I Mac for Editing??

ripupthehwy

ripupthehwy

Well-known member
Hi,
As a longtime user of Canopus/GV Edius NLE on a PC. I am planning to migrate to FCP this year. With migrate being the key word here, I don't want to invest thousands into a macpro tower for the expandability. The Imac looks very appealing,. An i7 core processor unit with 6gig ram runs about $2300. My big beef is it has only one firewire port and NO esata. If I plug an external HD into the firewire can I get fast enough throughput for HD (I shoot/edit with panasonic P2 cards)?
I also have a DVCpro Deck that I master SD versions for Television (uses firewire port also). So, no way to use both since there's only one firewire port..right?
What about ditching the external drive and editing on the mac's internal drive (yikes!) Anyone doing that? The guy at the mac store suggested against all that reading/writing to the system hard drive. Just wondered if anyone had any working solutions. Prob have to go with a macpro tower i assume.

PS, I know many people buy the laptop macbook pros to edit on but honestly I cannot see spending hours editing, color correcting, etc on that little thing. Then you still gotta buy a bigger monitor.
 
Last edited:
You'll be able to edit on an iMac. The single Firewire port is indeed a limitation. Does your external HD enclosure have a 2nd Firewire port? If not, a solution would be to get "naked" drive and place it in an enclosure that has 2 Firewire ports (they are not very expensive). That way you'll be able to daisy-chain your Firewire boxes (connect the HD to the computer, then connect the deck to the HD enclosure).

I used to do that when I was editing on a PowerBook, I'd have an external drive connected to the laptop and then my camera (for capture) attached to the drive. Or I would have a Canopus ADVC110 connected to the drive for broadcast monitoring.

The internal drive would do if needed. Not really recommended, but if you have no choice...

Having said all this, if you are willing to spend $2,300 you really aught to think hard about getting a Mac Pro. I just checked, and they start at $2,400 for a base quad model. Maybe even consider getting a refurbished older generation (2008, etc.). A Mac Pro is just so much more flexible and powerful than any iMac. With a Mac Pro you'll have plenty of ports, will be able to add a PCi capture card for monitoring, etc. later on, add more memory, change drives, etc.

Speaking of memory, if you do get a Mac Pro, buy 3rd party memory from a place like Crucial. It's much cheaper and works just as great. I bought 8 gigs from Crucial last year for a fraction of what I'd cost from Apple and never had any problems.
 
I have the 27inch imac i5. I really like it!

Currently I'm mostly editing short films, a lot of 7d stuff. I usually just put the project on the internal drive and edit it just on the machine, but also keep a back up.

If you use a seperate deck to master for tv, you could just export a final version of it onto your desktop, switch over the firewire then make the master off it. Shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Also, you should look into buying a refurbished imac off the apple site. Easy way to save some money.
 
Another option is a firewire hub. I use a 24" Imac for Editing DVCPro HD from p2 cards with no issue at all. I also always have 6 Firewire Drives (G-Technology) Daisy Chained and I have a DVCAM Deck Connected at all times for DV Projects with no issue at all. I don't even use a hub but I do have 2 firewire ports one 400 and one 800.
 
David S. said:
I'm glad to know those FW hubs are working for now, but many of us do not recommend daisy chaining or using a hub.

It is still one firewire bus, and all those devices are sharing that single bus.

That is a candidate for problems in my view and others as well:

http://www.adamwilt.com/Tidbits.html#FireWireFrustrations
Click to expand...


I'll consider myself fortunate that I have used this method for several years without incident. I do plan on upgrading to a mac pro with an esata card for my drives in the near future. Until then I'm good.
 
Does your external HD enclosure have a 2nd Firewire port? If not, a solution would be to get "naked" drive and place it in an enclosure that has 2 Firewire ports
Click to expand...
I'd have an external drive connected to the laptop and then my camera (for capture) attached to the drive.
Click to expand...

I had no idea you could do that with firewire.
Yeah that does help, but perhaps I can swing a little more $$ for a MacPro Tower. But another appeal to me with the Imac is the monitor is included. Can anyone speak to the image quality of the mac monitors compared to me going out and buying say a Samsung 25" HD computer monitor.
Thanks
 
That's exactly what I was going to say. Fire wire hub, which is as rare to find in stores as a leprechaun, is the solution. You'll have to get it online, though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top