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Which Pro for Video editing?

D

dgr11

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 22, 2015
5
0
Planning to purchase a laptop for video and photo editing-mostly footage of my kids from a Canon that shoots in HD (AVCHD).

Apple reps telling me I need the top of the line Pro 15 with a specific video/graphics card (can't remember the details on this) to help things move quickly when editing. Would rather not spend over $2,000. Is the 13" a reasonable purchase for my needs?
Thanks
 
Thanks

Thanks for the reply. Will 8MB RAM be enough, or should I consider an upgrade to 16? Any recommendations on processing speed?
 
8gb is fine as long as your not planning on editing the next Star Wars. I went from a fully loaded BTO i7 4gb video card iMac to a base 13-inch macbook pro retina. Yes it is not as blazing fast but it works just fine. I run Adobe CC and Final Cut Pro X with it. I even have a 13-inch base macbook air that does these programs fine to. No need to spend a ton on a computer spend the money you saved for gas to get more footage to edit, maybe a vacation. I also had the 15 inch macbook pro before I got the 13, the 13 is soon much nicer to bring around even if it is just around the house.
 
bmclaurin said:
For that type of task, the 13" will work fine, although it will take a bit longer to render than the 15".
Click to expand...

Yes and no. I have a Canon G20 and 1080i playback on the new rMPB 13 was very choppy in the iMovie preview window, it also took too long to export to file, nearly double the length of the video. My mid 2014 rMBP 15 with the Pro graphics doesn't stutter at all and export times were cut in half.
 
dexterbell said:
Yes and no. I have a Canon G20 and 1080i playback on the new rMPB 13 was very choppy in the iMovie preview window, it also took too long to export to file, nearly double the length of the video. My mid 2014 rMBP 15 with the Pro graphics doesn't stutter at all and export times were cut in half.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. I even edit off a external USB 3 hdd, it isn't choppy at all. I use a Canon 70D, T3i, go pro hero 2 and 4 silver, a sony handycam at 1080. It all runs flawless even on the base 13-inch macbook air. Not choppy at all.
 
Any comment for music editing & light video editing? I will mainly use Garageband for my bass cover and use iMovie for the video before uploading it to youtube.

Is the base 13" rMBP sufficient for this task? I have concerns on the 8GB & 128GB SSD.
 
Ak907Freerider said:
I don't know about that. I even edit off a external USB 3 hdd, it isn't choppy at all. I use a Canon 70D, T3i, go pro hero 2 and 4 silver, a sony handycam at 1080. It all runs flawless even on the base 13-inch macbook air. Not choppy at all.
Click to expand...

I do know about that because it happened to me, why would I lie about it? I was working with full 1080i 30fps 24Mbps MP4 files. I should clarify that it would only start getting choppy and weird when I would start to edit it, not just playing it back after importing it. It would also freeze for a second or two during playback in iMovie when a point where I had added a transition came in. Maybe if you are working with smaller or more compressed files you wont have an issue, but I did. I also found the export times unacceptable for a $1300 laptop.
 
Video

I'm hearing this difference of opinion around work as well. Some feel the 15" is a necessity, while others think it's overkill. To make things more complicated, is a base 15" MBPr faster with video than a juiced up 13" MBPr?
 
Video speed

Thanks....so, do you think I'd be okay with the base MBPr? Or, is the upgrade to the more expensive version necessary? Again, mostly HD (AVCHD) video editing with some photo editing on Lightroom.
 
Video speed

Thanks....so, do you think I'd be okay with the base 15" MBPr? Or, is the upgrade to the more expensive 15" version necessary? Again, mostly HD (AVCHD) video editing with some photo editing on Lightroom.
 
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