I have been stuck in the quagmire of Windoze desktops and notebooks, and I recently went to an Apple store to check out Apple's offerings. I liked the interface of OS X so much that I am ready to switch. I am particularly interested in converting my entire analog collection of home videos for editing and burning to DVD. I would also like to do the same with all my MiniDV tapes. I would like to purchase a portable that can adequately manage the task of hours of video editing. I have read through various threads in these forums, and I am concerned that a Powerbook 17" 1 Ghz may make for a painful undertaking due to speed. I would appreciate some assistance in this regard to be sure I am making the right decision before I plunk down a fat wad of cash on a Powerbook.
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Windoze Convert needs info on PB and video editing?
- Thread starter adrobinson
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It'll fly dude. I do a bunch of FCE on my 12 inch and its slower clock and lacks L3 and it does more than fine. Your only slow point will be encoding with iDVD, it will be plenty fast comparitivly, but it takes a long time to encode a DVD no matter what computer. On my powermac i usually let it encode over night, that way i just show up and its good to go. But the 17 incher will be great for just vhs to dvd, its probley overkill for it.
Absolutely get the 17" PowerBook (Or wait for the eventual update of them). I use Final Cut Express on my 1 GHz 15" with 1 GB RAM and it is incredibly speedy. I can only imagine that the 17" with PC2700 DDR Ram would be faster.
Like the other guys said, the DVD encoding might be a bit slow, but that's to be expected on a laptop. Unless you want to get a G5 or iMac, the PowerBook is the only (yet still the besst) portable option.
Like the other guys said, the DVD encoding might be a bit slow, but that's to be expected on a laptop. Unless you want to get a G5 or iMac, the PowerBook is the only (yet still the besst) portable option.
DDR RAM wouldn't make the computer any faster for two reasons:
-The bus is slow enough that even the PC-133 stuff will saturate the bus.
-The G4 doesn't actually support DDR.
DDR is only there to look good. The only advantage to the 17" PB is the screen size, graphics card, and built-in Bluetooth.
-The bus is slow enough that even the PC-133 stuff will saturate the bus.
-The G4 doesn't actually support DDR.
DDR is only there to look good. The only advantage to the 17" PB is the screen size, graphics card, and built-in Bluetooth.
I just purchased a new 17inch pb (i couldt wait any longer) i am kind of a convert, but i still have my trusty performa, 1st gen power pc, and apple IIsi but recently i have had a p2 and p4, what i want to know is if the stock 512 ram is sufficient to carry out my photoshop work and final cut express which i just bought.
I as well will be purchsing my first Mac shortly (Dual G5 
)
I am interested in coverting my analog stuff as well. My plan was to feed my Hi8 into my miniDV camera , then into my Mac. Any other alternatives?
)I am interested in coverting my analog stuff as well. My plan was to feed my Hi8 into my miniDV camera , then into my Mac. Any other alternatives?
Flynnstone there is another option which is using a media converter (about $200) with your analog camera and capturing the footage directly to your Mac. This will cut out the step of transferring to your MiniDV cam first, but there is a reason not to dot this if you are using FCP which is you won't be able to log and capture. Your only option would be to "capture now" then you will have to manually save and name each clip. Now that I think of it you may be able to use you MiniDV camera as a pass trough converter without buying anything else but I'm not sure good luck!
Thanks for all the helpful info. I am going to hold out another week to see if Steve will be gracious enough to bless us with an updated 17" Powerbook. As far as converting the analog Hi8 tapes, my MiniDV does allow pass-through straight to the firewire connection, which will eliminate the need for any external converter break-out box. (At least I won't have to shell out another $200 on top of the PB)
Originally posted by Flynnstone
I as well will be purchsing my first Mac shortly (Dual G5
I am interested in coverting my analog stuff as well. My plan was to feed my Hi8 into my miniDV camera , then into my Mac. Any other alternatives?
There are also things like the Dazzle that allow for video capture through your firewire port. I don't have any experience with them myself, but have heard it works well if you have a lot of this stuff to do.
Using MiniDV Cam as pass through
It is true you will need to capture and log your files manually.
But a word of advice when working with MiniDV...do not use your Cam for editing back and forth, you can actually wear it out. Separate MiniDV player/recorder is the best way to edit video. It is made to take the abuse.
By the way, I edit on a PB G4 667 and I have little problems. However DVD authoring I do on a dual 1.4. So I can not comment on the speed on PBs.
It is true you will need to capture and log your files manually.
But a word of advice when working with MiniDV...do not use your Cam for editing back and forth, you can actually wear it out. Separate MiniDV player/recorder is the best way to edit video. It is made to take the abuse.
By the way, I edit on a PB G4 667 and I have little problems. However DVD authoring I do on a dual 1.4. So I can not comment on the speed on PBs.
-adrobinson
If you wish to do FCX or FCP - heavy duty editing on a PowerBook, that's fine. However, I strongly recommend you use an external HD like an OWC Mercury for file and scratch disk - take the pressure off of the armiture of your boot drive.
If you wish to do FCX or FCP - heavy duty editing on a PowerBook, that's fine. However, I strongly recommend you use an external HD like an OWC Mercury for file and scratch disk - take the pressure off of the armiture of your boot drive.