I have 3 editors currently editing for me in FC. All I'm doing is capturing and rendering the video. I now find myself rendering video while having my editors ask for more to work on. I can't capture/render at the same time, so I need a 2nd box. Is the Mac Mini enough machine to do this or should I get an iMac?

What are you capturing? SD or HD? For SD the mini might do, but you're better off with an iMac. A mini can choke up, it's happened to me. A used G4 tower will work well also.

How did your mini choke up? mini-DV and HDV have the same data rate. AVCHD requires an Intel processor (no G4s or G5s)- but there is a G5 work around I am told; but very slow. Even DVCHD Pro can be captured over firewire. In all cases I would be capturing to a separate drive- NOT the internal drive. Which may be how the mini choked (?) since it has a slower boot drive. In any event, a mini will capture just fine. But if you are trying to run the same license on two networked machines you are out of luck! You will need a 2nd license!

Mike

I'm capturing HDV. I went to Best Buy today and picked up a Macbook. I have a 750GB Firewire 400 drive attached to it. I'm using FCE to capture the video. It seems like the only format FCE will capture in is AIC. I usually capture as HDV or Pro Res. Whats the big difference? I'm a wedding videographer if that helps.

Thanks!

How did your mini choke up? mini-DV and HDV have the same data rate. AVCHD requires an Intel processor (no G4s or G5s)- but there is a G5 work around I am told; but very slow. Even DVCHD Pro can be captured over firewire. In all cases I would be capturing to a separate drive- NOT the internal drive. Which may be how the mini choked (?) since it has a slower boot drive. In any event, a mini will capture just fine. But if you are trying to run the same license on two networked machines you are out of luck! You will need a 2nd license!

Mike

Captured to a separate FireWire drive (that works fine on other macs) and lost frames which has never happened to me before. Even back when I was using a G4 400 tower. Perhaps the Intel mini was doing a background task at the same time. I use the same mini to run simple FCP projects using graphics only and it works fine there. Perhaps new minis can capture video better.

I'm capturing HDV. I went to Best Buy today and picked up a Macbook. I have a 750GB Firewire 400 drive attached to it. I'm using FCE to capture the video. It seems like the only format FCE will capture in is AIC. I usually capture as HDV or Pro Res. Whats the big difference? I'm a wedding videographer if that helps.

Thanks!

Why are you using FCE? If you have FCP use that. Or purchase ScopeBox and capture HDV with that. AIC is OK but was an Apple stop-gap measure before ProRes came out so people could edit HDV without the render issues. AIC is a larger file than HDV but not as good as ProRes.

I read on an old post that AIC doesn't use timecode? Is that true? As for AIC, I'm not going to lose any video quality am I?
I have FCS on my Mac Pro that is currently in heavy use. I needed a 2nd box to capture, so thats why I went with the Mac Book. I also own a copy of FCE and decided to use it. FCS won't even work on the Mac Book. If I wanted to use it, I would have to get the MacBook Pro and another copy of FCS. Thats a lot of money for a capture box.

Try ScopeBox. It really works.

I needed a 2nd box to capture, so thats why I went with the Mac Book. I also own a copy of FCE and decided to use it. FCS won't even work on the Mac Book.

Chad, Final Cut Pro runs just fine on a Intel MacBook especially with an external drive. However, Color & Motion won't run on a MacBook. Try it.

Nice! I might end up using FC just to capture on the MacBook. I've never used the AIC codec and wasn't sure if it would screw anything up down the line. The MacBook only has a Firewire 400 port, but that should be fine to capture with. I just have to make sure that the External HD has two Firewire ports (one for the camera).

If I use my old g5 to capture and then render on my new 8 core 2.8 Intel, what's the work flow?

Capture footage to an external hard drive in the codec of your choice using your G5. Move the external hard drive to your Quad core or copy files to your Quad core drive(s). Edit happily away.