FCP editing on the go . . .

. . . i'm acquiring a new laptop for editing and graphic design on the go and wondered what you guys think of these perspective stats:

Apple MacBook Pro Hi-Res Antiglare 15.4" Core i7 2.66GHz 4GB 500GB, Display: 15.4" Widescreen Hi-Res Anti-GlareMemory (RAM): 4GB 2 x 2GBMaximum Memory: 8GBHard Drive: 500GB HDD 5400rpmIntegrated Graphics: Intel HD Graphics DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memoryIntegrated Graphics Memory: 256MBDedicated Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics processor 512MB GDDR3SD Card SlotCPU: Core i7 2.66GHz

any suggested additions or alternatives to this spec?

Many thanks, OC

Max out the RAM.

Do you have a second display you'll connect to for editing? 15" screen is going to get very small very fast with FCP / Motion / Color interfaces.

What media array are you connecting to this machine?

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Hi Walter,

It will only be for initial cutting and very approximate grading - the finished sequences will be fully graded and tweaked on my studio-based tower back home.

I'm planning on using an additional drive alongside storing media on the Macbooks internal, for backup - making two copies of all source footage on location.

Any suggestions for a robust relatively lightweight 500g-1tb drive?

Many thanks, OC

osbourne cox Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm planning on using an additional drive
> alongside storing media on the Macbooks internal,
> for backup - making two copies of all source
> footage on location.

Even for backup I would NEVER store media on the internal drive. This requires you to write / delete / write / delete over and over again as you work. Your system will just get slower and slower due to all the fragmentation that will happen to your main system drive.

For field use we're now using the Weibetech RTX series of enclosures. For exactly what you're describing, field edit / media transfer, we've set up an RTX-200 model which is two drives inside a trayless enclosure. This means you can put raw SATA drives in the box just like you used to do a floppy disc.

So we transfer all the material to one of the drives and then immediately clone the material to the other drive. One box, two drives and nothing goes on the laptop.

The true sweetness of this setup is that it takes any SATA drives. So if we're in the field somewhere and the drives are getting full, we can pretty much go to any electronics store and pick up a few more drives and keep rocking. Also look at their DriveBox which looks like an old VHS box, but it's an anti-static box to hold your raw hard drives.

We have over 100 raw drives sitting on our shelves or in safe deposit storage right now using these boxes.

www.weibetech.com

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Weibetech RTX series - as Walter indicated - makes great products.

We also like the Caldigit VR drives -- they are very reliable - you can set up as a protected raid in the field (great for P2 or sxs media where there's no back up once you offload) - They are fire-wire bus powered (great for those flights home where you want to edit at 30,000 feet) and they work as super fast SATA Drives if you connect with a sata cable (the firewire continues to power the drive). Their customer support is unbeatable. I corrupted a drive directory and it wouldn't mount. They talked me through rescuing the data, sent me another drive sled and checked out the troublesome one without charge. Can't say enough about their tech and customer support. Downside - they are pricey for a portable drive but in our opinion, well worth it.

Cheers Walter i'll look into that . .

Many thanks, OC

What size screen do you recommend to complement the 15" Macbook Pro for a dual monitor FCP setup? I was thinking of going with a 21.5" LCD to keep things more portable and closer to the Macbook Pro's screen size or a 23-24" computer monitor but it maybe too big as a second monitor to the Macbook Pro's 15" screen? Also, would it make a difference between going with a computer monitor vs an HDTV monitor?

Note: I will be using this dual monitor setup in addition to my pvm-14L5 for monitoring/color correction. Thanks for your thoughts and opinions!

Personally I would go for the 24" monitor to give you the maximum real estate for the interface. Especially if you plan to use Color at all for your temporary color enhancement.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Well...I would wait to purchase a laptop as the cycle is about to renew itself but if you MUST BUY NOW,

* I stopped reading at 15.4 inch screen. For grafix, it makes all the difference with the full 1920x1200 of the 17" (no brainer).

* 2.8Ghz Processor for the obvious reasons (more calculations - it's just faster = no brainer)

* I would never use a 5400 RPM drive for anything. An SSD Boot Drive is the way to go especially for something portable. Faster / reliable / no moving parts (no brainer).

* Agree with MUST MAX OUT RAM (no brainer).

* Second monitor = the Apple 27" LED (stunning = no brainer).

I have done my research as I am about to also pull the trigger on a fully updated portable rig (already bought my new Wacom Intuos 4 tablet, external 3 TB RAID and a RUGGED 500 GB Transport drive). I am waiting until after Mac World to see if there are any upgrades to the Apple hardware. You may want to check MacRumors Buying Guide...as much as I hate rumors, they are pretty accurate with Apple product news:

[buyersguide.macrumors.com]

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Talk about a portable rig-- just an old TiBook 15" with FCP 5.1.4 (using XML interchange to the home workstation) and one little accessory-- a MiniDV to VGA adapter.

Cutting in the conference room with the clients, on a huge screen through their DLP projector.

They were in hog heaven. They could see my timeline, the craft they were paying for and full screen review when required. I cautioned them that color would be inaccurate, but this was a content session, and they could micromanage everything, including titling, right then, right there. What fun to have instant signoffs. And good-paying repeat client.

So on a Core i7 and a 30.00 MiniDisplayPort-to-VGA, you'll be in nirvana. That's at least three steps above hog heaven.

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Play from Playhead to Out Mark with Shift-P !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Walter,

My Macbook Pro's screen maxes out at 1440x900. I believe this is below the specs required for Color. If I add that second 24" monitor at 1920x1080, will this enable me to use Color? thanks...