new imac

[Aldo Visaggio]

Hello All
I am thinking of purchasing a new imac 24 inch display ( 2.4 GHz ) with final cut studio and a lacie 500 GB USB 2 ( no fire wire )
Will this be sufficient for editing HDV
Many Thanks in advance
Aldo

[Amos Kim]

don't know if you'd like those glossy screens for editing

[Aldo Visaggio]

Thanks Amos, I didn't realize that the screens might be a problem. What about the processer speed, storage, and is the USB2 connection fast enough for HDV video.
Aldo

[Dave Eaton]

Originally Posted by Aldo Visaggio

I am thinking of purchasing a new imac 24 inch display ( 2.4 GHz ) with final cut studio and a lacie 500 GB USB 2 ( no fire wire )
Will this be sufficient for editing HDV

Hello Aldo,

I ordered the new 24" iMac the day they were announced. Prior to this I'd been using a dual G4 with a 17" and 20" CRT and I had more reflections than I wanted with them. I made a hood for both out of Foamcore which solved most of it. Wasn't sure how the glossy iMac screen would be but I have a HP notebook with a glossy screen that I really like. Figured I'd make another hood if needed.

When I setup the iMac I was very pleased with the 24" screen real estate and the "snap" I saw in colors and sharpness that I got compared to my other screens -- which I was very happy with until I compared them to my new iMac. Real and natural looking but just better.

I was surprised that the only time I see any reflections is when the screen is black (aka OFF). No hood needed, even my ancient Luxo desk lamp (circular florescent and incandescent bulb, old school color correction of photos aid), that was a pain with my other monitors unless it was in the sweet spot, doesn't reflect on this.

I'm just starting to learn to edit in FCP (5) -- been using iMovie HD with FCP on the iMac and it's working well. There's people here happily using Studio 2 with iMacs, search and you should find what you need.

Not sure what you mean by "no fire wire" since the new 24" iMacs have a FireWire 400 as well as a FireWire 800 port. I added a 500GB FireWire 400 drive I got on sale to mine and its working well.

I may eventually add a 20-24" monitor to mine, not sure I need the extra real estate but I like the idea.

Good luck!

[Amos Kim]

I think that it's fine for hdv. But if you're doing uncompressed HD, you would need macpro

[Patrick Pike]

Aldo-

I have a new 24" iMac with 4 gigs of Ram and it chews through HDV and AIC quickly. There is a lot of bang for the buck in this system - its significantly quicker than my old dual 2.0 G5.

[Aldo Visaggio]

Thanks for the all the replies, I'm finding them most helpful. I know the iMac has firewire, but I saw a lacie 500gb hard drive at an unbelievable price and it only has a USB2 connection. I wanted to make sure the USB would be suffcient for HDV before I purchased it.
Thanks again for all responses, what a fantastic forum.
Cheers, Aldo

[Dave Eaton]

Originally Posted by Aldo Visaggio

Thanks for the all the replies, I'm finding them most helpful. I know the iMac has firewire, but I saw a lacie 500gb hard drive at an unbelievable price and it only has a USB2 connection. I wanted to make sure the USB would be suffcient for HDV before I purchased it.

You can have both. I paid $120 (US) for my Acomdata 500GB FireWire/USB 2.0 7200rpm, 16mb cache, 8.5ms seek, etc. drive on sale. If you shop around you can probably find similar prices. Check with dealmac.com for deals.

From what I've read FireWire 400 is faster than USB 2.0 but both may be more than you need for HDV, someone else may be able to answer that.

[Jim Fields]

I have 24" imacs with my gear and I have no complaints. They do a great job unless you want to run Color.

You can upgrade the drive yourself, I went from a factory 250Gb to a 750 in a 20 minute time span. It is really easy removing the case and pulling the LCD out. Also, for under 500.00 you can even go with a Terabyte drive in your imac and not worry about space for awhile.

If you dont have the cash flow for a Mac Pro, or even a good enough excuse to get the Pro, a 24" iMac does one hell of a great job.

I say this even though I went to a Mac Pro from an iMac, for ATI X1900 reasons.

[Dave Eaton]

Originally Posted by Jim Fields

You can upgrade the drive yourself, I went from a factory 250Gb to a 750 in a 20 minute time span. It is really easy removing the case and pulling the LCD out. Also, for under 500.00 you can even go with a Terabyte drive in your imac and not worry about space for awhile.

Hey, that's good to know. My iMac is my first all-in-one, besides Powerbooks, as I was thinking it would be a pain to open up.

I bought AppleCare this time, never have before and I'm a long time Mac user, but with an all-in-one with a slot load optical drive and 24" LCD I figured it worth it for once. I'll have to check to see if installing my own drive will affect the warranty. If not, awesome tip!

Changing my thinking on computers. Adopting a 3-year plan, under warranty the entire time, as opposed to my usual "until it falls apart" plan. :-)

[Grant Harrington]

Originally Posted by Aldo Visaggio

Thanks for the all the replies, I'm finding them most helpful. I know the iMac has firewire, but I saw a lacie 500gb hard drive at an unbelievable price and it only has a USB2 connection. I wanted to make sure the USB would be suffcient for HDV before I purchased it.
Thanks again for all responses, what a fantastic forum.
Cheers, Aldo

FWIW, I've got 4 external, dual FW 400, single USB 2.0 enclosures and whenever internal HDD's go on sale I pick one up, final cost per drive is very reasonable. I'm editing on the first generation Intel iMac's, but I'm working with SD footage, so can't address the HDV question.

Grant