dramaguru
Level 1 (8 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: What systems work best for making video

I hope this is the correct Apple Community to post this question in - there doesn't seem to be another match.

 

As a college professor, I'm having to shoot, edit and render a lot of video presentations for my online classes. I've been using my iPhone to shoot sound and image and the footage itself looks terrific. To edit and render, I've been using iMovie (simple to use and learn and fine for my purposes) on a couple of systems:

 

1) Macbook Pro 2009 with 2GB of Ram

2) Macbook Pro 2012 with 4GB of Ram

 

Both are working very hard each time to render even short (less than 30 minutes) of video. I can tell because the fan sure gets noisy. And while they're rendering, I can't do anything else on them. They can't even load pages in a browser sometimes. And rendering in a high enough resolution to be sharp when viewed full screen? Forget about it - takes a couple of hours each time, not to mention that uploading to a video platform like YouTube then doubles the time from the start of rendering to viewing online.

 

I'm hoping to get suggestions from those of you more savvy about what Mac system to purchase that can handle these tasks well, without the risk of burning out, and that will allow me to be productive even while they're working on a task like rendering video.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on May 28, 2016 8:19 AM

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dramaguru

Q: What systems work best for making video

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  • by BenB,

    BenB BenB Aug 11, 2016 5:19 AM in response to dramaguru
    Level 6 (9,801 points)
    Video
    Aug 11, 2016 5:19 AM in response to dramaguru

    For video editing, you need horsepower, period.  No way around that.  Anything under 8 GB RAM is simply not going to cut it.  Your MBP '09 has a very outdated and weak GPU that will struggle with video editing for sure.  The '12 model would probably do pretty good with 8-16 GB RAM installed running FCPX or iMovie.  If you're doing this regularly, get a new retina MBP with 16 GB RAM, and a 7200rpm USB 3.0 external drive (for Libraries and media).  Then purchase FCPX, do an online course to learn it properly (saves tons of time and headaches).  Then you'll be super productive.  I've worked and trained many college students, staff and faculty with FCPX, and they all love it.