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Mac Hardware and Software:
The Macintosh portion of the video editing industry is a little different from
that of the PC for two reasons. First, because Apple controls the operating
system and hardware, it’s much easier to recommend a specific model and
vintage for video editing. Currently, any Macintosh on the market is capable
of some level of video editing, and nearly all of the past few years’ models
have included a FireWire port and at least a copy of iMovie, Apple’s
consumer-level NLE package. And, of course, Apple has one of the more
popular professional NLE packages, Final Cut Pro, which is appreciated
both for its usefulness and its relatively low price. It’s also Mac-only. Other
solutions exist, as we’ll discuss in a moment.
Mac Hardware
While all current Macintosh models support digital video editing on some
level, the more powerful your Mac, the less you’ll wait for your video
editing software to catch up with you. The most powerful Mac models
available are the Power Macintosh G4 line, which is recommended for
video editing at the prosumer or professional level. A Power Mac G4 can
be equipped with up to 2GB of RAM, it can handle hundreds of gigabytes
of hard disk space, and it includes four PCI slots for adding expansion cards to upgrade the Mac to real-time editing and effects capabilities, to
add computer displays to your Mac, and for other additions.
Another popular platform for Mac-based video editing is the PowerBook,
which is often touted by Apple and video professionals as an ideal portable
editing platform. The PowerBook G4, starting with the “Titanium” models,
is generally powerful enough for professional-level editing, although some
PowerBook G3 models are equipped with FireWire ports and are capable
of running older versions of video editing software or iMovie with reasonable
results. You can also equip any Cardbus-compatible PowerBook (all
PowerBook G3 and G4 models except the original PowerBook G3 “Kanga”
or “3500” model) with a FireWire expansion card, which would enable you
to run iMovie or a third-party video editing package.
If you already have a Power Macintosh G3 or G4 or a PowerBook, you
might be interested in comparing its specs against the requirements and
recommendations that we would suggest for someone interested in running
Apple’s Final Cut Express or Pro versions (culled from both the side of the
box and from our own experience):
• A 300MHz PowerPC G3 or G4 processor, with a 500MHz G4
processor required for real-time effects (a 667MHz PowerBook G4
is the suggested minimum for real-time effects in a portable setting)
• Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
• 256MB of RAM (with 384–512MB recommended as a minimum)
• 40GB or larger hard disk, with 100GB or larger recommended
Note also that the Power Macintosh G4 Cube models, the iMac DV model
(and later), and any iBook equipped with FireWire can technically be used
for digital editing, particularly with iMovie. However, as those models age,
they become less likely candidates for prosumer-level editing.
The latest iMac G4 and eMac models, particularly those with DVD-R
SuperDrives, are adequate for prosumer-level video editing, although even
with some of those models you’ll wait quite a while for digital effects rendering
and so on. The iBook is probably the least equipped for video editing beyond
the consumer level, with the double whammy of limited processor speeds
(being the only new Macs that still sport a PowerPC G3 processor) and
limited hard disk storage space. Still, they’re handy for iMovie or the
occasional higher-level task.
The SuperDrive is Apple’s name for a DVD-Recordable/CD-Recordable (DVD-R/CD-R)
combo drive that the company includes in many of its Mac models. The SuperDrive is designed to
work well with Apple’s iDVD and DVD Pro software to create movie DVDs from edited DV video
footage. The drives are generally Pioneer brand mechanisms and can be used with third-party DVD
creation software, but Apple has made the integration of its NLE tools and its DVD creation tools a
high priority, resulting in a near seamless integration between the software and the DVD-R hardware.
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