Re: Hardware Recommendations


"Charlie S." <CharlieStam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0Ulwj.19139$6t3.16805@xxxxxxxxxxx
How many hard drives would I need? 4?
One for the Mac boot drive... one for Mac video
One for PC software and XP
One for PC Data

I would imagine I could buy and install them myself much cheaper than
through Apple? Would I need to reboot every time I went from Mac to PC or
visa versa?

Yes a reboot is necessary unless you are running "parallels" method. Which I
don't like .. google it to learn more about the app that switches between
OSX and Windows..



Decided not to get the extra monitor. After reading about the Cinema 23
". Found it's been out for some time. May wait a few months. Apple
should be coming out with a new display in the near future.


The apple monitors are severly overproced for what they actually are. I
bought 2 Samsung 24 " 1920x1200 monitors for $1200. They are faster than the
apple monitors and are exceptional.








Bought it at the spur of the moment and didn't consult with anyone
in the video business before making the purchase.

I'm basically an amateur in making videos, but would like to find
out if this is really for me.

Here is what I bought
Processor: Two 2.8 Quad Core Intel Xenon
4 GB memory
1 320 GB 7200 drive
1 500 GB 7200 drive
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 512 MB (Two Dual Link DVI)
1 Apple Cinema 23" Display
2 !6 x Superdrives
1 Airport extreme card (Wi-Fi)
Apple Mighty mouse
Apple keyboard + Mac OS X
Apple Care protection

I probably wouldn't even be posting, but out of curiosity I did some
web browsing on Mac systems and came up with the site of a company
that pre-configures Macs for digital editing.
http://www.promax.com/Landing/Apple/good_better_best_macpro.html

A couple items stood out on their better systems that I most likely
won't have on mine. Would like to know if they would be useful or
would be a waste of money.

1. Firewire: On their better systems they had a. Firewire based
DVCPRO HD inputs/outputs or
b. Firewire based XDCAM inputs/outputs

yes, you will want at least one FW connection. I'm pretty sure your
Mac has FW800 (firewire 800 aka 1394b) connections. Even better.
FW800 interfaces are twice as fast as normal FW400 (firewire 400 aka
1394) interfaces.

I hope the cable comes with the computer.


2. Compressed storage: a. 4 hours of 1080i Compressed HD storage
or
27 hours of 35Mbit 1080i Compressed HD storage

Gonna depend on content and type as to how many drives and if you
stripe them.

I'm going to have someone help me here. Will either write back when
it comes in or get someone to help me.

It is best to not keep your video footage and elements on the same
drive as your operating system and programs.
This is probably less important now with fast SATA3g drives etc.. but
still a good practice.

Good idea. Probably will use the 320 GB hard drive for booting up and
elements and the 2nd drive for video footage. Also, already have one
external drive for back up.



3. Audio Mixer and Speakers for sound monitoring. (I know I didn't
get an audio mixer, I guess that is something I could buy later. I
didn't ask about the speakers. I imagine they come with either the
display or separately.)

Do NOT use your display speakers or any 'PC' speakers to moitor your
audio if you can avoid it.
Get a nice(decent) pair of powered monitors to listen and a small
mixing board to feed.
Plug the output of your Mac directly into the powered speakers, and
feed the output of your mixing board into the input of the Mac.
examples:
http://tinyurl.com/2mxovo

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/426134-REG/Tapco_By_Mackie_MIX_100_MIX100_10_Channel_Mixer.html


Then you can plug in mics, cd players, tape decks, phonographs, etc
into your mixer, send it to the audio inputs of your machine and
record away.

Thanks for that info. I feel sound might prove to be my biggest
challenge. I'm a bit hearing impaired and not all that sophisticated
regarding mixing sound with video.



On a separate note:

4. I bought one 23 " display. Is there a real benefit to having
two monitors? If so, should they be the same size? If I call back
now and add it to the order, then it would come under the 3 year
warrantee.

If you are only going with one monitor, get at least a 24" (and if
getting more than one, try to make at least one a 24").
Not a must, especially if you are only doing stand. def editing, but
a 24" monitor is a s small as you can get and still view 1920x1080,
the current holy grail of HD editing. Future proof
They do not have to be the same size, no.

The display I ordered is the Apple 23 " Cinema HD display. It's not
24". It's an inch smaller. Would that still do the trick? Or, would
I be better off with the 30 in display? I could get both the 24" and
30".

At the local cable company they also run an inexpensive 15 " monitor
for transferring info from the tape deck to the computer. Might that
be a good idea too? (Just realized I have a couple 15: monitors
already.)

Anything else I might have missed?

I didn't order any software like MS Office. I use a PC in the real
world.

Mac doesn't have Blueray yet. Probably would replace one with
Blueray in the future.






.

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