Using a Powerbook as an editor

E

eyeglayze

Member
Hello all

I am a new member of this site and it kicks ass!

I am thinking of going Mac.  Currently I use a PC with Avid Express Pro.  No real issues( except with Avid).  But I was thinking of getting a Powerbook as my first transition into Mac world.  
Specs are:
15in
1.5ghz
512 cache
80gigs

I would also like to use it for some editing using FCP HD.  I know the specs say that FCP will run on some low specs.  That is all well and good on paper but it would be cool to hear from someone who is doing it.  I know it will capture and edit etc.  My main concern is outputting 24p footage.

Oh BTW, would there be any issues using a Powerbook with European voltage(50khz) with NTSC cameras and decks plugged into the Powerbook?

Thanks to anyone who replies.

Keep well

Eyeglayze
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

I don't know about the European voltage, but from time to time I use FCP HD on a PowerBook and it works great. I have it hooked up to an external monitor, because I think the 15inch is a little small for editing. but sometimes you just need to get away from the desk.

You know, last summer I actually edited a short film on an iBook running Final Cut Express and that worked really great. Sure, the rendering times are slow, but if you're working at a coffee hosue or something, who cares.

My primary computer is a G4 desktop single processor 800-something Ghz and I use FCP on it every day.

You will be fine. Just get lots and lots and lots of ram.
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

you should be more than happy editing with FCP HD and the Powerbook. My sister recently purchased one and I was able to mess with it and it runs great. I always use FCP HD but when doing heavy editing I'll do it on the G5. If your going to do some heavy video editing on it then I recommend maxing out the RAM on the machine and perhaps an external hard drive.
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

I've got a 15" Powerbook G4 1.5 Ghz with a gig of ram, FCP HD. Works great.
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

Thanks for all your responses and advice everyone. I am very excited about the Powerbook. My friend switched to mac about 4 years ago and has not looked back. I hope I can say the same.
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

I have a friend who has a powerbook and he does have any major problems. I can only imagine though that you are going to very quickly run out of disk space, your rendering will be tedious at times, and that little screen will be difficult to edit on. It can be done but I definitely recommend a Power Mac G5 if you are going to start editting more often.
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

I got my new Powerbook 12" two weeks ago. It's 1.3 GHz, 512 MB RAM and I got the 5400rpm 80 GB hard drive.

In the last two weeks, I've done about 50 hours of editing on it in FCP HD, as well as an additional 10-12 hours on non video projects. I've had zero crashes, FCP has not crashed - nothing. This works like a charm. It's no G5 but it does many realtime effects, while rendering times for others is fairly quick. I rarely spend any time waiting. Even LiveType works acceptably well, which requires heavy duty processing power.

Your a step ahead of me with the 15 inch, though I've worked fine in FCP with my measley 12 inches of screen space.

I'd recommend it.
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

You'll probably want to spring for an external drive for your footage. Unless you get the 5400rpm internal drive (which still isn't very fast), you'll be running at something like 4200rpm on the stock internal drive. Not advisable for video. Just pick up a firewire 800 drive and edit away!
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

Kai, I'm not disagreeing, but let me tell you about my experience. I have an iBook I got in 2001. I've run FCP 1.2 on it, and FCE on it. It's got a tiny 10 GB 4200 HD. If I wait, it's for processing (e.g., a transition). But video flows through that thing fine. It's only got a G3 500 MHz and 256 MB RAM.

Now that I have my new Powerbook G4 1.3 GHz with a 80 GB 5400 rpm drive, I don't see any boost for getting the video to be accessed from the HD (it was plenty fast in my old iBook), I just see overall enhancements for more processor intensive tasks. By contrast, my desktop with 7200 rpm drives crawls with iMovie 4.0! (Final Cut is fine, though).

So the wisdom of the faster the hard drive the better I will not question. But it seems even my 4200 got the video into the RAM fairly efficiently (when push came to shove, however, I got the 5400 rpm drive for my new Powerbook).
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

As far as an external drive

I have three 50 minute tracks of video/audio I'm integrating into FCP (wedding video - three camera shoot), an educational bus video, cafeteria video, and a smaller project. Three projects (one huge) and I've got 10 gigs left. The event video is done so I'm dumping that and I'll be back up to about 50 gigs or so. I'm not counseling against getting an external drive, but I have an external drive and haven't had need to hook it up yet - despite having a few projects going. Don't let the equation -- Laptop + 5400 drive = external drive a must --  become a kneejerk reaction. Depending on what you're doing, you may not need it right away - spend it on a new mic or some lights.
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

I was driving around today and thinking of my two posts above. Kai is absolutely right - you should consider getting a fast external drive. One thing about video on computer, you need LOTS of hard drive space, and to work most efficiently, it should be a fast drive.

My posts were only to suggest that before you follow this conventional wisdom you first see what you will be doing - you may have all you need right in the computer. The conventional wisdom has been around a while. I started computer based editing in 1999 when Firewire was new and made buying third party capture cards unnecessary for miniDV. At that time, computers came with 6 GB hard drives. The advice became MORE DISK SPACE. Now, computers come far more capable than when that conventional wisdom said "buy more disk real estate right away." The point is - see what you're going to do and you may not need a drive right away. If you plan on working on a few projects at once - get an external drive right away. If you plan on doing only one at a time you'll be fine with what you have (assuming you're getting the 80GB 5200rpm drive).
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

[quote author=eyeglayze link=board=FCP;num=1090351915;start=0#0 date=07/20/04 at 12:31:55]I was thinking of getting a Powerbook as my first transition into Mac world.  
Specs are:
15in
1.5ghz
512 cache
80gigs [/quote]

As someone who has travelled all over editing on a PB and been doing it since the first Titanium model, I can tell you it works. Some things to consider:
1) get more ram. On a PB, get at least 1 GB... FCP will be happier.
2) get an external HD. I'd make it a 7200 rpm model. I personally like the FW800 models from LaCie (D2 Extreme). I also use the pocket drives for on-airplane editing.
3) If you intend to use the external drive and a deck/camera quite often, get a Firewire PCM card, so you can split them onto separate buses.

I currently use a PB 17". I prefer the larger screen and higher resolution... it works better with FCP and DVDSP. Surprisingly the 17" is only 1.1" wider, 3/4" deeper, and actually thinner than the 15". It comes with a single 512MB stick of ram, so you can simply add one more. The 15" comes with two 256MB sticks, so you need to throw both away to get to 1GB ram (wasted money). In addition, the 17" speakers are actually usable for editing. With the 15", you'll need external speakers to hear anything with accuracy.

I use a LaCie FW800/400 PCM card to run the deck/camera so I can use the built-in FW800 for the external drive. It runs quicker, never drops frames and seems to give me a bit more realtime.
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

A little note. I used a powerbook to edit an underwater piece almost every day when i lived on the island of Roatan, Honduras. I would strap the entire thing, with an external drive (in a pelican case) to the back of a sea kayak and commute about 5 miles each way to work through the ocean, 5 months of that and the thing still works fine! That's freedom no?
 
Re: Using a Powerbook as an editor

Yeah, guys...question.

I should know this as a devoted FCP user, but do you need an extra firewire port (say on a card?) to capture from camera to hard drive?

I was thinking about going mobile, but I never considered that many of these machines only have one firewire port.
 
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