Powerbook for video editing?

My sister is thinking of getting a Powerbook 15" or 17" for work. She will be doing some video editing with a program called Final Cut Pro. It seems like the Powerbooks have a good processor, dedicated RAM and graphics card. I assume it would be a good choice, especially since most of her fellow artists use Mac. I don't know much about Macs. Could anyone comment on the performance of the Powerbooks for video editing? What about the screen quality?

Also, if you want to hook up an LCD monitor, does it have to be Mac, or could it be from any vendor?

Thanks for your help!

 

I'm currently in film production in college, and quite a few of my classmates have powerbooks. I've asked them about how the performance of the machine was, and the feedback I got was positive. You just can't expect it to run like a G5, but it is capable of handling video editing very well, and I find it much better to be able to edit videos on the run (I hate having to stay until 9:00pm at school just to edit).

Final Cut Pro is a great editing software, and it runs well on powerbooks.

 

Thanks for the info. What is the difference with the G5? Are there plans to upgrade the current powerbooks soon? Wondering if I should advise my sister to wait. Otherwise, the Powerbook 17" looks pretty good for her needs.

 

read around a little bit. G5 pb's don't seem likely. But if you feel like waiting just to be sure, Apple has a huge conference like June 11-13 or something. People say no G5's any time soon because they are evidently too big, and too hot to put in a lap top. But who knows.

 

The next powerbook upgrade will most likely be dual core G4's. THe G5 runs to hot to be in a notebook. Plus it uses a lot more power then the G4.

 

Thanks for all the info. Any idea when the new processor might come out? If not in the next few months, we'll probably buy now.

 

They just upped the iBook by a bit recently, and did the same thing with the Powerbook back in November I think, so if she needs it soon, I'd say get it now. That way she could get a feel for it, and be ready to do her productions.

Also, I'd recommend the 15", just because of it's portability. 17" is kinda big. Considering my friends/classmates have been doing it on a 12", I'm pretty sure she'd do fine on a 15". If you/she's worried about not seeing certain things in her productions since the screen is too small, that shouldn't be an issue, since when creating a production, you should be viewing the final product (and even while the production) connected to a TV monitor. Well, that's unless her productions are aimed to be streamed on the web/PC/High-Definition.

 

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, 17" is kinda big, but I don't think she's planning on moving it around too often, at least not everyday.

 

No problem. [ ] I'm glad to be of help.

But yeah, I find getting a 17" is defeating the purpose of a laptop. Anyways, I'm not the one buying it, but I'm just making sure you guys know what you're getting. I think maybe the 17's battery doesn't last that long either (general problem with big laptops), but if you're not going to be moving it that much, it's probably going to be plugged all the time.

Happy purchase.

edit: oh, also, in your first post, you asked: "Also, if you want to hook up an LCD monitor, does it have to be Mac, or could it be from any vendor?"

It can be from any vendor, as long as it has the right input.

 

Actually, the Powerbook just had the upgrade in January; it was the iBook that was upgraded Oct/Nov 2004.

According to http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/ , the iBook is due for an upgrade (hopefully before I start my school semester ), but the Powerbook is at "mid-cycle," so they probably won't upgrade for a while now.