![]() It reminds me of the saying "Invest in the best, and only cry once."ĥ. Video editing benefits from more power, so you might as well get more power if you can. People often ask me which Mac they should get for their video editing, and I always recommend the highest-level machine they can fit into their budget. But I do know that it still handles HD video pretty well and it still has more life left in it yet. Have I gotten an additional year or two years? I don't know exactly. That's not bad at all considering it's 4 years old.Īt the time, it drove the price of the computer up significantly, but I'm convinced I've been able to hang onto this computer longer than I would have if I had purchased a machine with lower specs. In this case, it was a 2.7 GHz i7 model with 16 GB of Memory. When I purchased this mid-2012 MacBook Pro, I bought the highest-end one within my budget. This tip might come to you a little late, and the advice certainly isn't for everyone. (A lot of this depends on the bitrate and codec of your footage). ![]() If it's a slow 5,400 RPM spinning drive, it will likely struggle.Īnd assuming your drive is fast enough, you also need a fast connection. If it's a standard 7,200 RPM spinning hard drive, it might do the job (or maybe not). If the external drive is a Solid State Drive (SSD), it's likely very fast. Without digging into all the technical numbers, I'll summarize: the faster the external drive (and the connection from your computer to that drive), the better the video editing experience. The speed of that external drive can have a big impact on your ability to edit. It's standard practice to keep your raw footage on an external hard drive attached to your computer. In fact, sometimes I'll restart my computer before working in those programs, just to make sure my computer is fresh and ready for the upcoming tasks.ģ. My experience is that Final Cut Pro X, Motion, and Compressor all speed up significantly when I close down all other programs. Open the Activity Monitor app included with every Mac (find it in the Utilities folder), and you can see the effect different programs have on your memory and processor. I commonly have multiple apps open on my computer simultaneously.Īnd inside one app (such as a web browser), I might have dozens of tabs open at once.Īpps use memory and processing power. You might even be able to say goodbye to the dreaded "dropped frames" warnings.Īre you a multitasker? I suppose I am (for better or for worse). If you're using an old computer to edit your video project, then this super simple proxy workflow can smooth things out for you. Switch your viewer settings back to regular footage (non-proxy) before exporting (Sharing, as Final Cut Pro X calls it).Switch your Viewer settings to show proxy footage.Control-click (or right-click) and choose "Transcode Media > Create proxy media".I've talked about the details of how to use proxy clips before, but here I'll just summarize the process. Luckily, one of the useful features in Final Cut Pro X is that it makes using proxy footage super simple. It's not a wildly difficult process to manage if you have to do it yourself, but it can be a bit confusing. These are the proxy clips (or proxies).įor example, if an original video clip is 1080p, then the proxy clip might be 720p at a lower bitrate which is easier for an older computer to play back. Let's say your computer struggles to play back full resolution 1080p video.īecause of that, you create lower resolution, lower bitrate files and use them in place of the original files while you're editing. Here are the basics of how the proxy concept works: Proxy footage is footage that stands in place for other footage. "Proxy footage" sounds like a technical term, but don't let that throw you off. Edit with proxy footage on an old computer If you're like me and using an old computer, then here are five tips that can help make things go more smoothly on your aging hardware.ġ. ![]() That said, I'm pleasantly surprised at how this machine handles video. It's also my main video editing computer.Ĭonsidering that as I write this, it's December 2016, that makes my computer a little over four years old - ancient in computer years. I'm writing this on a mid-2012 MacBook Pro. Are you using an old computer to edit video?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |