Final Cut Express on the 2009 Mac Minis ...

[Kallel00]

I'm trying to find an answer, but all googling I do lists me 2007 forum topics


I have a new 2009 Mac Mini (dual 2.0), 2 gigs ram, with the Nvidia 9400m


I use IMovie 09 to import all my 1080i AVCHD footage from my HD camcorder. All movie files are imported into large AIC files on external 1TB drive.


I'm extremely interested in Final Cut Express, but I'm scared the mini won't be able to handle it.


Is there somebody running a similar config without any problems?


I also have a 800 firewire external drive, but I'm not certain of which step in my "workflow" I just be using it. ATM, I'm doing just fine importing the 1080i clips (converted into Apple Intermediate Codec) onto external USB drives. Should I simply use it to export my final montage (also in AIC format), before I compress the file in h.264?

Or do I need to right away make a copy of the clips I'll be using onto my Firewire drive before I start editing with IMovie 09 (and then subsequently FCE for the filters) ??

Thanks for any pointers I can get.

 

[FSMBP]

Although I don't have the same setup - FCE will run fine on your Mac Mini.

I mean, it may not be as fast in encoding video as a Mac Pro but it will get the job done fine.

 

[Courtaj]

The mini is mentioned in the FCE4 specs as a compatible device. FCE4 works perfectly well on the previous generation mini, so is bound to be an even better proposition on the "new" mini.

FCE4 will import and transcode AVCHD video, so you can leave iMovie behind forever if you wish.

You should use your FireWire drive as your media / scratch drive. Set up FCE4 to use your external as a scratch drive. I'm not sure whether you can do this with iMovie or not.