Ask Jacob
Are Mac laptops good for video editing?
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 / Laptops & Notebooks
I do video editing and graphic design. I have an older G3 right now. I am looking at the new Macbook Pro and I also looked at a G5 or a Mac Pro for home. I need a lot of power. I need to be able to run Final Cut Pro as well as Sony Vegas through Parallels since it is not Mac compatible. I would also like to run the Adobe Creative Suite. I will be heavily utilizing an external hard drive to store projects, but I need a system that will not sacrifice my speed. Do you recommend not editing on a laptop? I have heard most people say that, but I have done it before on a non-Mac and I have seen a professional do some editing on a MacBook. Please advise. I don’t necessarily need a new unit. If you have something used that could accommodate my needs I could look at that. Also, if I wanted to start with a used unit to get started and then upgrade in 3 months, what would you suggest?
I asked someone more experienced with Video Production needs to contact you but the basic answer to you question is that yes an Apple laptop
is fine to use for editing video, but having a powerful tower, probably new or used Mac Pro, would be best for importing off of high-end video equipment. You need PCI-e expansion and higher bandwidth, as well as fast scratch drives. If you are just dealing with FireWire sources, then the newest MacBook Pro is perfect for your needs on the editing and importing front.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
The newest Macbook Pro only has firewire 800 though and I’m not sure if there is a camera yet that utilizes the higher speed cord. For now if you were going to import with firewire it would have to be firewire 600 which the Newest Macbook Pro does not have, which being a video editor myself i am a little upset about this and may even go with last years Model MBPro for the time being.
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Yes, Macbook Pro is fine for most, and advanced, HD video editing needs. I use a Macbook Pro 17 2.5gHz with a 320GB HDD at 5400rpm. When in Vista I run Vegas Pro 8.1 (64-bit), through Bootcamp, and as a Mac, Final Cut Studio.
Editing doesn’t take all that much computing power; the most intensive part of video editing is the rendering and this is where I recommended a three harddrive set-up.
A primary drive (‘C’ drive) on which your OS and NLE software is, a secondary Source or Project Files drive where all the media used in any given project resides, and finally a tertiary drive which is wher you render to and where your final project resides awaiting authoring to DVD.
My Macbook Pro does all the thinking (primary) and pulls files off one FW800 drive (secondary) and renders out through the Expresscard slot to an eSata drive (tertiary).
February 2nd, 2009 at 12:28 pm
The answer is a resounding yes. I have used three mac laptops through the years for video editing, and they have outperformed the decked out PC’s I’ve used at work consistently. If you really want power, then a Mac Pro will obviously shine. But as long as you are doing light graphic, and simple edits in HD, a MacBook Pro will work great.
The new Macbooks are great for HD. I capture in full 1080p HD through firewire and transcode into ProRess 422 in real time. My old macbook pro, would lag about 10% after 45 minutes of capture. I have a 2.9 Ghz 4GB RAM 320 GB HD at 7200RPM (aka decked out)
As for what Mark said about the firewire, he’s wrong. Yes, it only has firewire 800 and at first that may freak you out, but Apple created firewire they know it well. There are two ways that overcome the lack of a 400 and a 800 plugs problem. First, firewire can be daisy-chained. Meaning you can plug your camera into your hard drive and your hard drive into your computer. Not all hard drives do this during capture, but the good RAID ones do. Plug them together and presto, it works. You will need to get a 4pin-firewire to firewire 800 plug (as opposed to the previous standard 4pin-to-400 cable). I plug my camera into a hard drive via 800 and the hard drive into my computer via 800, and it works unbelievably well. I can plug my camera into my computer for direct capture via 800 if I want as well.
So, Mark, no reason to be upset. No firewire on the basic macbook is reason to get upset, but firewire 800 on the new ones is just a way to simplify and save us some money.
I use this Hard Drive: http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-RAID-mini.cfm
I use a cable like this: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=firewire+4+pin+to+800+cable&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd&cid=9038528168362458810&sa=title#ps-sellers
FYI 4pin is the firewire end that connects to most cameras.
April 12th, 2012 at 6:47 am
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