MacBook Pro :: Going From IMac To Retina For Video Editing?
Jun 21, 2012
I've been using a pretty high specced iMac for video editing for a couple of monthes;Current model 21.5 - 2.8ghz with i7 processor250GB SSD16GB RAMI also run off a second 24inch monitor My main workflow is Premiere Pro 5.5 for editing, After Effects 5.5 for compositing and effects and Da Vinci Resolve 8 for grading. I push the software reasonably hard (footage doesnt stray above full HD res so far though, I use 5D mk2 video footage 99% of the time) and I've been super happy with how the iMac keeps up.
The general work that the iMac has to chew through is - big Premiere Pro projects with a reasonable amount of dynamic linking with AE. After Effects is used for mostly compositing with quite a lot of visual effects. Resolve is used for grading with a lot of 3D tracking, noise reduction and normal grading stuff - same as the others...quite intensive).
However..... I have no portable computer and not enough money to invest in a decent one in addition to the iMac. I don't go a week where having a good MBP wouldn't have been a massive help. I'm not a massive geek when it comes to macs. I appreciate that the iMac is a desktop and should outperform any laptop but there are loads of things on the MBP retina that seem to level the field. I'd look at the following spec; 2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM256GB Flash Storage
As far as I see the MBP has;the better USB3 sockets (a godsend when you have 64 gigs of footage to download).More thunderbolt sockets (I could use two external monitors).Faster RAM (1600mhz against 1333mhz).Better screen res (although I have some questions on that).More graphics RAM (1GB against 512mb)
So thats a lot of things that look better. Im not worried about the small 256mb HD as only the footage Im currently using will be on the MBP's HD itself.
So my questions are as follows; How should the two units stack up against eachother performance wise when being given quite intensive tasks from Premiere Pro, After Effects and Resolve (the MBP just simply being a notebook.....the MBP having faster RAM....the iMac having a faster processor etc)?How should the graphics compare (the iMac having a 6775 chip with 512 memory and the MBP having a 4000 chip with 1GB memory)?How should the screens compare. The MBP obviously has a massive PPI boost but.....is the colour balancing meant to be good enough. So far I've been more than happy to use the iMac for colour grading).Am I asking too much of the MBP to run two extra monitors when at home...?Am I just being stupid getting rid of a desktop for a notebook as my main working computer...?
Info:
MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
I would love some suggestions for some video editing programs that might work on my G3 imac. 500Mhz, 640MB ram, 16MB graphics. I would prefer freeware, and no imovie. Im not looking for anything too extreme, just some basic or above average editing.
I just installed CS5 and was able to play with Premiere Pro and After Effects. Before I was debating on getting an iMac 27 i7 or a Mac Pro. Well for the money, the iMac i7 does everything I ask it to. Computers can still get faster as this thing is fast, but it's not instant meaning, it still takes time to render. But to give you an idea...on my 13.3 Macbook, a 1 hour render takes about 10 minutes on the i7. The interesting thing is playing Starcraft 2...I don't hear the iMac fans at all...however, rendering HD video puts the CPU to work. I only have 8GB of RAM now and it seems responsive, but I can guarantee for these kinds of video editing programs, the more RAM the merrier. I order 8GB more RAM today and I will have a total of 12GB (I stole 4GB out of my Macbook temporarily). I can certainly say for anyone thinking about iMac for video editing it definitely can get the job done. If money however is not an issue go with the Mac Pro...the extra hard drives make a difference. For those on a budget. like me. this is the top of the line product for a prosumer. It's hard to beat the price for the big monitor and i7 chip. BTW...even 27 isn't enough. I got an external 24 next to it and in fact... running both After Effects and Premiere Pro it would not be out of the question to have a 3rd monitor for web browsing or have a document to look at or something. Let's all hope Adobe supports our video cards in the future.
I currently have an old PPC G4 iMac that has finally shown its age for me now that I want to start doing some basic HD video editing in iMovie to start. I wouldn't totally rule out using Final Cut, but most likely I will be using iMovie for a while. I use consoles for gaming mostly, but would be open to using the iMac for it. So I am basically wondering if I can get away with using the following refurb for at least the next 3 years or so:
Refurbished iMac 27-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 27-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display 4GB memory 1TB hard drive 8x SuperDrive (DVD�R DL/DVD�RW/CD-RW) ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics with 256MB memory Built-in iSight camera
Or seeing as how I do not replace stuff very fast, am I just better off taking the bigger plunge now on this iMac:
Refurbished iMac 27-inch 2.93GHz Intel Quad-Core i7 processor 27-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display 4GB memory 1TB hard drive 8x SuperDrive (DVD�R DL/DVD�RW/CD-RW) ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics with 1GB memory Built-in iSight camera
I am not looking to start a which one is better conversation, that is obvious. I just do not know enough about the performance of these to determine if I am purchasing a machine that is built for something that I will never use.
