Mini Mac & FCP Studio

FWIW, regardless of the # of ports on the back, your mac only has 1 firewire bus (imac, mini, powermac - powermac also has a firewire 800 bus). If you've got 1 port or 2, 3, etc, it's all sharing the same 400mbits/sec. Also, Firewire is generally preferred over USB - Firewire supplies 400mbps continuous bandwidth, USB2's 480mbps is only in bursts. Also, USB2 requires more CPU power to handle data transaction.
 
eBay bargains within the past two weeks:
FCP4 sold for $200. Since the 4.5 upgrade is free from Apple, you don't need to pay extra for it.
DVD Studio Pro 3 sold for $61.
=
$261.00 + shipping.

The person who has the media (CD/DVD) and Key Code's owns the software. There are certain restrictions on Academic versions, of course. Such as, they cannot be upgraded. This is why they usually sell for very little on the secondhand market. Also, they should probably not be used for commercial work. You would need a retail software license to use the software for business.
 
In following this thread, something keeps popping into my mind... I know that a while ago it (don't remember how long) iDVD and DVDStudio refused to see any external DVD burners. It had to be internal to the system or you couldn't use it. Is this still true? Cause if so, then going with the Superdrive version would make sense.
 
iDVD will only burn to an internal dvd burner (or Superdrive). DVDSP will burn to any burner. Both will generate the proper *_TS folders for you so you can burn in your UDF burning program of choice (eg: Toast).
 
I just wanted to quickly say thanks again for all of the help, guys! This will be my first Mac purchase, and I know very little about them. All of you have definitely helped me make my decision. So Mac Mini it is! I'm a Sony Vegas user now, so I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions in the future (though I promise to do some research first!) about FCP.

Thanks!! :beer:
 
After doing some checking online at the various Mac forums, I too am following FourStars lead, and buying a Mac Mini for my new small editting station. I was looking at a laptop, but decided that for the same price as a laptop, I could afford the mid-ground mini, with an LCD monitor and external LaCie HDD. So, tomorrow or Saturday I'll be going to pick up the new stuff. My friend is selling me his copy of FCP Studio for a reasonable price as he's moving to the PC world with Avid Express Pro. And just like FourStar, I'm a Vegas user, and will probably have questions! :)

Thanks for the help and info in this thread!
 
I was under the impression that Final Cut Pro requires more then the standard 32mb video card that Mac Mini is shipped with. According to Final Cut requirements all it says is AGP Quartz Extreme graphics card is needed. So is the Mac Mini going to be okay when working with FCP and/or exporting videos?
 
According to the Quartz specs on Apple's site.... "Quartz Extreme functionality is supported by the following video GPUs: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX and later, or any AGP-based ATI RADEON GPU. A minimum of 16MB VRAM is required."
 
Zack Attack said:
So is the Mac Mini going to be okay when working with FCP and/or exporting videos?
Click to expand...
Yes! I have a MacMini and it works great. MacMini is really bad for graphic design or photoshop, but for basic DV editing, so long as you're not piling on the effects or exporting H.264 files in large quantities, is a walk in the park. :thumbup:
 
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