HDV/FX1 Editing in FCP...DPG4 OK?
 

Hi,
I am wondering if my Dual G4/1.25 will be fast enough to edit 1 or 2 streams in realtime (with FCP). I know FCP isn't out yet with HDV support, but I'm wondering if I'll need to upgrade to a G5 at the same time I get an FX-1?!
Otherwise my DPG4 doesn't slow me down with DV work...I'm happy with the performance and don't feel I NEED a G5 so far.
I know DV/HDV are both 25mbit but I understand HDV will require more processing power(?) so should the G4 do the trick for a while?
Any suggestions or comments from Mac HDV users would be appreciated.
Thanks everyone,

Brian Broz

I haven't used Macs lately, but if you plan to do any significant amount of HDV work you'll want the best computer you can afford for either platform. HDV has significantly more pixels per frame than DV with greater compression, so it requires more processing power even though the recording bandwidth is similar.

My understanding is that the HDV bitrate is comparable to regular DV, or 25mb/s running an Mpeg 2 stream. Check here:
<http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/quicktour/fcpcolor.html>

Your Mac should work, although slower than the G5. I have the G4 dual 1gig. You gotta jump in the water at some point. In another couple of years, it may be time to abandon ship and look for the latest/fastest again. I hate when that happens.

Jeff P.

If your Mac can comfortably decode 6 DV streams in full res, then it should be able to decode one 1080i HDV stream. 1440x1080 has 4.5 times the number of pixels as DV, and the single MPEG decode is unlikely to thread across two CPUs, therefore you are stuck doing 4.5 times the work with half the CPU power. I expect G5s to be Apple's minimum configuration for 1080i HDV editing.

Thanks David,
I was afraid you'd say that. Not that I'd mind a G5, but buying the FX-1 and a new computer at the same time will be scary!
Oh, and a larger screen to view HD.
We'll just have to wait and see what Apple does,

Brian

If money is tight, I'd say buy the camera first and then see what you need in terms of a new computer and an HD monitor. Or buy the HDTV first, crack open a beer and let everyone else trouble-shot the new HDV stuff while you watch football!

:-)