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Video Editing!

M

Mello1me

macrumors member
Original poster
Hello everyone,

I will be editing about 30 hours (Final product) of video in the next few months. What Mac is best? Imac? 17inch MBP? Macpro?

Also 4bg of ram or 8gb?

Thanks for the help!
 
What editing application will you use with what kind of source footage? What will be the final product (DVD, BluRay, broadcast, ...)?
How much source footage will you have in hours (estimate)? Will it be multi-cam?

While a MacBook Pro and iMac are capable of editing with today's HD footage, a Mac Pro is the best beast to do so, especially with storage options and CPU and GPU options it has.
 
I use one of the 24" iMacs as my main editing machine and it works fine but is showing its age. The new 27" iMacs have plenty of power. FCP7 and After Effects.
 
Mello1me said:
Hello everyone,

I will be editing about 30 hours (Final product) of video in the next few months. What Mac is best? Imac? 17inch MBP? Macpro?

Also 4bg of ram or 8gb?

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

All of the above will be able to handle your needs.

If you don't need portability, then scratch the MBP off.

If new MPs roll out soon, then def look at them, however if you need something now I don't think you can go past a 27" iMac.

I'd get the top iMac, but with the dual SSD/HDD set up. Depending on your budget, you may want to spring for a Pegasus TB unit. Put in some extra RAM, min 12GB total, pref 16GB.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
What editing application will you use with what kind of source footage? What will be the final product (DVD, BluRay, broadcast, ...)?
How much source footage will you have in hours (estimate)? Will it be multi-cam?

While a MacBook Pro and iMac are capable of editing with today's HD footage, a Mac Pro is the best beast to do so, especially with storage options and CPU and GPU options it has.
Click to expand...

As far as editing I will be using iMovie. I am making videos of power point presentations. So basicly i will be recording my screen and then overlaying the variouse presenters voices. Final product will be on my companys Vimeo Pro account. Any idea how to to this the best? Screen flow? Built in Podcast maker?
 
Mello1me said:
As far as editing I will be using iMovie. I am making videos of power point presentations. So basicly i will be recording my screen and then overlaying the variouse presenters voices. Final product will be on my companys Vimeo Pro account. Any idea how to to this the best? Screen flow? Built in Podcast maker?
Click to expand...

For that any current or older Mac will suffice. I do that, though not to that extent, on my 2007 iMac and 2009 MBP.
But since YouTube only supports TV aspect ratios like 4:3 and 16:9 a 16:9 display, like the current iMacs, might be best, especially if you stay stationary.
Yesterday I made this 1280 x 800 pixel screen recording via ScreenFlow (fantastic application), but it looks like this in 720p on YouTube (you have to choose 720p to see, what I mean).
ScreenFlow also offers you to export the recorded movie with the correct settings (.mov using Apple Intermediate Codec for Video and Uncompressed for Sound), but it also offers you to add your own sound files, thus there may be no need for iMovie and that transcoding step.
Feel free to ask more questions, if you don't already. 😉
 
simsaladimbamba said:
For that any current or older Mac will suffice. I do that, though not to that extent, on my 2007 iMac and 2009 MBP.
But since YouTube only supports TV aspect ratios like 4:3 and 16:9 a 16:9 display, like the current iMacs, might be best, especially if you stay stationary.
Yesterday I made this 1280 x 800 pixel screen recording via ScreenFlow (fantastic application), but it looks like this in 720p on YouTube (you have to choose 720p to see, what I mean).
ScreenFlow also offers you to export the recorded movie with the correct settings (.mov using Apple Intermediate Codec for Video and Uncompressed for Sound), but it also offers you to add your own sound files, thus there may be no need for iMovie and that transcoding step.
Feel free to ask more questions, if you don't already. 😉
Click to expand...

So would the basic 21 iMac work? (maybe a ram bump)

Also should I use Screen Flow?
 
Mello1me said:
So would the basic 21 iMac work? (maybe a ram bump)
Click to expand...
Yes, that should work perfectly, but get RAM from a third party like Newegg, as 8 GB from them costs less than 50 USD, while 8 GB from Apple costs 200 USD, and the advantage of buying from Newegg is that you can use your already present 4 GB, which Apple will remove when you buy RAM from them.
Also think about getting one or two external HDDs for storing the video footage and audio clips and for backing up that media.

Also should I use Screen Flow?
Click to expand...
If you already have a Mac, give it a try. I tried several, and ScreenFlow was the one, that convinced me, but I have an editing background, thus its features and UI spoke to me.

PS: As iMovie is still 32-bit, you will only be able to use 2 GB RAM with it.
Maybe have a look at FCP X and Motion, if you want more features? I guess, you haven't edited video yet?
 
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