Tips on how to get the most editing potential from my Macbook?

[Khryz]

I am purchasing the Hauppauge HD-PVR, to which I am going to use to record HD gameplay from my PS3 and edit via iMovie, to put videos on YouTube and whatnot.

Now my Macbookis 1.5 years old .. it's an Intel C2D 2.16 GHz with 3GB of usable RAM .. but the only limitation I see is the weak graphics card -- only 64mb. Whenever I watch HD videos on YouTube or other sites my computer gets load and my CPU starts getting pretty busy.

So my question is what can I do so that when I am editing HD videos and playing them back and back to view the edits my experience is as smooth as possible? Does the 3Gb of regular RAM help at all? Do I have to close all my other applications, widgets, etc and only have iMovie open?

I've edited high-quality SD video in iMovie that I captured via an EyeTV 250 Plus, but not HD.

THANKS!

 

[Eidorian]

Stop watching Flash videos while doing something processor intensive in OS X. It's not the video card. It's the crappy edition of Flash for OS X. Update to Flash 10 and see if that helps.

 

[Khryz]

Okay I upgraded to Flash 10 just now. So then if my graphics card doesn't limit me in being able to edit and watch HD videos then what does? Sorry for these noobish questions.

 

[Eidorian]

Okay I upgraded to Flash 10 just now. So then if my graphics card doesn't limit me in being able to edit and watch HD videos then what does? Sorry for these noobish questions.

That's all CPU bound stuff. If you're editing HD or watching just make that your single task.

 

[Khryz]

Gotcha, thanks. So basically, the only way to make HD viewing and editing "easier" is to upgrade to a newer Mac with a faster CPU .. like a MBP with 2.66 GHz over my 2.16 GHz?

 

[-DH]

If I'm not mistaken, the MacBook uses an integrated graphics card, which means it shares system RAM ... which makes it a rather weak performer in terms of video playback.

-DH

 

[Khryz]

If I'm not mistaken, the MacBook uses an integrated graphics card, which means it shares system RAM ... which makes it a rather weak performer in terms of video playback.

-DH

I upgraded my RAM to 4GB (but only 3GB can be used because of the model). 3GB should be enough though right?

 

[Eidorian]

If I'm not mistaken, the MacBook uses an integrated graphics card, which means it shares system RAM ... which makes it a rather weak performer in terms of video playback.

-DH

Like I said before Flash, HD playback, and encoding are all CPU bound. You can do it via command line and it's still bound to how fast your processor is.