12 inch PB capable of fulfilling my video on the go needs?

[Spidey79]

Hey guys and gals. LIke many people I have been behind the scenes and I make random comments.. HAHA.. But anyways I have a pc 3.0 ghz at home with an external 200 gig hd. It is great for doing video editing, gaming, and all of the other stuff. I bought an ibook two months ago and I am hooked on mac. HAHA.. First of all I want a powerbook, but the 15inch seems to big for me. I mainly want to do video editing on it because I know final cut is really good and if you want to go with video editing a mac is good enough. I am going to give my ibook to my sis. Of course I am going to have to wait for the powerbooks to be updated because I want a better video card. The 5200 and the 9550 are not that far behind each other. Plus the mac is way better. I would buy a kvm switch to use it as a desktop also to span. Is the 12 inch powerbook with superdrive adequate enough to run final cut really good? I know I have an option of the imac, but I have my pc and I do not find it useful to have a pc and an imac. Plus the powerbook consumes a lot less power. I am going to make a video yearbook for my club and that might require capturing and uploading pics on the fly. Am I making a good decision or am I better sticking with my pc? I need feeback and insight... BTw I am running the ati 9550 128 mb card on my pc. None of my friends had ever heard of it.. HAHA

 

[rinseout]

Is your iBook really not up to the task? If not, is your memory maxed out?

If you're considering buying a 12" PB to replace a recent iBook, you should know that the capabilities of these machines are quite close. The PB, as you say, will be better for screen-spanning etc.

Have you actually tried to accomplish what you want on your iBook, yet? It sounds like you haven't.

I personally would not change your set up. Given the outlook on new machines, etc., spend some money on more memory and an external DVD burner for your iBook (if it makes sense to do that) and use it for your projects for the next 12-18 months. The PB line is better in certain respects, sure, but you're doing a video yearbook, not cutting together scenes for next season's 24 while on set. I just don't see the need for trading up.

 

[Spidey79]

Oh okay.. What I mean was that I use adobe premiere pro. I use all of the fancy stuff, I edit movies, raw dv footage. nothing in imovie that can satisfy me. I am into the big leagues like fcp not imovie... Hmm thanks for the advice.. You are right, I have no meaxed out the ram, and my biggest gripe is my ram and hd. I need a bigger hd. I also mean that the video editing is dv raw footage from my canon lz200. I also upload pics and use music. I used to the pro stuff . Long gone are my days od windows movie maker and imovie.

 

[OziMac]

I use FCP on the go all the time with a 1.2GHz iBook with 512MB RAM and hooked up to an external firewire hard drive. Other than the lack of some real time filters and effects, I've had no problems whatsoever with running it. The performance is as good and render times are similiar, if not better, than when I used it previously on my old 1GHz Powerbook or 1GHz eMac (though not as good as on the G5).

I am thinking of upgrading to a new 1.33GHz iBook with 80GB hard drive, to make the process slightly easier and so that I can consider dumping the external drive. But for editing video on the go in FCP, the iBook G4 is a fine and very economical solution (especially in conjunction with a G5 as a base station), and the current relatively small performance difference in FCP between the iBook and the 12 inch Powerbook is probably not commensurate to the price difference.

But to answer your question, the 12 inch Powerbook will be fine for FCP on the go - though you may find the screen space a little limiting, but certainly not insufficient. Obviously the slightly increased performance (and certainly the increased screen space) of the 15 and 17 inch Powerbooks would be even better suited to the task.

Good luck with your purchase!

 

[Joul]

curious...

anyone have any advice as to how after effects would work on a 12"/ 15" powerbook?