New MacBook Pro 13 for Video Editing

Hi Community,

I saw Apple released a new MacBook Pro 13" and I was wondering if it would be possible to edit videos with Final Cut Pro X on this new machine...I will certain like to hear you'll thoughts on this topic please. Also, I must say I don't have the funds to purchase the MacBook Pro 15".

Thanks All

13" screen in my experience is simply way too small.
As for power, yes, it will edit, but you'll pay a price with performance. I know someone editing with an Air and T'bolt drive. There's some limitations to performance, but for same day wedding edits, he's pumping them out and he's a happy camper, but admits there's some jobs he'd not try on it.

The Macbook Air is powerful enough to edit? I would be using an external monitor when I am editing though. Once the 13" is powerful enough, I will consider purchasing it and adding an additional 8GB Ram. Also, I see USB 3.0 is available with the new MacBook Pros 13"...Should I consider to buy a usb 3.0 drive as well?

I'd love to see real world USB 3 vs FW800 vs eSATA tests.

Yeah, USB3 rocks with speed, but I don't know if the protocol still uses the packet burst type transmission of video data. Probably does, and would the speed compensate for that non-continuous stream?

Ok I have the previous MacBook Pro 13" 2011 version but based upon the feedback so far, it doesn't make much sense for me to update my mac just for usb 3.0?

USB is packet based, even 3.0.

But here's some benchmarks for y'all.

www.macrumors.com/2012/06/12/benchmarks-...pro-and-macbook-air/

So does FCPX or Motion 5 take advantage of a dedicated video card? Just wondering if there is a big jump in performance from the 13 to 15" because of the card?

FCP/Motion use the default main system GPU, period. What I've been wondering is since they had to use a beefier GPU to power that retina display, would that take power away from FCP/Motion and make them actually run less efficiently, since they'd have less of the GPU's resources left over for themselves?

And at 13" it's simply not a practical screen to edit on, no matter how clear it is. It's still only 13". An external monitor would be necessary for serious editors, negating any retinal display resolution.

What I like is that the MBP's are smaller, lighter, more powerful and we now have FW800 and Ethernet via T'bolt, slightly better GPUs and CPUs, faster RAM (why has no one mentioned the faster RAM here yet), and the faster SSD drives. I still think SSD is too pricy and limited. But I have worked on laptops with them and do notice an increased performance.

Now, I was just listening to a couple of engineers speak today, and they busted the myth that SSD drives are "safer" than spinning disk drives. They are actually failing at the same rate as spinning disks. There is so much that can go wrong with them, they burn out prematurely, and when they don't the expected life span is MUCH LESS than that of a spinning platter.

But technology marches on. Apple had great stuff to show us. As someone who travels extensively non-stop, the majority of new features in iOS and OS X will help me immensely. I welcome it.

We will see something exciting next week. I'm sure of it.

OK, break is over I have to get back to work. I'm behind deadline and lacking sleep so bad it's not funny.

Thanks for the info Ben,

I'm running an early 2011 15" with SSD and 8 Gigs of RAM. I have the AMD 6750 (1Gig) and the 1680x1050 display. I'm happy for the most part, but Motion does slow down at times (I do have the energy saver turned off). Although there were some nice upgrades at WWDC, nothing that temps me enough to upgrade at the moment.

I got my wife an 11" Air for christmas - absolutely love it! What I want is a retina display 11" AIr that I can attach to a Thunderbolt 27" monitor when I"m video/photo editing! Then have the portability for everyday stuff. That would be worth upgrading!!!

However, I didn't realize FCPX/Motion only use the GPU? Considering my setup isn't quite as fast as I would like, the Air's and 13" MBP must be terrible to work with - only integrated video cards, correct? I'm surprised your friend is doing so well with it. I should try some video editing on the 11" Air. Guessing I would notice a BIG difference.

I imagine in the future we will be able to plug a dedicated video card into the Air's via thunderbolt? Maybe that will be the solution to my dream 11" Air

I didn't say they use "only the GPU", I said they only use the main system GPU and not any additional ones that a system may have installed/attached. They do use the CPUs also.

