iMac feasible for small FCP projects?

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Pardack

Member
Hi all! First time poster...

I've been thinking about putting together a small package to shoot and edit videos for web distribution.

I was thinking about the current iMac that comes with 2 gigs of Ram.

I know that's small for some of you, but for doing little 4 minute projects would it be passable?

Thanks!

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If you're doing simple edits without a lot of intensive graphics, it should be fine. I used an iMac G5 for a while to do basic FCP editing and it worked great.

BUT…

If it were me, I'd get a MacBook Pro laptop (and I'd buy a refurbished previous model from the Apple Store). That way your editing station is mobile, can connect to a second monitor, and has both FW400 and 800 ports.

--SM
 
Those machines are reasonably powerful- but whether they'll fit the bill ultimately depends a lot more on what sort of footage you'll be working with. If it's DV- yeah no brainer. If it's HDV with tons of VFX- yeah starting to get a bit tricky but still doable., etc.

Noah
 
This won't be super graphic intensive. I can probably only afford Final Cut Express at the rate I'm going.

I may be able to borrow a camera for the first shoot, so the camera is up in the air. If not the borrowed, I can afford maybe $500 for some consumer dealie. I hope that's not too pedestrian for the room :)


As for being mobile- I really don't mind. I'd rather have a bigger display than be mobile.

Don't macbooks have the same problem as all laptops? Don't they run too hot and cook the hard drive to death over time?

Thank you!
 
I've been editing long-form DVCPRO-HD projects on my 15" MacBook Pro, and I've never had a problem with the machine getting hot and "cooking" anything.
 
Yeah all things being equal I'd spring for the MacBook Pro (not just the MacBook) for editing projects over the iMac. Similar performance but much easier to move around with.

Noah
 
stephenmick said:
If you're doing simple edits without a lot of intensive graphics, it should be fine. I used an iMac G5 for a while to do basic FCP editing and it worked great.

BUT…

If it were me, I'd get a MacBook Pro laptop (and I'd buy a refurbished previous model from the Apple Store). That way your editing station is mobile, can connect to a second monitor, and has both FW400 and 800 ports.

--SM
Click to expand...


Stephen, can I ask why you suggest a refurbished previous model versus a current model?

Thanks much

-Pardack
 
The latest models have lost the original firewire port, and now have only the FW800 port. I like having both, because you never know what might happen. When I'm shooting/logging on the road, I'll use my MacBook Pro (last year's model) with the Duel Adapter and import footage to an external FW800 RAID drive. If I couldn't get the Duel Adapter to work (which didn't happen), I could have connected the camera via Firewire and still offloaded to the drive. With only one FW port, I wouldn't have been able to do this.

So, two Firewire ports = good. One firewire port = one less than I like having.
 
Gotcha. But if I can only get one of the current models, then maybe my best bet is to make sure only to buy additional equipment that works with the ports it does have, right?

I have no clue what's happened with Firewire's standards, but I used to run small decks from a mac at an old job and it always seemed to work. Is the new firewire susceptible to not working with some externals?
 
Why would you only be able to get a current model? There's plenty of refurbs at the Apple Store online.

Firewire 800 is perfectly fine, but many drives (especially older ones) may not have the port. You can use a crossover cable (FW400 to FW800), but having both ports is really the way to go.

Save yourself some money. Get a refurb. Get AppleCare.
 
Thanks- that's a good tip about refurbs, Stephen.

I hope I'm not tempting problems by going there.

I suppose it's better than going to Craigslist, which I was also thinking about. But I'm not sure sellers would be willing to sit there while I do a whole benchmark test on the machine before paying.



Scratch- I think I may go with the Macbook pro after hearing the input here.

I used to think that a desktop machine meant bigger and more reliable components... but by now I'm having a hard time sussing out any difference between the Macbook pro's innards and the iMac's.

The monitor size advantage of the iMac isn't a huge deal- like everyone I've got a VGA monitor from my old system which I could plug in.
 
Well, I had an eye opening chat with a local mac guru...

If I get that year old refurb model, I'm that much closer to the day when the new OS will not support the old hardware- which is frankly my number one issue with computer purchases.

If I get a new machine, it's between the macbook and the iMac...

The tech seems pretty sure that the MacBook pro won't last as long because it gets shaken around so much more during transit. The iMac still has both kinds of firewire ports.

