powerbook for video editing

[mazystarr]

hello all.

i've been using wintel machines forever in editing the wedding videos that we do.

however, now i'm seriously considering the powerbook as a secondary mobile editing solution as well as for presentation purposes. lugging around the alienware area51m is fast becoming cumbersome and back breaking.

moreover, i would like to learn final cut and play around with live type.

knowing practically nothing about macs, i do hope you guys could help me out with some questions i have.

1. is there an obvious performance difference between the 1.3 and 1.5 processors?

2. can the drives of the mac at 5400 rpm capture video without dropping frames?

3. how long does a three minute MTV composed of slow-moed clips and dissolves render? (let's say at a 1.3G processor and a gig of ram)

That's all for the meantime. Thanks.

[hoho]

What do you currently use to edit videos on the PC?

Answers:
1. Not much that I noticed. But it is more obvious between the 1Ghz and the 1.5Ghz.

2. 5400rpm drives can work well, and they will still drop a frame here and there.

3. Render times on FCP vary depending on the effects piled up on on the clips. If you're doing simple slow motion (halving the speed) and not time-remap, you might be abe to see a realtime preview.

Hope this helps.

H

[mazystarr]

thanks hoho

all my desktops have p4s and canopus cards. - prem 6

the area51m has a 3.2 EE processor, a gig of ram, and 7200rpm drives. - prem pro

you mean the dropped frames are random?

yup, just simple slo mos and dissolves. real time? cool

[peter_ob]

I suggest you get an external firewire drive (the best/biggest you can afford) to capture/store your media.

[extremyks]

Welcome a dear friend of mine... Jason M. (one of my idols in creating great wedding videos)

Let our answers be inspiring so this guy could finally make that partial 'switch' (I say partial coz I'm sure he'll never leave his Canopus Storm for a long time)

Learning FCP and Livetype would be best done in a full pledge Mac desktop. Though for a start a Powerbook will do... just to learn the difference between Premiere.

Your 3 minute MTV quest could be solved in different ways...

1. External Firewire Drive - The easiest but not that attractive since carry an external drive is still a hassle on online editing at events.

2. Edit using Offline-RT - since frame size is reduced to 384 x 216 pixels the size that it occupies in your Powerbook Hardisk is also reduced... providing smooth edits. Apple claims that 40 minutes of footage captured in OfflineRT format occupies about a Gig of disk space.

The OfflineRT resolution is almost the same as the VCD pixel size... good enough for onsite video presentation using current LCD projectors.

Also imagine the convenience of Offline RT. Just capture your footage in OfflineRT format, perform your edits, reattach your media(DV camera deck), and automate re-capture your media at full resolution and output your final render.

3. or let's try this once I got the demo unit

[iFloi]

Hi mazystarr.

I'm running an Avid Xpress Pro on my 12" PB G4 1.33GHz.
Avid undoubtedly makes excellent editing applications.
You get a lot more customizable real-time effects compared to FCP.
And the audio doesn't slip after some 20 minutes like FCP does.
And get this - Slow Mo effects are real-time!

Avid Xpress Pro

[mykmarinas]

hi extremyks, who's the distributor/dealer here?

[mazystarr]

Mike, thanks for the warm welcome. I know you're the one person who can help me sort this dilemma.

Question, if you advise reducing the resolution of the video for editing, is that an admission that the powerbook drives choke on full frame DV?

How much space does *.mov files occupy? In Windows, 17minutes of 720x480 DV footage = approx 4gig.

Sorry to sound like the doubting thomas, but these are questions constantly bugging me.

iFloi: Thanks for the heads up. But I'm partial to FCP because of its ability to create mattes within the timeline.

[Edited on 9-10-2004 by mazystarr]

[hoho]

Hello,

I've got a 720x480 DV footage file at 00:09:46 and it's at 2.17GB, assuming we just double everything to get your 17 (19 in this case) minute footage, that'll be at a little over 4GB as well.

PowerBook drives are normally the 4200rpm drives, and not the 5400, which is a Built-to-Order (BTO) option. 4200rpm drives will drop frames more often than 5400rpm drives. That being said, I find that 5400rpm drives will drop a frame or two occasionally.

There are 7200rpm laptop drives being sold out there. But, of course, they will use more power too. The biggest 7200rpm laptop drive I've seen is 60GB, put that in an external FW800 enclosure, then you're golden.

HTH,
H

[extremyks]

Originally posted by mykmarinas
hi extremyks, who's the distributor/dealer here?

Was thinking of doing an exclusive for Philmug Video group demo at my studio, so you could see it and play with it. I'll be giving it a test this sunday wedding.

@mazystarr,

As hoho suggested getting a 7200rpm laptop drive would be the best option (but pricey).

Reducing the DV files to a lower resolution is just a workaround on standard drives if you're main purpose is showing it instantly on an event.

I'm sure 1Ghz G4 processor with plenty of ram won't choke on full DV. It's the storage that's an issue... remember the time before we're having drop frames on a our desktops PCs...it's because the harddisk today are much better than before (faster and bigger storage plus cheap too on per GB).

On a desktop NLE we make sure the OS is seperate from our A/V files. This setup on a laptop is I believe is still the best option. This is where... QuickstreamDV should do it's job.