it I was thinking of only getting 2 gig of ram to begin with (and 250gig HD, purely for editing and apps), everything else on external HD for backup and music etc…”

2GB RAM is the minimum needed for FCS2…4 would be better. And never ever EVER store media on your main hard drive. That is for apps and files only. Capture your media to a separate hard drive. Secondary internal (MacPro only) or external firewire or eSATA drives are recommended.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Andy Mees]

“[l_vaughan] “If I were to edit using Mini HD could I output to a HD tv/monitor if I ran the output signal through the camera itself?”

That format is called HDV. And no, you can’t monitor this like you can DV. For this I’d suggest the Matrox MXO. This will convert a DVI to HD SDI, component, composite, and eve output a DVI signal to an Apple 23″ or Dell 2407 and get you broadcast colors. Perfectly designed for what you are trying to do…edit HDV on a laptop.”

one of the new features of FCP6 is that you can set your external video preview to a different format than your timeline … in your case you could monitor a downconverted DV version of your HDV timeline, via the camera, whilst editing. not HD, but nonetheless a workflow that leverages the power of FCP6 and doesn’t require the MXO. (but the MXO is a much nicer and full HD solution)

[Lawrence Vaughan]

one of the new features of FCP6 is that you can set your external video preview to a different format than your timeline … in your case you could monitor a downconverted DV version of your HDV timeline, via the camera, whilst editing. not HD, but nonetheless a workflow that leverages the power of FCP6 and doesn’t require the MXO. (but the MXO is a much nicer and full HD solution)

Is this feature available in Final cut studio 2?

If you want to use FCP and have it work well, you really need either a MacPro tower, or MacBook Pro. iMacs, Mac Minis, MacBooks are all consumer computers that are very limited in what they can do. The only expandibilty they have is RAM…period. A MacPro can have a capture card or eSATA card or additional firewire cards added. And a MacBook Pro can also have an eSATA card or additional firewire card added via the PCIexpress 34 slot. All macs have ONE firewire bus, and typically trying to hook up a camera and drive to the comptuer with one bus causes dropped frames and other issues. Not all the time, but often enough.

I am waiting for thew new imacs, is this likely to change?

2GB RAM is the minimum needed for FCS2…4 would be better. And never ever EVER store media on your main hard drive. That is for apps and files only. Capture your media to a separate hard drive. Secondary internal (MacPro only) or external firewire or eSATA drives are recommended.

I did intend on editing to an external drive but using the mac’s drive as backup. I will definitely be upgrading ram, probably a couple of months after the switch, as long as I can run FCS2 (even if it’s a little slow) i don’t mind for those initial couple of months. How easy is it to upgrade the ram in any mac?
One more thing, presuming i DID go with a macbook pro, can I output the signal to an external monitor instead of using the laptops screen, OR hook it up to a monitor and use both screens?

[Chris Lund]

Since you’ve already received specific hardware recommendations, I’ll just give you my input from two perspectives. First, I have edited with FCP 1.5 on an iMac G5, a MacBook Pro and now a Mac Pro. There is no comparison to the speed I have experienced with the Intel based Macs. Even after being spoiled by my Mac Pro/Quad Core early this year, I was impressed how well a MacBook Pro with the Intel Core Duo and just 1GB RAM did editing a couple video projects. They weren’t very ambitious projects, but I was not at all disappointed. Then I had to work on an old project at home using my year-old iMac G5, and let’s just say I was very disappointed!

Secondly, I sympathize and applaud you making the step from PC/Premiere to Mac/FCP. I have used only Macs at home for almost 20 years, and only PC’s at work for 11 years (not by choice!). I’ve been satisfied with the Adobe Production Studio capabilities for the past 4-5 years, but it has been well worth my time learning FCS so that I can finally use Macs for video editing. Not only is it a more enjoyable experience, my productivity rose almost instantly since I wasn’t having to solve software/hardware problems all the time. I haven’t had time to learn Color yet, so I still use After Effects on my PC now and then…. Although I’m glad to see Adobe finally releasing Mac video apps again, I can’t see them being worth my investment.

Chris Lund

Media Director
Wenatchee Free Methodist Church