24 " 2.8GHz iMac for editing?

[Turlough McAleenan]

Hi,

sorry if this has been asked before - I searched the archive and there is v little on this...

Is the 24" iMac a capable work station for editing RED footage? I see it comes with 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme and up to 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM and has 1920 x 1080 resolution. I know about the capabilities of a Mac Pro but what about the iMac?

Just sounding out if there a possible cheaper alternative to a Mac Pro for editing footage...

I had also read somewhere else (Creative Cow forum I think) that if you are using an iMac and wanting a HDCAM master from HD footage then you have to use a MacPro instead.. The person never gave an actual reason why..

Anyhow observations would be greatly appreciated..

Many thanks

[Damien Molineaux]

An iMac would work fine for editing.

You can't add an HD card to your iMac, therefore you can't output to a deck (HDcam or other) except by firewire, I suppose that's what the person you mention was referring to.

Cheers,
Damien

[Turlough McAleenan]

Great thanks for that!

Is it possible then to use the FW800 port to output to HDCAM?

Also do you definitely need a HD capture card for editing RED footage such as an AJA kona 3?

Again thanks

[Christian Edwards]

write an Edl to your footage on the red drive via fw800 to edit, however, this is very basic and limiting in post .

[Damien Molineaux]

Great thanks for that!

Is it possible then to use the FW800 port to output to HDCAM?

Also do you definitely need a HD capture card for editing RED footage such as an AJA kona 3?

Again thanks

No, you need a card with an HD-SDI connection to connect to an HDCAM deck.

No, you don't need an HD capture card for editing RED footage.

Like I said, iMac is okay for editing, but you can't output to HDcam because you can't add a card.

Cheers,
Damien

[Patrick Jennings]

this could possibly work........

use a cheap DVI to HDMI cable on the video out of the mac. - set it as mirrored and 1920x1080
then use a convergent design nanoConnect (hdmi to hd-sdi converter) and connect that to a HDCAM deck....

then just play your footage in full screen in quicktime and wala!!!

total cost around $400


will it work? i don't know

[sander kamp]

The iMac has been mentioned on this forum as a possible alternative for a on-set MacBook Pro. The screen is bigger and brighter and the harddisk is faster and there is less worry someone knocks over a latte in you keyboard. It is also a lot more portable than a MacPro with separate screen.

I have a 2.4 GHz and I am very happy with it. It certainly feels a lot faster than my 2.0 GHz MacBook. However in REDCine I can only realtime play back 4k movies at 1/4 medium res - the lowest setting. Outputting footage from REDCine to quicktime is fine for small projects but you definitely don't want to do a feature length movie with it, it takes a lot of time. I haven't tried editing RED footage in FCP yet so can't comment on that.

[sander kamp]

this could possibly work........

use a cheap DVI to HDMI cable on the video out of the mac. - set it as mirrored and 1920x1080
then use a convergent design nanoConnect (hdmi to hd-sdi converter) and connect that to a HDCAM deck....

then just play your footage in full screen in quicktime and wala!!!

total cost around $400


will it work? i don't know


Most likely not. To begin with I can't set the screen resolution to 1920 x 1080, only 1920 x 1200. And then there's refresh rate, it doesn't state it let alone giving 24 fps as an option.

EDIT: looked it up on the convergent-design website and it says: "HDMI input formats: 1080i60, 1080i59.94, 1080i50, 1080p30,
1080p29.97, 1080p25, 1080p24, 1080p23.98, 720p60, 720p59.94, 720p50, 486i29.97, 576i25" So that's a no.

[Joe Vinson]

The processor in the iMacs isn't bad, but keep in mind the components are basically the same as the MacBook line: laptop hard drive, laptop video card, etc. You will get frustrated with write times and jerky footage.

[Martin Jäger]

same here..

the fully loaded 24" works great. for the money you get a very good
machine.

martin



The iMac has been mentioned on this forum as a possible alternative for a on-set MacBook Pro. The screen is bigger and brighter and the harddisk is faster and there is less worry someone knocks over a latte in you keyboard. It is also a lot more portable than a MacPro with separate screen.

I have a 2.4 GHz and I am very happy with it. It certainly feels a lot faster than my 2.0 GHz MacBook. However in REDCine I can only realtime play back 4k movies at 1/4 medium res - the lowest setting. Outputting footage from REDCine to quicktime is fine for small projects but you definitely don't want to do a feature length movie with it, it takes a lot of time. I haven't tried editing RED footage in FCP yet so can't comment on that.

[Blayne Gorum]

The processor in the iMacs isn't bad, but keep in mind the components are basically the same as the MacBook line: laptop hard drive, laptop video card, etc. You will get frustrated with write times and jerky footage.

You should really brush up on the iMac specs because laptop components aren't really used like they used to be.

That said, I really think that the iMac would be suitable for an offline edit. The lack of proper monitoring and HD-SDI out should relegate it to doing ProRes material at the most. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[Joe Vinson]

...laptop components aren't really used like they used to be.

That's true, but neither are the video files. Ask any urban planner: as soon as you widen a road to alleviate traffic congestion, you just get more and more cars to fill it up.

I'm just saying there's a measurable difference in the components used in the two systems, and while an iMac will work in a pinch, there's a reason why people get the much more expensive Mac Pro with its RAIDed SATA drives & other goodies.

[sander kamp]

The processor in the iMacs isn't bad, but keep in mind the components are basically the same as the MacBook line: laptop hard drive, laptop video card, etc. You will get frustrated with write times and jerky footage.

The iMac has a full-size harddisk and a desktop graphics board. And it DOES make a difference compared to a MacBook or MacBook Pro.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

The 24" iMac is great. It has a desktop quad-core CPU, not a mobile CPU.

Currently there are issues with Apple's nVidia drivers that make some GPU accelerated applications run a bit slow (REDCINE for example), so that's a consideration. There's no way to expand on one of these systems. Apple should have at least included an ExpressCard 34 slot, but they didn't. External storage (and you will definitely want this) is limited to Firewire 800 or slower. ....Ouch. Other than that, it's a great system.

I would not consider any other iMac model for a production system. I would buy a Macbook Pro for an editing system before most of the iMac models (except maybe the 24"). Why? Because with the Macbook Pro, I can still attach a 30" or other display if I want. The Macbook Pro also has an ExpressCard 34 slot so I can add an eSATA adapter for higher performing external storage (vs. Firewire 800). Save the FW800 port for that CF card reader for offloading your RED footage.

If you will be doing any compositing or FX work in addition to editing, then get the Mac Pro. Save yourself the frustrations.

[Joe Vinson]

The iMac has a full-size harddisk and a desktop graphics board. And it DOES make a difference compared to a MacBook or MacBook Pro.

So it does! Apologies, my mistake.

[Andy Palmer]

Quick question,

Could you use an 24" imac + AJA IO Box to edit RED footage in Pro Res. Could you conceiveably Export pro Res files from RESD CINE, with a window burn TC, offline in Pro Res, and use the window burn to conform the 4K masters later on for online.

-Atrain