What macbook to we need for HD Editting?

[kineticdragon]

Hello,

I'm helping out a friend who needs to buy a laptop. She's working on a documentary, and doing a lot of filming in HD. We want her to be able to edit the footage on the laptop, but ultimately most of the editing will be done on a large monitor.

Will a 15" Macbook pro handle our needs for something like this?


thanks,

 

[xstep]

You may want to read ARTnVIDEO's entry on this thread.

A Macbook Pro (as opposed to a Macbook) should be more than fine. Editing pros often use the MBP for road work and use Final Cut Pro.

Remember you can save money, if this is an issue, by purchasing a refurb or used laptop.

You didn't say which software you plan to use, so check the hardware requirements for it.

 

[kineticdragon]

We will be using final Cut 6 I believe.

Thanks for the help, I guess we will look at 15" MBP's then.

 

[Sexy Patrol]

If you must be mobile, then you'll definitely need a MacBook Pro. However, I highly advise using a desktop/workstation for HD editing as opposed to a notebook. I'm currently using a 2.2GHz MacBook Pro to edit HD content and it does get choppy when you tweak certain properties in the footage or if you end up using Final Cut Studio, things can get a bit choppy with Color and other programs. This is just something to consider, if you're going to be shooting HD content then you might think about going with a desktop over a notebook. But if you're intent on having a notebook, a MacBook Pro is the route you want to take .