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Video Editing and Mac Mini Problem

C

ceehjayem

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 12, 2006
167
0
Hey everyone, I'm not too technically savvy when it comes to computers. I do amateur video editing with Final Cut Pro. I purchased a Mac Mini (2.0ghz, 1GB RAM, base model) and it's taking forever to render my 1.8gb clip. I think total render time with some music is about 1.5 hours as opposed to my old computer (a 2.4ghz penryn mbp, 2gb ram)which would do it in maybe 10 minutes I'd assume.

My question to you all is, is my unit defective? Will upping the ram increase the clock speed or am I way in over my head purchasing this unit?

HELP!
 
For anyone curious, I purchased 4gb of ram and install it into the machine today. I got the same errors in Final Cut Pro that have to do with drop frames with dealing with HD videos. I'm going to return my mini tomorrow in favor of a more powerful machine. It was worth a shot.
 
Wow this is making me second guess my decision to opt for the Mac Mini, but I find it strange that your macbook pro, which isn't that much better, would render it so much quicker.

Have you considered just swapping your Mini out for another one?
 
This has me scratching my head as well. Haven't people been saying they've had no problems running FCP on their minis? Have you called Apple to see what their take is on this? Hopefully its just faulty hardware.
 
I too have a hard time believing it can take that much longer than a comparable machine if everything is functioning correctly. Definitely exchange it before dishing out more money on a iMac, etc.
 
I'm not sure guys. It takes an awful time to load videos. I'm not sure if that's due to using 1080p compressed videos but I used the same videos on my previous Penryn MacBook Pro with no problems. The Mac Mini seems to have a real hard time rendering HD quality videos. I even upped the ram to 4gb and it still had the same problems (dropped frames error, longer render times, etc.)

I think the machine is fabulous as long as you aren't dealing with Final Cut Pro. It seems highly adequate for everything else other than video rendering.

This is the error that a get:

TS1165_1.jpg
 
Are you going to exchange the unit?

Has anyone else had problems with Final Cut Pro and the Mini?
 
Hoopdy said:
Are you going to exchange the unit?

Has anyone else had problems with Final Cut Pro and the Mini?
Click to expand...

I'm still indecisive. I am going to the local Apple store and talk to some of the employees if there's a problem with my unit. Worse comes to worse, I might end up returning it and going with an iMac.
 
ceehjayem said:
I'm still indecisive. I am going to the local Apple store and talk to some of the employees if there's a problem with my unit. Worse comes to worse, I might end up returning it and going with an iMac.
Click to expand...

Did you ever decide? Anybody else using their mac mini for video editing and running into the above issues?

Thanks
 
Did you convert your native footage from your camera to apple pro res in FCP?
 
lca355 said:
Did you ever decide? Anybody else using their mac mini for video editing and running into the above issues?
Click to expand...

Have you tried to do an A-B comparison using an Apple store Mac? I haven't done that in a while but before my last purchase I did a number benchmarks for common Apple apps.

Works great to try out a home Mac configuration against Apple store Macs as well as being super convenient to do side by side test of everything in the Apple store.
 
Im so not glad to read this. I was planning on getting a full HD camcorder and edit the video with the mini. I would probably just use Imovie.
 
What is the codec you're editing? I read that one of the HD ones (AVCPROHD or something like that) is v processor intensive
 
I too was having similar problem as OP. Last night I got my WD MyBook 320GB 7200rpm Fireware 800 drive. Problem appears to be solved. So it's very possibly the internal drive is not capable of keeping up.

EDIT: Note this was with FCE.
 
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