Mac laptops forum: What macbook/macbook pro for video editing?

If you're editing video as a hobby and iMovie HD & iDVD fills your needs, then the video card does not play a great part in the editing process.
Lots of RAM and a fast processor take care of the number crunching when it comes to turning your epic in to a DVD.

At the high end, Final Cut Pro and the rest of the Pro series Editing Suite, would benefit from a better graphics card. (Rendering in Real Time for instance)

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7592_102-0.html?forumID=25&threadID=251939&messageID=2515421#2515421

for another thread on the same subject. (One day I'll figure out how to include the link nicely!)

P

A good video card with a lot of RAM and it's own processor can take the load of the computers processor and thus allow for a more efficient display of graphics.
I always understood that the card, within certain limits, did not make a deal of difference to your video editing efforts but in the thread that I have linked to, grtgrfx indicated that at the high end, a good video card is essential.

My experience, albeit limited to iMovie and a litte Final Cut Express, indicates that all of the current shipping Mac's are quite capable of performing well when editing, with their stock cards.

Hopefully someone who has a whole bunch more experience than I will come along and explain the whole thing.

P

I guess I'll get the pro then... A friend is giving me his final cut pro, so I guess I'm best with it. Thanks for your help guys.

I think i am right in saying that only the MBP 17 inch has the option of using an eSATA card to connect to eSATA EXTERNAL hard drives - which is THE sensible solution for holding mass video data - not on your MBP - and editing remotely. eSATA is as fast as if the external drive were an internal one. I THINK that the 15 inch and new 13 inch dont have that option - so are not really serious contenders for a true desk top replacement. I am sure they easily could ....

Without the ExpressCard/34 eSATA, higher speed external hard drive options are not available to 13" and 15" new MacBookPro owners.

WHY did Apple omit ExpressCard/34 from these?

here...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2045457&tstart=0

I have a new MacBook Pro 13" 2.53GHz, and it is very fast when editing regular SD video. I have not tried editing HD video, but I bet it will handle that as well. Anyway, it is MUCH better than my 2006 white iMac. However, sense you mention video boards, the new White MacBook has the same graphics chip (nVidia 9400M) as the new MacBook Pro 13", so I imagine it would preform nearly as well. Of course, it is only a 2.1GHz machine (I find that, little as the difference might seem, 2.53GHz is a lot faster that 2.13GHz), with 800MHz Front Side Bus, and 800MHz memory, but that should be way more than enough for regular SD video.