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how does ibook do on video editing?

L

lust4life

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2005
6
0
hello! i am new to this forum and to macs. i am planning on purchasing a mac just for a change. i am a film student and i hope to get a notebook for class. i don't expect to do all my video editing on it (since school has the equipments), but i do expect to do a little editing myself for practice/fun/projects. i am currently on a budget. i would love to get a powerbook but it seems like an iBook is more affordable. i was thinking of getting a cheaper G5 desktop but i think a portable laptop would work better for me because i am also a psych double major and i bring my computer to class from time to time. is ibook capable for adequate video editing? it looks really nice. also, is 1.2/1.33 gHz fast? how fast is it comparing to p3 and p4? i am computer illiterate. i wanna learn more.

i am sorry if this question has been asked before. thanks!
 
It will be fine for video editing, but it also depends on what you expectations are. You definitely need to max out the RAM, with a thrid party 1 gig chip. The other thing is that the compression times will be slow. For me it wasn't an issue, as I just finished my video editing before bed, and then left it on overnight. This worked for me, but you may have higher expectatons, after editing on the school's machines. The iBook is a great buy - perhaps wait for a update, but if you need it now go for it.
 
You can edit DV projects fine on an iBook. I was editing video a long time ago on a PowerMac G4 400Mhz with 256MB RAM.

iBook would also be a great computer to do video clip logging of your film clips and great to do rough cuts and media management. I store photos and music media on my PowerBook and also for DVD playback for clients and as a Keynote presentation machine. Gotta love Apple laptops.
 
Thats a really subjective question. I really just depends on what you're expecting. It sounds to me like an iBook would be fine for you, just remember memory and hard drive space are going to get used up really quickly, so get as much as you can afford.
 
I am in a very similar predicament and actually tested out the stock ibook at the apple store nearest me. While not as fast as my desktop it seemed to handle the HD demo fairly well... granted it was using iMovie not Final Cut. Since I have a good windows desktop with Pinnacle Liquid I was really looking for a portable so I decided on some sort of 12 incher but not sure whether I should get the ibook or splurge on the power. I ended up deciding that the difference between the 12 iBook and the 12powerbook was much less obvious than the difference between the 12powerbook and the 15 powerbook. (The 15 has much more screen real estate and faster processor and other goodies lacking on the 12 powerbook). So in the end I decided that the iBook would better suit my needs (albeit upgraded with more ram and hardrive). However thank god I waited to purchase cause next Tuesday should put even more bang for my buck into that iBook. COME ON UPDATE!
Hope that helps
 
I'd get an external hard drive. The 7200 RPM drive will make things quite a bit easier on you, as well as being larger. RAM is good too.
 
Plus the iBook is finally being updated next week so it will be even better for video editting then before.
 
External hard drive will be nice, but not because its 7200 RPM, because you need a lot of hard drive space to do video.

Even though the drive spins faster in an external drive than the iBooks internal at 4200, the speed gain is lost in the connection with the computer.

Firewire or USB 2.0 and even Firewire 800 (which obviously wouldn't work with the iBook) have lower data transfer speeds than the internal drives. An internal drive will always be faster over any of those connections.
 
thanks for your suggestions, guys! perhaps i should wait and see how the updates next week are. btw, what exactly is an external drive?
 
lust4life said:
thanks for your suggestions, guys! perhaps i should wait and see how the updates next week are. btw, what exactly is an external drive?
Click to expand...

Like an external hard drive connected to the computer via Firewire or USB 2.0 preferably.
 
tech4all said:
Like an external hard drive connected to the computer via Firewire or USB 2.0 preferably.
Click to expand...


I'd actually prefer FireWire over USB for all my external HD needs.

Doesn't it not go through the processor (like USB) and is better for HUGE transfers (stays faster or.. something like USB is for short bursts of info, but Firewire is like.. marathoning?)
 
katie ta achoo said:
I'd actually prefer FireWire over USB for all my external HD needs.

Doesn't it not go through the processor (like USB) and is better for HUGE transfers (stays faster or.. something like USB is for short bursts of info, but Firewire is like.. marathoning?)
Click to expand...

Firewire sustains its speed while usb jumps alot, however with that said i have a usb external and it does the job. The main reason i got a usb was because the iBook has 1 firewire which is used for the transfer of video from my cam-corder. Also usb is no slow pup and can handle dv.

I also use an iBook and have 768mb of ram and its great at iMovie 4. I would recommend one with an external hd preferably a mixed usb and firewire model so you have choice.
 
an ibook would be fine for simple compression and editing projects but when and if you want to go into detailed edits, then i would recommend a powerbook, actually you should check out the apple refurb site for older powerbooks or wait for a new ibook, but the powerbook will always have a bit more power based on Apple's history of bottlenecking its lower end products a bit. Good luck with your decision
 
I still use an iMac G3 400MHz w/ 512 MB RAM to do my video editing through final cut express 1.0.1. My projects have been easily an upwards of two hours, so I think your iBook will handle editing. My iMac is slow especially compared to the G5's I use at my school, but it definitely gets the job done. Obviously you are going to be working off of not only a processor three times as fast but also in the next generation (G4) and hopefully more RAM.

Good luck with your iBook.
 
Get a FireWire hard drive that supports "daisy-chaining" so that you can go FireWire all the way. Daisy-chaining is when the camcorder goes to the hard drive which goes to the computer. Peripherals plugged into peripherals. Works great!
 
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