iMac or Macbook Pro FCP HDV editing

C

crot0019

Well-known member
Hey there I'm tossing up which to purchase. The base model i7 Imac or the reasonably beefed up 15 inch macbook pro. I will be doing HDV editing only from a Sony HVR-Z1u on Final Cut. I love the portability of the macbook but I love the look of the iMacs and I hear the quad core will make everything a lot faster. Basically what I want to know is are both able to run FC studio in easily? Or is the macbook pro gonna struggle. I'm really desperate for some informed feedback because atm I am rocking FCP 5 on a macbook. Not a macbook pro (eeek!)
 
Both will work fine for HDV. Get a FW800 drive for that format though.

And you will have to upgrade your FCP. Version 5 doesn't work on the newer INTEL models.
 
Is portability your number one concern? If it is, get the laptop. If you decide to go w/the laptop though I'd recommend trying to find a last gen 15" MBP that has the ExpressCard slot or buy a current 17". The current 15", which doesn't have an ExpressCard slot, is gimped for video work, IMO. With that being said, a laptop w/an ExpressCard slot will give you a more expandable machine (eSATA RAIDs, I/O devices such as the MXO 2, another bus for FW ports, etc.,) than the iMac but the iMac will have the edge in processing speed.

Like Shane said though, both machines will handle HDV easily so there really isn't a wrong choice.


-Andrew
 
Hey thanks guys for our input. Really appreciate it and it's good to know they'll both handle the HDV footage easily :) And yes I will be buying the new final cut studio as well I think it's about time. Just one question though Shane Ross...What do you mean a firewire 800 drive? Are you talking external?
 
Yep- a Firewire 800 external drive will serve you well and as neither of those systems would accept a secondary internal drive anyway- that's your best option for extra storage.

Noah
 
How does fcp handle footage stored on external drives. How much slower is it working in the timeline. This actually something I want to learn more about. How do you store footage coorectly on external hardrives? And then work effectively within fcp. I obviously don't wanna be storing tonnes of hdv footage on my internal. And not to make it more complicated but how do you go about back up?
 
There's not much to it- FW800 is there to make the data rate fast enough for editing and you set your scratch/capture drive to the external in preferences. Really you won't even notice once you start working. So... Backing up- well you can do that manually at the Finder level, with Time Machine or a 3rd party app such as Chronosync:

http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html

Noah
 
Sounds good thanks heaps for your help. I guess the only pain in the ass is that i have to capture my footage on to my computer first using batch capture and that would take the only FW800 port the macbook pro has.
 
crot0019 said:
Sounds good thanks heaps for your help. I guess the only pain in the ass is that i have to capture my footage on to my computer first using batch capture and that would take the only FW800 port the macbook pro has.
Click to expand...

You can daisy-chain FW800. Computer>drive>deck/camera.
 
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