need help with imac with fce 4

1. coverchicago
   Member

   

   Can anybody help me in this matter, I'm about to purchace the Panasonic Ag HMC 40 avchd camcorder amd IMac with 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
   4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
   1TB Serial ATA Drive
   ATI Radeon HD 4670 256MB
   I would like to run Final cut Express, what i want to know is if this set up will be good enough for me to edit videos with out any glitches, just converted from the PC so I know mac can handle a lot with no problem, if someone can help me i will be most aprreciative.

   Posted 2 years ago #

2. Don
   Member

   

   the 27 inch imacs are having some screen issues look at apples forums to make sure yours isn't one of them...

   that mac will be killer..

   here's what I'd suggest:

   use external drives!!!!

   if you don't set up fce to use external drives for scrratch discs, you will have problems when disc space gets low!

    

   I'm gonna save myself a bunch of typing by not explaining why.

   I will say this much...

   If you're a kid at the zoo, and Daddy says "Don't pet that alligator" either listen to Daddy, or learn to write with your other hand.

   Posted 2 years ago #

3. anindya49
   Member

   

   Note that FCE4 only supports 30 fps editing. So if you are planning to do any 24 fps work, you should consider FCP. If you're not, then FCE is powerful enough (and much cheaper).

   It's a good idea to use external drives, so that you keep the OS and scratch disks separate, as the last poster has suggested. Another option would be to partition your drive.

   Everything looks fine otherwise.

   Posted 2 years ago #

4. wbmp
   Member

   

   coverchicago,

   I use an Panasonic AG-HMC40 and it works great with FCE v4.  Using Capture & Log within FCEv4 works great with AVCHD media content.  Also, you can directly transfer AVCHD media files directly to your hard drive for editing without using FCE Capture & Log. My next statements are based on the assumption, you have never used FCE, so if you have FCE experience, please forgive me.  Its hard to tell what experience a forum user has when asking a question...

   As the other folks have indicated, only use your iMac's internal drive (1TB SATA Drive) for loading your applications. For Example, I use a 1TB LaCie external firewire drive (1394 FW-800) for my FCE files disk (capture scratch - where you ingest your AVCHD content, FCE AutoSave Vault files, FCE Thumbnail & Waveform Cache files, FCE Render Files, FCE Audio Render Files, etc.), a 1TB LaCie external drive to store my third party media (overlays, effects, graphics, Sound Effects, Background Music, etc.), and a 1TB LaCie external firewire drive (FW-400) to store my final rendered projects). Don't use your internal drive for saving FCE project files (.FCP files), capture media, or third party media, only because you don't want to "thrash" your internal drive with loaded down large media which will eventually get removed, repeated, and removed again, as projects start and finish.

   Once I finish projects, I can clean my external FCE files disk, as needed, then reconfigure through FCE Preferences and Project Setup without disrupting my internal Mac OS drive.  It will save you a potentially expensive disk lesson down the road and prevent "slowdowns" on your internal applications drive.  Plus, if you ever have a system problem, simply unplug your external drives before repair or reload.  Your projects and media are protected. There are some really good books out there which explain sound disk setups for Final Cut video editing.  Lastly, get you a free copy of Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) for backups or if you ever need to clone and restore a drive.  Its a great addition to the Disk Utility in the Mac OS.  Good Advice whether you are editing on a Mac or Windows platform.

   Good Luck!

   WBMP

   Posted 2 years ago #

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