Writings about film making by Jason Hawkins

Panic, Chaos & the MacBook Pro

Posted by Jason on October 22nd, 2008

The world is falling apart and it’s all Apple’s fault.

That’s right, it’s USB and glare-induced pandemonium out there, people. But we can get through this. It’s not the first time we’ve lost a beloved technology (I’ll never forget you, Floppy), but we can get past this. We have to. We just need to calm down.

In my own attempt to restore peace and balance to the world, I drove to an Apple store to see the new machines for myself. I liked them. A lot. Here are something things I noticed:

Things I Noticed

I’m really not too terribly concerned about the glass screen. I have to believe that Apple wouldn’t leave all of those color-conscious designers and colorists out in the cold like that. Apple has billed their MacBook Pro line to be a mobile and professional solution for things like digital film production. Personally, I’m holding off judgment until I see some benchmarks and color accuracy tests. Which, I’m guessing, won’t take long.

The FireWire 400 problem is a little different, but solvable. Or work-around-able. Granted a work-around isn’t ideal, but if this is the end of FireWire 400 I’d rather it leave us when companies are still making FireWire 400 devices (like hard drives), than not. As it is now, in the event of a new MacBook Pro arrival, I’ll be able to connect my DVX100a via FW400 into one of my triple or quad interface hard drives (I call that future-planning). That’ll slow the FW800 data rate during import, but I can handle that.

Anther possibility (and I haven’t tried this myself, so maybe it doesn’t work) is to use a hard drive to connect the camera via FW400 and connect the notebook via USB 2. I think it’s possible — and even probable — that it’ll work. It’s something I plan to test soon. [UPDATE: As StevP points out in his comment this is not likely to work. However, I still have not tested this myself.]

You could always just check your camera’s manual to see if footage capture is possible over USB. If you’re working with mid to high level consumer gear this is probably an option you didn’t even know you had.

Apple adds native Soundtrack Pro support

The biggest surprise, however, is also the least publicized: Native Soundtrack Pro support. I’m thrilled to see Apple starting to address the issues users are facing when working with their pro apps. I’m talking about the new thumbscoop on the unibody where you lift to open the display. It’s an extremely well designed and understated feature. And the best part is that the corners are razor sharp — perfect for those long hopeless nights troubleshooting Soundtrack Pro error messages. Simply use one of the new gestures (listed as a “wrist swipe”) to activate the wonderful red release.

Finally. A way out. Thank you, Apple.

But seriously, folks. I can subjectively say that these new MacBook Pro models are beautiful. They feel solid, they look great, and the alleged graphical processing improvements are very welcome. More than anything I just want to see how the new Nvidia chips improve Final Cut Studio’s performance, specifically Motion.

While the concerns over the glass and FireWire issues are mostly legitimate, I don’t see a huge scandal developing over either. Professionals will continue to use monitors for color grading, and cameras will continue to evolve their footage (and file) transfer methods. It’s a surprising change, yes. But it’s not a deal-breaker.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.