[Isaac Brillant]

I have a few questions about using an iMac

Is there much of a difference between the “3.1GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5” option and the “3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7” for $200 more?

If I’m mainly working in FCP, editing ProRes with multiple tracks, and using filters and titles, but am not getting into heavy Motion of After FX work, is 16GB RAM (for $200 more than 8GB RAM) overkill? Can I add an additional 2 4GB RAM cards at a later point or is that not possible with an iMac?

Thanks all!

[Isaac Brillant]

thanks! thats very useful to know.

[Isaac Brillant]

are you still looking for an answer to this or solved it by now?

[Isaac Brillant]

Sorry, I overlooked this. I’m going to try it out and will post an update…

thanks!

[Isaac Brillant]

Just wanted to thank you again for your comprehensive answers to my Q’s. They were very useful. Thanks!

[Isaac Brillant]

Do you know if – using Toast or one of the other converter programs – you can import the MTS files you want to use and create a new folder structure that FCP could recognize?

I’d like to be able to just save my MTS files rather than backing up each SD card, and then if I want to bring them into FCP, create a new folder structure that L&T could read.

This way I could view them in FCP, in the L&T window, before having to transcode them all.

Also, which Toast are you using? I only have Toast 9…

Thanks!

[Isaac Brillant]

Is there any loss in quality with ClipWrap? I have a lot of home movies that I dont want to transcode to Prores or AIC because of the size. I’d prefer to end up with a hi quality H264.

I thought of getting Clip Wrap though as an alternative, since then I could just wrap the original MTS files and watch them in QT. Also, then I assume I could bring the clip wrapped files into FCP to do some basic editing and trimming, and then export them through compressor as an H264. Or, if they dont require editing, just bring the clip wrapped files directly into Compressor.

Do you know if there’d be any additional loss in the resulting H264 compared to bringing the MTS files into something like Toast instead and converting directly to H264?

thanks!

[Isaac Brillant]

Hi!
Thanks for the advice. When you wrote “DisKarrior,” was that a typo for “Disk Warrior”? Whichever one you meant, I’m gonna buy a copy and try it.

Thanks!
Yitz

[Isaac Brillant]

This doesn’t necessarily apply to a drive that is already failing, but I remember reading somewhere that you should do a full surface scan of your external harddrives at least once a year, and you can’t just leave them idle for long periods of time.

Could you guys tell me the best way to do this? Using Disk Utility? Or do I need to buy a program like DiskWarrior? Or, if the harddrive manufacture supplies a program in the box, should I use that?

One person wrote in another forum: “If I had to use disks for archiving, I’d make sure that I attached them to a computer no less than once a year and do a full surface scan of every accessible sector on the disk using CHKDSK. This would re-map any sectors going “soft” before they dissolve altogether and take precious data with them.” Is there a “mac way” to do this?

Someone else there wrote “I stict to WD Diagnostic Utility running in Windows, [on the mac, i think] and I swear by the results and job it does.”

So, what’s the best way to approach this in your opinions? And even if a drive seems to be working fine, when does it become too old to use?

I mainly use the 2 TB WD MyBooks, either with firewire or with eSata. I haven’t had any crash yet, but the oldest one is only 2 years old. I’m more worried about my Lacies, which are between 2 and 6 years old)

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Isaac

[Isaac Brillant]

Thanks so much for your comments. I’m going to go over them again tomorrow morning, because I have a few questions…
thanks!