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Editing with the new MBP's

B

bearvsshark

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 4, 2009
44
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Hi, I am currently attending college for motion picture/video editing and am at a stand still on what laptop I should purchase since my old one from 2006(HP) just doesn't cut it for HD video editing.

My main question is will I be able to edit HD video(720p,1080p) smoothly without many hitches on the new macbook pros?

I would be using the new final cut studios and be getting the 3.06ghrz, 4gigddr3 ram macbook pro.

Everything was good to go, but then I saw a sale for an HP laptop that had nvidia 130m graphics card, 4 gigs ram, and a 2.0ghrz core 2 quad processor.

The price of the hp with those specs was about $500 cheaper and if I wanted to up the ramm to 8 gigs and give it a 3.06ghrz core 2 duo processor, it would have been roughly the same amount.

Some drawbacks from getting the hp would be my inability to use final cut so I would need to get Adobe CS4 instead.

I would only be using my MBP for video editing/mac apps/diablo 3(when it releases), so would all that extra power on the HP be necessary?

Thanks.
 
I know several video editors who use and love MBPs, but all have expressed the importance of getting a fan cooling stand.
 
To be honest with you, it doesn't matter. Editing on the MBP would be better, but nothing is the same as editing on a desktop machine. It must be the hard drive. Every iMac or Power Mac I've edited on is miles ahead of any laptop.
 
emcham said:
I know several video editors who use and love MBPs, but all have expressed the importance of getting a fan cooling stand.
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any ideas where to get one that works well with MBP?

and my main question that I was hoping to get answered was will HD video editing(720p, 1080p) be smoothly on a MBP with those specs I listed?
 
For FCP, the MBP obviously is the way to go.

On the other hand, if you're editing with Avid or Premiere, the HP could have the upper hand (granted that you take care of the Windows environment) as it is a Quad core.

My opinion is FCP and the MBP (up the ram first), but if you aren't biased towards the Mac platform, I would seriously consider the HP.

Now if you are a heavy Motion (or whatever the equivalent is on Windows), the 9600GT has the upper hand over the 130GT. So that might be a concern.

Again, I'd recommend the Macbook Pro for visual arts, but I won't get into a Mac vs PC debate here.

Good luck!
 
SimD said:
For FCP, the MBP obviously is the way to go.

On the other hand, if you're editing with Avid or Premiere, the HP could have the upper hand (granted that you take care of the Windows environment) as it is a Quad core.

My opinion is FCP and the MBP (up the ram first), but if you aren't biased towards the Mac platform, I would seriously consider the HP.

Now if you are a heavy Motion (or whatever the equivalent is on Windows), the 9600GT has the upper hand over the 130GT. So that might be a concern.

Again, I'd recommend the Macbook Pro for visual arts, but I won't get into a Mac vs PC debate here.

Good luck!
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heavy motion? can you explain?

and are you saying that 4 gigs of ram on the MBP would not be enough to edit hd video smoothly with Final Cut Studios?
 
If I were you I'd get the 2.8GHz MacBook Pro with 4GB ram and the 9600GT w/ 512MB.
 
There is no way I'd using anything Apple makes for video editing (other than a mac pro maybe).

Apple is always so far behind in adopting processor technology that NLE's often surpass what little gains they do make with each successive version.

I don't even touch HD on anything less than a quad. Especially with formats that require transcoding before you even start editing.
 
Richard1028 said:
There is no way I'd using anything Apple makes for video editing (other than a mac pro maybe).

Apple is always so far behind in adopting processor technology that NLE's often surpass what little gains they do make with each successive version.

I don't even touch HD on anything less than a quad. Especially with formats that require transcoding before you even start editing.
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That's strange my Macbook Pro handles it pretty well..

and Mac Pro maybe?
 
