Apple New Mac Time - What to go for?

[K]

I'm just finishing my first semester of my final year at university and my current film has been a collaboration with a friend of mine (my housemate too, nonetheless). As such, we decided to shoot in HDV and edit entirely on his machine (a 20" 2.2GHz Core Duo iMac). After shooting two of my past three films in HD I have decided that DV is a dead duck and my final project HAS to be in HD too. But that poses the problem that my ancient PowerBook G4 can't even handle viewing a 720p MPEG, let alone 1080p editing. So, it's time to upgrade. I had been holding out for a decent MacBook Pro upgrade at this year's Macworld, but obviously that's not happened. I'm currently considering picking up a Black MacBook and bumping the RAM up to 4gig, but I'm still concerned about how it'll handle the likes of Final Cut Pro with HDV material. ie. Would the integrated graphics hold it back? I'm really not in much of a position to just 'wait it out' for an MBP update with hopes a small pro machine again (a 15" laptop is just impractical for me) but a new Mac Pro with an 8800 (4 or 8 cores) is also very tempting - especially if I could stick XP on there and do some proper PC gaming again.

So basically, does anyone have any experience of HD material on the MacBook? Or perhaps does anyone think the new Mac Pro is a good alternative since I can justify the gaming capabilities of it coupled with using my current PowerBook as my main portable machine.

Any thoughts?

[ToMMo]

Just to let you know that John Lewis had a MBP for £800 as it was customer returned (still had 2year warranty on it) so if you can find a deal like that, deffo go for the pro, never tried gaming on them though. I've got the standard macbook but never tried an HD content on it, if i find some i'll try editing it and let you know back to revision for final year first semester exams for me, damn you media guys

[K]

That's a good price for a MacBook Pro... But still, they are a bit large for my liking.

My housemate has just got himself a black MacBook with 2gig of RAM and he's just installed Final Cut Studio on it. I might grab it later and see if Final Cut Pro handles my footage ok. Although I don't think any of the other programs in the suite would work at all, as I think they require a dedicated graphics card as standard.

Cheers!

[seebul]

HD Playback will be fine on the MB but editing is a different story, it just cant keep up and you constantly have to wait for it to catch up with the 'beachball' coming up all the time. Same reason i just sold my MB and getting a MBP next week

BTW the MB i was trying to edit on was 2.0ghz core 2 duo, 2gb of ram, so im not sure if the extra two might make it better for u?

[K]

Sounds like proper first hand experience to me. I doubt a bump up to 2.2GHz and an extra 2gig of RAM is really gonna help that much. It looks like it's a Mac Pro for me!

[seebul]

Originally Posted by K

Sounds like proper first hand experience to me. I doubt a bump up to 2.2GHz and an extra 2gig of RAM is really gonna help that much. It looks like it's a Mac Pro for me!

Lucky *******

[K]

Originally Posted by seebul

Lucky *******

Some interesting stuff on Macrumors and Appleinsider today about new MBPs shortly... It has been AGES since the last update. Even the design itself is just ancient. I think I can wait it out a bit longer!

[RTT]

I would be waiting too if I were in the market for a new piece of Apple kit

[ryanjleng]

i suspect the whole MacBook line is going to be updated.

[K]

Originally Posted by RTT

I would be waiting too if I were in the market for a new piece of Apple kit

Yeah I think that's the best thing. I just figured that if something was going to get updated it would have been at Macworld... But now I'm thinking that's probably really bad marketing, releasing all your stuff in one go. I'd be really surprised if Penryn MBPs weren't out within the next month after doing a bit of reading, but I'd still prefer a 13" model.

[seebul]

Ah don't say that after i just bought one:P I read about all the updates but i thought it its just a Penryn update im not really bothered, i dont think i would be able to tell any difference anyway?

[Orca]

Originally Posted by seebul

Ah don't say that after i just bought one:P I read about all the updates but i thought it its just a Penryn update im not really bothered, i dont think i would be able to tell any difference anyway?

I keep thinking that too... I just wanna go ahead and buy a MBP since I recently sold my MB. Urgh, I hate fighting with myself lol. I think it's the fact that knowing you could have gotten a slightly better one if only you waited a little bit longer (assuming it does happen) which really gets me

[K]

Well, it's more that I'm hoping they make a smaller MBP like ye olde 12" PowerBook... But it's unlikely. I'd still like to see what they'll release before I stump up for a new machine, generally.

[BioSniper]

I was also wondering about a line refresh myself as the missus was thinking of getting a macbook, maybe now we will hold fire in which case.

[<A88>]

oh the irony of an Apple store employee asking which Mac to get

[koola]

Originally Posted by BioSniper

I was also wondering about a line refresh myself as the missus was thinking of getting a macbook, maybe now we will hold fire in which case.

Looks like the Macbook is mid product cycle and not due a refresh any time soon. Mbp is due for an imminent update as shown here

[K]

Haha, I know I know. Thing is I'm one of just a couple of people there that really use Final Cut Pro all the time so I was hoping to get a broader response regarding it's usability on a machine like a MacBook. So, shut up you