• The Mac-Forums Community Guidelines (linked at the top of every forum) are very clear, we respect US law and court precedence when it comes to legality of activity.

    Therefore to clarify:
    • You may not discuss breaking DVD or BluRay encryption, copying, or "ripping" commercial, copy-protected DVDs.
    • This includes DVDs or BluRays you own. Even if you own the DVD or BluRay, it is still technically illegal under the DMCA to break the encryption. While some may argue otherwise, until the law is rewritten or the US Supreme Court strikes it down, we will adhere to the current intent of the law.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying unprotected movies or homemade DVDs.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying tools in the context that they are used for legal purposes as outlined in this post.

Can the new 13" MacBook Pro handle FCE?

Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
Black macBook, 2.4 ghz, 2Gb RAM,250Gb,
Hi,

Had my black MacBook for about a year and love it, but finding the limitations of iMovie (I'm using 06, didn't like 08) and a shared graphics card a bit annoying.

I'm thinking about selling the black MB to pay help pay for an MBP and FCE, but not sure whether the new 13" model would be ok. Can you advise? I don't qualify for any student discounts.

Can't afford a new 15" MBP and don't want to go for desktop as I do a lot of my music and editing while travelling.

Cheers,

Lol
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2009
Messages
32
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Vermont, USA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP Uni. 2.4/4GB/320GB/9600mGT 256MB
whats your budget? I got a 15 in unibody MBP, 2.4ghz, 4gb DDR3, 320 GB HD, and the discrete 9600mgt for $1300 US. It was just refurbished to a good-as-new condition.
 
OP
L
Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
Black macBook, 2.4 ghz, 2Gb RAM,250Gb,
I can probably just about cover the cost of a new 13" MBP from the sale of my black MB and some other bits and pieces. If the 13" shared graphics aren't powerful enough I'll be looking at refurb, ex-display or second-hand 15" MBP options. The 13" portability is attractive, but it needs to be capable of doing the job too.
 
Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
144
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Southeast Louisiana
13" MBP will run Final Cut Studio, with some limitations.

First, 13" is really small for editing video. I know folks using 15" screens, but it's not as gentle on an editor as a 17" screen. But, you get what you can afford, and work with it. Doesn't stop you from doing anything, just limits you, and many folks do just fine. It's about your talent, creativity, and ingenuity than it is about hardware/software.

The built-in graphics card will have trouble with Motion and Color. FCP, STP, Compressor, DVDSP will all be just fine. It's Motion and Color that run off the graphics card more than the CPU.

Only one Firewire port. You'll need to have an external FW800, 7200rpm drive as your media ("Scratch") drive to run Final Cut Pro for video editing. You can't do this off the system drive without having problems. So that's covered with the external drive.

BUT, if you need to capture from tape, you'll need to connect via Firewire again. Problem is, if you chain a FW hard drive, and a FW video camera together on one FW port, you may have capture glitches (dropped frames, gaps in time code, etc). A hug won't help. Older MBP's had a PCMCIA or ExpressCard slot you could get a card that added a second FW connection on a separate data bus, to solve the problem. Yet Apple for some bizarre reason only put one FW port on all but the top end MBP's. I'm not sure why they did that.

I'd like to know the specs on your current MB, as it may be just as capable as a 13" MBP for FCS 3.
 
Joined
Oct 23, 2005
Messages
522
Reaction score
20
Points
18
Location
Vancouver Canada
Your Mac's Specs
| '09 24" iMac 3.06 8GB | '09 iPhone 3GS 32GB | '09 ATV 1.16TB | '07 23" ACD | '06 15" MBP |
My '06 core duo 2.0 MBP runs FCE....any new machine will just perfectly.
 
Joined
Feb 25, 2009
Messages
2,112
Reaction score
71
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2013 rMBP, i7, 750m gpu, OSX versions 10.9.3, 10.10
to BenB: you are referring to FCS, the poster was asking about FCE.

to lol mahmood: some FX Plug will not be compatible with that Black MacBook (which comes with an intel GMA chipset for graphics), other than that it will work. I don't know of a list anywhere that specifies what will not be compatible. I had called Apple about it once when I was looking for a laptop, and they couldn't give me a complete answer either. (see the specifications for FCE here: Apple - Final Cut Express - Technical Specifications on the right hand side in the dark gray area it talks about GPU requirements)

Any Mac with a 9400m or better will work with FCE. It'd be easier to get as much machine as you can afford to give yourself growth room tho (in case you ever do want to move to FCS). Obviously, a machine with FireWire is what you want (which excludes the current base MacBook in which they removed firewire completely), preferably FW800 (which excludes the older (early 2009, late 2008 unibody) MacBooks which had FW400 - older ones also had FW400, but aside from early 2009 and late 2008 unibody, none had the 9400m) and limits you to the MacBook Pro line.
 
