FCP HD questions

J

john2

Active member
hey dudes,
just had a few questions about FCP because i'm upgrading from a PC. i was thinking of getting a mac mini with the production suite, then later get a g5.
so,

1. can you install 1 copy of FCP on on more than 1 computer?
(i'm using Premiere pro, and you can register only on two comps.)

2. with the mac mini and an external drive, how can i capture clips since there is only one firewire port? should i just capture to the system drive then out to the external? what is the best way to do this, or am i an idiot?

thanks!

-John
 
Technically FCP does not support firewire drive capture at all. But it can be done. But with the mini the way you described would be your best bet. Although I believe that drive only spins at 5400, so not sure how well it will work for you. The mini wil be fine as far as processor speed, but the speed of that internal scares me a bit as an editing machine.
Have fun.
 
Prairieboy said:
Technically FCP does not support firewire drive capture at all. But it can be done. But with the mini the way you described would be your best bet. Although I believe that drive only spins at 5400, so not sure how well it will work for you. The mini wil be fine as far as processor speed, but the speed of that internal scares me a bit as an editing machine.
Have fun.
Click to expand...

Doesn't support Firewire drive capture? what???... maybe your referring to something else..

but you can definately capture footage to an external FW drive from FCP.... just plugin your drive, then set it as a scratch disc in the FCP preferences.

If you can get a drive with 2 firewire ports your set. just plug your cam into the HD, you can chain Firewire devices together like USB devices.

LaCie has plenty of drives with multiple ports.

And yes you can install FCP onto multiple computers, but only one person at a time will be able to use the Program.. cause they share the same serial number.

But, if they are not networked, then your good to go, but realistically I think you'd be fine with having it on only one comp.

cheers,
 
First things first: you are NOT an idiot.

I would consider the Mac Mini purchase a very temporary training environment for your entry into the FCPHD world. Yes, you can daisy-chain both a camera and a hard drive via FW400, but I am not entirely sure how reliable that set up would be if you were doing "mission-critical" work for a number of clients. That's a lot of data running back and forth on a single FW400 bus.

Still, it would probably beat using the dog-slow internal drive. And you may never encounter a problem. Once you've captured the video to the drive, you should be fine. I edit event videography projects using a 200GB Seagate 7200rpm SATA drive into a Wiebetech ComboDock FW800. The final projects are about 90 minutes of program material on 2 DVDs, and the main event has a minimum of three cameras running for 45+minutes straight each. As long as I use a completely empty, fresh drive to capture to and edit on, I have no problems whatsoever. I initially set things up to run a RAID array of two FW800 drives (using 2 FW800 cards in my tower), but I have found that at standard definition it just isn't necessary--one FW800 drive @7200rpm/8MB buffer does the job just fine. In fact, during my last project I used only a single drive running at FW400 specs, and it still went perfectly.

Once you have the G5 tower, you'll have no capture problems and you'll crush through renderings with ease.

BTW, I love FCPHD. I learned the basics in about ten days with no training, and began a demo project immediately thereafter. Very user-friendly for how powerful and full-featured it is. You are in for some serious fun. Get an iSight and then make your Mini a videoconferencing machine for your family once you get the G5 tower!
 
I know you can do it, but if you READ the manual it says that it does not support capture directly to an external drive. That has not stopped me from capturing 100s of hour that way. But with one firewire slot it will not be a very stable way to capture. With two it is much more stable.
 
hey guys, thanks for the advice!
i was thinking that i wanted to keep my PC to run after effects too.

so how's this: can i capture through my pc as an .avi file and save to my external, then import into FCP? does FCPHD support .avi? is there a way to import as quicktime on a pc?

thanks for the help.



-John
 
Yes, FCP supports the .avi format. On the other hand, conversion to/from QT can be slow. Many people daisy chain through an external drive when entering footage on the laptops (also not noted for lightning-fast drives.)

I applaud your decision to convert to Macintosh, but you need to understand that just like PCs, not all Macs are created equal. If your aspirations are modest, the miniMac is fine (and you may want to consider Final Cut Express as your NLE, as it is less expensive.) If, on the other hand, you have visions of producing the next "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", you're going to need FCP HD and all the hardware you can afford. FCP likes dual processors, dual monitors, multiple internal drives and the like for gonzo performance. Most of my PC friends who edit seriously are on hardware-accelerated fast P4s or dual Xenon boxes. Fast NLEs are expensive no matter what brand, the only way to cheat this fact is to cheat yourself out of reliability, warranty, or some other key element. The beauty of the Mac is it's solid performance in a friendly, well thought out environment.
 
ratvega,
thanks for your input. i just wanted to get the mini, cuz i'm on a tight budget with school and everything, and just to get familirized with the mac os. i've used FC Express before and it was really cool. but value wise, i just found out that being a student, i can get the production suite for $499! that's a steal! but i do understand everything about having an "editing" comp. my PC right now is dedicated for editing. it just SUCKS at the moment.

thanks again, everyone.

-John
 
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