I have G5 which takes 15 hours to write a DVD home movie.
I am planning to buy a new imac.
My choice is 27" 2.93 i7 8 ram or 21" 3.60 i5 8 ram Does anyone know if there would be a SIGNIFICANT difference in processing a DVD between these two. It has been suggested i7 could do it in 3 hours.
I'm debating whether to go with the Imac of the Mac pro to do some amateur photo and video editing with my new Canon HF 11 HD camcorder. I have NEVER worked with video before and I'm a little nervous pulling the trigger after visiting several Apple stores. I've heard some nightmares about editing high definition video in the AVCHD format. I guess I'm asking this is editing with AVCHD possible with an IMAC? Are the new 24inch IMACs going to be power enough? Would you recommend a powerful Mac Pro instead? Do you see any issues with the AVCHD format?
This appears to be a really informative forum for existing and potential mac owners. I'd like to start, as a "Mac noob" by asking the following please. Thinking seriously of getting an Imac 24" but I would like to be able to edit HD (1080) video on it down the track. Would an Imac cope with this or would a Mac Pro be better (or overkill)and which would be most efficient, the 2.66GHz, 2.93GHz or a 3.06GHz, if I went with an Imac Video card NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 512MB or a # ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB. Having trawled through the threads, from the beginning of August(I'll go back further later), it's clear that 4 Gb of RAM is certainly enough.
First time posting, so hope this is an ok place to post this.I would like some advice. I currently have the first macbook pro 17" released. 2.16 core duo with 2GB ram. It can not even play my AVCHD fils (.mts) and it takes like 30 minutes to convert a 2 minute .mts file to something playable. So editing is non existent. I will be getting a Canon 7d or 5dmkII also soon for more video. I will most likely do a lot of filters and effects on the video as well. I am a photographer, I do a lot of photo editing of large multi layer files. My current macbook pro is a joke. I have creative suite cs3, and really cant afford a new computer AND an upgrade of the creative suite and the other upgrades i want to make to my photo equipment. CS3 doesnt run on snow leopard correct? However, i could possibly come up with the money if i need to. I am only looking to spend at max $1500 on the computer. So.
My cousin is considering getting a new iMac, and he's not sure if he should go with the $1199 model that comes with an Nvidia GeForce 9400M or the $1499 model that has an ATI Radeon HD 4670. He's going to be doing a lot of video editing with Final Cut and Motion, and not so much 3D gaming. But perhaps some 3D modeling and animation. Is it worth the extra $300 for the ATI graphics card, or will he find that the Nvidia card is good enough for what he wants?
My iMac will be 3 years old Oct 19 2010 and it's running pretty slow. I do a lot of video editing and have 1GB of memory ( I think that's the RAM). I'm pretty sure that's not the right amount of RAM I should have for the things I'm doing but I could be wrong. I have about 5 apps open at once for recreational use and about 2 for video editing, those 2 being Final Cut Pro and iTunes. So would it be my low amount of RAM causing my computer to slow down or another reason?
i want to buy the new imac 27'' with i7 and i have few questions (i will use the imac for HD editing. The footage that i will use is from canon mark II 5D) First my question is did anybody has problems with connecting a second monitor for preview? any problems with MAC OS 64 bit? And is this machine good enough for full HD editing?
I currently own the latest edition of the Macbook Pro 17" that I've fully max'd out for ram after purchasing it. I use Adobe Premier CS4 for editing 1080p and 720p video. The Macbook Pro really can't keep up, making my editing hard to accomplish quickly, especially when rendering a video. It plays the video choppy when editing, which makes editing really hard to accomplish, obviously. It will do it, otherwise, with no problems, other than being slow as molasses when rendering. My question is should I get a IMac 27" fully loaded or a comparable Mac Pro, and what would be the benefits of one or the other for my application/use? I usually have PhotoShop, Premier, Mail, & Chrome open nearly all the time, and I want something that will smoothly play 1080p video when editing the movie and can render the video much quicker than my MBP.
Finally the new iMac have dropped - what would be the MacRumors suggestion for general family video editing? Essentially I just want to be able to edit some family videos, create some DVDs on iDVD and not have it cug on me. Will the Nvidia 9400M suffice or do I need the ATI 4670?
Finally I will replace an old white core duo IMAC that we use in our house. Besides the basic stuff like doing kids homework, my main intensive use is to use imovie for family video editing. I have a HD sony camcorder and with my current mac its impossible to work. Now with the new imacs I would like to know what option will be better for those long processes in imovie (importing, exporting, stabilization, etc). better processor: core 2 duo 3.06 or i5 more memory: 4 vs 8 gb better graphics: 4670 vs 4850.
Well I got rid of the quicksilvers since they died. Power supplys gave out and took the motherboards, So I sold what was left on EBAY.
My G4 Ethernet was sold to a co-worked and he is quite happy.
