Nigel Beaumont
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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No matter what machine you have, there will always come a time you wish you had more RAM, more processor speed, a better graphics card etc etc. So I recommend you save until you really need to buy and then get the best you can. The bigger screen is worth going for too, when you spend long hours editing it will become significant.
That said, my personal laptop is an 11inch 1.6GHZ 4GB macbook air. From time to time I edit on FCPX or create in motion – it’s not my weapon of choice, but it’s capable and effective when I can’t use a better machine.Nigel Beaumont
Mac Pro Quad 3.0Ghz 14GB FCS 3 OSX 10.6.8/MBA 1.6Ghz 4GB FCPX OS 10.8.2
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Always buy the best spec you possibly can, you’ll never be thinking “gee wish I’d bought a less capable machine” but that $300 saving will seem pretty small every time you’re waiting for a render to complete…
Having said that, my laptop is a Macbook Air 1.6ghz i5 and I regularly use FCPX and CS6 on it. Not my weapon of choice by any means but perfectly capable.
Nigel Beaumont
Mac Pro Quad 3.0Ghz 14GB FCS 3 OSX 10.6.8/MBA 1.6Ghz 4GB FCPX OS 10.8.2
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I just wonder if you’re expecting too much of your machine? Editing/transcoding/compressing video is serious work for any machine – it takes time and every bit of every core. You can buy a new machine every three months, but some days you’ll always want something faster.
Nigel Beaumont
Mac Pro Quad 3.0Ghz 14GB FCS 3 OSX 10.6.8/MBA 1.6Ghz 4GB FCPX OS 10.8.2
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You seem to be switching software because of hardware problems…..
I appreciate your situation – my 2006 Mac Pro is slower for many things than my little Macbook air, but that’s hardly FCP’s fault.The latest versions of Avid and Premier are going to play best with newer machines so you may not see any transformation switching just the software. Personally, I’d go with Premier, but try the free trial for a month and see if it suits you.
Nigel Beaumont
Mac Pro Quad 3.0Ghz 14GB FCS 3 OSX 10.7.4/MBA 1.6Ghz FCPX
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Your starting point should be understanding that DVD is SD, so there has to be a cost when putting HD video on it. Without that, you may forever be chasing quality that isn’t possible.
My usual workflow is to export a quicktime movie from FCP (at whatever sequence settings you have) and then import that into compressor. I would place compression markers in the timeline anywhere you have a lot of movement before exporting. These cause compressor to “look carefully” at these areas as it compresses the video and can improve the result. Select one of the DVD presets for best quality and import the resulting files into DVD Studio. That should get you a working result, but compressing for DVD is as much an art as technique and getting a great result could take a lot of experimentation.
Nigel Beaumont
Mac Pro Quad 3.0Ghz 14GB FCS 3 OSX 10.7.4, Aja IO, some black cables&shiny firewire drives
“Ofcourse it’ll be finished in time for tx”
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I’m not in my suite at the moment so forgive any error…..
I’m in the same situation with both 7 & X and M4 & 5 and they do interfere a little. If the OS can find Motion 5 it will make it the default for opening motion projects even if they were created in Motion 4. So if you’ve an FCP timeline with a motion project in, and you want to adjust it, it will open in Motion 5. My work around is to open the motion file from the finder in M4.
Pretty sure M5 works fine with FCP 7 for creating new content – least I haven’t had an issue yet.Nigel Beaumont
Mac Pro Quad 3.0Ghz 12GB FCS 3 OSX 10.6.7, Aja IO, some black cables&shiny firewire drives
“Ofcourse it’ll be finished in time for tx”
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Don’t know if this is helpful – I have a 2006 3.0 MP and FCPX runs fine on it.
Nigel Beaumont
Mac Pro Quad 3.0Ghz 12GB FCS 3 OSX 10.6.7, Aja IO, some black cables&shiny firewire drives
“Ofcourse it’ll be finished in time for tx”
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I wasn’t VAT registered when I first started because my two main clients weren’t either and with only so much money in the pot, I’d either loose quantity of work or have to adjust my rate down to compensate.
Once the balance shifted to more VAT registered clients, I became VAT registered too. The admin load isn’t particularly heavy(and you pay your accountant to help you with that right?) especially with the flat rate scheme, and you can still claim for big purchases (above £2000 I believe)so I think you’ll find it worthwhile.
Incidentally, I still get plenty of work from those two non VAT clients…Nigel Beaumont
Mac Pro Quad 3.0Ghz 12GB FCS 3 OSX 10.6.7, Aja IO, some black cables&shiny firewire drives
“Ofcourse it’ll be finished in time for tx”
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Go on, see if you can make it to 42 Apple computers, I’m sure that number will be the answer to everything
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Don’t worry, if you’re having trouble just copy everything from your clone drive and go back to snow leopard.
You did use superduper or carbon copy cloner first right? Hope so, as there won’t be much sympathy on the Cow otherwise……Nigel Beaumont
Mac Pro Quad 3.0Ghz 12GB FCS 3 OSX 10.6.7, Aja IO, some black cables&shiny firewire drives
“Ofcourse it’ll be finished in time for tx”