What Mac do I need? Editing HD

Giles Buchanan · October 12th, 2007, 08:15 AM

Just looking for some advice on an Apple Editing system. I'm currently on a Dell XPS 2gb ram with Adobe Premeire Pro 2. It took 12 hours to render about 5 minutes of HD footage; this is hopeless for me! SD works nice and smoothly but I need to shoot in HD so I am looking to get a new editing system and I'm looking into getting a Mac.

I have never had one before so I'm looking for advice on what system I should get and at what power, ram, accesories etc...; What will I need to edit HD from my XHA1? (in 25f too! Does FCS support this?)

I'd prefer to get a MacBook Pro (over a MacPro) for the mobility but I don't know if it will cut the mustard, hopefully somebody can tell me that it can.

I will buy with FCS and my maximum budget is no more than £3000

I'd be so grateful for any advice,

Giles B

Martin Pauly · October 12th, 2007, 11:17 AM

Giles,

if you plan to work mostly with the HDV format and over FireWire, then the current MacBook Pro series offers plenty of computing power. You should add a decent amount of RAM (I suggest 2GB at least) and a fast external harddrive (scratchdisk), then you should be good to go.

If, on the other hand, you plan to use better codecs (or even uncompressed video), I would lean towards the MacPro, not just because of its higher performance but also because you can expand it (capture cards, etc.) much better.

If you can tell us a little more about how you will use the system, what codecs you intend to use, and whether things such as MultiCam editing are important, I am sure you'll get more precise guidance from this forum.

- Martin

Dom Stevenson · October 13th, 2007, 09:26 AM

I have the A1 and a mac pro with 23 inch ACD. great set up.
Macbookpro is also excellent and will be less money as you're getting the monitor thrown in. If you want to use Color the graphics card upgrade is reccomended as is the 17 inch model. Buy your ram and firewire external separately and save yourself some cash. Crucial are good for the RAM and get an external that does firewire 800. FCS is around 900 quid on its own so the mac pro option will be a struggle with 3 grand if you dont have a monitor already. It is possible to get cheaper legit versions of FCS from peop;e who've got upgrades from older versions. Put a post on a FCP forum and see what comes along. Get Diana Weynands Peachpitt press book off Amazon (for 20 quid used), and do all the tutorials and you'll be off to a good start.
PS. i switched from prem pro on a Dell and can tell you it was the smartest videomove i've made.
Enjoy

Bryan Gilchrist · October 13th, 2007, 10:34 AM

12 hours for 5 minutes? OUCH!

Before I got my XH A1, I poked around to see what was the best system for it. I was, at the time, considering a Matrox system with Premiere 2, but quickly found out that Premiere didn't like HDV.

Then someone (here I believe) mentioned that Final Cut Pro was about the only system that did HDV natively, so I got a Mac Pro and Final Cut Studio.

FCP works great for HD video, and there's no render time needed for the video portion of it - as long as your sequence settings are correct (which can be a bugger sometimes).

One recent project took about 13 minutes to render about 45 minutes worth of video for output to DVD.

Mathieu Ghekiere · October 13th, 2007, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giles Buchanan

Just looking for some advice on an Apple Editing system. I'm currently on a Dell XPS 2gb ram with Adobe Premeire Pro 2. It took 12 hours to render about 5 minutes of HD footage; this is hopeless for me! SD works nice and smoothly but I need to shoot in HD so I am looking to get a new editing system and I'm looking into getting a Mac.

I have never had one before so I'm looking for advice on what system I should get and at what power, ram, accesories etc...; What will I need to edit HD from my XHA1? (in 25f too! Does FCS support this?)

I'd prefer to get a MacBook Pro (over a MacPro) for the mobility but I don't know if it will cut the mustard, hopefully somebody can tell me that it can.

I will buy with FCS and my maximum budget is no more than £3000

I'd be so grateful for any advice,

Giles B

Gilles,

Mac and FCS is a GREAT combo, BUT...
If you have to wait 12 hours to render 5 minutes of HDV with 2GB RAM, then something is WRONG!

I rendered like an hour of HDV footage in 3-4 hours with a 2 year old PC with only 1 GB of RAM, also with Premiere Pro 2...
(That's rendering back to HDV)...

