HVX200 and new Mac Book Pro

thefilmaddict

thefilmaddict

Veteran
I took the plunge and bought a new Mac Book Pro (2.4 GHZ, 2GB memory) and Final Cut Studio 2. I have a few questions:

1. I will be using the system with my HVX200. I have a 160 GB drive (5400 rpm -- is that OK to use -- 7200 rpm was more money). Final Cut Studio takes up most of my drive space. Where will I store my HVX200 footage? I am hoping to find an external hard drive that does not need AC power (to remain portable in the field) and is fast enough to use for editing DVC PRO HD footage. Any portable drive recommendations?

2. Final Cut has a new lossless (or so they say)compression for HD. Can I edit in this mode and is it any good? On my old system I edited in DVC PRO HD. Will P2 import dictate what compression settings I must use or can I edit in this new lossless apple compression? What would be the benefits?

3. My system came with OS 10 Leopard. I know that is a new operating system. Any known issues with HVX200 P2 or FCP?

THANKS!
 
I too just bought a new MBP, but I got the cheaper 2.2 GHz model. Some advice, go to Frys or whatever you have like it in CT and max the RAM out at 4GB. FCP won't use it, but Motion will.

1. You write this as if you are planning on editing using the MBP's internal drive for media. As far as your internal drive, it's just going to be storing sequences and render files, media will be stored on an external FW drive. As far as portable drives, get a FW 800 bus powered drive. 7200 rpm is preferred. Check OWC (Other World Computing) for some good deals on bus powered drives. I built my own using their older Firefly housing, it is a great drive.

2. PreRes? On a MBP? You won't have the throughput using FW drives. If you go E-sata, perhaps but then you are not bus powered or very portable. The benefits of ProRes are good if you are dealing with high-end HD formats from Vipers, Genesis, HDCAM SR. If you are mainly dealing with DVCProHD from the 200, I feel ProRes422 is overkill for most situations, unless you are dealing with lots of greenscreen and compositing/layering. The DVCProHD codec is pretty good for a highly compressed codec and your MBP can handle it with FW drives. IMHO, 80% of the people using uncompressed or ProRes codecs don't need to be. People equate more always = better. ProRes is better than DVCProHD but at 10 to 20 times the data rate. Only use it if your project needs it. Read some of the Mark Schubin or Adam Wilt papers about codecs. More is not always better.

3. Yes, lots of issues with Leopard so far, lots of weirdness. If possible, I would wait to dive into any client or large amounts of media projects until Apple issues the .01/.02 version of Leopard, (if they haven't already?).

Best of luck,

Dan
 
1. G-RAID Mini. http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-RAID-mini.cfm

2. Why transcode to prores to edit? That creates a much larger file, and it takes 1x RT to accomplish it.

3. Some people have experienced issues with FCS2 on Leopard. You might be fine with a clean install. The duel adapater works with Leopard, and P2CMS also works, but on quitting, it shows a VALIDATION error.
 
That G-Raid Mini looks sweet. But so expensive for what you are getting. I guess the extra throughput from the two disc raid might make it worth it if you are editing DVCProHD though.

Dan
 
I mainly bought the system because DVD studio Pro on my old G5 can't be updated and it doesn't properly burn HD DVD's. The Mac Book pro handles the job and I love watching my work in HD on my living room tv (HD DVD players are pretty affordable now). It looks much better than a regular DVD. It's a shame I can't get more than 30 minutes onto a DVD. I was waiting around for the Mac Book Pro to come with a Blu Ray or HD DVD burner, but I think we will be waiting for that for a long time (a burner that will make disks that will play on HD consumer players). Am I right?

As far as buying a portable drive to use as my capture scratch, are the drives you guys mentioned AC power free?

If so, can I bypass my P2 cards and just capture live from my camera to my computer/Final Cut Pro with these drives attached? I've heard people say that they have issues when multiple fire wire devices are plugged in at the same time. Maybe that's not true.
 
FilmAddict:

Yes, when you see the term "bus powered" that means no AC needed, the MBP's FireWire port supplies the power.

I would think twice, then think again about live capture. Can you do it? Yes. Does it work? Yes. Is is reliable? Hmm...depends on how reliable your system is. I would say that all of my Macs sometimes have unexpected quits with FCP, usually around once or twice a month. This is on an older G4 PB, my MacBook Pro and my daughter's MacBook.

What if you are shooting a one shot deal and your MBP locks up or crashes while capturing? Can you risk that? I can't with my work. I don't use the FireStore for the same reason, it works most of the time but you do read posts from people who shoot stuff with the FireStore and it just disappears when they go to download the material.

Too scary for me, most of the stuff I shoot are one shot interviews and events with film and telelvsion production and interviews with stars, directors, producers and writers that we have grovel for and beg for six months to fit us into their schedule so laptop capture and FireStore are off of the table for my needs. I have never lost a P2 clip after shooting thousands of P2 cards worth of material.

