Is new Mac mini sufficiently powerful to edit HD video in iMovie?

All,
I am considering purchasing the new Mac mini and would like to know if it is powerful enough to edit HD video in iMovie imported from a mini-dv-based video camera now that it has the GeForce 320M. Any insight is much appreciated.
Thanks!

Thanks for your responses. HDV is the format my camcorder uses. The main thing I was trying to determine is whether the new Mac mini (and it's new NVidia hardware) had enough computing horsepower to handle the HD video. My current, first generation Mac mini grinds to a halt when i try to do anything with HD but is fine for SD.

Similar Messages

Is a mac mini good enough for editing home video?

I'm considering buying a man mini to do basic video editing. This will be home videos, nothing heavy. Will a mac mini cope with putting an hours and a halfs worth of holiday clips together?

I would say YES. If you are planning of using iMovie, for example.
I was doing my family videos on my "old" iMac 2007, with Corde2Duo. I'm sure it's quite enough on the new plateform.
At least, it's the first price to do it.
I'm waiting a possible new line of Mac Mini, with latest features to get it.

TS3173 If I install win 7 on a new Mac mini, do I need to install video drivers as well?

See above

You need to install the entire Windows Support Software Package that you downloaded using Boot Camp in step 1.

Editing hdv on new mac mini?

hi, i want to buy the new 599$ mac mini but first,would anyone know if it can indeed edit hdv? im thinking of buying it with final cut pro/studio. (not long movies, just less then 10 minute hdv clips)
im very new to the mac world. im use to windows pcs, but im hoping to pick up my first mac soon. as a hs student, i can't afford the current or older mac pros, but i can afford the new mac mini at 599 (i could afford the upgraded one, but im going to save that part for maxing out the memory and some software).

Hi,
The Mac Mini and any other Mac that has a Shared Video Card are not qualified to run and will not run Final Cut Pro. One of the requirements for final Cut is to have a non-shared Video Card. Check the Specs, a Mac Mini, a couple of the laptops and the lower end iMacs have shared video cards and are not capable of running Final Cut Pro.
However, Final Cut Express is designed to run on these machines and will edit HDV, but you will have to check into the limits of Final Cut Express to see if this is an Editing environment you would like to use. the Editing interface is basically the same, but some of the more involved aspects have been disabled. Primarily, the ability to use any type of capture card, like a Kona or Black Magic card. But if you are truly only going to Edit HDV footage, FC Express might be a good option.
Hope that helps.
Kalagan

New Mac Mini and iMovie6, & iDVD

Hi
I was wondering if someone can answer these questions for me. I have a 12" powerbook and iMac 800mhz power pc G4 (lampshade kind), and I have been editing movies in iMovie and creating DVD with iDVD. But it's getting a bit slow.
I was thinking about getting the new Mac Duo core mini 1.83 GHZ with 2 gig of Ram to use as editing bay (iMovie) and to create DVD using iDVD.
Is the new Mac Mini good enough for that? Has anyone encounter any problem with previous mac mini using iLife? I don't edit a lot, maybe twice a year, 1 1/2 hour or 2 hour project. I already have external monitor (viewsonic) and apple keyboard and mouse.
or is it entirely better to go with iMac 24 inch.?
Any thoughts?
Alex

In context, the current $799 Mac mini has very similar overall performance to my G5 2.0 dual processor power mac, bought in October 2003, so while the drive is slower (not all that critical in video editing work since 5400rpm is certainly sufficient) a mini will perform notably better in iMovie, and render to iDVD much faster than your present 800MHz PB. Certainly, comparing the performance of my 800MHz TiBook in iMovie and Final Cut Express against even the older 1.5GHz G4 mini with IGb RAM, the mini was far smoother and more responsive to use.
There's no doubt that a 24" iMac would provide a faster, richer, environment in which to work, and if your budget would extent to that system it would seem a poor choice not to opt for that, but as has been said many, many times in these discussions, it's also worth bearing in mind that the mini's performance and capabilities are not defined by it's size. A Mac mini is far more powerful than merely for basic computing needs!

New mac mini, resolution incompatible with TV

My shiny new mac mini just arrived today in the mail. I hooked it up to my Emerson 27 inch 720p tv and booted her up. I got the grey screen, then the apple, then a spinny wheel of white lights, then "Please change computers resolution".
This is my first boot and the machine only comes with the onboard HDMI port and the HDMI to DVI adapter. I have no DVI monitors, and my only HDMI monitor is my TV.
Safe boot doesn't work, single user mode doesn't work. Both just throw the same error, safe boot runs a progress bar for a bit before doing so at least.
Apple support is closed right now (***).
My bro and I are Linux admins so we got into the shell and tried editing the com.boot file to change the resolution, but that didn't seem to do anything.
All the forums I've referenced say to install tools to solve this problem, but that's not helpful unless I can get in the first time. Also unhelpful are the people who say buy a new TV or monitor, which cost more then the machine.
I need this machine to boot exactly once into the GUI so I can set up logmein, VNC, and ssh. This is a dev box so I don't care about seeing it on the TV.
Can anyone get me into the GUI one time?
Since it's brand new, it's running Lion which I've been having endless issues with at work.

