Which MacBook Pro for Final Cut editing

My wife and I are "on the road" fulltime and have been for almost 8 years. At the end of this month I'm picking up my new Gates housing for my "also new" V1. Our problem is we don't have a "home base" so owning an Apple Mac Pro desktop workstation is out of the question.

Here's the question- FCP on a Macbook Pro- to edit HVR-V1's 24P? Is it possible? Even if it were painfully slow- can the Macbook Pro handle 24p editing?

I ask this because the next purchase is going to be to upgrade to a new Macbook. sigh. Is there any light at the end of this UW video tunnel?

Steve J. is supposed to give his keynote within a day or so and I'm sure there's a newer, faster, model out there coming our way- so if anyone has any opinion on the new hardware once it's announced, I'm all eyes.

thanks!

shep

SHep

the MBP is of course capable of running every FCS2 program, with the exception of Color which needs the resolution of 1680 that only the 17" has.

The other restriction is drive space. RAID 0 FW800 drives can handle up to 3 streams of ProRes 4:2:2 I think. Being on the road a lot, I'd wait for the LED 17" and get that one.

Drew,

Thanks on this. Your answer(s) leads me to another question or two......

RAID is out of the question with weight restrictions on airlines below the equator here so it'd be an external hard drive. I've purchased a 7200 RPM, 200gig drive- a portable, bus powered- hopefully it'll do the job, even if slowly? I think you're going to say it'll drop frames? It's the only thing I could come up with that was portable- it's that "ruggedized", overpriced La Cie drive.

Then as to your comment on waiting for the "new" 17" LED- I can wait, of course, seeing how Steve J. didn't serve us up one today- maybe mid- year, who knows.

Besides the LED cool factor(?)- what is the reason for waiting- is there a new chip set coming out or faster bus, both- or is there something about the LED that makes it better? Just curious.

I used to own one of the original 17" PB, I guess it's time to look at owning one again.....

thanks in advance for an answer/ opinion on this.

Shep

there are 500GB striped RAID FW800 drive enclosures available from G-tech upgradeable to 640 or higher when the drives become available.

Depending on the codec you use, it could possible drop frames on playback. HDV oth, can easily be handled by normal drives.

LED is more even and has wider gamut. It also uses less power. I'm waiting for LED backlit monitors hit the big time. The new Samsung XL24 is a good example of things to come.

Drew,

you wrote...."there are 500GB striped RAID FW800 drive enclosures available from G-tech upgradeable to 640 or higher when the drives become available."

I found the website for the RAID portable systems. Very nifty and affordable. Do you know if it's possible to run the RAID and DL from a camcorder at the same time? I guess what I'm asking, is there an issue with enough power supply through the bus to power the RAID and take footage off of a camera or deck?

I have had this problem with my MacBook as I can't run more than two drives at a time off of the bus- it just dies on the vine, so to speak...

thanks in advance for an answer, if you have one that is!

shep

I believe the firewire bus is one bus shared by the 2 1394 plugs. The camera 1394 connection does not demand power. So it shouldn't be a problem on juice. I do remember people having problems daisy chaining 1394a devices and capturing. I don't do that so I can't say if that is the problem with FW800 nowadays. I have captured with my FW800 plugged in, but I usually capture to the main drive, then transfer to the external drive.

So, are the "new" updated 17" MPB's the one to get.....this is such a funny question as I know the answer is "there's something on the horizon".....

The new MBP 17" has the LED option and a different video board? So, this "newer" chip coming out in the near future I kinda hear about- is it just about battery performance or is there a real performance boost coming when using FCP?

I mean I can wait until next year to see if there's something new in the way of the 17" or do I go for it now? So just who knows what the folks at Apple are coming up with- ha! More secret than White House e-mails it seems.

Any suggestions?

thanks in advance for some thoughts.

shep

I mean I can wait until next year to see if there's something new in the way of the 17" or do I go for it now? So just who knows what the folks at Apple are coming up with- ha! More secret than White House e-mails it seems.

 

Any suggestions?

Like cameras, computers are changing quickly and there will always be something faster and better right around the corner. Usually it is not a good idea to purchase something right before a major show (MacWorld, CES) because the new things are usually announced then. The new chips for the MacBook Pro are going to come sometime in the next few months it seems (rumors are pretty strong that something will happen in June, who knows, but if you are in no rush I would wait a few months). There are rumors (a lot more speculative) that there will be 4 core laptops in the next year or so.

Bottom line is that at some point you cannot worry too much about the next latest greatest. Of course it can affect a decision somewhat (such as if you can hold off until June or so because not having the equipment today is not going to change things for you too much.)

In other words - are the gains of getting a new piece of equipment sooner rather than later, with the understanding that the next wave will be better/cheaper, still worth it to you now?

Anyway I have a first generation 17" MacBook Pro - smaller video card (256 Megs), max out RAM at 2 Gigs, smaller stock internal drive and $1,000 more than the machine that are here now. Does everything fine in Final Cut Studio, and use cards to attach eSATA and FW800 as needed. I have done alot of work with it and no complaints, other than I would have probably gotten the 15" model for dive trips (the initial 15" model did not have FW800 and there were no express cards out at the time which is why I got the 17". Though it is a bit of a pain on dive trips it is nice to have. On non-dive trips where I need a powerful system, no complaints at all.)

The Real Drew....you wrote...."There are rumors (a lot more speculative) that there will be 4 core laptops in the next year or so. "

That would seem to be worth waiting for. I'm planning on heading to SF next January to MacWorld as I haven't been in about 10 years so maybe it's just worth waiting for. I've owned the first 17" as well and this time, for once, I'm not in a hurry.

Thanks- I pretty much expected the answer you gave....if only Jobs would make product announcements like L&M....we hear early on and then get the product much later than promised- at least we know what's coming!

thanks for the reply.

shep