Final Cut Pro Express: Can G5 handle it? Can novices?

[SylviaW]

My office of video newbies is making movies for the web using iMovie 5.0.2 on a G5 with Canon Vixia HV30 cameras.

I am interested in switching to Final Cut Pro Express.

Can the G5 handle it?

Can our staff, which is doing well with iMovie, handle it?

Thanks.

 

[huntercr]

My office of video newbies is making movies for the web using iMovie 5.0.2 on a G5 with Canon Vixia HV30 cameras.

I am interested in switching to Final Cut Pro Express.

Can the G5 handle it?

Can our staff, which is doing well with iMovie, handle it?

Thanks.

What speed G5? How many cores? How much ram?
Really final cut express will run absolutely fine on a G5. You'll just have to be patient when rendering things, and learn to edit and apply filters without fully rendering the output until it's ready.

Be prepared for multi hour renderings, but of course you can cancel the render at any time and see how it's doing "so far".

I guess it's going to depend on what your staff is doing and how complex of a job you want them to be able to do.

Hope this helps!

 

[SylviaW]

What speed G5? How many cores? How much ram?

Please bear with me here; I'm new at this. Are these the specs you want?

Processor name: PowerPC G5 (3.0) [so that's one core, right?]
Processor speed: 2 GHz
RAM: Size: 1 GB X4

It's at least 4 years old.

You'll just have to be patient when rendering things, and learn to edit and apply filters without fully rendering the output until it's ready. Be prepared for multi hour renderings, but of course you can cancel the render at any time and see how it's doing "so far".

This sounds complicated. Reality check, and I should said this before: These movies are very basic. No effects. All we do is string together a few clips, add titles front and back, and export as a .mov file.

With Final Cut Express, are we truly going to have to learn to apply filters, endure multi-hour renderings?

Thank you -- greatly appreciate the help.

 

[huntercr]

What speed G5? How many cores? How much ram?


Please bear with me here; I'm new at this. Are these the specs you want?

Processor name: PowerPC G5 (3.0) [so that's one core, right?]
Processor speed: 2 GHz
RAM: Size: 1 GB X4

It's at least 4 years old.

You'll just have to be patient when rendering things, and learn to edit and apply filters without fully rendering the output until it's ready. Be prepared for multi hour renderings, but of course you can cancel the render at any time and see how it's doing "so far".

This sounds complicated. Reality check, and I should said this before: These movies are very basic. No effects. All we do is string together a few clips, add titles front and back, and export as a .mov file.

With Final Cut Express, are we truly going to have to learn to apply filters, endure multi-hour renderings?

Thank you -- greatly appreciate the help.

I think you just answered your question on if you need Final Cut or not... If you don't want to use effects, and are only stringing together clips, I think you'll want to stick with iMovie. I would upgrade to iMovie HD though ( version 6 )

What verison of OS X are you running?


What was the reason you thought you might be interested in FCE?

 

[SylviaW]

I think you just answered your question on if you need Final Cut or not... If you don't want to use effects, and are only stringing together clips, I think you'll want to stick with iMovie. I would upgrade to iMovie HD though ( version 6 )

I thought we couldn't get iMovie 6, now that iLife is out for so long. Wrong?

What verison of OS X are you running?

10.5.5

What was the reason you thought you might be interested in FCE?

Honestly: Two of our videos have had hums from background noise in them, and someone told one of our staffers that if we had a better editing program, we could fix that.

 

[xStep]

I thought we couldn't get iMovie 6, now that iLife is out for so long. Wrong?

You could try e-Bay or Craigslist.

Honestly: Two of our videos have had hums from background noise in them, and someone told one of our staffers that if we had a better editing program, we could fix that.

An external audio program may be cheaper to deal with the buzzing issue. The person was probably thinking of Sound Track Pro, but I'm sure other options are available.

 

[iMacZealot]

^^^

I used to run Final Cut Express and later Final Cut Pro on an iMac G5 with half the RAM that you have. While it took a while to render some 'complex' tasks, such as chroma keying rolleyes, it got the job done. You shouldn't have a problem.

 

[SylviaW]

Thanks to the very helpful early responses here, I spent last night reading other forums and watching the tutorial videos at juicedLink.com.

I think what I'll do is look for iMovie 6, as suggested.

Also will try using the Shure SM58 cardioid microphone that our office already has. The Shure mic has an XLR connector that, for now, I'll have to connect to the camera with an XLR-TRS cable. If that fails to produce good (enough) sound, I can look at the modest investment into a juicedLink/other XLR adapter/pre-amp.

Does that sound like a good plan? Other comments/suggestions?

Thanks again, all.

 

[aki]

this is just repeating but.....before i got my 3.06 imac yaaaaaay i worked on video with g5 imac and final cut pro 5 and it is fine of course if you have complex effects especially layers then renders take time but i used it for a long time its definitely ok

oh one thing tho i only did SD video not HD on g5....i cant say about performance if u are taking HD from the canon.....if imovie is fast enough tho fce should be ok too

changing from imovie to fce/fcp.....imovie is much much easier to use and final cut takes some time to learn...but if u are doing simple things its not so bad....and it is good training if thats important about video and editing and stuff

for free audio cleaning use Audacity it can do very good hum remove and such things just like soundtrack pro for free.....really great app

BUT of course its always always always better to have good audio than edit bad audio.....so if u can fix hums with better mic etc then do that first!!

for iMovie u should use imovie 08 or 09 i think no reason to use an old version

good luck!!!

 

[tcgjeukens]

SylviaW,

I am interested in switching to Final Cut Pro Express.

These are two different programmes:

• FCE: Final Cut Express - smaller version of FCP. About 200 USD. More than enough for medium complex editing work (compared to the simple stuff in iMovie)
• FCP: Final Cut Pro - full feature version. About 1300 USD. Comes with many additional tools and programmes. You will not need them if you've never heard of them

Both programmes work on a G5. The more complex editing you will do, the more muscle your Mac needs.

Can the G5 handle it?

To check your Mac.

1. Go to the logo in the top left corner.
2. Press about this Mac (see picture)
3. A screen will show the "muscle" of your Mac (see picture)

In my case I have a G5 (PowerPC) running at 2 GHz. And I have two of them (dual). My memory is 1.5 Gb.

I use FCP. Just like you, my camera produces HDV files.
I import the files via a firewire cable. I do NOT transcode to a processor less intensive format.
Performance is great. Only the final product rendering may take up to 5 times the length of the video (coffee is great ).

Have fun.

Coen