The other main factor after that is processor speed. The iMac beats the Pros on processor speed.

I guess the zillion dollar question is am I better off with the higher processing speed or can I make up the difference in Ram?




And if folks are still feeling generous, I've gotten curious about the effects of 512 versus 256 Ram on the videocard. Has anyone experienced both? Is it a worthwhile upgrade? The top iMac comes with 2 gigs Ram, and 512 on the video card.
 
If your goal is to shoot and edit videos for primarily web distribution, the previous model MacBook Pro will be fine (despite what your mac guru friend says). Either way, the machine isn't going to be your limiting factor in regards to speed. I've got a MacPro (3Ghz Quad) and a MacBook Pro (2.6Ghz Core Duo) and they both handle anything I throw at them with ease. The next OS will most certainly support the MacBook Pros, they just may not be able to take advantage of every single new speed-saving technology they cram in the OS. But who cares? FCP will still run as good as it does now, and that's plenty good enough for me.

And the shaking thing? That's just assinine. I've dragged my MacBook Pro across the country, through 130 airports (just last year) and two months living in a trailer in the mountains.

But hey, if you want the latest tech because they're sexy (which they are) and you just want it, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that. But I think the refurbs are more practical (with both FW ports) and more budget-smart, leaving you more money to spend on other stuff (like good microphones, filters, etc.).
 
stephenmick said:
If your goal is to shoot and edit videos for primarily web distribution, the previous model MacBook Pro will be fine (despite what your mac guru friend says). Either way, the machine isn't going to be your limiting factor in regards to speed. I've got a MacPro (3Ghz Quad) and a MacBook Pro (2.6Ghz Core Duo) and they both handle anything I throw at them with ease. The next OS will most certainly support the MacBook Pros, they just may not be able to take advantage of every single new speed-saving technology they cram in the OS. But who cares? FCP will still run as good as it does now, and that's plenty good enough for me.
Click to expand...


Thanks, Steve. I hope I'm not trying your patience.

So if processor speed isn't the limiting factor, would you say Ram is? How much Ram is in those two machines?

Thanks much-
 
For basic editing, you are the limiting factor. (Not to be an ass, bear with me.) Both of my machines are fast enough that they wait on me far more than I wait on them. And if you're choosing between an iMac and an MBP, your external storage will be a bigger limiting factor than either processor speed or RAM (in my experience).

For example, you've got an iMac or MBP, and your media is kept on a FW800 external drive. Chances are your system will be limited by the speed it can read and write to the drive via the FW bus. This has never been a problem for me with DVCPRO-HD. But when I'm working with huge projects, some over 1TB of media, it takes twenty or thirty seconds to open the project.

Now, when I'm working with this same drive but connected to eSATA via the MBP's ExpressCard port, things are alot snappier. With my MacPro setup, it's an entirely different ball game. I've got a dedicated RAID card running an 8TB CalDigit box, so speed is through the roof. But again, having that ExpressCard slot on the MBP allowed me to use a Duel Adapter for offloading, or eSATA drive connections for faster performance. With the iMac, you lose that option (I'm pretty sure).

Where I believe the RAM and processor speeds help more is in output and compression. But even here my laptop has done a respectable job in keeping up with my MacPro. Sure the MacPro is faster, but if I'm working on my laptop and need to compress something, I just let it run in the background, or I go get a coffee. Also, if you end up running Motion, AfterEffects or graphics-intensive programs like that, processor speed and RAM are likely to be much more important. But you said you're primarily doing web videos and basic editing projects, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I've got 2GB of RAM in my laptop and 6GB in my MacPro.

Again, if you can save $500 on your hardware, that's just money you can use to get a decent microphone, or a wireless lav mic setup.
 
Thank you, that is an interesting perspective.

I had assumed that these 320 gig hard drives would be enough to contain my entire project pretty easily, and that my editing would mostly be done from the internal hard drive, and the externals would just be for backing up.


If I go for the 20 inch iMac, that leaves me spending 600 less than I thought I would on the computer itself, and gives me more for the camera.


I was thinking mini DV, assuming I can find one that will shoot HD...

Intersting time for video production... I wonder if viewers of online content will come to expect HD after the HD switch in broadcast TV.
 
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