Same Day Edit - HELP
 

I am just venturing into the SDE world and need some advice.

1. what is the best portable MAC to use?
2. what settings should I use within FCP for speed when editing footage from a Panasonic HMC-150 AVCHD cam? I notice now that when I edit in PreRess it takes a long time to output.
3. do you output from the computer to screen or use a DVD?

Thanks,

Jason

Hey Jason,

There was an excellent SDE thread recently which should answer some of your questions:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/wedding-e...ps-tricks.html

Cheers,

Matt.

Hi Jason,

The best set up is a MacBook Pro, and because you have a camera that uses the AVCHD codec you should get the fastest one you can afford. Read on...

Unfortunately you're entering a world of hurt if you try to work with AVCHD in FCP with any kind of deadline. Unlike HDV that can just be placed on an fcp timeline (best set up for ProRes 422 8bit 1440x1080 instead of natively editing in HDV) AVCHD has to be transcoded to ProRes first before FCP will even touch it. Being that I do same-days nearly every weekend I won't even consider a camera that uses AVCHD as a codec. Maybe someone with experience with your camera who is also using FCP can chime in with how much time it takes to trascode their footage to ProPres. It could be that if you start feeding your computer the cards as often as possible by the time you're ready to cut it you'll have some footage to work with while another app (compressor) works on the more recently shot clips.

Presenting:
I've been outputting HD presentations for nearly a year now - right off the FCP timeline. I use a 50' DVI cable to go from a MacBook Pro directly to the DVI input on an HD projector. OSX recognizes it as the second monitor and will automatically set the resolution. In FCP select Cinema Desktop Preview for your external view. Play right back off the timeline. Never had a problem (though I edit with laptops only so I've grown to trust them). For audio because I have the laptop far from the projector I'm able to have a short run from the headphone jack to the DJ or band's mixer or to my own portable powered speakers.

What if I ran Edius on a MAC using Bootcamp? Heard it can handle AVCHD right outa the box.

Hi Jason,

I have not ran Edius on a mac, but I know on a fast i7 processor, Edius cannot edit AVCHD. It will play AVCHD on the timeline for a few seconds, but nothing that you can edit with.

I do know that Grass Valley is working feverously to get Edius up to speed with AVCHD and I will be so glad when they do.

Hi Jason,

Real world information here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/panasonic...hd-prores.html

And keep in mind that that those estimates of conversion time are based on using an 8-core tower - not something you normally think of as portable...