final cut pro on MacBook Pro 13"

[lczarne]

Does anyone know if MBP13 will handle with some version of FCP? I heard that it's not compatible with intel integrated graphic adapters. MBP 13 has nvidia integrated graphics (much better than intels) but it's still integrated.. Maybe someone has installed FCP on this model or know something about this topic?

 

[BenB]

It will run Final Cut Studio 2009, but Motion and Color may have some issues with the graphics card that's built in. But FCP will run just fine if you have the proper hard drive set up, and 8GB RAM (4 minimum).

You'll want a FW800 (not a FW400) hard drive like the Other World Computing "on-the-go" drive for your media (Scratch Disk) drive.

But it should be fine. The 13" screen is pretty small for editing with, but if that's all you can afford, it'll work.

Now, when it comes to capturing video from tape, there's going to be a problem. There's no ExpressCard slot on the 13" (only on the 17"), only one FW800, so you'll have to capture to your internal drive, then transfer it to the external drive, or hope you can capture successfully in small chunks to the external drive. See, the FW800 port will be strained if you have both the camera/deck and a hard drive attached to it at the same time (cam/deck plugged into the drive, drive plugged into the MPB).

 

[lczarne]

I'm new to final cut and video editing- what do I need this scratch disk for? Can't I use only my internal hard drive?

Second question- Is it easy to import video from Sony SR11 cam to final cut pro?

 

[BenB]

Yes, you need a second drive (FW800 or eSATA) for your Scratch Drive (what we more commonly refer to as a Media Drive). The reason is that applications and operating systems eat up a lot of the limited bandwidth available to a hard drive. Video editing requires 4+ streams of video at one time, which eats up almost all of a hard drive's bandwidth. Like a garden hose, only so much water can pass through it at once. Larger diameter hoses can pass more water through faster. USB has too low of a "sustained" data rate for video. FW400 will only handle SD video on slower computers. FW800 is the minimum for the latest computers to deal with SD and low data rate HD formats. If you're doing HDV, such as Sony's flavor of AVCHD is, (Long GOP, look it up), FW800 may not be enough, you may need eSATA drives.

The 13" model has no ExpressCard slot, so you can't do eSATA, only FW800. Don't expect to do any Multiclip editing on it. Not enough resolution for Color, realistically. And Motion is going to drag. But FCP will work fine, as long as you don't use a video format that overloads the limited FW800 bandwidth. And even with 8GB of RAM, RT playback will be limited. It could "work", but how slow it gets with AVCHD, I'm not sure, never actually run Long GOP video formats on a 13" MBP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_pictures

 

[DannyG]

Ben,
This post made me concerned a little bit about the specs on my MBP that I just got over the summer for school. Here's my specs:

MBP 15"
2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4G RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB (9600M GT is also listed, does that mean I have two cards or is it just distinguishing the dedicated memory from the rest?)
FW 800

And I still need to buy a Media Drive so I've been working from the school labs (a cardinal sin I know). Is there any specs here that jump out as NEEDING to be upgraded? Which ones would you suggest? For the record, I won't be shooting or editing in HD anytime soon. Thanks!

 

[BenB]

You need a FW800 external drive, 7200rpm. That rotation speed of 7200rpm is pretty mandatory, too. If you can afford it, upgrade to 8GB RAM, it'll help. But the external hard drive is pretty much mandatory. Look at these, they're the ones I use when I'm on the road producing, consulting, or teaching. Very durable, good price, best customer care around.
Other World Computing, Mercury On-The-Go drives
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

They are also the best place to get RAM upgrades, too. They'll be happy to talk to you on the phone and answer system specific questions.

As for two graphics cards being listed, where do you see that listing? In System Profiler? I'm not that familiar with the 13" MBP models. I do know some MBP models do have two graphics cards, one for normal use (lower resolution, less battery drain, better overall system performance), and one for graphics/video work requiring higher resolutions (thus, shorter battery life, slightly less overall system performance). You'll want to kick in the higher powered graphics card for FCP, use the lower powered graphics card the rest of the time.