I would only consider live capture if you mainly shoot easily repeatable events. Some use it often and it works for them but I have heard of several people losing great material when their FCP, laptop crashes, drive self-destructs, etc. It is a definite risky way to shoot, you basically have no safety net.

Best,

Dan
 
Good info! The reason I brought up live capture is because I was thinking that I would perhaps invest in Hydra for my HVX200. That would require live capture, right?
 
The G Raid mini looks very cool. I use a G raid drive with my G5 now and it has never failed me. It is sort of costly for that small amount of storage. IT MIGHT BE WORTH IT. WHICH IS THE BEST INVESTMENT:

FROM B&H:

LACIE LITTLE BIG DISK 200GB FOR 7200 RPM FOR $350

OR

GLYPH TECHNOLOGIES 100GB PORTAGIG FIRE WIRE 400 7200 RPM FOR $250

OR

G RAID MINI 200GB 7200 RPM FOR $469

FROM OWC:

MERCURY ON THE GO 200GB 7200 RPM $299 (FIREWIRE 800)

BY THE WAY, WHAT IS FIREWIRE 800 VS 400 AND WILL MY NEW MAC BOOK PRO HAVE 800?
 
It sounds like the G Raid is a good pick. You get what you pay for. Is this a new product? Maybe if I wait a month or two the price will go down and the capacity will increase?
 
thefilmaddict said:
It sounds like the G Raid is a good pick. You get what you pay for. Is this a new product? Maybe if I wait a month or two the price will go down and the capacity will increase?
Click to expand...

http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-RAID-mini.cfm

Prices were just lowered this month. This company makes such good products that many are out of stock.

Have you gone to the web page and looked at what capacities are available?

500GB / 5400RPM
$749.00

200GB / 7200RPM
$449.00

400GB / 7200RPM
$749.00

The unit is so solid. It has three interfaces and includes leather case, cabling for FW400, 800 and USB2, and a power adapter for USB2 connections.

Pricing is high on SATA 2.5 inch drives. There is a custom 924 Oxford RAID chip.

Everything else is out of stock because they are such a solid unit.

I'm getting 49 MB/s read and nearly 80 MB/s write speeds with FW800. I haven't tested, but reports are four streams of DVCProHD.
 
I can still take my mac book pro back. Do the other MBP models have this problem, if not, which model should I get? It would be cool to use an HDMI cable fed to an HDTV to use as a playback monitor in Final Cut Pro. I didn't realize it could do that. That's very cool.
 
There is no HDMI out of the MBP. Never has been.

I've used a DL DVI to HDMI cable for video, but it doesn't carry the sound.

I have the 2.4 GHz MBP with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB video card.

I've gone out DVI to HDMI to a plasma and have not experienced any jittering, whatever that means.
 
Oops, I did not mean HDMI.

So what you guys do is use the DVI out (which is built into the mac book pro, right?) and connect to a LCD monitor or use a DVI to HDMI cable and connect it to a HDTV???

Will my mac have jitter issues because its the 2.2? Is David saying he doesn't have that issue with the 2.4?
 
That's an important issue for me. On the road I don't mind editing on the laptop screen (small boxes), but at home I would like to be able to hook up a HD TV to monitor the edits and to do color correction.
 
Color correction is going to be accurate using the DVI port of the MacBookPro. Moreover, I don't think the 128 MB video card in the 2.2 will even support it.

At to jittering, I've not disputing the report, but that's the only post I've seen on it with the MBP. And I've not duplicated it with my set up.

I don't use my MBP for anything but rough edits on the road.

I use a MacPro for editing, and do not run the ADC out to anything for DVCProHD footage. I would with either the Intensity board or the Matrox MXO.
 
You guys were scaring me a little bit, so I did a test.

I created a DVCPRO HD Final Cut Pro Project on my 2.2 GHZ Mac Book Pro.

I have an older 50 inch Sony HDTV with a DVI connection. I took my DVI cable and connected my Computer to my TV.

The Mac Book Pro detected it and I made it a second display and used the 1280 x 720 resolution setting.

I then went into Final Cut Pro and made my Sony TV a full screen preview monitor.

It played back with no jitter.

That's a great thing! It's really cool to be able to edit on my big HD TV or just use my Mac Book as a HD player in the future. No audio through DVI, but I could run the audio to my stereo out of the mac.

So why am I not getting the jitter? Am I not doing a complete test or is this not an issue?

I do have the latest software installed and the latest operating system.
 
Also, if I wanted to hook up my Mac Book Pro to a newer HDTV monitor with HDMI connections, is there a DVI to HDMI connector I can buy? Will the picture look the same?

Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top