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Hello All... Long time editor, relative newcomer to FCP.
For a while now, I've been contemplating getting an iMac and FCP Studio 2 to work from home with. I dig the new iMacs that just got announced today, and as I'm thinking about buying one, it hit me that I'm not too familiar with what the trade-offs or limitations are with the iMac vs. a Mac Pro tower. I'm guessing its mostly in deck control and capturing media, but are there any other pitfalls to consider?
Somewhere in these forums, is there a thread that covers the limitations of FCP and the iMac? Or a list of things to consider before jumping in and using an iMac over a tower to deliver professional-quality results?
Could somebody steer me to a thread or some resources that might cover hardware questions? Or give me some insight into the drawbacks of using the iMac? My bottom line is that I really want to get FCP Studio running at home, but don't want to spend $7000 on a fully stacked up Mac Pro tower setup.
Thanks for the advice -
Jeff
""Or a list of things to consider before jumping in and using an iMac over a tower to deliver professional-quality results? ""
Using an iMac and getting professional results is generally inconsistent for a number of reasons.
You must first consider the video formats you will be working with now and in the future. Lots of issues like video cards, disk systems and horsepower to do the work required. Want to use ProRez 422? Not on an iMac! Want to install a video capture card; not on an iMac. Want more storage and of course you need at least one more volume than the boot drive? You gonna use Firewire?
There's lots of reasons why an iMac, is not even an ideal situation for Final Cut Studio 2
If you will be capturing via Firewire then this new iMac is just fine. Just add an external FW Raid and you are good to go. The new Imac handles up to 4 Gigs of ram now plus you can hook up a 2nd external display in extended mode not just mirroring. 2 FW ports too. The 24 inch model will handle Color. Haven't a clue how well, but it supports 1920 by 1200 which is what Color Requires. I'm betting Motion will run just fine if you throw 4 Gigs of ram at it. The 24 inch model has a pretty good graphics card with 256MB of memory. This is a powerful machine for the money. You need to go with the 24inch model though. Looking at the specs you can get by with the 2.4GHZ 24inch model. The 2.8GHZ model gets you a faster processor and more storage and 1 extra Gig of ram. I doubt highly that 2.8GHZ is much faster than 2.4, and $500.00 seems a bit steep to pay when all you are getting is that , 1 extra Gig of Ram and 280 more Gigs of space. So..the 2.4GHZ 24 seems like a really good deal.
Michael Horton
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Hi Jwilliam.
Like so many of these questions, the the only honest answer is "It depends."...
I'm using one of the recent 20" iMacs to edit HDV material - I've had no problems, it's reasonably fast, HDV firewire transfers work just fine, and, contrary to John's assessment, ProRez 422 (not the "HQ" flavor) works great.
HOWEVER...
I'm not a professional video guy....
I use FCP exclusively to work with my voiceover business. I edit short little HD "snippets" for a number of things, like promoting my voiceover work to video folks. I consider video editing and production to be far to grueling for my tastes - you couldn't pay me enough to do it for money, but I do enjoy playing around with entertainment technology, and my customers like that I have some understanding of their end of the production process - and I get to play around with new stuff and report back to my video friends who don't have time for such things. So - the iMac works great for editing in a non-serious environment.
If I were a video pro, or even considering going in that direction the answer to the "What machine should I get" would be really simple -- "The biggest honkin' monster machine I can get my hands on!" Here's why.
Let's say you shell out ten-grand for an editing system. Let's say we expense the machine out in eighteen months and get the next ten-thousand-dollar monster machine then. So, we're paying out about $556.00 a month for that machine. Now, as an editor, your time is probably worth considerably more than $20.00-per-hour, but let's say that's what you get. If that machine increases your productivity by 28 hours a month, it's FREE!
Now, if you're not a professional, or you just once-in-a-while need to take some projects home, that's a different story - but you might want to consider a MacBook Pro - which has some features better suited to the editing environment - however I do fine the big screen on the iMac, combined with an external large screen to be very nice.
By the way, here's a video segment I just completed (for free, of course) for a group project being done by members of the local MCA-I for the Newport Beach Film Festival - HD on an iMac... www.HD-VO.com/nbff
Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[ www.VOTalent.com]
To put it simply...if you need to digitize SD / HD footage (not DV / HDV) from tape decks, you can't use the iMac because you will need a beefy capture card...UNLESS...you get the I/O HD:
[ www.aja.com]
Joey
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
Ah yes. Forgot about that. Well then, this new iMac is a heck of a deal. An external Raid, 4 Gigs of Ram and a I/O HD, hard to beat.
Michael Horton
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Or even better, Mike...a loaded 17" MacBook Pro, a SATA RAID / Express 34 card & an I/O HD for a "Have Pixels / will travel" mobile studio in a single Pelican Case (might even qualify as a carry-on). Edit full rez...anywhere. Ain't technology grand 
Joey
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
Wow, thank you all for the advice, especially that creativecow link. That is exactly the kind of food for thought I needed.
Basically, I work as a professional producer/editor, and a couple of clients would like to farm some jobs out to me. I'm not ready - nor am I inclined - to build an edit bay in my office that will compete with what I work with at a facility on a daily basis. I'd love to bring in small jobs (none of which are shooting in HD yet), and have the rig to work on slower-speed, long form documentaries.
The immediate gigs I'm looking at would either involve capturing video via firewire (either a small deck or a camera), or digitizing at the facility (off of digibeta) & just working off of firewire drives back home. Long form stuff, I'd just like to rent a deck for a couple of days... which makes that AJA box look really interesting.
