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Macbook (2.4 GHz) for editing
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In its system requirements, Final Cut states that it needs "An AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card (Final Cut Studio is not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors)"
So it's likely that Final Cut won't install at all on your macbook. Even if it does, the performance is going to be weak.
So it's likely that Final Cut won't install at all on your macbook. Even if it does, the performance is going to be weak.
The specs are for the Suite as a whole. Everything should run fine except for Motion and Color.
Lethal
Your are really going to want a 7200RPM hard Drive, But I would recommend the Pro it will just be that much better.
Final Cut Studio 2 IS NOT supported on the MB. If something goes wrong you won't be able to get tech support. Return it and get an MBP. Real editors don't use laptops....
yeah, true real editors dont use laptops, but if you cant afford a macpro the MBP will do just fine. Get a MBP and take back your blackbook if you can. otherwise dont use Finalcut. your gonna have more negatives on the MB than positives
I am running Final Cut Studio 2 and editing in HD on my 2.0ghz Macbook. Even in HD everything runs like butter except in Motion and Color (which actually won't run at all due to the Integrated Graphics. Even if you install them they will just quit when you try to run them) That being said, the Macbook is extremely capable of running Final Cut even in HD. Here is an example of my last short for reference....
http://www.vimeo.com/754479
Hope this helps,
T
http://www.vimeo.com/754479
Hope this helps,
T
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)
dont worry about a 7200rpm internal. Just keep the media on an external.
dont worry about a 7200rpm internal. Just keep the media on an external.
I assume you're trying to be inflammatory with that comment. There are 101 situations where a laptop to edit on is much more practical than a desktop.
I assume you're trying to be inflammatory with that comment. There are 101 situations where a laptop to edit on is much more practical than a desktop.
Nah, he's just overcompensating.
People are so clueless when it comes to video editing. Unless you're installing Final Cut for work where every second is costing you, or you like 20 layers on top of high bitrate HD footage, you don't need a Mac Pro.
And if you're relatively new to editing, odds are you won't push the machine to its limits anyway.
There are plenty of fake editors who use towers. People keep buying Mac Pros to use with iMovie. Too bad.
i love how when someone starts a fight, like "real editors dont use laptops", doesnt have the balls to get back on the thread and either back himself up, or even say sorry.
nice man.
nice man.
Whoa buddy, I haven't logged on in a while...
I wasn't trying to be inflammatory with that at all. I work at a university TV station in Philadelphia and go to film school and no one that I know edits on their MB/p's. It's just much slower, smaller screen, takes much longer to render and you are hampered by expansion because you are limited to one 1394A port on a Macbook. So what is it going to be? your deck/camera or your firewire hard drive hooked up? It doesn't make sense to either have a firewire drive or your deck hooked up and have to pick and choose. That is just a recipe for disaster. Editing over USB2 is sketchy so you're stuck having to capture to your internal HD, and then copying your capture scratch files over to the external drive. Make much sense?
Also, I know a few people that use MBP's and their experiance is hit or miss. You either love it or hate it.
To me, it just isn't practical. Get the quad core MP and two cheapo monitors and get editing. You CANNOT color correct off of ANY monitor hooked up via DVI (95% of the time) because you need a true NTSC or PAL color reference monitor, so just pick up an Acer. I wouldn't like editing on a 13.3 inch screen and with whatever add-on, would you?
It just is not as cost effective and with a MB you lose a good portion of the FCS2 suite.
so fluidedge, what's your 101 reasons for using the laptop?
And trudd, I have FCS2 and am a paid editor. I use final cut and soundtrack quite often and am currently learning Color and motion. So don't give me that iMovie crap.
To be fair here, this isn't really an issue since you can daisy-chain firewire devices. I've got three external drives and a camera connected to my laptop, and the limit is something like 63 devices per chain.
Many decks can't be daisy chained with anything. It can be done but it can be hit or miss. I'm also pretty sure it slows down with the more drives and stuff you daisy chain
you can (any many do) buy a firewire port expansion card to go in the express card slot on a MBP. Then you can have camera/deck and external HDD. Also once the capture is done you don't need to worry.
I'm not going to give 101 reasons as tbh there probably aren't that many. But there are many cases when you'd rather use a laptop to edit on. Filming out on the road for example, you can edit (or at least get a rough cut together) in your hotel room and speed up things if/when you get back to your desk. Many people would never want to buy a desktop and a laptop, and if i had to choose between a MBP and a Mac Pro i'd go with the laptop 90% of the time i'm sure as it doesn't chain you down and the performance for SD editing will be almost identical.
As for rendering, you talk about it like you can't do anything other than stare at the screen while it renders. You can be checking email, or working on something else while rendering takes place.
Don't berate people for wanting to use a laptop to edit on. a 13.3" screen is perfectly usable for cutting clips together. And a high res 15" screen is absolutely fine for doing any detailed work like compositing.
I'm in love with my MP to edit on, but then I'm never away from my desk for long enough to want to use a laptop out on the road, although i have used a MB and FC express to rough cut clips together when i was working up in the most northern parts of Scotland!
