Mac book editing system
 

Need some input on a field editing system for dv

Macbook 2.0 ghz intel core 2 duo
2gb ram
120 gig hard drive
super drive 6x

Finalcut studio software package

This will be used for on site rough cutting and in office editing. We will be looking for an external hard drive system for the office .

Questions are is how much dv video can I work with glitch free on this system on the road and what upgrades would be preferred memory ect. As well advice on external drives for in office and field work would be apprieciated. Our average bulk footage is less than 2 hours. PS if this is simply under the radar in terms of getting it done feel free to suggest analternative we have money in the budget and what we are looking for is a reliable and solid field editing system that will get the job done no questioned asked.

Thank s in advance

2 hours is roughly 24g. You have plenty of room. I would only worry when the drive is under 2g free space and even then it will probably behave well.

hi John

the field system you spec'd should be fine, although I would recommend the MacBook Pro over the MacBook as it would prove more useful when used with other FCS applications. the MacBook can't handle Motion as its graffics card is not heavyweight enough ... also as FCP transitions to more GPU dependent code (hopefully in the near future) then the MBPro would not be outdated overnight.

if it were me I would get a bus-powered external drive for field use. Lacie are targetting this area with their "Rugged" branded line, although I much prefer their much more capable "Little Big Disk" for this.

and if I had the external drive in my field kit then I would downsize my internal disc to the smaller, but faster, 100 gig.

(as for how full to allow your disc to become ... word to the wise is for best performance NEVER let it get more than 80% full ... word to the even wiser is that if you do let it become overlly full you can potentially corrupt OS X preference data)

hope thats useful
Andy

Thanks for the insight so far. I was concerned about the system running all the studio programs. I plan on upping to the Mac book pro in the next six months but would rather not spend the extra grand right now if we dont have to. From all sources so far it sounds like I can get the results I am hunting without taking that dive just yet.

Thanks for the help and the tips on external storage I will be working hard on researching that in the coming days. I got 30 days to be ready to travel for four months. Good news is the cameras just spent 5 days in Texas filming waterfowl and performed flawlessly. Were not totally behind in getting prepared!