MacBooks and Motion

Aloha all-

Just wondering: Has anybody tried to see if Motion will run on one of the new MacBooks? I know they are not listed as "officially supported" hardware; but I sure would love to be able to do simple Motion work on trips with the relatively small black MacBook, rather than have to get myself one of the 15" MBPro's.

Thanks in advance

I'm going to published this reply in a couple of places because today, May 19th, I just canceled my order for my 13" black MacBook (which had already shipped - I would've received it on Monday, May 23rd) because a very alert sales person at UCLA alerted me to an email stating NO PRO APPS WILL RUN ON THE MACBOOK. I went into shock and immediately called Apple. The sales rep there had to speak to several people and eventually CONFIRMED the mighty little MacBook with all its dual processor power will not run ANY Pro application due to the "shared video memory" of the MacBook.

This does not apply to the Pro laptops (none of which are this small, none of which come in black), but only to the newly released 13" white and black MacBooks. I canceled my order (a $2850 order) immediately and told them I was stunned, shocked, and in total disbelief that their newest MacBook with a 2 GhZ Dual Core CPU would not run any Pro applications from Apple. NONE OF THEM!!

I feel like I'm dealing with Sony when a company has to restrict its product's capabilities to maintain a specific marketing space from its higher end products. If they don't come out with a comparable Pro version then they're not getting a certain market segment. Many of us need high power in a small footprint and preventing the lighter weight MacBook from running any Pro apps is just horrible.

This is not correct. The pro apps will install on the MacBook, and many of them will work on the computer, though with degraded performance, particularly Motion, which relies heavily on a graphics processor. The MacBook and the Mac mini use shared memory for video processing. This reduces the manufacturing cost and keeps the price of the computer down. To say the computers will not run the applications is just wrong, and there are Apple KB articles about this. Also search this forum and others for using pro apps with the Mac mini, which is basically the same computer. That said, the sales person was right to warn you from purchasing this computer if your intent was to work with pro applications. That's why Apple makes a laptop for use with the pro apps, and they call it MacBook Pro. It costs more because of the graphics processor among other things. I understand that you want a 13" MacBook Pro, but Apple's probably not going to make one, as the market for that computer is probably pretty small, as most users find the restricted screen space difficult to work with on pro apps interfaces.



All the best,

Tom

as Tom say you where misinformed

they proapps will install and run

performance isn't AMAZING
but they are usable
even Aperture will install and run



David at Movies Rock in Toronto
[www.tofcpug.com]

Thanks Tom and David for your kind replies.

I agree with you that using FCP Studio on the MacBook may not be ideal; I am happy to hear, however, that it is probably possible to install the apps on the machine.

If I do eventually order the MB, it will be for simple rough cut editing and quick rendering in the field before getting home to a better machine.

@ zenwitch - I agree that I would like a small form-factor MB Pro to replace my aging 12"/1Ghz PowerBook (which runs FCP perfectly well, by the way, if a little slow in rendering for output).

[docs.info.apple.com]



All the best,

Tom

That is very reassuring! I'll buy you your drink of choice at the next LAMG or LAFCPUG meeting!

Anyway, I wasn't planning on using a MacBook as my primary CPU but it's nice to know it at least works because the email that the store clerk showed me specifically said "won't run on MacBooks" and that's what freaked me out. (Once, on an old iBook, when I tried to install FCE the installer looked at the amount of RAM I had and wouldn't allow the installation to continue! That's what I was I afraid would happen and it seemed likely based on the email I saw.) So long as Final Cut Pro can run, it seems like it will do better than running it on a single G4 1.2MHz processor. Don't you think?

So I reinstated my order.

If Apple says, it doesn't meet the minimum requirements for FC Studio; what does that mean to you?

Maybe you're asking me?

If it installs and runs but takes a performance hit that I can live with then it doesn't mean much because I get my portability in a small form factor knowing I'll online the project back at my studio.

If it refuses to install at all then it means I have to return the nice little 13" MacBook and be stuck waiting for Apple to come out with a smaller Pro version (yes, I know that might not ever happen) or go back to using Final Cut Express with all its limitations.

So it's always a crap shoot in these gray areas of "unsupported configurations" but my iBook G4 is just getting too limited. Ultimately, it means I have to take risks I don't like taking because Apple thinks people who do editing and motion graphics are fine with lugging around huge laptops when in fact there's a lot of us who prefer small form factors for our laptops when traveling and will transfer the project to our towers with the really large screen to finalize the project.