need your recommendation: laptop or tower

[DanHostler1985]

So heres the situation:

Im going to purchase a new computer, a macintosh, but I havent quite decided on either a laptop or a tower. A laptop would aloow me to easily transport data back and forth from different locations and even carry on video shoots to capture/edit right there. I have the HVX200 and once i get either p2 cards or a firestore I want to utilize the DVCPRO HD format, but will a powermac laptop be powerfully sufficient enough to edit DVCPRO HD or do I need a powermac tower? What do you recommend? Thanks

 

[bluffton]

I use both. Go with either. Both will be able to hand any HD you throw at it. Make sure your specs are at recommended levels or higher. I suggest you put your video on an external drive, because your computer is journaled, you WILL have issues on longer projects with disconnect media and dropped frames. The external drive will give you the transportability you want for moving data around. Also, if you actually want to edit somewhere else other than home, then definetly the laptop.

I'm on a Powerbook G4 (old mac,) and I've heard wonderful things about the 17" macbook pro (not that I've heard anything negative about the 15")

There are people who will tell you to not store video on external drives because of many reasons. I have had zero problems doing it this way, but should you want, you can buy or build your own a RAID or a SAN to store your information (too expensive).

Check out all of your speculations on everything including flash drives.

Good luck

 

[DanHostler1985]

Thanks, thats what I figured, Im gonna have it (macbookpro) custom made so it has a good amount of RAM and the external hard drive is definitely mandatory. I already have a PC but I want to be able to add editing on the spot as an added convenience. Thanks for your help.

One other question....whats the difference between a regular external drive and a RAID in terms of consistency?

 

[bluffton]

This is where I lose my technical prowessness. It stands for Random Access blah blah blah. I understand it to basically mean back up files and keeps them fresh. I'm sure someone else can give a detailed explanation.

I'm good on the FCP and Mac stuff but the other things... Not so much.

Good luck.

P.S. Make sure you learn workflow. This will save you tons of time and headaches later in life, whether it's news and especially huge projects like commercials, special reports and super big stuff like Documentaries or full length movies. REALLY.

 

[Necktie Boy]

The Mac laptop will be good. Like you said, get enough memory and external HD. You might want to get a SATA drive. I believe you need faster drive for DVCHD than you need for DVCPro. Just look at some of the Mac site to help you decide.
The Mac dudes always say never use the system HD for media, and never use USB drives for media. On a note, the 400 and 800 firewire port use the same chipset, so if you are using both ports, the 800 slows down to 400....

 

[DanHostler1985]

Thanks for the help so far...any particular brand of RAID or SATA I should look out for? Also would I be able to capture direct to the external drive smoothly? Seems I had trouble doing that a while back...

 

[Canonman]

This is where I lose my technical prowessness. It stands for Random Access blah blah blah. I understand it to basically mean back up files and keeps them fresh. I'm sure someone else can give a detailed explanation.

It stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Discs. You can configure the RAID to interleave the data between drives for higher throughput, but this puts you at risk because no single drive holds all of your data (RAID 0). There is RAID 5 which 'mirrors' the data for redundancy so a failed drive always has a back up. Then there are combinations of the two configurations to get the best of both worlds if you have enough drives available.

Dan, the good thing about going with the 17 in. Macbook Pro, is that you gain Firewire 800 and some other higher performance specs. You can use the Expresscard 34 slot to plug in a SATA II drive interface which has a very fast transfer rate. Plug that into a SATA II RAID and you're golden for HD stuff. Need to see the full resolution? Just plug in an external 24 or 30 in display. Need to see it with fairly accurate color? Use the Matrox MXO box which will translate RGB color (your computer) to YUV color (broadcast).

Portable editing is getting a lot easier these days.

cm

 

[Necktie Boy]

I forgot about the MXO box.....Hook up a HD monitor and watch HD....You will have to get a HD monitor....Apple, Dell, and HP have computer monitors that will
handle a true 1080 signal....And with the MXO box, you can set up the monitor to show correct colors....Not bad for a $1000 box.

