03-29-2010, 07:50 PM

I have Final Cut Studio 2. I want to either buy a mac mini 4gig ram with 2.53 ghz or used macbook pro. i use all final cut apps except color. with the mac mini can i...

-Render 1080i HDV fairly fast
-Play Back 1080i in real time
-Do Everything in Real Time
-Use Motion

-Is the Mac Mini Insides similar to the 13'' Macbook Pro?
-Will I enjoy editing on the new mac mini?

03-30-2010, 12:13 AM

At the risk of stating the obvious; we don't know which 13" mbp you are referring to.

AFAIK more RAM + more gHz = better performance for video.

03-30-2010, 11:37 AM

The slower one. the cheap one

03-30-2010, 11:43 AM

Do you need mobility?

Get the MacBook Pro if you need mobility...get the Mac Mini if you don't need the computer to be portable/mobile.

Mobility/portability is what laptop computers are for.

- Nick

03-30-2010, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by askclifford

I have Final Cut Studio 2. I want to either buy a mac mini 4gig ram with 2.53 ghz or used macbook pro. i use all final cut apps except color. with the mac mini can i...

-Render 1080i HDV fairly fast
-Play Back 1080i in real time
-Do Everything in Real Time
-Use Motion

-Is the Mac Mini Insides similar to the 13'' Macbook Pro?
-Will I enjoy editing on the new mac mini?

to your questions -

Rendering "fast" will require RAM and CPU power. I assume you're referring to conversion or export

Play back 1080i in real time - will require additional hard drives connected to your system via firewire (as that's the fastest connection option avail on those two comps) - even so, the playback windows are small and should play back without any issues (I edit 1080i footage stored in ProRES 4:2:2, and I have no problem playing the video back in FCP).

Do everything in real time - Not even a hoss Mac Pro can do *everything* in real time (I have an 8 core 2.8GHz Mac Pro w/ 8g ram and although the vast majority of what I use is real time, there are some transitions and such that do require rendering). Certain effects and transitions and audio will require rendering, but it's easy to identify what will require rendering as for effects and transitions the ones that will run in real time are in bold, the rest are regular text. If you plunk certain audio on the timeline - ie: mp3 - it will need to convert the audio before it can be used and played back on the timeline in real time.

Both systems could use Motion.

Certain aspects of the innards of a Mac mini and a MBP 13" are similar, but the mini can have a faster CPU (2.66GHz vs 2.53GHz in MBP 13"), but less RAM (Mini max at 4g, MBP 13" max at 8g) - so it's a bit of a tough decision. If it were me, I'd probably go with more max RAM as with video, you'd probably see more effect with 2x ram vs 130MHz difference in CPU speed/core.

Mobility is a key question - but also realize, if you're planning on editing, you're probably gonna want a nice big screen vs the 13" screen on the MBP, and also you are going to need an external firewire drive for your scratch media, which means that you'll probably be tied to a wall while editing anyway...

04-03-2010, 02:57 PM

Mac Mini only has FW800 available for an external Scratch Drive. FW800 will not support HD video editing. Mac Mini does not have powerful enough graphics card to run Motion or Color.

04-04-2010, 01:22 AM

You know BenB, you seem to be considering the requirements of FCS3 instead of what the OP has - which is FCS2 which will work on a Mac mini. Also the FW800 - although they say in the manual will not support HD video editing is not necessarily accurate as many of us do edit ProRES 422 54mbps video with firewire scratch disks - now if you're using video that has a huge bitrate (ie: some ProRES 444 file @754 mbps, yeah, FW800 isn't gonna cut it) but . Also, the 9400m will run the version of Motion in FCS2 - some more advanced animations may be an issue, but many people use motion on a modern mini

04-07-2010, 03:35 PM

Originally Posted by Nethfel

to your questions -




Certain aspects of the innards of a Mac mini and a MBP 13" are similar, but the mini can have a faster CPU (2.66GHz vs 2.53GHz in MBP 13"), but less RAM (Mini max at 4g, MBP 13" max at 8g) - .

100% False regarding the Mac Mini's ram capability, the Mac Mini supports 8gbs of ram ( Snow Leopard )
123Macmini.com - News - The 2009 Mac Minis Support 8GB of RAM

Originally Posted by BenB

Mac Mini only has FW800 available for an external Scratch Drive. FW800 will not support HD video editing. Mac Mini does not have powerful enough graphics card to run Motion or Color.

100% False again....... The Firewire drive can be used to edit + the graphics card is more then enough. This is an 1080p HD Music video I just shot and edited a couple of days ago on a 2007 Mac book Pro 2.2ghz with a 8600 128mb graphics card

YouTube - BIG WEE "STILL IN LOVE WITH WEE"


It truly bothers me when people lack the brain power to research and look for the truth. As a professional video editor I'm here to tell you that this can be done as I do it everyday.

Now regarding the ops question, both systems will work

peace

04-07-2010, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by tears2040

100% False regarding the Mac Mini's ram capability, the Mac Mini supports 8gbs of ram ( Snow Leopard )
123Macmini.com - News - The 2009 Mac Minis Support 8GB of RAM

My post in terms of the max ram was taken from Apples specs - I had never tested 8 gig of ram in a mini, nor researched beyond Apples specs on the topic.

100% False again....... The Firewire drive can be used to edit + the graphics card is more then enough. This is an 1080p HD Music video I just shot and edited a couple of days ago on a 2007 Mac book Pro 2.2ghz with a 8600 128mb graphics card

Please don't lump me in on the "wrong again" thing here - as you're reference post is from BenB, and not me - so therefore, it's not a "wrong again" -but rather a "wrong" against something that BenB put forth.

04-07-2010, 06:47 PM

Apologies on BenB and anyone else for the disrespect. Also I am only here to inform people that "YES" the Mac Mini with Snow can use 8gbs of ram and that yes you can edit HD video

peace

04-09-2010, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by askclifford

I have Final Cut Studio 2. I want to either buy a mac mini 4gig ram with 2.53 ghz or used macbook pro. i use all final cut apps except color. with the mac mini can i...

-Render 1080i HDV fairly fast
-Play Back 1080i in real time
-Do Everything in Real Time
-Use Motion

-Is the Mac Mini Insides similar to the 13'' Macbook Pro?
-Will I enjoy editing on the new mac mini?

A mac mini with 2.53 will cost you 799... add on a magic mouse for another 69... then you need to be able to connect to a monitor so add 29 for that adapter... Oh did I forget, you need a keyboard... that's another 69...Now you are already up to 966 and you haven't even gotten a monitor yet... if you buy a reasonable priced 20 inch monitor you are going to spend about 250... so you've already put out over 1200...

I would expect if you are patient you could find a 15inch mbp for less than 1000...

The bigger question is whether you need the mobility or not.