I am considering the benefit of a portable solution using final cut pro.
What should i look for in a powerbook, ie ram and space.
Also i would need to get SDI or at the very least component analog into it. Is this possible?

CHeers,
Ben Gurvich

I have just read the sticky section and its not looking good for SDI.

Maybe the AJA IO could help you get SDI into your laptop?

However, I don't think you can get the disk space and speed to sustain it unless you get one of those FW800 RAID devices (GRAID I think). Definitely not portable, although you can use proxies/offline/media manager so that you can edit on your laptop without having to drag the RAID device around.

Media manager may be a little buggy with oddball framerates like 24p.

So Im definately asking too mcuh in a portable system.

Heres an easier question.
Will FCP play back files with the media100 codec.
Basically Im looking at networking my own laptop to my works Media100. Cutting on my laptop and sending it back to my works Media100 for master to tape/xdcam etc.

Does this require a new post?

I don't think this requires a new post as it's still your issue.

As far as Media100 goes, I know very little about it. I suppose it all depends if you can get the Media100 codec (or whatever they use) into FCP, which I'm guessing isn't possible.

seems id have to convert all my footage prior to getting it onto the powerbook, wich would take forever, defeating the purpose!