11 replies to this topic

[Steve Douglas]

Thought this would be of interest to the editors on here.
http://www.appleinsi...of_mac_pro.html
Steve

[SimonSpear]

I've been hearing lots of similar rumours about the mac pro being phased out with the current generation probably being the last we'll see. It certainly looks like the mac could be coming to an end as a serious editing platform

[TheRealDrew]

I am not going to be happy to see it go, yet on the other hand the last generation MacBook Pro 17" matched up closely to the Pro Towers in terms of bench marks and other things, let alone the tower I use which is older. Of course the form factor and expansion capability is in play, but there are various breakout boxes, for instance, that work with laptops.

[loftus]

Towers may simply be unnecessary. The fast connections and daisy chaining capabilities of Thunderbolt for example should make ad ons etc a very simple process. Apple have done this type of thing repeatedly, eliminating things we thought we needed but probably don't like floppy drives, and now CD / DVD drives as well.

Edited by loftus, 01 November 2011 - 10:30 AM.

[TheRealDrew]

I really like the rumor of the MacBook Air form factor in 15" and 17" that looks more and more like it will be coming. Good for travel....

[jonny shaw]

Will be a sad day, problem with iMacs is that you can't add specific cards to them which you can to Mac Pro's. Well with all the BS with FCPX I've already done a couple of projects on PP.... not much more of a step to buy a killer PC for a fraction of the cost. Just have to deal with the headache of a PC.... or I could turn it into a hactintosh, but I think I have to say that quietly.

[SimonSpear]

Drew I'm surprised to hear that you find the Macbook Pro's compare to the Mac Pros for power. I know when editing on my 3 years older Mac Pro I get things done three or four times quicker than I do on my three years newer top of the range(at the time) Macbook Pro. Just the other day I was at a shoot where I had to hand over the edited footage that evening. I took my Macbook Pro and edited on site but in hindsight it would have been way quicker to travel back to my desktop and edit it there even taking into account the 2 hour journey time.

Jon I've also been looking at PP or Media Composer. What made you jump to PP?

Cheers, Simon

[jonny shaw]

I had a project on which was working with R3D's and PP edits directly, also I teach part time Marine Biology at a college and so we can get Master Collection for only $100.... was a no brainer really.

I still prefer FCP and wish that Apple would sort their s%$t out.

J

[Drew]

Jon, they did sort it out... you're just not included in the party! LOL

[SimonSpear]

I had a project on which was working with R3D's and PP edits directly, also I teach part time Marine Biology at a college and so we can get Master Collection for only $100.... was a no brainer really.

I better go get a teaching job then!! lol How did PP handle RD3 files and what spec machine do you have? I'm trying to work out how to edit RED on my system (2 x dualcore 2.66 Xeon's) but not sure if it will cut it.

Edited by SimonSpear, 03 November 2011 - 07:56 AM.

[Steve Douglas]

I also bemoan the near future demise of the Mac Pro but with Thunderbolt serving as an ultra fast transfer of media, Apple will certainly incorporate a competent graphics card in their higher end iMacs. However, I have yet to see a MacBook Pro that could possibly come close to the speed of my 12 core Mac Pro. Granted, I have the NVIDIA FX4800 card and 20 gigs of ram and that helps. The quality of the graphics card can make a huge difference. I have a new NVIDIA 4000 card sitting in its box just in case I should ever want to switch. I just hope that future iMacs will meet the needs of professional editors. Though I am still working on client's projects in FC7, I am forcing myself to learn FCX. It is quick and has some great features. The media management in X is superior to that in FC Studio without the hassles of scratch discs. Those that are missing, especially the ability to go out to an external monitor, will soon be incorporated in updates due early in 2012. (I'm praying for this)

I do have a problem with the fact that you can no longer get any Mac display, including iMacs, with a matte screen. I really hate those glossy screens that reflect everything.
Steve

Edited by Steve Douglas, 03 November 2011 - 08:41 AM.

[SimonSpear]

Yeah I hate those glossy screens too Steve. Grrrrrrr oh well all good things come to an end eventually.....