chris wrote:
> (note the smiley again... although I am really hoping to get a Mac Mini
> to do better video work then I can with my current iMac)
As a show of good faith :-) I'd like to make some recommendations if you're
going to get a Mac Mini for video work:
- Upgrade the memory to at least 512 and preferably 1GB if possible. MPEG-2
encoding, multi-layer compositing, rendered previews, caching, etc. all chew up
RAM. I don't recall if you can upgrade the CPU in a MacMini (or add a second
one) but it is much more important to max out RAM first and foremost.
- Stick with DV only. DV has a nice low data rate of around 3MB/s which is
enough for any hard drive to handle. In fact you can composite 3-4 streams on
any cheap modern hard drive and play them realtime.
- Assuming sticking with DV only, make sure your workspace (desk, etc.) has
room for a small cheap TV and your DV camcorder. Previewing on a monitor,
however nice, still doesn't compare to an actual video monitor (or properly
calibrated cheap tv if you don't have the cash) for checking saturation, field
order, overscan/safe title area, etc. Even if it's a cheap $130 15" color TV,
it's still better to preview via firewire->DVcam->TV. (Assuming your DVcam
does this kind of passthrough, of course!)
--
Jim Leonard (trixter_at_oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
Received on Fri Jan 21 2005 - 22:56:52 GMT