Mac Book caveats?

J

joeyramone1975

New member
January 14th is the first day of my first feature-film shoot -- to be shot with the HVX200, of course. I have an old G4 tower that has served me unbelievably well for years of SD work, but doesn't meet the minimum for uncompressed HD. I am in the market for a new G5 but, coincidentally, MacWorld also begins on January 14th and I want to hold out for the newest of the new (if rumors are correct, there is a whole new lineup of towers).

My thought was to get a new Mac Book for the shoot -- I just need something that will allow me to back up all the media (several times) and watch down the dailies. Then hopefully the new towers will be out by the end of the shoot and I can begin to edit in earnest.

The specs of the 2.2 ghz Mac Book suggest that I shouldn't have any problems, but it seemed wise to see if anyone out there has run into a strange reality that nullifies what's on paper. It seems important to add that I will be working with FCP 6 and running the footage from a g-raid drive.

Any insight is greatly appreciated!
 
We shot a documentary in ireland using a new macbook to view dailies from the firestore every night

However, the macbook was not powerful enough to watch the full HD without skipping, so while it was good enough to watch everything, it wasn't perfect.

I'm using one of the current mac pro towers and they're amazing. I know I could have waited for the latest & greatest, but that could be said of any time, esp. with apple hardware. as soon as i got my powerbook G4, apple announced the intel lineup. As soon as my gf bought her macbook pro, apple rolled out the upgraded core duos. Don't worry too much about having the absolute fastest, because it'll start getting obsolete before the aluminum warms up
 
My MacBook Pro works flawlessly with esata external drives and even firewire 800 external drives. Plays back/edits HD with no skipping or other issues. I do however do most of my editing on my IntelMac tower.
Jim
 
DVCProHD is compressed HD, not uncompressed.

Apple hasn't sold new G5s for years. With no EC/34 slot a MB (not Pro) is only good for FW Mode transfers.

Also, to view the footage on an Intel Mac, you will need at least FCP 5.1.4.
 
Remember that you need the DVCProHD codecs, which are installed by FCP, to view anything on the MB.

And they have to be the Intel/UB versions for QT to see them. Finally, you need to convert the MXF files some way. p2 log pro may do that but the codecs ae needed.
 
Uh-oh...

Uh-oh...

David S. said:
DVCProHD is compressed HD, not uncompressed.

Apple hasn't sold new G5s for years. With no EC/34 slot a MB (not Pro) is only good for FW Mode transfers.

Just when I thought I'd done my homework... I realized that the brand new MacBook (not Pro) I ordered online 30 minutes ago DOES NOT come with the EC/34 slot, meaning my only option for downloading P2 cards onto the MB is via Firewire... thus tying up the camera as a FW device, which is what I was hoping to avoid in the first place!

I naively/ignorantly thought I was being smart by not buying a P2 Store but by spending almost as much money the MB gives me a laptop to boot, but...

Any idea if it's too late to cancel the online Apple order?
Click to expand...
 
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