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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Video: Editing RED on the new MacBook

Couple of things.

Did you adjust the RT playback settings to low and unlimited to see how that played?

Did you try running the footage off of a USB drive?

No firewire is a bad thing. It affects what you can back up to on set, which in most cases is firewire or esata. But for some things I can see this laptop doing okay. The 17" Macbook Pro has been a workhorse for on set activities, especially with the Express34 slot.
 
Thanks for testing and doing the video. I'll stop by your site and check out the film.
 
stevesherrick said:
Couple of things.

Did you adjust the RT playback settings to low and unlimited to see how that played?

Did you try running the footage off of a USB drive?

No firewire is a bad thing. It affects what you can back up to on set, which in most cases is firewire or esata. But for some things I can see this laptop doing okay. The 17" Macbook Pro has been a workhorse for on set activities, especially with the Express34 slot.
Click to expand...

Yes, I adjusted the RT playback settings and unchecked scub high quality and it still had to be rendered to play at all. I didn't try running off a usb drive, as the 5400 rpm produces a higher sustained read/write than the 480 mbps of the usb 2.0. I'll keep playing with settings, to see if I can get anything other than the red render bar.
 
Cool. So, the biggest drawback is the lack of firewire bus then.

How much RAM do you have in it?
 
2gb. But what's interesting is, I was at Jeff McEvoy's office yesterday and he has the exact same mac pro (quad 2.66) as I do and he only has 2gb of ram. He used that machine to edit the film "Swing Vote." I have 7gb in my mac pro and I thought I needed more, I guess not. My last MacBook only had 1gb and I was getting pageouts like crazy. So far the amount of pageouts on this is 444 kb, hehe.
 
Hey Steve,

Update: I changed the playback settings to from SAFE to unlimited, thought I had already, and now I have the Orange unlimited line instead of the red render line. Playback is still as jerky on the 2k file as it was when I played back the original quicktime file in quicktime.

My sound designer suggested I plug in a USB drive, which as I stated earlier I knew the onboard hard drive would play better, but I did it none the less. The playback is more jerky playing from the USB drive both in quicktime and in final cut pro. I guess the next test would be to see whether or not a 7200 rpm internal hard drive would have any effect on the playback of these 2k files.

When I edit RED on my mac pro, I have to move files off the firewire drives and onto my internal RAID array. I suppose a USB external RAID could be another viable option for fast editing of RED files on the new MacBook.
 
Yeah. We have 8GB of RAM and rarely seem to use it. It makes me wonder what people are doing with their footage to need/justify "maximum" RAM. Mind you, we're not doing any fx--all strictly basic cut edits, and minimal cc...
 
JNFilms, you may want to re-work your video (or at least update it) with your new findings, as it could be a bit misleading to people as-is.
 
i thought about doing that, but if I were in the field editing 2k, I wouldn't want the setting to be unlimited unless it could play smoothly (i.e. in unlimited playback mode on my Mac Pro quad 2.66, unlimited plays 2k files back perfectly). So, whether it's set to unlimited or not, it's better to render it and get a smooth playback as opposed to a jerky playback.

Either way, if you must edit RED on a MacBook, bring the clip to the preview monitor, set your in and out points, then drag to the timeline. After you've brought your clips into the timeline, render, then start finessing.
 
Smartest thing is to move your Red footage to your internal Raid in your MacPro. Through a Gigabit switch connect the two. Any other way is not going to playback footage. Even over Gigabit is very unlikely
 
interesting, but I made the video for anyone who doesn't have a mac pro and wants to know if the macbook is a viable option for working with RED.
 
USB is not enough,

On-set, pressure comes from all angles... Imagine shooting long Steadicam takes w/ 4 CF cards and a USB reader, Even with more cards you couldn't keep up. USB 2 from the Red Drive to Macbook is very time consuming,

There is nothing wrong with your tests, I do believe that it can be a tool among other tools... It uses less power and can be a compliment to a DP that would like 2k tifs to color correct at night or any free time. And Script supervisor with same screens as DP for continuity ect. A DIT station could have a wireless router that would allow Dept. heads log into the station and pull screens on their own. Depending on how complex the station is, Many more things can be available, Pro Res, DVD Files, Call Sheets, maps, Lunch menus.. etc..


One Macbook with 1 spare battery could last all day, and seeing as how they do have a 1066mhz FSB they become more powerful in many more applications, Other than Editing Red Footage. However Editing Pro-Res on a Macbook is better than it has been and is a valid option.
 
you're right and I agree, but ultimately it really depends on how you shoot. There are those that prefer to shoot to cards and only cards, and then there's those that shoot to the drives. Luckily with the drives, you can pretty much get a full day of shooting on one drive. If you have two drives, shoot a half day to one drive, hand it off to the editor, he'll backup to the backup drive while you're shooting on your second drive.

Me personally, I prefer the 13 inch screen to the 15 inch, for portability.
 
Martin Weiss said:
Just a question about the lack of Firewire; on the Apple site it does claim to have a FW800 port - isn´t that one backwards compatible to FW400?

Like this one: https://www.akumen.com/product/55/
Click to expand...

The FW800 port is only on the MacBook Pro, not the standard MacBook as shown in this video.

And yes FW800 is backwards compatible to FW400 with the appropriate cable.
 
I would doubt that a macbook pro could play back 2k files without a hitch. There are a couple reasons, I've seen 2k files not play back smoothly on brand new iMacs, which leads me to believe; hard drive speed (whether or not you have a RAID) processor power, and graphics power are all factors.

If you don't need to be portable as an editor, a MAC Pro (tower) quad 2.66 with an internal RAID will do you just fine. Again, though, I want to reiterate that it is possible to edit on the new MacBook and I wouldn't be opposed to doing it, if I was on a set or away from my Mac Pro.
 
I would never allow any production to shoot an entire day on one drive, ever... People lose their jobs that way. That is covered in many other sections, Most 1st ACs won't allow it either. Even DP's for that matter. Keeps the tradition Reload alive, and people keep their jobs.

2k files playback fine in Final Cut Pro on a Macbook Pro 2.1ghz 667FSB, the only reason I can play them is because I'm using an E-sata Raid. That is why the interface(HDD speeds) is beyond more important than the speed of the laptop. New laptops don't excite me very much... All of them are lacking very important features. Especially when supporting a Quad Processor 1066 is in the past and Apple missed it again this year.

In my experience a Macbook is very difficult to work with, and people should make a cautious decision before buying one and then Forced to upgrade to a Macbook Pro.


FYI: Graphics has nothing to do with Playback. Especially Proxies
 
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