[Martin Mraz]

Hi there, I'd like to know if anyone has tried using their mini for video editing. I currently have a 350 MHz G4 desktop and due to some new work I need to finally upgrade to something somewhat faster. I also will probably need to commute between two work locations, home and an office. I don't however have the money to buy a large-screen iBook or Powerbook, and so thought that since I already have two monitors available the mini would solve my portability issue perfectly.

The most demanding task the machine will have to perform is video editing. I'm not talking about fill professional-level editing, the work will involve putting together showreels for actors, meaning relatively simple splicing and editing work, and then outputting onto DVD. So I'm thinking of the Superdrive version of course.

Any experiences and advice anyone would like to share would be much appreciated!!!

[Randman]

If you can get an upgraded mini, the faster hard drive will help. Max the ram and it'll be sufficient, I would think as the mini is basically an iBook without the keyboard and monitor.

[brother337]

Originally Posted by Martin Mraz

Hi there, I'd like to know if anyone has tried using their mini for video editing. I currently have a 350 MHz G4 desktop and due to some new work I need to finally upgrade to something somewhat faster. I also will probably need to commute between two work locations, home and an office. I don't however have the money to buy a large-screen iBook or Powerbook, and so thought that since I already have two monitors available the mini would solve my portability issue perfectly.

The most demanding task the machine will have to perform is video editing. I'm not talking about fill professional-level editing, the work will involve putting together showreels for actors, meaning relatively simple splicing and editing work, and then outputting onto DVD. So I'm thinking of the Superdrive version of course.

Any experiences and advice anyone would like to share would be much appreciated!!!

It sounds like you and I do roughly the same level of video editing. My short answer is that I think you'll be very happy with the mini.

I have a superdrive mini1.42Ghz with a gig of RAM and a 7200rpm HD. I store my video files on an external FW HD (7200rpm.) Since the mini's speed bottleneck is it's HD speed, the fastest setup for a mini is to boot your system off an external FW hard drive, but since I prefer to have my external HD as an accessory, not a necessity, I prefer to run off my internal 7200rpm Hitachi. It's not as fast as a full 3.5 inch drive, but it's quick enough that I can't tell the difference.

I've been editing with Final Cut Pro 4.5 and most recently with FCP 5 without any problems (both when I'm editing off my external drive or the internal drive.) I have no issues with the rendering times *except* for DVD encoding times, but DVD encoding is going to be a long wait on anything but a Dual G5 machine.

Wait for the new rev.B mini1.5Ghz machines to be officially announced. They sport 5400rpm drives which will improve real time extreme performance (over the 4200rpm drive in older minis, and most powerbooks and ibooks - all of which were still totally decent editing machines.) Get a gig of RAM if you can, but it's not absolutely necessary. When I got my mini, first things I did was up my stock 256(!?!) megs of RAM to a gig, and then replace the 4200rpm drive with the current 7200rpm I have now. But I think that if I had to get a mini now, and was strapped for cash, I'd be totally happy staying with the stock 5400rpm drive and the stock 512 megs of RAM (at least until I could afford more.) When I intially got my mini, I upgraded it right away, but if I got one now, I don't feel that I would have to.

Getting the internal superdrive is nice for having fewer peripherals (which is important to me.) But if you're strapped for cash, you might save money by getting the non superdrive mini and buying an external DVD burner. You'll probably get better performance out of it too. Like I said, tho, I like having the superdrive integrated, even if I'm sacrificing performance.

The only people I ever hear downtalk the mini for video editing are usually power users. If you're coming off a G4/350, I really think you'll have few complaints about editing with a mini.

[Martin Mraz]

Thanks for the info, it sounds like the mini will fit my needs!

[andreas_g4]

Editing with 512 MB is ok, but I highly siggest you to upgrade to 1 GB RAM. You will see a difference, expecially when performing other tasks while editing/rendering.