Can FCP 5.1 run on one of the Macbooks out there? How well does it work if it is possible though. I am shooting DV only not HDV yet, I will go to a MacPro when I switch. Also I am on the verge of making the switch to FCP from Premiere pro, I am looking for a more mainstreamed machine strictly for editing.
Thanks

Jason Bowers

Hi Jason,

I think the Macbook will be pretty much the same as the Mac Mini, as discussed in this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=83884

You should have no trouble at all with regular DV, and I suspect HDV will also be fine. But I don't think "Motion" will run on the MacBook. Perhaps someone else with personal experience will chime in with more info.

Motion will definitely not run - it depends on a graphics card to do most of its work. The MacBook does not have a dedicated graphics card, it uses a chip on the motherboard which draws it's memory from the system RAM. So if you go with the MacBook, make sure you load up the RAM. Another big drawback in running FCP on a MacBook is that because it doesn't meet the system requirements, Apple won't support it if there's a problem.

PS - a good entry level system for low bandwidth (DV/HDV) video editing on a MAC would be one of the iMacs with a dedicated graphics card and a firewire hard drive.

here are a couple links to a guy who benchmarked the mackbook and mb pro vs a dual 2ghz g5. surprisingly, they both beat out the g5 in most benchmarks (reg mb suffered a little in motion though). Note: these weren't tested against the new dual-core mac pro tower but i think this still answers the question of whether or not a macbook can run fcp, and with hd content no less. Still i would be interested in hearing anybody else's experience with running fcp hd content on macbook as i am planning on using either my low end macbook (+ a couple gigs of ram) or my brother's mb pro to edit hd w/ fcp.

2 ghz mackbook:
http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=43717

macbook pro:
http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=38816-1

i've been running fcp 5.1 on my macbook pro for the past couple months, honestly i'm very satisfied. i'm pretty sure that it runs slightly better on a desktop mac BUT the option of being able to edit ANYwhere, on the go, more than makes up for any (possible) lag with the software. I do recommend having 2gb of ram though....also, i've never installed motion, so i dont know how well that works, but if you have an apple store near by you can always go in and play with the computers, all the macs have the fcp suite installed in store.

I just recieved my new mac book pro a week ago and am running FCP and motion and I c no lag. I have the 160 gig HD in it along with 2 gigs of RAM. I am really impressed with how it handles everything. It is the 2.33- I could not make a higher recomendation. I also have a power Mac G5 with 2.5 ram and would have to say that my MBP out performs it.