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  • What to purchase next?

    Posted by Tyler Leisher on September 3, 2010 at 8:46 pm

    Hey all,

    I am working on (slowly) building a home based edit suite, mostly for offline work or web based content.

    Was hoping to get some advice on the next piece of hardware I should buy.

    Right now, I have the following:

    + Macbook Pro 17″ 2.66GHz i7
    + Samsung 22″ Monitor (with adapter to plug into Macbook)
    + G-Tech G-Raid 1 TB Drive
    + Wacom Pen Tablet
    + Awful Speakers (Got them for free, probably cost $30-50 at best buy)
    + Sennheiser 280 HD headphones
    + Contour Shuttle Pro
    + External Dock Encloser, for duplicating drives to give to clients

    Right now I’ve been mostly doing stuff on the mac then backing up to the G-Tech drive for archive. But I’m looking to up my work load away from purely web based stuff and more towards the indie film market, or the higher end web market.

    Most of the stuff I cut nowadays is either done on the HVX200 or DSLR like the 5D or t2i. It might be a pipe dream, but I’d like to be able to offer offline RED editing.

    I’m looking to spend about $600-700 on new equipment this month, and this is what I’m looking into but I’m not sure which is more important. Eventually I am going to upgrade to a Mac Pro, but for the time being I want to continue working off my MBP.

    Potential New Items:
    – RAID System, CalDigit VR or similar RAID system
    – Audio Mixer (Behhringer Xenyx 1202FX
    – Audio Monitors / Speakers (KRK Rockit 5s)
    – Apple Magic Mouse
    – Power Backup System
    – Additional Monitor/TV for use as a viewing TV or client monitor (something like a 32″ TV with colors calibrated more appropriately)

    That is about all I can think of that I might need at this time, the Mac Pro is coming down the pipe in around a year with a Kona card, sound card, etc. I also plan on buying some Tape Decks and Card Readers, but that is also way down the line.

    I’m mainly looking for what should be my next upgrade to my baby suite.

    Jason Brown replied 15 years, 8 months ago 5 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • Michael Sacci

    September 3, 2010 at 9:43 pm

    [Tyler Leisher] “- Power Backup System”
    This should be #1

    [Tyler Leisher] “- Additional Monitor/TV for use as a viewing TV or client monitor (something like a 32″ TV with colors calibrated more appropriately)”
    Well that would require another piece of Io equipment, and they are close to a grand. The Matrox boxes are a good fit because they can move from the laptop to the desktop just by getting a PCIe interface card.

    If you are doing anything with sound I would get the mixer and good speakers next.

  • Shane Ross

    September 3, 2010 at 9:45 pm

    Matrox MXO2 Mini is $450… That’ll get your signal to an HDTV.

    Shane

    GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
    Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

  • Ron Pestes

    September 3, 2010 at 9:50 pm

    Get the speakers and Caldigit VR. You can’t edit very well if your sound is bad and you need to get all you edit footage onto a RAID and off your boot drive.

    Apple Certified Master Pro FCS 2
    Sony EX-3
    MacBook Pro

  • Jason Brown

    September 4, 2010 at 2:19 am

    If you get the Matrox lineup, I’d go with the Max technology…

    Shane, what’s your opinion of the h.264 encoding chip they offer?

    -Jason

  • Michael Sacci

    September 4, 2010 at 5:52 am

    I would too, that adds I think $400 but seams like it is well worth it.

  • Shane Ross

    September 4, 2010 at 6:13 am

    [Jason Brown] “Shane, what’s your opinion of the h.264 encoding chip they offer?”

    I love it. Use it constantly on recent work…

    https://lfhd.net/2010/08/03/matrox-mxo2-mini-wmax/

    Shane

    GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
    Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

  • Jason Brown

    September 5, 2010 at 2:46 am

    So do you find that most people on PC can read h264? When I run into people who can’t, I suggest for people to download VLC, seems to be easy and very light…what do you do?

    -Jason

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