Hi everyone,
I currently have FCP4 and a Dual G4 1.25. The system is plenty fast for my current (DV) needs.
My questions is, will I need a (Dual) G5 to edit HDV properly, or should my computer be fast enough?! I'm not talking about mega real-time effects, just casual use.
I'm deciding whether to dump it now while it has value (trade up to a DPG5), but don't want to spend more if I don't have to....
I'm guessing it will be good enough, I just thought I'd ask you experienced HDV users.
Thanks very much,

Brian Broz

I'm editing uncompressed HD1OU 720p on a G5 dp 2ghz, using two internally mounted Maxtor 250gb SATA drives striped as a RAID 0 array, and my system/apps on an external firewire 400 drive, and it works fine. The DC30 codec seems the best way to go for lossless quality right now and it gives you 3.3:1 compression over uncompressed. I also have a dual 450ghz G4, which is not fast enough for this setup, but you could try using the Seritek SATA interface card ($70) and two SATA drives on your dual G4 and see if it works for you before shelling out for the G5, the DC30 codec seems to edit well in FCP as far as I've tried. I think the bottleneck in doing this is as much the drives as the processor speed, but I'm just guessing. Also FCP 4.1 is definately optimized for the G5 and uncompressed editing. I've kept my G4 to use as a render/capture/processing machine, and it works really well if you get a $120 gigabit ethernet switch to link them on a network (asante makes a good selection), very fast moving around of large gobs of video between machines.

Good luck

Paul