Would a Power Mac G4 800MHz run Final Cut?

[66217]

I have an old Power Mac G4 right now, and have been doing some video work.

I currently have been doing the video with Final Cut Express in my MacBook 2GHz with 2GB of RAM, and I find it suffices OK with my needs. But we (at work) want to have a computer that can be available always. So I am wanting to find out if the Power Mac would be enough for this.

I could update the RAM to 1.5GB and put Tiger in it. And maybe upgrade the processor to a 1.2 GHz. But I want to know if the update is worth it, would it be the same as in my MacBook or would it be much slower than it?

Any ideas?

 

[ert3]

Good luck with that

It may literally function but i doubt i would run very well without dominating system resources.

 

[SCarino21]

I believe I have the same computer: G4 dual 800, "quicksilver" 1.25 ram running 10.3 panther / Final Cut pro 4.5 - I use it only to log footage from decks and it's rock solid. Doing basic edits work fine... if you want to get into using MOTION or work with real time effects, that's a different story.

I move the quicktime files/ FCP project files over network to the newer computers after I'm done on the G4

 

[LethalWolfe]

. But I want to know if the update is worth it, would it be the same as in my MacBook or would it be much slower than it?

You MacBook will crush the G4 six ways from sunday. I have a dual 1ghz G4 next to my MacPro and anything other than doing just straight cuts on the G4 is painfully slow. Rendering is slow. Exporting is slow. Making a DVD, oh dear good, is slow. I love my G4 and still use it for non-editing tasks, but the poor girl is doorstop compared to intel-based Macs in terms of speed.


Lethal

 

[26139]

Yep

It will run older versions of Final Cut just fine. What do you think video editors use to work with? They didn't always have G5s or Intels...

 

[66217]

Thanks guys, now I am sure investing in upgrading the G4 isn't a good idea.

Hopefully if things go as we expect we could invest in a Mac Pro (boy, am I going to be happy with that), if not I think we could settle with an iMac. Not so future proof, but still very capable for the kind of task I require at the moment.

Would the new video card (the one with 512mb of memory) be much better for video editing? Or is video editing more processor intensive? I only use FCE and Livetype and the ocasional Photoshop. I don't think I'll ever venture to the Final Cut Studio (after playing with it a bit it sacred me, too complicated).

And one more question. What burning application would you recommend for making DVD movies? iDVD is very limited, I am constantly having problem. And DVD Studio Pro isn't a stand-alone app. Any suggestions?

 

[FF_productions]

Would the new video card (the one with 512mb of memory) be much better for video editing? Or is video editing more processor intensive? I only use FCE and Livetype and the ocasional Photoshop. I don't think I'll ever venture to the Final Cut Studio (after playing with it a bit it sacred me, too complicated).

And one more question. What burning application would you recommend for making DVD movies? iDVD is very limited, I am constantly having problem. And DVD Studio Pro isn't a stand-alone app. Any suggestions?

I say get the best you can possibly afford but consider other things such as hard disk space, big monitors, things like that.

I bounce between Toast Titanium and DVD Studio Pro. Toast does my basic burns when I don't need anything jazzy and DVD SP is for sophisticated menus and such.

An iMac probably wouldn't hurt, especially considering you are on an 800 mhz G4. The current iMacs would blow the doors off that G4 (6-8x more performance)

 

[willywilly99]

Thanks guys, now I am sure investing in upgrading the G4 isn't a good idea.

Hopefully if things go as we expect we could invest in a Mac Pro (boy, am I going to be happy with that), if not I think we could settle with an iMac. Not so future proof, but still very capable for the kind of task I require at the moment.

Would the new video card (the one with 512mb of memory) be much better for video editing? Or is video editing more processor intensive? I only use FCE and Livetype and the ocasional Photoshop. I don't think I'll ever venture to the Final Cut Studio (after playing with it a bit it sacred me, too complicated).

And one more question. What burning application would you recommend for making DVD movies? iDVD is very limited, I am constantly having problem. And DVD Studio Pro isn't a stand-alone app. Any suggestions?

Rendering is slow. Exporting is slow. Making a DVD, oh dear good, is slow.

 

[mithrilfox]

If it does, it won't be very pretty.

Even if you could find an older version of FCP to run on it, you're going to be limited by the compatibility of that older version with codecs and whatnot. Trying to edit modern high resolution, large (long) videos won't go very well at all. Render times will kill you; you'll pull out every last hair as you watch the entire season 1 of Prison Break and find that it's still rendering.

You can read the specs of my iMac in the description, and I still find the rendering/export times frustrating (working with HDV, though).

 

[CaptainChunk]

If it does, it won't be very pretty.

Even if you could find an older version of FCP to run on it, you're going to be limited by the compatibility of that older version with codecs and whatnot. Trying to edit modern high resolution, large (long) videos won't go very well at all. Render times will kill you; you'll pull out every last hair as you watch the entire season 1 of Prison Break and find that it's still rendering.

You can read the specs of my iMac in the description, and I still find the rendering/export times frustrating (working with HDV, though).

Rendering HDV? Hah! That's a cakewalk. Try rendering REDCODE on a dual-core. It's like watching paint dry. They're not kidding when they say you really need an 8-core Mac Pro to work efficiently with RED. But it's not exactly feasible when you're stuck at a remote shooting location in a small production trailer...