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Qast

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 6, 2007
9
0
Howdy,

So here's the deal: I have agreed to collaborate with a professor and avisor on a project at my university. The project entails me recording all class lectures for this professor. I requested that a laptop be purchased by the university for my use in this project--with the preference of it being an Apple. Granted, I am new to Macs, but I've been wanting to get one for awhile, although my eye has been more on the iMac--but it appears the prices may be changing tomorrow.

Regardless, the professor was handling the request for the purchase and was apparently denied. However, I have a birthday coming up, so I have requested a laptop!

The reason for the laptop is to act as a time saver. In all actuality, it would not have cost the university anything. Either way, my intention is to record the video directly to the hard drive in order to bypass having to play the video back in its entirety. If all goes as planned, it should save me approximately 3 hours per week--just from having to move the video from the camera on to the hard drive for editing.

I requested a Mac merely because of the bundled software packages and hardware.

So the questions follow: I am assuming there will be a class following ours, so I will need to try to get out of there as soon as possible. After recording the entire hour to an hour and a half of video straight to the hard drive, I'm assuming iMovie will need to "render" after recording. I am assuming this will take some time. My question is this: Right after finishing recording, will I be able to shut the lid and put the machine to sleep, or will I end up losing data or causing some other hideous malfunction? I don't want to have to sit in an empty class room, or one filling with students for the next class, while it does its thing, so it is important that I be able to get out of there as quickly as possible.

As well, does iMovie have the capability to record the video at a specified resolution? I don't want file sizes to get outrageous and I'm more worried about the audio than the video. The video will be uploaded online at a later time anyway. I'm not quite sure what the format will be as of now, but it will hopefully be in flash.

Finally, do MacBooks have any trouble recognizing any external hard drives? If they're not going to buy me a laptop for use on this project and I'm having to purchase one, I'd really rather not use all of my hard drive space with no escape. At the very least, they will purchase me an external hard drive.

Thanks!

Qast
 

Qast

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 6, 2007
9
0
SORRY--one additional question.

When does Apple usually start giving "free upgrade" coupons for the next generation OS? School starts in early September and my birthday is in late August. I understand Leopard is supposed to be released in October. I'm going to be rather frustrated if I make the purchase so near the release date only to have to spend another $100+ to upgrade.
 

Qast

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 6, 2007
9
0
I hate to bump this, but it's rather important. Does anyone have any insight on the above questions?
 
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