Good for editing? Advice to novice

Hello,

This is my first post, and I have never owned a Mac before. Forever I've resisted the call to buy a Mac, but I can't resist anymore! I found someone who's willing to sell me this MacBook Pro for a good price, but before I go for it, can someone please advise me on whether or not this is a good machine for editing?

http://amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000F3AKRK

Thank you!

Good, go for it.

It's an ace machine for editing on. As you can see from my specs, I have a lower powered MacBook Pro, and I use it for video editing all the time, as that is what I do. Obviously, Final Cut Pro is the software of choice.

If you have done video editing before on a Windows based machine, I am guessing you used Premiere maybe?

I used Premiere for years, until I started to work in a studio that used Macs. I too was all against them until I started to use them on a daily basis and realsied this... If you want to fiddle around and jiggle settings, use a PC. If you want to get work done, Use a MAC.

The 100Gb hard drive on there is excellent, I only have a paltry 80Gb, but to be honest, if you are going to edit, invest in an external hard drive of at least 250Gb with the money you save on your purchase.

I would reccomend a Lacie drive if possible as I have used over 8 different Lacie drives in my line of work (not worn them out, just different peoples systems had different Lacie Drives) and they have never ever failed on me.

I find Final Cut Pro to be very stable, and I have only ever seen it throw a wobbly once during a batch capture (out of the hundreds I have done) which is ace compared to Premiers usualy belly flop as soon as you ask too much of it.

Also, for compressing final work for different platforms, Quicktime Pro is excellent.

I couldn't be happier with using my Apple for Editing, and that's the truth.

If you are a serious video editior, then i would go with the 17" model, because as every editor knows, the more screen space the better. For Final Cut I would upgrade the macbook pro to 2GB and a 7200 RPM drive....

But if you are not that serious of an editor, iMovie is great and even supports HD...it comes free on all new macs! here is a link: http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

well you can just also purchase a external display for video editing if you want a big screen, i have a 15 macbook pro c2d i use for video editing and it works fine. i would recommend it

mm

In my experience, a bigger screen doesn't make that much difference. A mate of mine went to Kenya for 3 months to shoot 2 documentaries, and he took a 12" Powerbook out with him and edited on that in HD just fine.

I mean, yeah, bigger screen size is a plus, but if this 15" MBP is a good deal for you, it is worth going for it. Also, if you are editing and need more screen size, plump for a widescreen external monitor. The native screen is as good though without breaking the bank.

A 7200rpm hard drive is nice, but really not that necessary. Final cut can render the files you have in it's time line and playback is very smooth, infact, perfect. I wouldn't reccomend editing on the laptops internal hard drive anyway due to heat build up and also, can make the drive last for less time, hence reccomending an external drive. This is due to the head racing back and forwards to scan the video files and spinning up and down every time you go to read files.

What I sometiems do is hook my camcorder which has fireiwre in/out and av in/out up to the computer and then up to my tv to get a 'live' picture on the screen for reference, but to be honest, this is usually to make it look good for my clients. If you know what you are doing, and use the action guides in FCP (which i think are turned on by default anyway) you can edit away on the MBP screen like I do and just render it out to whatever medium you need.

As for external hard drives.... i have recently got the lacie rugged 100 gb 7200rpm drive... it is great!

Mmmm!

Yeah, that hard drive ROCKS!

Wish I had one

melmation said:

Yeah, that hard drive ROCKS!

Wish I had one

Click to expand...

Yeah... it come with a like 4foot drop rating...

FCP can be on the computer HD, infact, I think it has to be.

Thank you PowerbookG4.

Another question... the Mac that I buy will be a Japanese computer. Does anyone know if I will be able to run an English version of FCP?