I would say if you can wait a little and see more i7 machines to come out. That way you get a quad core machine with more power that can potentially generate less heat.
 
hmmm. i am torn now between getting the mbp or an imac with the same exact specs only a bigger HDD(1TB) and a better graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 4850).

i know i lose the portability part, but i save around 600-700 bucks and get more storage and a better video card.

decisions, decisions...

thanks a lot for your responses though guys, and on the final cut studios specs page, it says 4 gigs of ram is recommened when editing with uncompressed hd, so i'm thinking 4 will be enough, but i'm iffy on the nividia 9600m gt that comes with the mbp, seems like i would need the ATI Radeon HD 4850.
 
i've been using my macbook pro for editing/after effects at work, and it performs pretty decent for me. in fact i find my system crashes a lot less than the quad core mac pros we have at the office. granted that's probably not a typical scenario, and might stem from the office systems being maintained with less care.

that said, we must getting close to quad-core laptops in the next revision or so, so you might end up feeling jilted if you buy a mbp now only to see that leap occur in the next 6-8 months. sounds like you need something for school now, but maybe wait and see if there's a substantial imac update in the next couple weeks at least before making your final decision?
 
stevemiller said:
i've been using my macbook pro for editing/after effects at work, and it performs pretty decent for me. in fact i find my system crashes a lot less than the quad core mac pros we have at the office. granted that's probably not a typical scenario, and might stem from the office systems being maintained with less care.

that said, we must getting close to quad-core laptops in the next revision or so, so you might end up feeling jilted if you buy a mbp now only to see that leap occur in the next 6-8 months. sounds like you need something for school now, but maybe wait and see if there's a substantial imac update in the next couple weeks at least before making your final decision?
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do you think there will be new imacs released in the next few weeks? i heard the changes would only be cosmetic, but i mean, it's all rumors anyways. and you think they would update the mbps before fall 2010?
 
JustDom89 said:
That's strange my Macbook Pro handles it pretty well..
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Handles *what* exactly? FCP?, CS4? (Premiere, AfterFX).

I'm not saying a core2 is going to burst into flames. I just don't see why anybody would want to render on anything less than a quad. Even if it's a PC. OSX isn't worth this to me.

But if you've never used one though, I guess you'd be satisfied with anything.

and Mac Pro maybe?
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Yeah, that's what I said. :p
 
I edit 1080p 48Mb per second video just fine on Final Cut Studio on my 15" 2.8GHZ MBP. Adobe Premiere CS4 runs even smoother. I don't know what school you're going to but I'm at SVA (school of visual arts in Manhattan) and they preach FCS here. "60% of the industry is on FCS blah blah"
 
TH3D4RKKN1GH7 said:
I edit 1080p 48Mb per second video just fine on Final Cut Studio on my 15" 2.8GHZ MBP. Adobe Premiere CS4 runs even smoother. I don't know what school you're going to but I'm at SVA (school of visual arts in Manhattan) and they preach FCS here. "60% of the industry is on FCS blah blah"
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wow, i hope you are being serious cause that might be the deciding factor.

my main concern would be lag while editing hd video in FCS. if there is none and you can edit smoothly, then i will be happy with a MBP. i understand that rendering and encoding will take longer with only 4 gigs of ram and a core 2 duo processor, but things like that can be done overnight, when i'm not using the computer, ect...

I am currently attending community college that actually has a real good motion pictures department, but i will eventually be transferring to columbia college in chicago which requires you purchase a macbook pro for their program.

one quick question dark knight, is your macbook pro 15 inch the newest model from june 2009? and what video card/how much ram does it have?
thanks.
 
If you are worried a bit, I would wait, and see what i7 offerings Apple has, and then go from there. That way you get a quad core machine with enough power for your needs, and you get to run both windows and osx software.
 
mrsir2009 said:
Of course a desktop like an iMac or a Mac Pro would be better, but for a laptop the 17" MBP would be the best for what your doing...:D
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so you're saying i'll be able to edit in 1080p hd no problem? how would you rate the rendering/encoding times? not that bad?

would diablo 3 run in this? :cool:
 
bearvsshark said:
so you're saying i'll be able to edit in 1080p hd no problem? how would you rate the rendering/encoding times? not that bad?

would diablo 3 run in this? :cool:
Click to expand...

A fully loaded MBP 17" "Studio" is designed for that sort of editing from what I've heard. A fully loaded 24" iMac should also be able to, and as for the Mac Pro, that can do ANYTHING lol :D
 
mrsir2009 said:
A fully loaded MBP 17" "Studio" is designed for that sort of editing from what I've heard. A fully loaded 24" iMac should also be able to, and as for the Mac Pro, that can do ANYTHING lol :D
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see, the macbook pro i would be getting would almost be fully loaded, but it would have 4 gigs of ram instead of 8.

and i really wished you had first hand experience with the mbp, instead of just hearing that it could. thanks anyways though.
 
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