[wilsonX]

Long story, please bear with me. I have a digital audio 733 superdrive which I use for video editing and a little bit of dvd burning. I produced the marketing video for the private catholic high school I work for (I'm a guidance counselor by day). This was my first project for $$$. I had to bring my tower in to school a couple of times to go over some changes my employer wanted that couldn't be nailed down any other way.

So, I'm about to do the 2nd version of this video. And I'm thinking about selling my desktop and getting a powerbook...maybe a 15 ti or a new 15 alum if they come out anytime soon.

My dilemma... I eventually want to buy a new 970 so I can't spend too much $$ now. I would like to continue to do video work with the 15inch powerbook but fear the slower speed of the harddrive. Am I worried about nothing? Are their other problems with this change that I'm not aware of? Just bought a 17inch imac for the wife and kids (just converted the mrs. so until recently you could say we were in a mixed marriage). I would use that for dvd burning.

I'm relatively new to the mac scene. Switched 2 years ago from the peecee world. So forgive my neophyte question. Any help will be genuinely appreciated. thank you

[zubro]

If u tell me a little more about the apps u use... and the leth of your edits I might be of some help.

[OKCutter]

The 15 inch TiBook is a great mobile editing solution, and is every bit as powerful your current machine. But regardless of whether you're editing on a laptop or desktop, it's always a good idea to use a separate harddrive for video/audio capture.

It's certainly possible to use the system drive for editing video, but it often leads to dropped frames and other problems.

I would recommend an external firewire drive for video/audio storage...and it would also come in handy for transferring files to your imac for dvd burning.

Hope that helps!

[wilsonX]

Thank you both for your responses. I use imovie and final cut pro to edit. The marketing video i did was 16 minutes cut from a bazillion hours of original footage. The next one will be 8 to 12 minutes long. Most of the scenes are 8-15 seconds long.

I was thinking about keeping an 80 gig deskstar harddrive I bought for my current machine and buying a firewire enclosure for it. Are there any issues that I should be aware of with this approach?

Thanks again...the mac community is a very helpful bunch. I think it accounts for half my enjoyment with my whole apple experience (minus the long delays for the new stuff they come out with)

[OKCutter]

I think getting an enclosure for your 80 gig is a great idea...The deskstar is a great drive and has a good track record of reliability with FCP. When shopping for an enclosure, just make sure it uses the Oxford 911 chipset to bridge the IDE/firewire interfaces. That will ensure you're getting the maximum available transfer rates.
Incidentally, I considered "stealing" one of the two deskstar 45gig's that I'd added to my DP 500 tower when I bought my Powerbook, but I broke down and bought a LaCie 120gig firewire drive instead. It's been rock-solid so far!

Good luck and keep us posted!

[OKCutter]

By the way... If you aren't already familiar with it, surf over to kenstone.net. There's a wealth of Final Cut Pro info there...everything from setting up and maintaining your system, to great how-to's, even links to some free plug-ins!

[wilsonX]

Thanks again! Terrific information. I will definitely check into this.