Will my PowerMac be able to edit HDV?
 

I have a PowerMac G4 dual-867 MDD with 768 MB of RAM. I've been humming along just fine for DV (FCP 5.1.4), believe it or not, but have a project that was shot on HDV that is about to be handed over to me.

If I max out my RAM, which means taking it up to 2 GB, would I be OK for working with HDV? Or do I absolutely need a processor upgrade as well?

I've been avoiding spending any money to upgrade this machine since I want to replace it with a Mac Pro, just waiting for the right job (that pays enough). ;-)

Mike,

I have an older MDD with upgraded Dual 1.42 dual processor and 2GB memory and a 9800 ATI graphics card. My MDD would edit HDV (in FCP 5.1) but it was sometimes a slow process. Unfortunately HDV needs processor speed and bus speed. The MDD is now my legacy Media100 machine.

Remember that processor upgrades in a G4 can be a real crap shoot... I've done it, had a lot of issues - the most common seems to be wake-from-sleep issues and problems with dual-monitor setups. It can be a frustrating experience.

On the other hand, used G5 Dual 2.0's are getting down around the thousand mark...

Cuts only could be bearable, but once you need to start rendering things you might want to have a book handy 'cause you won't be doing anything for a while. ;)


-A

Yeah… that's what I thought the case was going to be.

Thanks everyone!