Macbook Pro Hard Drive for video editing??

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Eddie NYC

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We are finally making the switch from PC to Mac, as well as from desktop to notebook (this less driven by choice!), and have a question about configuring the new computer.

We are getting the 17 inch system with 2 gig of RAM and primarily will use for 1) picture editing, 2) capturing/editing/burning home movies to DVD (typically an hour each), and normal MS office apps.

For the video editing, should I go with the 7200 or the 5400 HD. I know the 5400 has more space, but I plan on getting some sort of external hard drive (recommendations appreciated here) so I'm less concerned about space than I am about 1) creating clean DVD's and 2) not killing the hard drive due to heat or some other factor that I don't know about that could result from a decent amount of editing.

Thanks.
 
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I've said it here before. I had a Wallstreet Powerbook running at 466Mhz with a slower internal drive and was able to capture and edit DV video. The trick to getting clean captures was to have a partition dedicated to it. I would clean it off before each import.

I'll soon see how successful this is with my recently purchased Macbook Pro Core Duo. Sorry, no time estimate as I'm still stressing out the new box.
 
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Eddie NYC

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I've said it here before. I had a Wallstreet Powerbook running at 466Mhz with a slower internal drive and was able to capture and edit DV video. The trick to getting clean captures was to have a partition dedicated to it. I would clean it off before each import.

I'll soon see how successful this is with my recently purchased Macbook Pro Core Duo. Sorry, no time estimate as I'm still stressing out the new box.

Would you get a Firewire 400 or 800 drive and capture directly to that instead of the hard drive? Would that be efficient, or just end not doing as good of a job?
 
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E

Eddie NYC

Guest
I've said it here before. I had a Wallstreet Powerbook running at 466Mhz with a slower internal drive and was able to capture and edit DV video. The trick to getting clean captures was to have a partition dedicated to it. I would clean it off before each import.

I'll soon see how successful this is with my recently purchased Macbook Pro Core Duo. Sorry, no time estimate as I'm still stressing out the new box.

One other question, if I'm creating movies that will be burned to DVD, does the rendering process which can be lengthy take place on the hard drive, or directly on a DVD, in which case the HD speed doesn't necessarily matter. Or is the issue with video editing more on the side of video capture. I just want to make nice home movies without crushing the computers hard drive from something as intensive as what this seems like it could be on the internal drive. I don't know a lot about computers, but maybe I'm off base.

Thanks again. Any help would be much appreciated.
 
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Would you get a Firewire 400 or 800 drive and capture directly to that instead of the hard drive? Would that be efficient, or just end not doing as good of a job?

Here is how I answered on another thread...

"The other thing that could be problematic is importing video from a firewire camera to the firewire drive. I've seen some complaints that you can get dropped frames. The solution might be to capture to a partition on the system drive, then transfer that to the external drive."

I'm not really sure this applies now, but I've seen pros knock the idea. Once you have captured the data, there is nothing wrong moving it to an external drive and editing it from there.
 
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iDVD can save to a disk image. Under the File menu there is "Save as Disk Image". You'll need enough space on the hard drive because it encodes all the assets and creates and image that you may than burn to a DVD disk. I prefer this method over performing the write directly to DVD because I can cancel it without potentially ruining a disk early in the process. I then use Toast to write the DVD, but I think Disk Utiltity found in Applications/Utilities might do the same thing in this case.

Note that the encoded assests are saved in your iDVD project file too from what I've seen. This will allow to possibly create a second disk quicker the next time, if you haven't changed anything.

I try to set my video projects up on a large secondary drive mainly because my prjects get to big for my internal drive. Lately people have also been saying you loose some performance with huge boot drives. I don't want to discuss the technical reasons behind that.

As for wearing out the drive, it is just a matter of time I suppose. I'm amazed how long these things last. I've never (yet) had a drive go bad on me. Backup.

There are many things that possibly can cause you issues, but the two big ones from my experience is capture and writing from/to the camera. You want a clean capture because dropped data will not make for a nice video. Advanced users also write a master copy back to a tape for storage, and of course you do not want dropped data during that process.

Anyway, play around with it all, and search the forums for more information because alot has been asked about iMovie and iDVD.
 

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