OP
L
Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
Black macBook, 2.4 ghz, 2Gb RAM,250Gb,
Nethfel, thanks for that. Another dumb question, I'm afraid: do you reckon this would work ok with FCE?

Apple MacBook Pro - MBP 15/2.4/2X1GB/160-5400/256VRAM-GBR

2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo – 4MB shared L2 cache

nVidia GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM

2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM

ExpressCard/34 slot, Firewire 400/800, USB 2.0
 
OP
L
Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
Black macBook, 2.4 ghz, 2Gb RAM,250Gb,
I think I've managed to answer my own question. It will.
 
Joined
Feb 25, 2009
Messages
2,112
Reaction score
71
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2013 rMBP, i7, 750m gpu, OSX versions 10.9.3, 10.10
Oh yeah, that laptop will work well with FCE.

Plus, w/ 15" screen, you'll have more screen realestate and it will be easier to see everything.

I do edit on my MacBook unibody, and with a 13" screen, it can get painful sometimes to look at since the screen has so much cramped in on it. (it's unbearable using the app Color that comes with FCS) I prefer to use an external screen when I use my laptop for editing since it only has the 13" screen. I think you'll be happier with that 15" MBP.
 
Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
144
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Southeast Louisiana
Yes, I meant Final Cut Express, not Studio.

The only problems will be RAM and CPU speed, and having a second hard drive for your media.
 
OP
L
Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
Black macBook, 2.4 ghz, 2Gb RAM,250Gb,
Benb,

I haven't installed my FCE on my 'new' 15.4" MBP* yet, so please excuse my extreme ignorance. Does FCE include Color and Motion? I don 't see them listed in the spec. Are they perhaps FCS or FCP only apps?




* I got the MBP today, but there's a problem with the DVI port; the bloke I bought it from apparently lent it to someone who popped their own HDD in while they were using it, and when they replaced the original HDD they mistakenly put one of the external body screws in one of the DVI port retaining holes! So, I may send it back.
 
Joined
Feb 25, 2009
Messages
2,112
Reaction score
71
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2013 rMBP, i7, 750m gpu, OSX versions 10.9.3, 10.10
No, Color and Motion are part of the Final Cut Studio package which is why I had made that comment to BenB about you wanting to use FCE.
 
Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
144
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Southeast Louisiana
FCE is a limited version of Final Cut, a limited version of LiveType, and I think Compressor, too. No Motion or Color. But you do have FX-Plug effects in Final Cut that come from Motion and depend on your graphics card.
 
OP
L
Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
Black macBook, 2.4 ghz, 2Gb RAM,250Gb,
Ah, ok. So RAM and CPU are the only concerns (I'll be looking into FW800 external HDD). So, to be clear, would the 13" MBP be ok for FCE with 8Gb RAM?
 
Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
144
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
Southeast Louisiana
Aside from the small screen (my own personal issue, as you age and your eyes get worse, you buy lager screens), sure, should be fun!
 
OP
L
Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
Black macBook, 2.4 ghz, 2Gb RAM,250Gb,
Ah, ok. So RAM and CPU are the only concerns (I'll be looking into FW800 external HDD). So, to be clear, would the 13" MBP be ok for FCE with 8Gb RAM?

Sorry Benb, must have posted at the same time.

Will the 13" MBP's 'NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory' be as good as the 15.4 " 2.4GHz(MA896LL/A) late 2007 MBP's 'NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM'?

Apologies for my embarrassing noobieness.
 
OP
L
Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
Black macBook, 2.4 ghz, 2Gb RAM,250Gb,
Aside from the small screen (my own personal issue, as you age and your eyes get worse, you buy lager screens), sure, should be fun!

Sorry, I keep leap-frogging your posts! I like the idea of lager screens though.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top