mac mini

R

Rick

Member
Has anyone had any luck capturing to a Mac Mini?

I won’t get my HVX until next week so I have not experienced the various work flows up close and personal - so there could be some glaring holes here that I’m not getting. Any and all input would be appreciated.

All this goes in a medium size pelican or storm case:

Mac Mini with internal 120 gb hard drive with FCP
External Firewire/USB drive LCD in lid of pelican
Blue tooth Keyboard and mouse
IDX NP-1 batteries - though I have other battery choices on hand
inverter and all cables -
Maybe a small lcd voltage meter to know when to swap batteries.

Then capture straight to Mac Mini hard drive using FCP. Then copy files over to the external hard drive between set ups. Would that work?

This might sounds like a lot of work when you can buy a lap to for $1200 but...I have just about all the components to do this project except for the Mac Mini.

Right of the bat the single firewire input on the Mac Mini could be a problem, but maybe not a deal breaker.

Getting the NP-1 batteries to power it all could be the tricky part.

One advantage is this could be a lot more rugged in the field, if designed correctly, than a laptop. Might also make for a better rental item than a laptop.

What do you think? Should I buy the Mac Mini and start tinkering.

Thanks
Rick
 
IMO - i'd save up a little more and get a Macbook. It's already compact and your battery issue is solved. This can still be mounted into a Pelican for extra protection. Just make sure you leave some room for the vents. As for the 1 Firewire port (on MacMini and Macbook) I don't think it's that big of an issue. You can always daisy chain. The reason here for this set-up mainly is flexibility - when not using the laptop in the Pelican, you can always take it out, easily, and use it quick as oppose to the Macmini, you'll need to disconnect everything (lcd, battery) and then reconnect. I mean just the wiring alone and you'd still have to solve the battery pack problem which will just take up more space in you Pelican making it heavier than it needs to be. I'm sure you can find extra macbook batteries. The battery problem just sounds sketchy, although I've read articles on making the MacMini portable, and the fact that it going to take up more space than it needs to - I picture the macbook the way to go to streamline the whole set-up and make your gear lighter.

I mean unless you like carrying around more stuff. I on the other hand, hate having to carry more stuff.
 
Thanks Ian.

I'm not sure it can be done with a mac mini - spoke to Apple today and they said you can't even load FCP 5 on a mini! (maybe an older version?) I think that means I'm buying my third laptop. (the other two are already dedicated to tasks so I need one just for the HVX)

Thanks for the input.

Rick
 
You sure can run FCP 5 (universal upgrade even) on a MacMini. As the above poster said, it just isn't supported. I have it loaded up on my own MacMini (1.5mhz 64mb vram, 512mb ram). I use the macmini set-up mainly for mail and light photoshop but when my main machine is rendering, i hop on the mini and edit other projects. I even do DVD authoring, capturing, compressing, and do SoundTrack Pro work on the macmini. My theory is that Apple doesn't want to say that the mini's and ibooks (macbooks) run FCP 5 because they don't want to lose money on their IMO crappier MacBook Pro laptops. I personally will be getting the low-end MacBook (maybe when 2nd generation comes around) because the specs are the same as the MB Pro. Aside from the videocard being lower-spec, everything else makes it such a great value.

Check out these threads:
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=300124&highlight=final+cut+pro+mac+mini

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=291907&highlight=final+cut+pro+mini

Everyone who use FCP say yes it works (including me) and people have not tried it say Apple doesn't support it. You be the judge. Trust me it works.
 
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