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MBA owners: Can the MBA handle basic HD through iMovie?
- Thread starter matthewHUB
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You're pretty much wasting money on an MBA that would be better spent on a Macbook and an external display, extra memory, a drive upgrade, etc. If you don't need a Macbook Pro, the second most capable Apple laptop by a mile is the Macbook. The Macbook Air is an underpowered version of the Macbook that costs more because it's also underweight. If you're looking to do work, get a laptop that can get the job done--not the Newest Apple Thing.
SD takes up less HD space, so yes, that would probably suit the MBA more. How long are the videos that you edit?
I still wonder whether an external HD would resolve that issue. I know video editors who work with external HDs all the time.
If you went w/SD video you could probably pull it off. You could have the camera spit out SD footage, capture that on your PB, transfer it to an external USB HDD then connect that to the MBA.
But that seems like a lot of work compared to just capturing it and working w/it on your PB.
Lethal
But that seems like a lot of work compared to just capturing it and working w/it on your PB.
Lethal
No longer than an hour. The problem is that using an external on a MBA would have to be USB... and other posters have said that it's bad to use USB for video as it drops frames etc. The way the drive writes is in bursts.
I'm having second thoughts about the SSD. i mean, i could almost buy an iMac with the extra money. I may end up getting the 80gb, and then upgrading in a year to a 128gb SSD.
will the 4200 drive be ok for watching movies saved as dmgs from a DVD? Or will it lag? Would be nice to save a DVD as a dmg at home, then watch it on the road. in WIDESCREEN (novelty coming from a 12") haha.
There's no real benchmarks on it yet, but it can't be that fast. Plus, there's almost no storage space.
Ok final question.... do you think then that i can use my PB G4 to capture the video from the HDV cam? What software do you use to capture it?
Does it matter that my PB can't view HD video? (it just crashes or sleeps as it overheats) If i could keep it straggling along and use that to import the video then i guess i'll be set and i can have the MBA for on the road. the problem is that i can't view it on my PB, but i can just copy it over to the SSD
The part that requires the most power is (as Lethal said) the capturing, because iMovie & Final Cut transcode the HDV to AIC on capture.
I don't see why you have to capture on the road. You have a tape camera. It's not like you'll be recording over the tapes after you import them anyways. Just save them for when you get home.
A NAS (using wireless) is even slower than USB (which is too slow for editing AIC). I've never tried it with a gigabit ethernet connection though, but the Air doesn't have an ethernet port (and the dongle goes through USB so it wouldn't be gigabit).
The MB Air doesn't have a firewire port so you wouldn't be able to connect an external drive (USB external isn't fast enough for AIC)
DV still takes up 13GB an hour. Bitrate is still 28Mb/s which is close to/above the real world speed for USB.
See above. There's no FW for an external, and USB externals are slow.
^ Best idea yet.
I imagine it would be fine. If you had problems playing back full DVD dmgs, you could use the iMac to rip & compress the DVD to mpeg 4, which would cut the bitrate down dramatically. The air would have no problem playing back a DVD ripped to h.264.
This is the 'no brainer' way to go. If you can stretch you will have the best of both worlds and the ideal setup for a MBA in my opinion. Even if it means saving for a bit longer go down this route. You will not regret it in my opinion, as it fits all your needs...
C
Matthew, I think you need to give up the MBA dream if you want to use your laptop tasks like video. It reminds me of a kid wanting something really bad because of the color or the coolness of the item and wanting it no matter how impractical it was. Like a batman bike but his parents know that he is about to outgrow it and it wont fit his needs. I've had plenty of moments like that throughout my lifetime.
Apple products make it easy to experience this conundrum. It's hard to tear yourself away from something you want. But face it. This isn't practical to someone who doesn't have another computer. Your PB doesn't count because you make it sound as if it's dying. Someone earlier had a very wise suggestion, and I think you should listen to it: Get an iMac now, and wait for the kinks to get worked out of the air before you buy one, if you're still determined to get it.
But if you can keep yourself from splurge buying right now, maybe eventually you will see that a Macbook to most of us reviewing your situation, seems like a much better choice. Don't lock yourself into something that won't let you have room to grow in your creative endeavors. I'm afraid that if you buy now, you WILL end up regretting it later this year.
Then again, maybe we're wrong. We're probably not.
After a quick search on store.apple.com, I have determined this:
Refurbished 20'' Aluminum iMac 2.0Ghz, 1GB Ram, 250GB HD: $1049
Difference between MB Air 1.6 and MB Air 1.8 w/ SSD: $1299
that's a no brainer.
You can get the 20'' iMac + a 2 gig stick of ram from newegg (~$45, giving you a total 2.5GB ram and opportunity to go to 4 later or for just another $45) + 500GB external hard drive (FIREWIRE!) + MB Air 1.6GHz for the same price as the MB Air 1.8GHz w/ SSD.
So yeah, like I said earlier, get the iMac now. I'm sure you can squeeze an extra couple of months from your Powerbook just for your portable tasks, so all the major kinks can be worked out of the Air before you purchase it.
thanks for the help.
PS i've never started a thread that got this many views/replies before. THANKS!
PS i've never started a thread that got this many views/replies before. THANKS!
There you have it. the guy gives fantastic advice and throws in the research for free! I think you owe him a beer at the bar my friend.
C
Now that people are actually getting these in their hands, I'm wondering if anybody has had an opportunity to load AVCHD from an SD card via the USB port on a MBA (either SSD or HDD)?
I'd love to know how that goes!
I'd love to know how that goes!
I went ahead and picked up my 1.8 SSD at the SoHo NYC Apple store earlier today. I just tried downloading AVCHD video from an SDHC card via the USB port. As I expected, it's really slow. To be fair, I did it in the largest, highest quality format, and I'm comparing it to my MacPro 3Ghz Quad. My best guess is that it took 2x - 3x longer on the MBA. About 3 min. to download and render thumbnails for 30 seconds of video.
I've never used my laptop for this purpose before, but it's nice to know that if I'm in a pinch I could. Everything else is wonderful so far!