1080i dvcpro hd on a powerbook
 

Hello,
can you guys tell me if I will be able to edit the new sony cam footage with DVCPRO HD codec with the help of Lumiere HD on a Powerbook G4 or I need to have a G5 with final cut pro HD?? I travel a lot and right now using PC and with PC I can edit on the road but would like to move to Mac`s.

Gabor,

If you want to edit the footage on a Powerbook there is no need to use DVCPRO HD1080i, you might as well use DV anamorphic to preserve all your realtime benefits.

You can then autoconform your timeline using the Lumiere HD XML prework to the source MPEG2 Program Stream 1080i for color correction and final render.

This is expecially true if you never get to watch the footage in full resolution when you edit.

Frederic

If you want to edit HDV footage on a portable computer it would be silly to switch from PCs to Macs for this purpose. PC editing software is leaps and bounds ahead of Final Cut Pro in terms of options for dealing with HDV material, and PC laptops are far more powerful than the fastest Powerbooks at a significantly lower price. With all due respect to the good things Apple is doing for DV editing and DVD production, they've missed the boat in terms of getting ready for HDV and they're a full generation behind (or more) in terms of laptop performance.

If you already have a decent PC laptop (~2.4 GHz or better), you can do HDV editing in real time using Adobe Premiere with the Cineform Aspect HD plugin, or you can edit HDV on a less advanced basis using Sony Vegas, Pinnacle Liquid Edition, Ulead Media Studio Pro, Edius for HDV, etc. All of these programs offer more efficient HDV workflow than anything I've seen described for Macs, particularly if you need a portable solution. Also note that Macs apparently lack support for generating HD output in the Windows Media format, which is likely to be one of the most desired options for at least the next year or so.

I don't see any rational way to make a case for doing HDV editing on a PowerBook once you've discovered the options for doing so on PC laptops, especially if you're currently using PCs. This won't stop people from doing good HDV work on PowerBooks, but they'll have to go to a lot more trouble and take a lot more time doing it.