I know it just came out, but does anybody know if the Mac mini would be a good buy for video editng? The price is good, but I wanted to know if there would be any technical problems.
-Chris

You'd have to add more RAM and possibly an external firewire drive. But besides that...it should be fine.

Although you might run into issues digitizing over Firewire on the same bus as your firewire drive.

In that case you'd have to load to your internal, and then move the media to a firewire perhaps.

But yeah - it should be fine. (I'd get the one with the 80gig HD)

-Chris
Studentfilms.com

yeah man i got a gig of ram sittin here that will fit that machine and im ordering it as we speak. Granted I could save up more and get the g5 but the 1.4 is the machine we use at work ( the imac ) with 512 of ram and it runs fine. Chris is right about the external hd but i always suggest that any ways its better for the machine in my opinion. Once your ready to export to tape instead of going through the external drive just make a quicktime copy of the project and save it to the internal hd. In the end your gonna have a quicktime back up of it anyways. This thing is so sweet, so small, and so damn affordable its all ive been talking about since i heard rumors of it lol. Needless to say I have been called a dork all week.

"Although you might run into issues digitizing over Firewire on the same bus as your firewire drive."

Actually, this works fine. Same for importing - the passthrough is fast and it doesn't affect the function at all. I do this on my dual 2 GHz G5 fairly frequently.

Its possible but not probobable. The g4 is a pretty powerful machine and I have digitized footage through the firewire bus on my external drive before with little to no problem at all. But if it made you feel better you could digitize onto the main hd and then transfer it to the external but I dont find it neccasary. Sure it kind of sucks that the machine only has one firewire port, but for the price you cant complain. If your really felt the need for an extra port you could purchase a firewire bridge and have more ports externaly. In my expirience though this machine will work just fine if not great for editing.

I don't understand why people are making a big deal about the miniMac but they didn't even blink when the G4 Cube came out. It's like almost the same thing.

wasn't the cube really overpriced?

and, you definitely CAN run into problems digitizing on the same bus. I have on a quicksilver g4 with a LaCie d2.

The Cube was WAY overpriced.

-Chris
Studentfilms.com

Cool, thanks for all the feeback.

Also, I use G4 eMacs at school, and we had a huge problem with the eMacs. It seems the firewire ports on the macs were shorting out the ports on the cameras. So I guess my question is 1) Does anybody know more about this problem and will the mini Mac have it and 2) My GL1 can no longer export (DV IN is always on the screen, even when no plug is pluged in) and how expensive will it be to fix this. Sorry for getting a little off topic.
-Chris

I've never had any problems digitizing on the same bus. Don't pass on buying it just because of that; it's highly improbable.

Im just waiting for the G5 Powerbook...I know going for a powerbook over a regular G5 tower might seem pintless...Do any of you think I should just get a G5 tower than a Powerbook. Consider that im planning on attending Chaapman University Film School.....

I think laptops are a lot more practical than desktops. Unless you have a specific reason for getting a desktop (for example, expansion), don't get one.

Laptops don't come with dual processors right? or do they?

quote:

---

Originally posted by RFranco:
Laptops don't come with dual processors right? or do they?

---

Nope, they don't.

Yeah - I love my Powerbook.

-Chris
Studentfilms.com

"I think laptops are a lot more practical than desktops. Unless you have a specific reason for getting a desktop (for example, expansion), don't get one."

I think 90% of the time the specific reason is that laptops of equivalent performance cost significantly more than a desktop, and I like to be able to expand and upgrade the computer. I like my G4 PowerBook but its service life is much shorter than my dual 2 GHz G5. When buy a laptop, it's basically a one-shot thing. You can add more RAM, of course, but anything else will have to take place through an external solution.

quote:

---

Originally posted by RFranco:
I don't understand why people are making a big deal about the miniMac but they didn't even blink when the G4 Cube came out. It's like almost the same thing.

---

If i remember correctly the cube had a gigantic under the desk mounted power supply too - i am curious what kind of external PS this will come with, i havent seen any photos of that yet. but that was another drawback of the expensive cube. a little before its time perhaps.

I saw on apple's site a picture of an external powersupply which i think was for the Mini Mac. Its about twice the size of the apple laptop powersupply.

mike

Suppose the Mac Mini works fine for normal editing, do you think it's worth getting it with 512 MB RAM or would I need to come up with the extra dough for 1 GB RAM to run most of the programs properly at a good, consistent speed? I would plan on running in the future FCP, DVD Studio Pro, and possibly Logic Pro if that is possible.

The more RAM, the better. You can never have too much. But you can get away with 512. I run FCP and all that stuff on 640 MB and I've never had a problem.