And I got this off ebay today:
Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5Procs 2GB RAM (2 x 1GB PC3200U DDR SDRAM) Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-117D Samsung HD160JJ/P 160GB SATA HDD (not apple labeled, not original to this system) (1) Power Cord pci106b,9 PCI Ethernet Controller
Well I didnt' read the fine print and BAZINGA! I noticed that it comes without a video card.
So For video editing, watching hulu and youtube and netflix What do you guys recommend.
I do have a PCI GEforce at home with 512 megs for PC and I was wondering if I could flash it and if so, does anyone know of a good walkthrough?
how does non HD video content look on the MBP-R in Full Screen mode?
Is its blury like the non optimized Apps or website content? Is it even more blurry?
Reason why I am asking:
Watching series online on a regular screen pretty often looks ok but not great. Depending on the internet speed and the movie qualitity you can see the compression in the picture and so see the pixel. How does this look on the new retina display?
Has anyone of the early owner time and motivation to check and post a screenshot?
i am going to buy the new macbook pro with the i5 card and I was wondering what would be the best option for me because i will use the laptop more often for graphic design then for video editing.
1. to get the macbook with 5400rpm hd, this way my laptop wont over-heat and will be sufficient for graphic softwares such as photoshop. when i will want to use the laptop for video editing i will hook it to a portable hd through firewire cable for maximum data transference speed.
2. other option is to get the 7200rpm hd, but i'm afraid for the well being of my laptop because it will already get quite hot with the fast i5 processor. and the great graphic card.
Has anyone tried this with the 4gb version on the 13". What will slow these things down, or what can you not do? Streaming HD video? Does anyone seeing the memory being an issue in the future?
I've noticed from some other threads that the 17" MBP is the way to go for video editing but I'm getting a good deal on a 15" MBP. I'm going to use mainly for editing video using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects.
What is the best video editing software on a Mac? I have heard that the two popular ones are Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. Which one is better, why and how much is it.
Info: MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my 2010 MBP 15 with i7 2.8, 8GB ram and SSD! BUT, the most I do is convert DVD TO .VOG OR .M4V. Once I get the movie to a very HQ I than import the movie to iMovie to edit the scenes I don't like or want. So, I'm wondering if I made the wrong choice here and spent to much money for my needs.
I am moving from a PC to a mac for the sake of video editing and using Final Cut. I'm debating on the models so could do with your personal suggestions.For general high def video editing ( non professional ) would I be fine with a 13" MacBook Pro 2.9 or would I regret it and should I invest in a full on retina model and make use of the solid state drive speed?Basically would video editing on the old version be sluggish or would the retina just be overkill for what's want. I don't intend to upgrade every year so ideally I'd want it to last me a good 3-5 years. Note that it will mostly be plugged into a big monitor so screen size is not a big deal.
so since im getting this new MBP, i wanted to ask... is there such as thing as mini display port to HDMI so i can output to my HDTV for photo/video editing?
I'm planning on buying my very fist mac next month! I absolutely love the 13"mbp. I do photoshop and video editing (I also have a desktop but it's about 5 years old now and will be slower than the mbp). My question is: how good is the 13" for photo and video editing?
Im thinking about getting a mbp 13" and i was wondering how well it edits and renders 1080p video. i currently edit and render on my 2007 mb and it takes 3 hours just for the render, plus it freezes for a few seconds here and there scrolling through the video. so we will say 4 hours total 1 hour to edit 7 min clip and 3 hours or more to render it. what my question is does anyone out there edit and render 1080p video with there 9400m and if so about how long does it take. and how long the video was that you rendered. the reason im asking only about 1080p is that my mb can work fine with 720p and it has the igpu for intel the x3100. also i mainly shoot in 1080p/60 frames per sec.
I want to get a new MBP but my budget puts me at the base 13" (2.4gHz C2D and nVidia 320M); my question is if it will be sufficient to do home video editing (iMovie 09 and FCE4).Many of the clips I will be editing are 2 hr VHS tapes converted to video and the output will, be for 1hr DVDs; I just don't want the system to get bogged down by multiple clips, etc.
I need to transfer video from my iPhone 5s to my Macbook Air so I can edit with Final Cut Express. I tried to connect the phone to the Macbook...Iphoto sees the iPhone as an external device, but I can't transfer the files.
screen resolution of the MBP 13" is too small to do video/image editing with tools like the iLife suite, Final Cut Express, Photoshop..? And for using developers' tools like XCode? I would use it in my freetime and not for work.. It would be my first MBP and I'm using a 15" laptop with 1680x1050 resolution, so I would loose a lot of pixels, but I don't want to spend so much on a 15"/17" MBP since I do not think they've yet entered the next level Steve Jobs was talking about.. So I would buy a 13" just because I'd really like to jump in the Mac world , and maybe I'll sell it next year when (I hope) there will be much more innovation (maybe new design
