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Will Final Cut Express run on a Macbook Pro?

R

RandolphCaer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 20, 2010
5
0
Australia
It will work, otherwise Apple would be lying on their requirements page.

System Requirements
A Mac computer with a 1.25GHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, or Intel Xeon processor
For AVCHD: A Mac computer with an Intel processor
1GB of RAM or more
An AGP or PCI Express graphics card compatible with Quartz Extreme; or an Intel GMA integrated graphics processor in a MacBook or Mac mini computer
Some FxPlug filters are not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors.
A display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher
A DVD drive for installation
Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later
QuickTime 7.2 or later
500MB of disk space to install Final Cut Express and LiveType
Additional 500MB to install LiveType content

from http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/specs.html

What kind of footage will you edit? SD or HD? Because both can be edited.

As Final Cut uses the Apple Intermediate Codec, which does not have high bit-rates, for HD (40 to 60GB / hour), only a good external FW800 scratch disk is needed.
 
I was talking to our tech guy at work today and he said it might be a problem.... I'm lashing out ALOT of money so I thought I better make sure before investing in it
 
Does this tech guy use FCE and a MB(P)?

Many here use this combination without problems, even Final Cut Studio is sometimes run on a Apple notebook. I know I do and apart from Motion and Color it runs fine, because Color and Motion need the GPU and thus heavy compositions and effects slow down the experience.

And you still haven't answered my question what kind of footage you use?

If the camera records AVCHD footage, a conversion has to be done during import which will take a while.
 
spinnerlys said:
Does this tech guy use FCE and a MB(P)?

Many here use this combination without problems, even Final Cut Studio is sometimes run on a Apple notebook. I know I do and apart from Motion and Color it runs fine, because Color and Motion need the GPU and thus heavy compositions and effects slow down the experience.

And you still haven't answered my question what kind of footage you use?

If the camera records AVCHD footage, a conversion has to be done during import which will take a while.
Click to expand...

Soz, I'll be useing SD footage from mini DV tapes.

I don't mind a bit off slow down in the publishing and export process, can't I go make a cup of coffee whilst I wait?

I'm currently useing a hopelessly slow laptop for video editing and I can't tell you how frustratingly slow it is. I want to be able to edit and muck around with video add transitions, cut it up etc without having to tear my hair out from the slow speed.

I don't know it the techie uses Final Cut Pro, it was more of a off hand comment
 
I edited several DV short films with my iBook G4 and had no problems with it.

So as the current MBPs are six or more times faster than that iBook I presume, DV footage can be still edited.

Btw, DV footage only needs 3.5MB/s as storage, so the demand is quite minimal, but still use a dedicated scratch drive to edit.

Btw 2, I recently edited a 20 minute DV film (135 cuts + colour correction + compositing + DVD finishing) on my 2.8GHz MacBook Pro without hiccups, and I even used a more demanding software than FCE called Avid Media Composer.
 
I edit SD footage on my old (now) powermac G5 dual-core. That machine handles SD video editing with Final Cut Studio without any problems, and the new MBPs are much, much faster. Other than the (good) recommendation to use an external (preferably FW800) disk, you should have absolutely no problem editing SD video with FCE.
 
It will work

I have been using Final Cut Express on a 2009 MBP with no problems, except that it was stolen last month. I'm getting a new one as soon as the insurance check gets to me. I would still get the fastest CPU possible, but FCE will bog down any system. I use my Mac Pro for some tasks on Final Cut, only because it is significantly faster.

Anything built since 2008 will run FCE fine.

Be sure you set an administrator password to protect your data.
 
RandolphCaer said:
I was talking to our tech guy at work today and he said it might be a problem.... I'm lashing out ALOT of money so I thought I better make sure before investing in it
Click to expand...
You need to find replace him then.
If you go to the Apple store and select a MBP(or even a MB), and look at the options to customize it, you'll see that Apple will PREINSTALL FCE for you. I doubt they'd do that if it couldn't run it :D


I've even installed(and ran) FCE on a Dell Mini hackintosh :p
 
It shouldn't be a problem at all.

I used to run FCP editing HD videos on my old MacBook with 4 GB of RAM and Intel graphics. It wasn't the fastest, and I think I remember having to edit the packages to get it to run, but it worked.

Don't listen to the Windows specialists who only measure by latest and greatest, the new 15 inches are beasts, especially the i7 model.
 
it'll work fine, i have no problems with the full final cut pro on my 20" imac with 2gb ram and 2.4ghz c2d
 
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