[Robert Withers]

I would suggest 16G RAM as a minimum for video editing. Have had no problems with a MacBook Pro with the first Premiere CC and 16G RAM.
Double-check the Adobe site for system requirements that the geforce 940mx is one of the NVIDIA GPU cards that Adobe likes for CUDA processing.
Lots of people edit video on laptops — some by preference. I don’t know anything about what 4K requires in terms of memory, CPU speed, or file storage. It’s probably not the shape of the box, it’s what’s inside, connector speed, etc.
You probably want an external drive to backup/store video files.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thanks Greg. There are some nuggets in there though I really found it hard to sit though the long chatty video. Why can’t people just supply text and a few pictures?

This guy compares AMD and NVIDIA on a single Windows machine using Cineform, a codec I never use, in Premiere and finds they are roughly equivalent.

I’m still wondering about AMD on a Mac vs NVIDIA on a PC for Premiere. Which is the choice I’m looking at. I forgot the PC may get quirky with my typical ProRes workflow.

Thanks for your posting!
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Hey Rory,
I work on smaller experimental projects but ran into a couple of snags importing projects from FCP7.
For example, it was not as simple for me as:
“Just export an XML of the entire project, and import that XML into Premiere. Bins and sequences should come over fine. And of course, the media will import fine…no problem there.”
I tried importing a partly edited sequence of about 40 minutes into Premiere CC “2013” , and it just failed, with bars over the clips and repeated clips.
The workaround I discovered was to make two XML versions of 20 minutes each and import them separately. All the bins and media came over fine.

The biggest and most troublesome surprise that the FCP true stereo tracks came in as dual mono and it’s impossible to convert them to the Pr stereo track format once they’ve already been cut. So sound editing got really clumsy for this project.

Of course if you are starting a project from scratch you won’t have that issue. And maybe the more recent Pr CC versions are more accommodating of XML imports.

There are pros here who would know better than I.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

That’s interesting. Where do you enable or disenable the Intel GPU during your configuration? In Premiere or somewhere else? Apple says it automatically switches to the real GPU. Maybe you’re Windows.
Thanks,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Hi Mike, I’m trying to listen and learn from this thread.

When you say “Vol 1: Current Project backup — backs up relevant folders from my PC either continuously or on the click of a button”–what are the relevant folders? Project files or other items too?

Thanks,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

I’m trying to find out if the 2015 MBP has these specs: integrated Intel Iris 5200 Pro graphics processor with 128 MB of “Crystalwell” embedded DRAM (and shared system memory).
But I don’t really know what that means.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thanks Ty. I’ll have to inspect this Rode more closely and see if it really has any ports. It looks like a capsule at the bottom of an “interference tube” if that’s what they’re called.
Cheers

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

If you’re really thinking about 2 mics maybe think about an independent digital recorder with two inputs so you’re not feeding mikes into the camera’s probably limited pre-amps and messing with splitters. There are some that screw on to the bottom of the camera.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

The Rode camera-mount cardioid I have sounds decent but the plug is wired to send to two mono channels to the camera. So that is a limitation.
I opened it up to look at it and is has a sensor buried at the back of a tube. I guess that would make a sensor more directional and less omni but I didn’t imagine cardioids were built this way. I remember the Sennheiser shotgun had these “canceling”ports all down the side. But was it just a big tube too?

I’ve seen cardioids that are similar in size and shape to omnis. I always thought the electronics were designed differently.

R

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

It’s hard to say what will work best for you. Depends on results you want. Sounds like to want to prioritize the people speaking to you. I’ve been happy with the RODE – VideoMic Pro Supercardioid Shotgun Condenser Microphone on top of my mirrorless RX10 Sony camera. It’s limited but better than the built-in for sure. You can pick up people talking to the camera from a few feet away, though that might not work the same in a noisy crowd. How important are your questions? The mike might pick them up if your face is close to the camera. Best would be to work with a sound mixer person with a couple of different mics and a portable mixer. Can you rent some different mics/rigs? Try working with a sound person?

Stereo might be interesting in a demonstration if you had a big-screen showing.

Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City