Hoping to buy a.......

[veritas]

12' PowerBook g4 in a month or 2. ive been post on some mac fourms and all trying to get info and all before i make the switch from pc to mac.

these are my specs that i want
• 768MB DDR333 (256MB built-in + 512MB SO-DIMM)
• 100GB Ultra ATA drive @5400rpm
• 8x SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• AirPort Extreme Card
• Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
• 1.5GHz PowerPC G4
• NVIDIA GeForce FX GO 5200 with 64MB DDR Video Memory
• 12.1-inch TFT Display

since i will be doing video editing mostly, with some work like typing, web browsing and all that. do you think this will suffice?or will a 14' ibook do?(with the superdrive 768mb and 80g)i cant really afford a 15 or 17' or else i would have gone with one of those. so can you guys help a newbie out. is this good for mainly editing im also gettin final cut express, and i might also get an external hd later on. anything bad about the powerbooks too? thanksin advance.

 

[Chaszmyr]

The computer itself is sufficient, but a 12'' screen really just isn't sufficient for video editing in my opinion. The PowerBooks can support external monitors, think about adding one of those

 

[Frank (Atlanta)]

I'm a newbie to video editing; however, I was informed one wants/needs a HD that spins at 7,200 RPM to avoid dropped frames, etc. if you're capturing from a video cam/mini DV.

Of course, you could just purchase an external HD to support your video clips.

Good luck,
Frank

 

[edesignuk]

Do you need to be portable?

 

[Lacero]

12" PB only comes with 1 firewire port and a slow 4200RPM harddrive. You could capture to the internal HD without dropping frames, but its not big enough to hold more than 3 hours tops.

The 15" PB is the better machine for DV editing. The PC slot can be used to add another firewire port so your camera and firewire HD don't have to share the same firewire channel. Most apps require more than 10x7 res to work efficiently.

 

[revenuee]

I'm a newbie to video editing; however, I was informed one wants/needs a HD that spins at 7,200 RPM to avoid dropped frames, etc. if you're capturing from a video cam/mini DV.

Of course, you could just purchase an external HD to support your video clips.

Good luck,
Frank

this is a fact faster drives are recommended for that reason

... but i'll be honest ... i captured miniDV to both 5400, 7200, and even 10,000 rpm SCSI drives -- and didn't notice a difference ... now if you are working with HDV then i could see that being a whole different ball game

you would be okay for editing in final cut pro on a 12" if you are just assembling your shots, or slicing them, but for serious work like color correction, CGI, and alike, you would definitely need to interface with a second monitor so that you can work more easily ... but i think this would be the same case with a 15", so i don't know

 

[Jo-Kun]

The 15" PB is the better machine for DV editing. The PC slot can be used to add another firewire port so your camera and firewire HD don't have to share the same firewire channel. Most apps require more than 10x7 res to work efficiently.

the 15" has a FW400 and a FW800 connection so you can connect the camera to the FW400 and get a nice FW800Drive to capture on ;-) no need for a PC card... or use the USB2 ports too but I prefer FireWire over USB...

 

[h0e0h]

i use my 12" for vid editing with the stock 60 gig 4200 HD to capture and i have never had a problem. When i get done with a project (usually less than 10 minutes of final vid) i burn the raw files to a DVD+R and the finished product to a DVD-R and it seems to work fine. Yes an external HD would be great to have, but i don't really want to buy one right now. I think in the near future i'm going to add a FW HD and a MIDI keyboard to add to my music collection. Good luck with your selections tho... enjoy the PB...

and like i said.. my 12" is great...

 

[veritas]

well, i am gonna get a hd later on, will an usb hd work good enough? or does IT have to b firewire? i'm also thinking of hooking it up to an external monitor aswell. so other than the pb should be good for my editing and for my everyday computing?

 

[CanadaRAM]

well, i am gonna get a hd later on, will an usb hd work good enough? or does IT have to b firewire? i'm also thinking of hooking it up to an external monitor aswell. so other than the pb should be good for my editing and for my everyday computing?

Ooh Ooh... USB 2.0 hard drives bad. Firewire hard drives good. Firewire 800 hard drives even better if you have a 15" PB G4.

 

[veritas]

Ooh Ooh... USB 2.0 hard drives bad. Firewire hard drives good. Firewire 800 hard drives even better if you have a 15" PB G4.

well since im gonna get the 12" and only has one firewire port and 2 would be nice so that way i could plug in my cam and hd, damn any other way i could do this?

 

[Romulan]

12" PB only comes with 1 firewire port and a slow 4200RPM harddrive. You could capture to the internal HD without dropping frames, but its not big enough to hold more than 3 hours tops.

The 15" PB is the better machine for DV editing. The PC slot can be used to add another firewire port so your camera and firewire HD don't have to share the same firewire channel. Most apps require more than 10x7 res to work efficiently.

They upgraded all the hard drives to 5400 RPM in the latest Rev.

 

[Romulan]

Like edesignuk said, do you absolutely need to be portable? From what you've said, you haven't mentioned anything about this. If you don't, definately go for a tricked out imac G5. That would be way better for what you're doing.

 

[veritas]

Like edesignuk said, do you absolutely need to be portable? From what you've said, you haven't mentioned anything about this. If you don't, definately go for a tricked out imac G5. That would be way better for what you're doing.

yeah i kinda do want it to be portable i'll have to see cuz the 15" is above 2gs too much for me. or else that means im gonaa have to get my mom to put it on her credit card and me just pay it off. im gonna go check out an imac right now.