Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I have been using FCP 7 on/off since 2009 for simple projects (AVCHD to ProRes), but now own a Canon XF300 (love it), but the 50mbps is WAY too much for my little MacBookPro.
My needs are modest (of course, that is a loaded statement, hopefully I won't go overboard in the future), but I am considering if it's better to go with a used Mac Pro 8 core or go with the new MacPro and FCPX?
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
Which MacBook Pro do you have? The data rate of ProRes is 147 Mbps, so if you are already editing that without problems, then you may have other problems - like a media storage bottle neck.
MtD
Mid 2009 MBP, 2.8 GHz Intel Core Duo, 4 GB RAM, NVIDIA GE Force 9400M 256VRAM
Media storage is a 1TB G-Drive with a 800 FW.
Get an iMac. More bang for your buck...and half the price of a new MacPro. Don't by a used MacPro. My 2012 MacBook Pro handles C300 footage far better than my 2008 MacPro did...
Are you running FCP X on your 2012 MBP? What bitrate?
FCX? Lord no. That NLE is useless to me. I'm running Avid Media Composer 7, Adobe Premiere Pro CC and FCP 7.
And we always shoot 50mbps on C300.
What are the symptoms of your problem with the XF300 footage?
How full is the 1TB external?
MtD
:-)
Thanks
Just the slow renders etc. The FCP 7 share function was extremely long, and crashed a couple of times.
My external has a little over 300 GB left.
My most recent project, I exported a QT movie, then ran it through MPEG StreamClip to an H.264 just to post it online for client review. The CPUs are maxed out, but there is ample memory.
Don't use share. Just export a self-contained Quicktime of your finished sequence without conversion. Then
use Compressor to do the conversion from ProRes to H.264. You can use Apple Qmaster to set up your computer to simultaneously process on separate cores - it speeds the compression up substantially.
Here is a guide to the set-up:
Additional RAM in your machine would probably help as well.
To see what kind of throughput your are getting from your external drive, download the Aja System Test (free):
http://www.aja.com/en/software
it will show you the actual throughput you are getting from your drive.
MtD
Thanks, I'll get right on that.
Just finished burning a DVD,
My workflow was 1) render QT movie from FCP without conversion, 2) Import QT movie in Compressor, submit as DVD, and burned one disk.
On compressor using QMaster employing both cores, the encode took about 4 hours. The CPUs were maxed out as well as the memory.
I agree iMac is tough to beat for the price. I would love a Mac Pro, but way too pricey. I am also leary of the new design.
I bought an iMac from the Apple refurb store, Quad core i5. I loaded it with 16gb of memory and it does a pretty good job.
I am sure a Mac pro would be much faster for rendering, but I set my iMac to work overnight. I have other Mac to use while my iMac chugs away.
I think people who dog Final Cut X and Logic Pro have invested a lot of time and money into other systems. But, I have yet to find anything I cannot accomplish with Final Cut, Logic and Compressor. I have never had crashing problems with any of them and the ability to use Qmaster to share the cpu load is pretty fantastic. I used a mac mini as a node and it worked pretty well. I don't know of any other software that can pull that off as well as Apple designed products. With the quad core iMac and Final Cut, I have yet to need this.
Considering a new Mac pro