I'm not going to give 101 reasons as tbh there probably aren't that many. But there are many cases when you'd rather use a laptop to edit on. Filming out on the road for example, you can edit (or at least get a rough cut together) in your hotel room and speed up things if/when you get back to your desk. Many people would never want to buy a desktop and a laptop, and if i had to choose between a MBP and a Mac Pro i'd go with the laptop 90% of the time i'm sure as it doesn't chain you down and the performance for SD editing will be almost identical.
As for rendering, you talk about it like you can't do anything other than stare at the screen while it renders. You can be checking email, or working on something else while rendering takes place.
Don't berate people for wanting to use a laptop to edit on. a 13.3" screen is perfectly usable for cutting clips together. And a high res 15" screen is absolutely fine for doing any detailed work like compositing.
I'm in love with my MP to edit on, but then I'm never away from my desk for long enough to want to use a laptop out on the road, although i have used a MB and FC express to rough cut clips together when i was working up in the most northern parts of Scotland!
Fair enough. Just to be clear, i was not berating peopleat all, I was just pointing something out and I do see now that it came out condescending. Sorry, didn't mean to offend. 
Fair enough. Just to be clear, i was not berating peopleat all, I was just pointing something out and I do see now that it came out condescending. Sorry, didn't mean to offend.
its cool man.
i shouldnt have made my comment either.
Okay, since everyone is just stating on what to get, I'll instead give FIRSTHAND experiences with Final Cut Studio 2 on a Macbook.
Like some people have stated, everything that doesn't use the GPU for processing (such as Color & Motion) will work just fine. There are some filters on Final Cut Pro that won't work, because they require a powerful GPU to process the effects. Anyway, for the most part, it works flawlessly. I've never had FCP crash once on my Macbook, and I've used it for the past two years, from Final Cut Studio 1 to 2. Just make sure you have a decently fast external to work off of.
As for speed comparisons between a Macbook and a Macbook Pro, they're negligible. I used to have a Macbook Pro for work, and a Macbook for personal use, and I've gotta say, that the Macbook felt faster for some reason. Keep in mind that these machines were 1st generation Macbooks. So there was a 2.0 Ghz Core Duo Macbook vs a 2.16 Ghz Core Duo Macbook Pro. Both had 7200 RPM internal drives, and speed was nearly identical, with the Macbook Pro edging out the Macbook by a few seconds, but nothing big enough to warrant the extra cost.
I've also used Motion on my Macbook for a few occasions, and again, I've actually never run into any major problems, just as long as you aren't going super insane on effects and such. Otherwise it'll lag big time.
If you NEED to use Motion + Color, then yes, the extra cost would be worth it. If you have After Effects CS3, then you won't need to use Motion and you could use it on a Macbook just fine. IMO After Effects is a more versatile motion graphics tool than Motion, for now.
So it brings up this question: am I ONLY going to be doing video editing? Notice how I put emphasis on only. If the answer is yes, then a Macbook will suit your needs perfectly. Obviously, if you want to be future-proof and be fully supported on pro software, then get a pro machine.
I've gotta ask you one question though. Are you going to be working with HD or SD? If you're working with HD, then it's a no brainer to get a pro machine, since you need all the processing power you can get.
Like some people have stated, everything that doesn't use the GPU for processing (such as Color & Motion) will work just fine. There are some filters on Final Cut Pro that won't work, because they require a powerful GPU to process the effects. Anyway, for the most part, it works flawlessly. I've never had FCP crash once on my Macbook, and I've used it for the past two years, from Final Cut Studio 1 to 2. Just make sure you have a decently fast external to work off of.
As for speed comparisons between a Macbook and a Macbook Pro, they're negligible. I used to have a Macbook Pro for work, and a Macbook for personal use, and I've gotta say, that the Macbook felt faster for some reason. Keep in mind that these machines were 1st generation Macbooks. So there was a 2.0 Ghz Core Duo Macbook vs a 2.16 Ghz Core Duo Macbook Pro. Both had 7200 RPM internal drives, and speed was nearly identical, with the Macbook Pro edging out the Macbook by a few seconds, but nothing big enough to warrant the extra cost.
I've also used Motion on my Macbook for a few occasions, and again, I've actually never run into any major problems, just as long as you aren't going super insane on effects and such. Otherwise it'll lag big time.
If you NEED to use Motion + Color, then yes, the extra cost would be worth it. If you have After Effects CS3, then you won't need to use Motion and you could use it on a Macbook just fine. IMO After Effects is a more versatile motion graphics tool than Motion, for now.
So it brings up this question: am I ONLY going to be doing video editing? Notice how I put emphasis on only. If the answer is yes, then a Macbook will suit your needs perfectly. Obviously, if you want to be future-proof and be fully supported on pro software, then get a pro machine.
I've gotta ask you one question though. Are you going to be working with HD or SD? If you're working with HD, then it's a no brainer to get a pro machine, since you need all the processing power you can get.