Any help for capturing HDV on Power MAC G4
 

Hello,

I've been capturing and editing HDV in PC land for almost a year now without any problems and now I want to try doing it at home on my old MAC G4 that has FCP 4.5HD. I know that the computer is old and slow (933 MHz and 1.5 GB RAM) but with a good graphics card (ATI Radeon 9800 Pro), and I know that the FCP isn't up-to-date, but can't I still use it to at least try to edit HDV footage from my Sony Z1-U?

If this is even possible, can you tell me the settings I need to have on the camera and what preset to use in FCP 4.5.

I feel so lost here and think I might as well just by myself a new computer (that will most likely be a PC). Any thoughts????

I don't remember if if there was a HDV solution for 4.5, but if it is, you'll have to capture and edit in "apple intermediate codec" (from easy presets). That has some advantages as it isn't gop compression and people seems pretty happy with it.

AFAIK the transcoding is happening in the aquisition.

BTW. If you're shooting 720 HDV, you won't be able to capture without the latest FCP.

I would recomend an FCP upgrade, if you're eligble for the crossgrade to studio, you hardly can beat the bang for the buck ratio.

As to new hardware. Buy whatever suits you, but the Intel Macs runs XP natively through bootcamp and come out very good pricewise to comparable Dells. Then you'll have the choice - if you want it.

Gunleik

FCP HD (4.5) only supports DVCPro HD. You'll need FCP 5 or higher.

thanks guys. I think i will try the fcp 5 and then make my decision if I need a new computer.

You might have a tough time running FCP5 on a 933... I've allways been a proponent of CPU upgrades and it's a pretty easy step for the g4 line if you're at all comfortable inside a computer.

Powerlogix and Sonnet make good cards and it's a whole lot cheaper than a new g5! As far as I can tell the current top dog card for your machine should be a Dual 1.8 Ghz. Theoretically 4 times faster than your 933.