And I said my buddy is doing "small" projects fine on an Air, I said NOT large projects nor multicam. FCP X will run on an Air (never seen Motion on one), but with limited performance.

Ahhhhhhhhh, thanks for the clarification!

JT

BenB wrote: Now, I was just listening to a couple of engineers speak today, and they busted the myth that SSD drives are "safer" than spinning disk drives. They are actually failing at the same rate as spinning disks. There is so much that can go wrong with them, they burn out prematurely, and when they don't the expected life span is MUCH LESS than that of a spinning platter.

You could be right, Ben, we'll have to wait and see as SSD's are relatively new to be able to gather any trend data from. My suspicion is that SSD's are like any piece of technology...they will improve with time and buying better grade products almost always ensures better performance and reliability than buying cheap off brand alternatives. The crucial M4's in my MP are warranted for 3 years, so slightly less than many brand name eSata drives.

The morale of the story with SSD's is to be prudent. My system drive is on one SSD but all the key apps are backed up. My scratch drive is on another SSD and open projects are backed up daily. Completed projects are immediately moved to (3) different offline FW800 archive drives. If either of my SSD's goes down, big headache but NOT the end of the world and only the most very recent data which I keep to a minimum has a chance of loss.

Now, no more talking about failing SSD's....don't want to jinx anything

This was first hand knowledge of failing SSD drives from engineers at Active Storage, fyi. Plus old engineer friends I have from Shell who are experimenting with them in enterprise server tests. I'm not quoting theories. They are not 100% bullet proof. No drive is. But even the SSD manufacturers own white papers state they don't expect the longevity of spinning disks. The solid state circuitry wears like any other moving part. Yes, solid state is moving parts, don't be fooled. Those mega thin circuits that make them up are fragile and not indestructible. Plus the controller cards are as vulnerable to damage as spinning disk drives. Same controller cards, and controller cards are the second biggest reason drives go bad. Controller card goes bad, the data on it's ROM doesn't match the drive, you can't just replace it 99% of the time. I'm just saying, SSD's are not super indestructible.

Here's a nasty little secret they don't want you to know. At this early stage, there's no profit "yet" in T'bolt and SSD technology. It has some more development to go through, and it has to pick up market share before it's "profitable". So until then, the manufacturers are using the cheapest, least quality materials and components to make them. When the profit margin goes up, the quality and reliability will improve.

There a reason why expensive Macs are returned much, much, much less as defective by far than any other computer in the world. There's a reason self-built off-the-shelf-parts PC's are the least reliable. I didn't make that up, either. That's been tracked by many resources, including JD Powers for many years now.

I have a history in that side of the industry, I'm just saying...

The speed of a 13" MBP is fine.

The screen... I find it works well enough in FCP 7, because the user interface has pretty small typography and buttons etc.
In FCP X, a lot of buttons are big. It gives you less room sometimes for your content. Opening up the inspector, immediately makes the viewer very small, opening up the Effect Browser immediately gives you not a lot of room in the timeline, etc.

Thanks alot for all the feedback guys!!! It really broaden my sight on areas I wasn't even considering. However now I am wondering if to keep my current MacBook Pro 13" and extend my apple Care warranty...Does it make sense to extend the apple warranty? What are you'll thoughts?

If you're making a living with the hardware, you really need to have the extended Apple Care warranty. Not only does it give you three years, but it puts you at the front of the line and the fastest (mostly within 24 hours) turnaround time for repairs. Has saved my butt on several occasions.

Great! Thank you.

Are there major speed performances with a 13" macbook pro vs 15" macbook pro? How is the rendering in final cut pro x and motion 5?

Price-wise, the 13" MacBook Pro Retina approaches the 15" MBP Retina when you start upgrading to get to the same specs. Might want to jump to the 15" where you get dedicated graphics, more RAM, and the larger screen. The biggest feature of the 13" (and why even at a premium price, it will still do well) is the fact that it is so small and for a lot of people, that's really important.