 

[DanHostler1985]

"You can use the Expresscard 34 slot to plug in a SATA "

I figured that was the best way to go about...thanks for all your help guys...I really appreciate it

 

[Douglas]

Dan, the good thing about going with the 17 in. Macbook Pro, is that you gain Firewire 800 and some other higher performance specs. You can use the Expresscard 34 slot to plug in a SATA II drive interface which has a very fast transfer rate. Plug that into a SATA II RAID and you're golden for HD stuff.
cm

Hey Greg, I had been hunting around yesterday looking for a way to speed up the performance of my Macbook Pro editing and I had already come to the conclusion you mention above when I stumbled across your post. Thanks. Your confirmation is the icing on the cake that I have found the best solution, and I'm going to place an order on Monday.

However, I had a couple of lingering questions that you probably know the answer to:

1) I've heard that if you have a FW400 device connected to your MacBook then the performance of any FW800 devices you have is dragged down to that level. Is that true? And if so, are we only talking about FW400 hard drives or "any" FW devices. For example, if I have a ShuttlePro and/or blue tooth transmitter for a wireless mouse attached via Firewire, are those devices dragging down the performance of my FW800 drive(s)?

2) Suppose I have two or three FW800 drives daisy chained, does that hurt the performance of any of them in the chain?

3) Suppose I have three FW800 drives daisy chained, but only one is actually powered up and mounted on the desktop. Is the performance of the one drive that is actually being used affected by having the other drives connected (but not turned on).

4) If I have a Sony MU25 HDV deck connected via FW400 through one of the FW800 drives, does this bring the performance of the rest of the system down? If so, is that only when it is turned on? What if the deck is powered off 99% of the time, is the fact tha it is still physically connected to the rest of the system drag the performnance down all of the time.

I'm counting on you Greg. If anyone know the answers, it's gotta be you!

Doug

 

[Canonman]

Hey Greg, I had been hunting around yesterday looking for a way to speed up the performance of my Macbook Pro editing and I had already come to the conclusion you mention above when I stumbled across your post. Thanks. Your confirmation is the icing on the cake that I have found the best solution, and I'm going to place an order on Monday.

However, I had a couple of lingering questions that you probably know the answer to:

1) I've heard that if you have a FW400 device connected to your MacBook then the performance of any FW800 devices you have is dragged down to that level. Is that true? And if so, are we only talking about FW400 hard drives or "any" FW devices. For example, if I have a ShuttlePro and/or blue tooth transmitter for a wireless mouse attached via Firewire, are those devices dragging down the performance of my FW800 drive(s)?

2) Suppose I have two or three FW800 drives daisy chained, does that hurt the performance of any of them in the chain?

3) Suppose I have three FW800 drives daisy chained, but only one is actually powered up and mounted on the desktop. Is the performance of the one drive that is actually being used affected by having the other drives connected (but not turned on).

4) If I have a Sony MU25 HDV deck connected via FW400 through one of the FW800 drives, does this bring the performance of the rest of the system down? If so, is that only when it is turned on? What if the deck is powered off 99% of the time, is the fact tha it is still physically connected to the rest of the system drag the performnance down all of the time.

I'm counting on you Greg. If anyone know the answers, it's gotta be you!

Doug

Dang, that's a lot of questions. But basically, you're correct. The Firewire bus will slow down to the speed of the slowest device on the bus, regardless of what type the device is. And keep in mind, some devices don't get much beyond 100 mbs let alone the 400 mbs that firewire 400 is capable of. So if you have your FW800 drive plugged in with the slow poke, it's going to choke down.

Here's the good news, there are external drive cases that now have e-sata connectivity. Just put a sata adapter in that express card slot and let the video devices have the firewire bus. Or, you could locate an express card to firewire adapter that would effectively give you two separate firewire busses. Put drive on one, and video equipment on the other and they won't bother each other.

Not to sure about the power on/off state. I don't know for sure how most devices handle daisy chaining with their power off. Good question.

Hope all is well with you and the Mrs.,

cm

 

[Douglas]

CM,

Thanks for the advice. I was hoping there would be a more clear cut answer, but I guess there's just too many variables to say for sure what works better than something else.

Anyway, I've ordered a G-Sata drive and an Express 24 card. Later this week I should be able to say whether it's faster than my current setup or not.

Doug