Need advice on a new FCS machine

[reel2reel]

I've been working with Final Cut Pro since v.1 and currently work as an Online Editor, so maybe I can offer you a helpful comment or two. First, there are the pro's for the Mac Pro:

- Internal drives. Restrict projects to specific drives and swap it out when you're done.

- Expandability. Can't add an AJA card to an iMac, for instance (although you can use the AJA IO, which is awesome). Can't add another firewire bus. Etc, etc.

- External broadcast monitors!

One deciding factor might be the type of content you're producing. Is it web-only? Is it for broadcast? If for the web only, the iMac might not be a bad choice. You'll never need to see your video on a broadcast monitor.

Or, if you're cutting for broadcast, but not working with colour-correcting/grading, the IMac could work, too. FW800 is fine for most formats. Most HD is compressed. There'd be no reason to use uncompressed if you're not finishing/onlining the show.

If you're finishing your material for broadcast, though, you absolutely need a way to monitor your work on a pro broadcast monitor. And you most likely need a way to get to a deck. You can't get HD-SDI out of an iMac.

One last comment about an iMac: you really can't lose if you want to start out on an iMac. It's an incredible machine and the best thing about it is you can easily sell it if/when you decide to move up to a Mac Pro. And you'll probably get most of your money back.

Hope any of that helps.

 

[TheStrudel]

Since you're planning to go with Scarlet (I'd love to, too, if it ever comes out), you want a Mac Pro. The iMac would actually probably be more than adequate for any VDSLRs, but working with RAW video - if you ever intended to, and I know I would if I had a RED camera - demands the power of a Mac Pro. Hard drives, throughput, RAM, etc.

A Mac Pro is obviously always better for these kinds of applications, but as many have pointed out, FCS can't fully utilize all of its power yet. We expect that to change with the next release in a big way.

As an aside, I should point out that iMacs do support an external monitor, up to 30" or whatever the DisplayPort spec will eventually go up to. But it's even better to have the ability to expand out with PCIe cards, like if you wanted a REDRocket or a RAID card, etc.

I'm all for you getting the best that makes sense which you can afford, but I also intend to correct a lot of the misinformation that gets spread around here.

Generally speaking, people who ask these questions on this forum tend not to be looking at something as high-powered as a Scarlet.

 

[allupons]

Thanks guys, all of this is great advice. I don't want to over-stress the importance of supporting Red, as it is something I don't actually have yet, and who knows if it will ever be released. All that said, great info thus far and I certainly wouldn't mind any other thoughts while I wait for the possible announcement tomorrow.

 

[Mac.Gruber]

1. Out of interest, could you please show me your 2 screen workflow in Final Cut? Just asking, using 2 screens as well here.

2. External is not more unreliable than internal. For starters, you can easily have a RAID5 or 10 external setup that can manage 1 or 2 harddrive failures, whereas the internal bays are still limited to 4 harddrives for RAID5 at best.

I use Avid, but the setup is still the same:Timeline, monitors & audio tool on the right and project window, open bins & any utilities (audio mixer, etc.) on the left. Lots of real estate on that left screen and you don't have to compromise viewing space for the timeline and monitors. With FCP you don't have to actually open the bins independently, but I use frame mode a lot for my bin views (I think it's "view as thumbnails" or something like that), so that space gets eaten up a lot.

I've edited on one big screen before and I didn't like it; there just wasn't enough space for all the open bins; I had to keep shifting things around. Even the guy who owned it admitted that he made a mistake in going that route.

As far as working off externals goes, we just did a TV series where we started working off 1 TB externals, but they kept failing on us. (This wasn't a small number, either; we're talking something like 6-8 failures-I can't remember the exact number.) We switched over to 1 TB internals and didn't have a problem. Working off the solution you recommend would be better equipped to handle failures, but in this experience, the internals had no failures. Maybe we bought from a batch that was made on a Monday, but it was a startlingly high number of failures. Maybe it's also worth noting that this was the first time I had worked with a large volume of HD video for an extended period of time off of externals; I have worked off externals with SD video many times and didn't have as many problems.