I didn't say that - I said you can't use the IO-HD and a firewire drive at the same time on the same bus - and the iMac only has one bus, so you can't do it. You can do it on a Macbook Pro because the expresscard slot allows you to connect a firewire or e-SATA drive direct to the motherboard (pretty much).Originally Posted by Ameer Ally
Can you work with 1080p on an iMac? Depends on the codec and the drive array. The fastest array you can connect to an iMac is a FW800 one, and that pretty much limits you to compressed formats, like DVCProHD (which is 720p) or ProRes codecs. You could run uncompressed SD, but that's irrelevant here. I would pay the extra for a G-Tech drive, which I think are the best firewire and e-SATA drives on the market today. Using ProRes rather than ProRes HQ will give better performance on an iMac (as on a MBP) as it requires less decoding, and hence better real-time performance in FCP. Footage imported via log and capture or RED CINE could be played and edited on the iMac once it is encoded onto this drive.
However, without a video output device, what's the point? You can't see your footage at a proper scan rate, or size. Even if you have a 24" iMac, you can't see your footage at full size whilst you edit. So is an iMac pointless? No, absolutely not. I use mine on set as a viewing device for pre-viz and checking quality etc. That's with RED ONE footage. I need to use the Mac Pro when I actually want to work and view it at base.
If you plan on buying a Scarlet, of course you can use it to edit (as long as you have an intel iMac which supports ProRes), but unlike DV or HDV you can't use the camera as a video output device to connect to a TV for low cost monitoring. This is a problem for RED to deal with if it plans on entering the domestic market. Perhaps that firewire connection on Scarlet will support viewing video in this way. We shall see...
Ben
