Video editing minimum?

section8joesection8joe
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I'm sure this topic has been discussed before but I?m new. I did use the search and it didn't really help. I'm looking for a used powerbook. I want to do some video editing on it. I'm kind of on a tight budget too. What type of powerbook should I get? This will be my first Mac and I don?t know much about them. Any help would be appreciated.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by section8joe

    I'm sure this topic has been discussed before but I?m new. I did use the search and it didn't really help. I'm looking for a used powerbook. I want to do some video editing on it. I'm kind of on a tight budget too. What type of powerbook should I get? This will be my first Mac and I don?t know much about them. Any help would be appreciated.



    though i wouldnt normally recomend it, you can get by with:

    512MB Ram, 5400rpm hard drive, and any video card above 32MB and up.



    A much better system would be:

    768MB ram, 7200rpm drive, and 64MB video card or better.



    you can really get away with a slower system if you have a decent firewire drive to use as your scratch disk though (asusming your using something other than iMovie. for an external drive look for 7200rpm, 8MB cache, and make sure its firewire (400 or 800) rather than USB2.



    I have had good luck with my pbook running at 5400rpm and 768ram though.



    edit: i forgot all about processor speeds. my 1.33Ghz is fine.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    zenarcadezenarcade Posts: 126member
    I bought my first iMac back in 2000. A iMac 450 DV + with less than 512 mb Ram. It was good enough for basic iMovie editing. Of course, the more you want to do transitions and fx would mean a lot of rendering. But I got by.



    Later I bought a G4 Cube and installed a DVD-burner in it. Again, it is okay and all of my family really enjoy what I have created. Though . . . . it takes 10-14 hours to burn a iDVD with 60 minutes of footage. 30 minutes of them is the actual burning.The rest is decoding.



    The more ram you have and the faster cpu means that Final Cut Pro/express can provide you with more real-time rendering. Maybe a 667 pBook ?



    Zon
  • Reply 3 of 4
    section8joesection8joe Posts: 3member
    I don't want to use imovie. I'd like to use Final Cut.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    zenarcadezenarcade Posts: 126member
    Then you should go for Final Cut Express. With the latest edition, Apple has also included LiveType and SoundTrack. 2 extremly cool applications.



    Also, I believe the express- version has lower hardware-requirements.
Sign In or Register to comment.