Powerbook for Editing
 

Will I be able to edit on my G4 Powerbook, 15", 60GB, 1.2K MHZ, 512 MB ram? I got the best one available without any custom upgrades, so is that good enough for smooth editing? If these statistics aren't good enough, what should I upgrade to?

I want to get Premiere or Final Cut ASAP, but for now I'm planning to use iMovie.

That model of PB will work fine as an editing station. But you really need to increase your memory to 1Gb. Video editing can be a very memory-intensive operation. You should also plan on using an external Firewire drive for your footage, not the internal system drive.

For big projects you will need more memory. FCP projects can get quite big. It is not hard to get them up to 30MB. With 10 undos, that's about 330MB just for project files in RAM.

I am not sure if FCP handles projects like that but it does make sense.

2- Some people are more successful capturing to the internal drive on the laptop then to an external drive. If you want success with the internal drive, then faster is better (i.e. 5400rpm instead of 4200rpm). Also, bigger is better (more GB is slightly better) but to a much lesser degree.

For external drives, you may want to get a PCMIA firewire card if your configuration does not work. Look for firewire drives with the oxford 911 chipset or FW800 drives.

You will need an external drive if you do not have enough room. DV is ~13GB/hour and there is less useful drive space than you think (about 85% is the max you can use for video and all your software). This is because the computer numbering system is different than th drive numbering system and you lose some space to file formatting, so a 200GB drive may only give 180GB. Also, you need to leave some room to avoid file fragmentation (more than 90% gets sticky).

IMO you can be fine with 60GB and 512MB. You just have to keep project complexity down, which you have to anyways considering it's a powerbook.

4- There's no point getting Premiere on Mac unless it's free or something like that. You'll probably like FCExpress or FCPro better.

Edit: I can't foresee a project of mine longer than 30-40 minutes, so I don't think length is a problem. I do plan on buying an external in the future though. As for needing extra ram, how would I go about installing it? Need a professional to do that?

Thanks for all the info!

you wouldn;t need a professional to help you upgrade your RAM...

so not to worry...
its more like a plug and play kinda thing

Exporting my final cut out to tape on my DVX 100
 

I am trying to record my finished cut back to mini dv into my DVX 100 from the computer(FCP4) but am not getting audio? Only getting video. Does the svideo input have anything to do with this? Help would be awesome, thanx

Are you using firewire? Check your preferences and make sure you have control of your device. Use Print to video and check the settings.

I just transferred to VHS through my DVCam via firewire and RCA (video, audio L-R) cables yesterday so it is all working fine. Check your cables and preference settings.

Good luck.

S-Video (S-VHS) only carries a video signal, no audio. To record audio using S-Video, you also need to use RCA audio cables. FireWire carries both audio and video.

Fcp Hd Fo' Free?
 

I was just on the apple site, and from the looks of it ,I can upgrade ("Update") from FCP4 to FCPHD for nothing. That is no $'s. Is this true? Crazy. Will I still need the lumiere hd thingy?
I'm still learning my way through FCP, but it looks like I'll be shooting a project on an HD10 later this year, so I'd like to get my NLE suite ready to go.
Thanks
Michael

Thanx for the reply, yes I am using firewire and everything seems to work fine except the audio signal does not output. When I digitize into my FCP the video and audio transfer fine. Is it possible that its my DVX 100 thats the problem? Doesn't make sense, I should be getting audio when I output my project to the camera from FPC, right?

Just making sure of what is going on -

1) Your camera is attached to the computer via firewire?

2) Your camera is attached to your monitor via s-video?

3) Is your camera attached to your monitor with any audio cable?

4) When you say you are getting no audio, is it via the monitor or are you double-checking the tape? How are you double-checking the tape (how is the camera attached to the monitor)?

Yes, the update is free. Whether or not you will need an additional capture card or can capture the HD via firewire I think depends on the camera? At least on of the Panasonics will let you capture directly via firewire with no card, not sure about any other HD camera.

NIWOT?
 

Thanks Jeff, I'm right down the road from you as I type this- in Longmont, at the Seagate plant. Niwot is a very nice little town. I go there for lunch from time to time.

Michael

So, when do we see 250 gb SATA Seagate drives with the same sort of rebate discounts that CompUSA always has on the smaller Seagate SATA drives? I would have loved to have gotten a Seagate but ended up with a Maxtor (which, I guess, is another local company...)

All right, I know this is OT.....

I was unaware that people actually PAY for disc drives. That is so very strange- I mean... what?

Actually, Jeff, I am a lowly test engineer (don't get excited, I only test packaging, Newton's Laws are the most complicated science I deal with- that and this crap @$$ PC they make me work on)

I would also like a 250 GB sata drive, but right now I have about 500 gigs of storage at home so I'm not going to complain too much.

Sigh... Maybe next year.
Michael