MacBook or PowerBook!? Dillemma! I Need Help!

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Ill Eagle

Well-known member
I need help, seriously. I'm at a crossroad right now and I don't know what to do. I can either purchase a Macbook 1.83 GHZ with the Intel GMA 950 or a Powerbook 1.67 with the Nvidia 5200 card.......

Which one is best for running Motion & FCP? does the GMA have anything to do with the quality of footage that goes through FCP? And a Macbook Pro is out of the question for my budget.......

:crybaby: HELP!
 
A MacBook Pro is the best for Motion and FCP. That said I'd go with the MacBook- at least you get an Intel processor.

Noah
 
Some important notes:

1) You cannot run Magic Bullet 2 on a new MacBook computer with the GMA 950 - it won't even install correctly.

2) Also, Apple says that, officially, the new MacBook does not even meet the minimum sys req's for Final Cut Studio. Here is the quote from Apple:

"Final Cut Studio is not supported on MacBook

If you have a MacBook, the Final Cut Studio (Universal) crossgrade Installer does not prohibit you from installing the pro applications, but this configuration does not meet the minimum system requirements for Final Cut Studio.

See the Final Cut Studio system requirements for complete requirements.

Note: The integrated graphics processor in the MacBook does not permit float processing in Motion and will result in degraded performance and other issues in Motion and other Final Cut Studio applications."

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303782

3) Having said that, I have been running Final Cut Studio off a MacBook 2ghz Core Duo and the only issues I have had are during print to tape. (Kept getting error messages that the system was not fast enough to write a simple SD DV show to tape via firewire. It worked anyway, despite the message.) I really miss Magic Bullet, though..
 
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You should get a used MacBook Pro- honestly a neither MacBook nor an older Powerbook are going to last you long with Final Cut Studio especially with Motion.

Noah
 
See, here's the thing. I've owned a Macbook and had FCP5.1.1 & Motion 2.0.1 or whatever the Universal Binary numbers are. Motion ran pretty decent on it for only having 512 Ram and FCP had incredible rendering times compared to my 933 MHZ iBook G4.

It always seemed that my Macbook was rendering my footage and adding more noise in the blacks that aren't there in the original footage but it wouldn't be like that on my iBook G4 so I figured the GMA had something to do with it so I sold it.

But then I'm reading that the Powerbook G4 runs Motion but it runs like sh*t. I don't have a Powerbook to test Motion and I was satisfied with how well Motion ran on the Macbook but if I can get better quality with the PBG4 then that's what I'll get instead of buying another Macbook.

I really don't like the size of the Pro's for portability as we have a Quad G5 at our big studio and this'll primarly be used for roadwork and when I'm at home.

Has anybody ever used Motion on a Powerbook?
 
You can't use Motion on a Powerbook. It won't install. Get the MacBook Pro. If you can't afford it, get a MacBook.
 
If you really need to spend the absolute least, then I'd go with the MacBook. But Apple has refurb'd MacBoook Pros out there, and there may yet be deals on new one's (like the MBP Core (I) Duo 1.83 available not too long ago at PC Connection for $1299).
 
A MacBook won't run FCP because it has an integrated Video Card...

But... does Final Cut Express install on a MacBook?
 
Right, I cracked it. It's a really simply fix actually..

I think it needs to be the Intel version though.
 
I ran Motion on a 2nd to last generation PowerBook. It was usable for small projects.

I'd still recommend trying to get a MacBook Pro.
 
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