On paper, the iMac seems like a graceful intermediate step to accomplish that goal. I've done a couple of these jobs on the Avid Xpress Pro that runs on my laptop, and I generally think they could be done easier and more smoothly in FCP. Plus, investing in a big ol' Mac Pro tower is going to mean buying 2 monitors, a mixing board, and a deck... and at the moment I don't have $10K+ laying around.
It's great to know the system limitations, and what will or won't work. Thanks for the prompt advice, and when I pull the trigger on this next week, I'll pop back in and let y'all know how it works!
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Plus, investing in a big ol' Mac Pro tower is going to mean buying 2 monitors, a mixing board, and a deck...
i don't follow that thinking at all.
MacPro + 1 monitor
will doall you need and be ready for when and if you need to add more.
having said that, i love the simplicity of an iMac,
and it will do the job well.
nick
Speaking of simplicity, Nick. Look at the new iMovie. It's very cool. Few features in there I wish FCP had.
Michael Horton
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That thinking goes like this:
Mac Pro, FCP 2 studio, with 1 24" monitor is $5700, plus a good 1 terabyte drive, that's over $6200.
An iMac with 4 gig of RAM, FCP 2, and a drive is $3800.
That's a $2400 difference, and if the major functional difference is the inability to digitize HD right out of the box, that's not worth it at the moment for my needs. Plus, if I'm making that $6200 investment, it's more profitable with a deck/mixing board/full edit room trappings.... but that's just my peculiar sense of budgeting.
> Speaking of simplicity, Nick. Look at the new iMovie. It's very cool. Few features in there I wish
> FCP had.
Blasphemy!
We are now the LAIMUG. 
Which features are they, by the way? Has iMovie finally given up that ridiculous .dv format?
www.derekmok.com
Nobody said it, but your voice over looks great Travis! Sounds pretty too!!!
Kevin
Thanks Kevin!
jwilliam, your plan makes sense. Since you understand the limitations of the iMac, you're pretty good to go. Also, that extra monitor will still be useful when you decide to upgrade to a tower.
Since the new iMacs have one FW-800 port, you will be able to use some of the new FW800 raid boxes, which will come in handy. Also, since you're ready to have someone do your transfers when necessary, you have a good plan to overcome the remaining iMac limitations.
The iMac also reduces clutter, requiring a few less cables, and you don't need to find a place to put the tower in your home - and you can watch HD TV on the iMac when you're not working.
Since you're only going to be doing this part time, the long exporting/rendering times won't be so much of an issue, since you'll be "out" of your home studio during the day. And you seem to be pretty well connected in the biz, so you'll be able to borrow/rent a tower if you really need one.
Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[ www.VOTalent.com]
The glossy display is a real problem IMHO. There seems to be no option to get an anti-glare display.
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Which features are they, by the way? Has iMovie finally given up that ridiculous .dv format?
Don't know about that but I like the new UI and also the way the new iMovie library automatically groups your video by Events. like the new iPhoto does. Also now supports "SD and HD video from tape-based and tapeless camcorders, including Flash-memory, hard disk drives and DVD cams. Even the latest AVCHD cams!"
"Rather than represent a video clip by a single poster frame, iMovie displays each clip as a dynamic filmstrip. So you can see its contents with just a glance."
Export to YouTube and iphone and Apple TV
Take a look at it. It's fun
[ www.apple.com]
One assumes that there is a large user-base out there who are using FCP for no other purpose then to get their movies directly to DVD or on the web somewhere and FCP is overkill for that for the most part. It's time to take a good look at iMovie especially if you are a no budget filmmaker.
I wonder about Final Cut Express. Where does it fit in?
Michael Horton
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[The glossy display is a real problem IMHO. There seems to be no option to get an anti-glare display.]
Bingo. That's the dealbreaker. Of course, I always love being able to monitor the rest of my studio while editing.... not.
- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:
Apply a smooth satin finish to the screen with MacGlossyOff!
Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com
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Mike
One assumes that there is a large user-base out there who are using FCP for no other purpose then to get their movies directly to DVD or on the web somewhere and FCP is overkill for that for the most part
yes,
and under-kill, too.
i, too, wish some of iMovie's "Amateur" features were incorporated into FCP.
it wouldn't hurt to make some things easier.
surely FCP will have to have a major upgrade one day?
i would hope that some of these things could be incorporated
the DVStream format generally stops me from using iMovie as a stepping stone to FCP.
does anyone know if iMovie HDV can be used in FCP?
nick
iMovie HDV is AIC. It's transcoded on capture. Same with FCE.
LOL! Travis, I've never heard you described as "Pretty" 
Steve
kevin Wrote:
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> Nobody said it, but your voice over looks great
> Travis! Sounds pretty too!!!
>
> Kevin
Apparently the @#$%& has hit the fan regarding iMovie 08. Users are hopping mad. A serviceable version 6 program was discarded for a version 1 program with limited capabilities in order to make it conform with iPhoto. Some nice interface functionality, if only so much hadn't been lost in the transition.
Hopefully Apple won't take this brutal approach when they get around to upgrading FCP's user interface. The saving grace for iMovie users is that Apple must have realised what the impact of this would be as iMovie 06 remains on the drive in addition to the new 08. So iMovie 08 can be used for very quick &dirty stuff & 06 can be used for more serious efforts.
Dave
Steven Forster Wrote:
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> LOL! Travis, I've never heard you described as "Pretty"
>
> Steve
>
>
I'm surprised you haven't, Steve, people have used that word to describe me for years, though usually as an adverb, rather than an adjective ("pretty lame", "pretty stupid"...)
Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[ www.VOTalent.com]
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