Mac advice - laptop for final cut pro

mosfet

mosfet

mosfet

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My sister does a lot of video production on G5 Power Macs but wants a laptop instead. She's after a Macbook Pro, but is short on cash.

Would I be correct in thinking that a Macbook with the same processor and RAM configuration would be just as fast as a MBP for Final Cut Pro HD? Are there any other factors to take into consideration?

Would the dedicated graphics card on the Pro make any difference for video editting? AFAIK it's all about the CPU, RAM and HDD, I've never heard of a consumer card being used for professional video applications like this, instead you'd use something like an AJA Kona.

Also, is Applecare worth it? Or would some 3rd party insurance be a better deal?

Thanks,
 
If you're going to get Final Cut Pro, then it comes as part of Final Cut Studio, which includes Motion. Motion won't run on a MacBook.

The main thing you want to be aware of is that running Final Cut Pro on a 13.3", 1280x800 screen is no fun at all. It makes sense to save a bit more for the MBP for this reason alone.

Plus you're going to want an external hard drive / drive array to use as capture scratch, the added FW800 in the Pros is going to be very useful for this.
 
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It will, but for some reason - it runs a lot more comfortably on a MBP. The tiny difference in clock speed seems to make some difference.
 
i was on the phone with apple a while back asking about the Macbooks and they said you need 256mb gfx card (minimum) to run FCP and so the only option is a MBP 15.4" or 17" with the 256mb cards. Needless to say the MBP is still way above my budget!
 
Most of this makes sense, but I'm still at a loss as to what role the graphics card plays, I thought all processing occured on the CPU unless you have a specific hardware DSP running specific software.

Cheers anyway, looks like an MBP is on the list. :)
 
mosfet said:
Also, is Applecare worth it? Or would some 3rd party insurance be a better deal?
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If she is a student. It can be picked up for £59. Well worth it in my eyes.
 
Caged said:
The MacBook runs Final Cut Pro fine, I just think the screens a tad small.
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thats interesting as i would nearly settle for a Macbook but based on what apple told me i thought it wouldnt run FCP.

The 13" screen would be awful small for video editing anyways but if linking it up to another monitor it could work quite nicely.

I am planning on building a new rig in a few months time but i do need a laptop soonish so I might just settle for a windows laptop and then use my new rig as my main editing machine.

I really want an MBP though so maybe the lottery is the only way!
 
My friend only has a Macbook, and he runs FCP prefectly fine. Although, he doesnt use the Macbook screen much, so dont have a clue howhorrible it would be without another monitor.

Casmeister.
 
To clarify my above comment, I edited together a 30 minute long showreel of clips with my MacBook sat on top of a DV deck capturing straight onto the internal drive, there was nothing wrong with the speed of the application or the render speed (which was better than the PowerMac G5 I normally use, Core 2 Duos are amazing at that). But the screen was far too cramped to do anything more than simple tasks on.
 
If your going to do a lot of frame rendering then I'd suggest a MBP as it has a dedicated video card :)
 
Thats good news then, i read before that it wouldn't run on a Macbook becuase it would ask for a graphics card. They must have updated it :)
 
In my opinion you would need a machine with a better graphics processor and a larger screen.

I used to have a 12" iBook and while the MacBook is only slighly bigger it will still get filled with stuff a lot quicker and make work very hard!

maybe if you used an external screen you could get away with it? Unless you are planning to work on the road mainly.

Rich
 
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