View Full Version : I’m about to purchase a Mac Book Pro 17"


Nick Stone
October 22nd, 2008, 01:32 PM
I’m about to purchase a Mac Book Pro 17” laptop and put FCS2 on it and use this as my main editing machine. I don’t have the luxury of both a MBP and Mac Pro tower so the MBP I think is the way to go. In Australia if you don’t use Mac and FCP for some reason you are not seen as the real deal and this is making it hard to apply for jobs within the industry. I have to say that I’m getting cold feet in purchasing the MBP, there seems to be a lot going on with Apple’s new line of products and I’m not sure that this will affect me or not.

I have been PC based from start till now and can get the job done and honestly I cannot see any difference with an edit done from a PC NLE or an edit done from Mac FCS, if there is a difference someone please show me the way.

Questions:
Is Fire wire still on the MBP?
Can I get a full preview out to another monitor to view my edited movie? What adaptors do I need.
I need an external drive, any suggestions? Remember I’m a PC guy
Which version of FCS should I be looking for and what upgrades are necessary to be edit ready?

I’m sure there are other things I have not mentioned here feel free to comment.

Nick

Pete Cofrancesco
October 22nd, 2008, 03:04 PM
Questions:
Is Fire wire still on the MBP?
Can I get a full preview out to another monitor to view my edited movie? What adaptors do I need.
I need an external drive, any suggestions? Remember I’m a PC guy
Which version of FCS should I be looking for and what upgrades are necessary to be edit ready?

I’m sure there are other things I have not mentioned here feel free to comment.

Nick
-Yes, fw800

- yes, but you'll need some sort of adapter.

-I prefer enclosures that take internal hard drives screwed into removable trays. That way you can expand your storage.

-FCP Studio2 has everything you need.

If your looking to save money I'd suggest a refurb iMac 24" or the previous version of mb. I think laptops are expensive and aren't optimal for video editing but ppl here seem to like them.

Christopher Glavan
October 22nd, 2008, 05:13 PM
I think it comes down to what you want from it. If you're doing a same-day edit on a wedding video, then the MBP is great. You're using smaller form-factor cameras usually, and speed and portability are your primary needs. If you want the ability to use a wider range of cameras with high-quality features like hd-sdi, you need the ability to add and upgrade, which you can't do on a laptop: enter Mac Pro.

Decide what is going to suit your needs best. Personally, since I don't edit on location, and I want upgradeability, I prefer the tower-- even though I don't have one yet... =)

Andrew Farrell
October 22nd, 2008, 05:57 PM
Nick, I am in the same situation as yourself. I was holding off for last weeks announcement from Apple but I have found it has further clouded the issue in terms of what the new range offers compared to the "old" range.

I was going the 17" route too but the new MBP has little value in its upgrades (IMO) compared to the old one. When you compare the prices too it's crazy. New MBP are $4499 ($Aus) compared to picking up a brand new "old" model that some dealers still have in stock for about $3799 ($Aus). This was how I looked at it:

NEW Vs Old
- High res screen standard Vs Standard screen
- 4mb RAM (DDR3) Vs 2mb (upgradable to 4mb)
- 320 mb hard drive Vs 250mb hard drive

Both still have the same CPU and graphics, they don't get the update like the 15". The 17" didn't get the trackpack update either and still looks the same (apart form the standard gloss screen which you do have the option of going matte).

Is the new one worth $700 more for what it is offering? I really don't know. That $700 would buy the upgrade in RAM for the new "old" machine and leave me with some more to put towards an external drive.

Is the 15" machine better? Loss of high res screen and gloss only screen are my only concerns. Though as a trade you get a newer graphics card and CPU.

Help........

Marcelo Lima
October 22nd, 2008, 06:02 PM
If you edit in HD (High Def), i sugest the mac pro.. I have an Mac Book Pro 2.4 GHz and fr DV edit is perfect, very, very fast, but using Apple Pro Res for example, the edit workflow is acceptable (i use an external firewire 400/usb2.0 hd... and i know is one cause of the slowness), but the render for H.264 or HDV fulll HD is kinda slow....
I'm now making a render test of 4 minutes edited apple pro res full hd to HDV, and it taking like 35-40 minutes.... Its too long..! One 4 core or 8 core will be better for HD... but for SD, i think the MCP i great..

Nick Stone
October 23rd, 2008, 03:55 PM
Well I’m going to bite the bullet and get the MBP 17" next week.
Have spoken to Apple Sydney and ordered the thing.