Floris van Eck · October 14th, 2007, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dom Stevenson

I have the A1 and a mac pro with 23 inch ACD. great set up.
Macbookpro is also excellent and will be less money as you're getting the monitor thrown in. If you want to use Color the graphics card upgrade is reccomended as is the 17 inch model. Buy your ram and firewire external separately and save yourself some cash. Crucial are good for the RAM and get an external that does firewire 800. FCS is around 900 quid on its own so the mac pro option will be a struggle with 3 grand if you dont have a monitor already. It is possible to get cheaper legit versions of FCS from peop;e who've got upgrades from older versions. Put a post on a FCP forum and see what comes along. Get Diana Weynands Peachpitt press book off Amazon (for 20 quid used), and do all the tutorials and you'll be off to a good start.
PS. i switched from prem pro on a Dell and can tell you it was the smartest videomove i've made.
Enjoy

I also made that switch and it is also the best thing I have ever done so far.

Samuel Ko · October 14th, 2008, 03:23 PM

new mac notebooks are out. with really nice graphics cards and fast processors.
you should check them out.

Loren Simons · October 14th, 2008, 03:59 PM

be carefull though, macbooks don't have any firewire ports, and the macbook pro only has a firewire 800 (17 inch model has 400 and 800) but u can always get a 800 to 400 adapter.

October 12th, 2007, 08:15 AM	#1
Giles Buchanan Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 41	What Mac do I need? Editing HD - XHA1 Just looking for some advice on an Apple Editing system. I'm currently on a Dell XPS 2gb ram with Adobe Premeire Pro 2. It took 12 hours to render about 5 minutes of HD footage; this is hopeless for me! SD works nice and smoothly but I need to shoot in HD so I am looking to get a new editing system and I'm looking into getting a Mac. I have never had one before so I'm looking for advice on what system I should get and at what power, ram, accesories etc...; What will I need to edit HD from my XHA1? (in 25f too! Does FCS support this?) I'd prefer to get a MacBook Pro (over a MacPro) for the mobility but I don't know if it will cut the mustard, hopefully somebody can tell me that it can. I will buy with FCS and my maximum budget is no more than £3000 I'd be so grateful for any advice, Giles B

October 12th, 2007, 11:17 AM	#2
Martin Pauly Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA Posts: 563	Giles, if you plan to work mostly with the HDV format and over FireWire, then the current MacBook Pro series offers plenty of computing power. You should add a decent amount of RAM (I suggest 2GB at least) and a fast external harddrive (scratchdisk), then you should be good to go. If, on the other hand, you plan to use better codecs (or even uncompressed video), I would lean towards the MacPro, not just because of its higher performance but also because you can expand it (capture cards, etc.) much better. If you can tell us a little more about how you will use the system, what codecs you intend to use, and whether things such as MultiCam editing are important, I am sure you'll get more precise guidance from this forum. - Martin __________________ Martin Pauly

October 14th, 2008, 03:59 PM	#8
Loren Simons Major Player Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 288	be carefull though, macbooks don't have any firewire ports, and the macbook pro only has a firewire 800 (17 inch model has 400 and 800) but u can always get a 800 to 400 adapter. __________________ Loren Simons

October 13th, 2007, 09:26 AM	#3
Dom Stevenson Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: London UK Posts: 430	I have the A1 and a mac pro with 23 inch ACD. great set up. Macbookpro is also excellent and will be less money as you're getting the monitor thrown in. If you want to use Color the graphics card upgrade is reccomended as is the 17 inch model. Buy your ram and firewire external separately and save yourself some cash. Crucial are good for the RAM and get an external that does firewire 800. FCS is around 900 quid on its own so the mac pro option will be a struggle with 3 grand if you dont have a monitor already. It is possible to get cheaper legit versions of FCS from peop;e who've got upgrades from older versions. Put a post on a FCP forum and see what comes along. Get Diana Weynands Peachpitt press book off Amazon (for 20 quid used), and do all the tutorials and you'll be off to a good start. PS. i switched from prem pro on a Dell and can tell you it was the smartest videomove i've made. Enjoy

October 13th, 2007, 10:34 AM	#4
Bryan Gilchrist Major Player Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Florida Posts: 224	12 hours for 5 minutes? OUCH! Before I got my XH A1, I poked around to see what was the best system for it. I was, at the time, considering a Matrox system with Premiere 2, but quickly found out that Premiere didn't like HDV. Then someone (here I believe) mentioned that Final Cut Pro was about the only system that did HDV natively, so I got a Mac Pro and Final Cut Studio. FCP works great for HD video, and there's no render time needed for the video portion of it - as long as your sequence settings are correct (which can be a bugger sometimes). One recent project took about 13 minutes to render about 45 minutes worth of video for output to DVD.

October 14th, 2008, 03:23 PM	#7
Samuel Ko Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: New York, NY Posts: 47	new mac notebooks are out. with really nice graphics cards and fast processors. you should check them out.