Buying a Mac laptop

I haven't seen this question put quite this way.. so apologies if this is covered in the FAQ:

I'm in the market for my first Apple laptop. I have some video editing projects to complete. I fell in love with Final Cut Pro HD @ work so I want something that runs a version of Final Cut. So my questions are this

Will a MacBook run Final Cut or Final Cut Express? Or do I need to splurge and go for the Power Book?

The MacBook is not recommended for Final Cut Studio because of the video card selection.

The real "bomb" is the latest MacBook Pro 17" with the Hi Def screen option and 4 GB RAM.
That should perform as well as a MACPRO Tower in most instances.

Anything less is a compromise.

<<<The real "bomb">>>

That's 'good' or 'desirable'.

If you've read the Final Cut documentation, you've seen that Apple claims it will run on a surprisingly small machine. It will, but you need to be clear about the difference between "limping along on the smallest possible machine" and "being able to do useful work."

We are reminded that the Recommended Minimum Allowance of vitamins isn't to keep you in robust good health. It's to keep you from dying horribly.

On top of that, it's not unusual for videos to take up way more room than is available on the average laptop--especially if you progress past "Trip To The Beach" videos.

Then, there's the widely held believe--with few arguments--that you should never put the actual video show or its parts thereof on the internal System Drive. This means the tiny laptop in your briefcase rapidly expands with external hard drives, power supplies, power and connection cables, etc. etc. etc.

This isn't like writing a letter in TextEdit. Video is very serious stuff.

If you believe the business of producers finishing their project on the flight back from the shoot, please remember that a 17" anything will not fit on the tray table in Coach.

Koz

"If you believe the business of producers finishing their project on the flight back from the shoot, please remember that a 17" anything will not fit on the tray table in Coach.
"

koz -
that's why all us editors out here should only be flown first class - so we got more work done! ;-)

Gregory O'Toole Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> that's why all us editors out here should only be flown first class - so we got more work done! ;-)

I'm going to use that one next time!

deb

Surely the 17 inch is a desktop replacement for most people?
I'm also looking for a laptop and am leaning towards the cheapest option 15 inch macbookpro. I have a mac pro 2.66 at home with an Apple 23 inch display so i don't think i need the 17 version. I just need ot be mobile for short periods. Are there any discernible benefits to the more expensive 15 inch version?

A Penny fopr My thoughts:

I carry my laptop in a Pelican case. Waterproof/lifetime warranty, and I gotta say going for long walks with a 15" powerbook gets hard on the arms pretty quick. I can't even imagine carrying a 17" PB more than a couple of blocks. The other thing, is that you just KNOW the 17" is going to eat battery life like crazy, especially on a high end app like FCP.
A word of caution: Mac is BOUND to release a whole new line of products pretty quick, it might be a good idea to hold off for a couple of months and see if Apple opts for the LED screens instead.

Treatment

Good point about LED screens Treatment. I can't help thinking the brushed aluminium design is going to look like something out of the ark very soon. Also the next range will have Leopard installed. Could be worth hanging on?

<<<Apple opts for the LED screens instead. >>>

They almost have to if only for the efficiency thing. Somebody has to come up with the handful-thousand volts to get the gas-filled tube to fire and keep running in a PowerBook. There's the efficiency of the tube itself plus the high voltage converter and regulators. Then there's the "dim start" thing, etc. etc. Far nicer to go with the LEDs.

I can imagine the fist-fight at Apple over this. I bet half the building wanted to make the LEDs brighter (easily done) and the other half wanted to make a direct replacement--you literally almost can't tell which one you're looking at. The 'can't tell' people won.

Everybody would get their fingers in this one. Engineering, Marketing, Design, etc. etc. O2B a fly on *that* wall.

They will get my PowerBook out of my fingers when they offer a 12" that you can see in sunlight.

Koz

Quote

Surely the 17 inch is a desktop replacement for most people?

"Replacement"? No...I sincerely doubt that. It may be a desktop ADDITION, but not a replacement. Not to mention if you use Uncompressed video you will have to carry around a RAID / FW / SATA drive configuration.

How would you lay anything off to tape (BROADCAST tape, that is...like SDI DigiBeta or true HD)? Broadcast work requires a tower to house a Kona card or something comparable...period. I would love to be able to lay stuff off from one of those new MacBook Pro Dual Core / 4 Gig RAM monsters but for the work I do right now, it would be nothing more than a giant iPod.

Who knows what's down the road....?

As for waiting for the "latest greatest"...who cares. Get what you NEED to get your work done...not what's trendy / pretty.

my 2¢...

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Ok You're right Joey. It is a replacement for MOST people who are not video editors, because none of these mobile solutions are ideal for the job. That was my (badly made) point.
I have a month long job teaching school leavers in a couple of weeks and was all set to get me a macbookpro for the occasion. I now discover the organisers have gone for the CS3 suite instead of FCP, which i requested, and are using PC's instead of macs. They are supplying me with a machine for the duration. Since i used Prem pro for several years on Windows its no big deal and makes the thought of waiting around a while for the latest and greatest quite appealing. Otherwise i would agree with you 100%.
As far as the trendy/pretty issue goes, of course you're right there too. But how annoying is it when you find you've just parted with a couple of grand for last years model. Also, i think its fair to say that the designers at Apple fall over themselves to create the prettiest/trendiest products known to man.

Dom,

I have a Quad Core Intel Mac with 8 Gig RAM sitting under my desk at work - still in a sealed box. I have expressed to my Supervisor that I will not install it until all the software I use for work catches up with the technology. After Effects CS3 Professional, which is my bread & butter program, is still not released (late June / mid July). It runs on Rosetta, but only sees 1 Gig of RAM and that's not enough for the heavy work I do. It's too buggy / slow / crashes frequently. This machine is now out of date as the much faster Octo-Cores are out and I didn't even open the box. They spent $5,000 on me (too soon, as I told them) and now I am putting in for an Octo-Core with 8 Gig RAM. I know what I need to get my work done...which is the most important thing. I don't have the luxury of being trendy

I personally own a Quad Core PPC (non-Intel) / 4 Gig RAM / Kona LHe / KL-Box and I love it. It handles all my work very well. If it ain't broke...don't fix it

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.