It will be hard coming from a quad core pc system using Vegas into FCS on a dual core.
Will be interesting in render times and also playback preview. I'm not to sure if I should capture in native HDV from my Z1 or do I capture in Prores?

The work around will be a challenge in getting this right so having this forum is a blessing.

Nick

Andrew Farrell
October 23rd, 2008, 04:49 PM
Did you keep the gloss screen or spec it for the matte screen?

Nick Stone
October 23rd, 2008, 05:01 PM
Going for the matte screen Andrew and the faster hard drive 7200. Apple said that it will take a week for them to sort it out. Hope i'm making the right purchase.

Nick

Andrew Farrell
October 23rd, 2008, 05:24 PM
Did they have matte screen machine on hand for you to compare the two at the Apple Store? (I'm assuming the City store as opposed Chatswood?)

Nick Stone
October 23rd, 2008, 05:42 PM
Yeah City store. I was in there a few weeks ago and at that time they had both matte & gloss and the gloss was really unusable, the matte is best. I rang Apple and placed an order as the upgrade or change in drive & screen needed to be put together.

Brian David Melnyk
October 24th, 2008, 01:40 AM
[ I'm not to sure if I should capture in native HDV from my Z1 or do I capture in Prores?
Nick[/QUOTE]


i recently bought the last generation 17" MBP, 7200, 4 GB, 2.6 GHz, and i think it works extremely well! i capture and edit in native HDV and only render pro rez, and it seems pretty quick and looks great. all pro rez would take up a lot of space, and i think there would be compression involved... i've read staying native is best unless you do a lot of CC, but i may be wrong...
also, i am using a Lacie 'Rugged' external (7200) with FW 800. very mobile, fast, and so far no problems (except i wish i bought a few more of them!)

Nick Stone
October 24th, 2008, 04:10 AM
Thanks Brian,
At this stage I dont even know what prorez really does on the Mac platform only from what I have read here on this fourm.

On PC I capture HDV from the Z1 and edit HDV on the timrline then I render from the time line to MPEG-2 for DVD thats it.

Seems Mac has a long way around things? is this true.

Nick

Don Miller
October 24th, 2008, 09:00 AM
Look at using the ExpressCard/34 slot for eSata connections. Faster than firewire. I run software RAID O for cache and scratch files from this type of connection. OSX raid 0 works well, and drives are so cheap that it doesn't cost much. Anyone know the max number of physical drives OSX can run as a single volume?

Remember that macpb have the smaller EC/34 slot. It's too bad they didn't put the bigger express slot in the 17 inch model.

Considering macbook pro memory limitations, video will need a lot of scratch space. But on a Mac Pro, I would first put money into ram.

Don Miller
October 24th, 2008, 09:03 AM
Do some searches on intermediate codecs for macs. It's about maintaining quality and speed of edits. You'll want to make deliberate workflow decisions or you will waste time and quality.

Thanks Brian,
At this stage I dont even know what prorez really does on the Mac platform only from what I have read here on this fourm.

On PC I capture HDV from the Z1 and edit HDV on the timrline then I render from the time line to MPEG-2 for DVD thats it.

Seems Mac has a long way around things? is this true.

Nick

Sean Seah
October 24th, 2008, 12:01 PM
i just took the plunge n went for the old 15" MBP too. Looking for a scratch disk (Lacie or WD ....) esata or FW800 option. I'm a PC guy too n know nuts about FCPS2. Can anyone here guide me on the fastest workflow for EX1? I know about the capture and edit portion but the 422 thing till DVD render is a mystery to me still.

How does this intermedia codec work? After editing, can we render directly to mpeg2 stream? What is this 422 Pro Res thing about?

Jim Montgomery
October 24th, 2008, 01:52 PM
I have been following this thread closely as I too am about to switch. You all might want to check out Lynda.com for tutorials on these workflow questions.

Now for an off topic question. I have tried to buy a MacBook Pro 17" system from one of our sponsors and have not had a great deal of success. Does anyone have a reference you could send to me by Email or PM.

Thanks

Jim

Nick Stone
October 24th, 2008, 04:39 PM
I have been looking at Lynda.
Coming from Sony Vegas where to my mind, everything makes sense with how I edit. I find editing with FCS slower. Vegas is so easy and FCS seems backwards and I know that FCS users will say the same going into Vegas.

