what kind of mac is needed to edit red on FCP 2 Studio

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Jeff, what compromises are you speaking of?

I probably should have been more specific, but mostly hardware related issues. Or should I say annoyances? Not really from a Windows point of view, but if you want to use additional hardware under windows, and then boot into OSX, you may have unsupported devices. Current video card options on the Mac just plain suck and there's no video card available for a Mac Pro that I would choose for Windows use. But in the Mac world we live with that every day. There's also the issue of accessing data between different drives/partitions on the system -- can't write to NTFS from OSX for example. I've found that for workstations, it's far more practical and functional to simply maintain individual systems. Get a DVI-DL video/USB switch like the one from Gefen and you're good to go.

I'd only consider dual-booting on a Mac Pro if budget or space constraints forced me into it. So for me, it would be a compromise.

Notebooks are a completely different story. That's why I do run Bootcamp on my Macbook Pro and I probably spend 40% of my time in Windows on that system.

The only thing I've yet to discover is that there is no good drive clone software on Windows that will clone just the PC partition. On the desktop macs that isn't an issue, as I understand it, as you can put your PC OS and files on a completely different drive...

You can load bootcamp partitions onto other drives from a Macbook Pro as well. I know of people using external Firewire drives and such for this. Haven't tried it myself.

At the moment, my plan is to get whatever new dual quad core desktop Mac comes out at the time I need it for my RED, but I see no possible hang-ups using it as good Windows workstation as well...

I plan to get the new dual quad core Mac Pro as well... But for me, I don't know if I'll put bootcamp on it with Windows. I'm thinking of getting an AJA card and they don't work between both OS's right now due to the different ROM images. I'd have to flash the card every time I boot from one OS to the other if I wanted to be able to use it in both Windows and OSX. So, minor annoyances or compromises.

 

[Jim Arthurs]

Interesting points Jeff, I'm sure we'll all have to revisit these topics when new systems are announced and available. I will go whatever way the smoothest, easiest path to RED editing develops... the camera wags the dog, so to speak...

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

"Product Mac Pro

Recommendation: Buy only if you need it - Approaching the end of a cycle *
Notes * The last Mac Pro updates only introduced an 8-Core Mac Pro, leaving the rest of the line untouched since August 2006.
Last Release April 04, 2007
Days Since Update 208 (Avg = 210)"

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RUMORS:

"Apple to fire up Penryn-based Mac Pros

For the second time in as many years, Mac maker Apple Inc. is awaiting the official nod from chip supplier Intel Corp. before
announcing a brawny update to its Mac Pro workstations aimed at media professionals."


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[dylancarter]

Video Output

Video Output

So if I were to get a Mac with the ATI card, I still need a Kona 3 or something to output to HD or 2k, right? I mean let's pretend I can play the 2k r3d QT wrappers back in realtime, what good does that do me if I can't get them to tape?

 

[Cüneyt Kaya]

i think you need a kona 3 for (2k) monitoring as well...or hd decklink.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

So if I were to get a Mac with the ATI card, I still need a Kona 3 or something to output to HD or 2k, right? I mean let's pretend I can play the 2k r3d QT wrappers back in realtime, what good does that do me if I can't get them to tape?

The ATI card (or any of the standard video cards offered by Apple) will drive VGA and DVI based displays. What sort of inputs are on the tape deck you want to output to? If it's SDI, component or other video input, you will need a card like the Kona or BlackMagic. Or you can use the AJA IO-HD Firewire 800 box.