If I didn't need to have FCS experience to apply for jobs I wouldn’t bother, Vegas rocks with the way I work.
When you have industry standards you have to go with the flow. I guess I’m fortunate to purchase this tool but at the same time I find it complete non sense that I cant use the tool of my choice and this be accepted within the industry.
Anyway I’ll get over it and Mac FCS will be great and I’ll never look back at Vegas and PC editing again I guess.

Nick

Markus Bo
October 26th, 2008, 11:02 AM
Anyone out there who purchased a new MBP 15"? I would like to know about comfort of editing on 15". I am looking forward to see the NEW 17" but maybe 15" could be an alternative.

Markus

Michael Wisniewski
October 26th, 2008, 12:58 PM
I just purchased a new MBP 15" for editing. But it took me awhile to decide, there are some really great deals out there going on right now. (Also picked up the previous Macbook Air for US$1,399) I went back and forth awhile between the older 17", but decided I could live without the screen real estate, since I almost always arrange for a 2nd monitor when travelling. But, if the Macbook is your only monitor, the 17" is really nice for the FCP timeline.

Re: matte vs. glossy, I've been using a glossy screen on a PC laptop for awhile and it turns out I prefer the glossy - something I really didn't think about until all the brouhaha over the new glossy screens.

Michael Sims
October 26th, 2008, 01:05 PM
I have a 15" MBP with FCP 6 that I use for field editing. It works great. I shoot with an EX-1 and transfer the files to a G Tech fw800 250 gb external drive for editing, using either Sony's XDCam transfer or Sony's Clip Browser if I need to down convert to SD. I also have the latest Mac Pro tower and can easily connect the G Tech drive to it to finish a project at home, if time allows. Some days I'd swear the MBP is faster than the Mac Pro.

Andrew Farrell
October 26th, 2008, 05:30 PM
I just purchased a new MBP 15" for editing. But it took me awhile to decide, there are some really great deals out there going on right now. (Also picked up the previous Macbook Air for US$1,399) I went back and forth awhile between the older 17", but decided I could live without the screen real estate, since I almost always arrange for a 2nd monitor when travelling. But, if the Macbook is your only monitor, the 17" is really nice for the FCP timeline.

Re: matte vs. glossy, I've been using a glossy screen on a PC laptop for awhile and it turns out I prefer the glossy - something I really didn't think about until all the brouhaha over the new glossy screens.

Michael, side by side which is better machine in your opinion for running FCS?

I like the 15" machine but would have preferred it come with a high res screen like the 17" as well as a matte option.

Michael Sims
October 26th, 2008, 07:57 PM
Having just switched to Macs early this year, by no means am I a Mac expert. If I had to choose to work with only one, I would take the MBP for the flexibility of working at home and on location. Also, it's nice to be able to take my SxS cards straight from my EX-1 and pop them into the MBP's express slot to transfer the files to the external drive.

Michael Wisniewski
October 26th, 2008, 10:45 PM
Michael, side by side which is better machine in your opinion for running FCS?I think the performance of FCS will be exactly the same. It's really about which machine you prefer. For me, I don't mind the glossy screen, I like that 15" notebooks fit into most travel bags / backpacks, and anytime I have a long editing session, I always arrange for a second monitor or a Mac Pro, so screen resolution isn't an issue for me.

Markus Bo
October 27th, 2008, 10:08 AM
Thank to the two Michaels for your report but just let me know if you feel comfortable with the FCS windows on the 15" screen. I am to change from Dell Inspiron 17" to MBP and my idea is to replace - during a period of time - the Windows tower with the MBP and an external monitor.

Thanks
Markus

Michael Wisniewski
October 27th, 2008, 11:07 AM
Visit an Apple store to get some hands on time. They load FCS2 onto every machine. I know I can live with a 15" screen, but it might be different for you.

Michael Sims
October 28th, 2008, 08:41 AM
I agree. Visit an Apple store. That's what I did. I looked at a 17" next to a 15" MBP. I didn't think it was that big a difference. So I chose the 15". My wife has a 15" MBP with a glossy screen. The reflections drive me crazy. She doesn't notice them. Maybe you get used to it.

Michael

David Allen Smith
October 28th, 2008, 02:34 PM
I have a 17'' Mac Book Pro I used for several years as my only editing system. It is a great computer but I would recommend getting an extra keyboard as leaning over the small mac can get very grueling on your eyes and back.

I use WD Hard drives and have never had an issue.