It sounds like the new Mac Mini has HDCP enabled (as it is on the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros).
This is a kind of copy protection, and will not allow HDCP protected content to be played on an analog source.
A tool like http://www.hdfury.com/ will take the HDCP stream, and convert it to an analog stream. It's perfectly legal.. and will extend the life of older TV's (manufactured before 2002).

Can I use an old Apple Cinema Display with new Mac Mini?

Currently I have an early PowerMac G5 that I bought used recently. It came with an Apple Cinema Display (20", I think - resolution is 1680x1050). The Cinema Display does not have a separate power cord so it must be powered from the PowerMac. My question is this - would I be able to use this monitor with a new Mac Mini - would it be able to power it the same as the PowerMac is currently.
Thanks in advance for your help. This is the first Mac I have owned since a "Fat Mac" many years ago (one of those with the 9" black and white screen).

Are you sure you have a 20" CINEMA display? I have 2x 20" CINEMA displays and both have their own power cord (and power brick). Maybe yours is a STUDIO display??? IDK if STUDIO displays worked that way or not, I've never owned one. Anyways, I have a 20" CINEMA display connected to my new Mac mini (early 2009) via the MiniDVI>DVI adapter and it works fine but is powered through the power cord though. I too have a PowerMac G5 (quad) but my PowerMac cannot power the displays without them being plugged in via their power cords. I am thinking you must have a STUDIO display or maybe there was an earlier version of the CINEMA display that could work that way.... idk. Mine were purchased at the end of 2005 along with the PowerMac G5 (quad).

Can I not install Final Cut Studio 2 on my new Mac Mini?

I just purchased a new Mac Mini - it's time to retire my G5 Power Mac.
FCS 2.0 is unverisal - so why can I not loan the software..???

I am having a major problem, I have an old mac purchased 7 years ago and my hard drive got problems but is still working, I got a new mac having OS X system, I have final cut pro 6 and I installed it on the new os X but it didn't work, I also used the conversion method mentioned on the net in order to work on final cut pro x because final cut pro 6 is not supported on OS X, with the conversion the final cut pro X was only able to read the original tapes but was not able to read the edited material, am really stuck and I need help, can someone recommend a helpful solution? when i went to mac technical support office they said that for old macs we can only offer to change the hard drive and RAM and replacing the old hard drive for OS with a new hard drive does not gaurantee that final cut pro 6 will work also, and if something later on doesn't work in the old mac OS we can not fix it or replace it because apple does not provide any other spare parts besides the RAM and hard drive.

My new mac mini (3 month) didn't start up,all that appeared was a white screen and a flashing folder with a question mark inside it.

My new Mac mini (3 month) didn't start up, all that appeared was a white screen and a flashing folder with a question mark inside it.
I followed by recommendations from 'Everything Mac': "shut it down by pressing and holding the power button for about 5 seconds.
Then hold down the Option key and press the power button again to start up the Mac mini. Keep holding down the Option key until
the Mac mini starts up."
But I got a Wi-Fi button only to chose and connect the local network. I connected to my network and I can't use this connection
becouse no icons.
Could you please help me?

Your Mini (running 10.6.4) should have come with grey-colored install disks. Now is the time to put them into service. Turn on your computer so that there is power to accept disk #1 into the optical drive. Once the disk is in the drive, shut off the computer by holding the start button down until it powers off. Then turn it on this time holding down the "C" key to make the computer boot from the disk. The question mark that you saw indicates that the computer cannot find a bootable volume. This can happen due to corrupted system files or an improper shutdown etc. Once you are in the "Installer" you can choose Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu in the menu bar. Use it to repair the disk and to see if that can solve your trouble.

How do I point iTunes on a New Mac Mini to an External iTunes Library

I have a 90 Gb (7000 tracks) iTunes Library sitting on a network drive that I want to "relocate" from my Powerbook to my new Intel Mac Mini. Or rather I want to point iTunes on the new Mac Mini to the existing Library.
How can I achive this and still retain all my ratings and other track info (ie count)?
Graham J
Melbourne, Australia

To move your songs from the network drive to the Mac Mini, add them to the iTunes on the Mac Mini, make sure that in Edit > Preferences > Advanced the default location is on the Mac Mini. Finally click Advanced > Consolidate Library. This will move the files to your Mac Mini.
On the other hand, if you want to point iTunes on the Mac Mini to the network drive, change the setting in the above preference location.

New Mac Mini won't open DVD Player, I get an error

This is a brand new mac mini (latest model bought two days ago), just opened and tried to open DVD player without any media on the DVD drive and the DVD Player doesn't open and I get this error:
There was an initialization error.
A valid video device could not be found for playback (-70017)
What could that be?
Wilfredo.

No. The DVD Player always open even if there is no media in the drive.
The problem was the Region. I needed to set the region on the drive, but the error message never told what was the problem, I had to figure it out myself.
Wilfredo.
Message was edited by: Wilfredo Nanita

Hi folks, I have my new mac mini connected to my telly (HDMI) and want to set it up. It didn't start the set up assistant

Hi folks, I've got a new mac mini and want to start using it. I put it on my HDMI telly and connected it to magic trackpad and wireless keybord, both are working fine. I can see the mac dashboard but I cannot click anything! The pointer moves where I want it to but nothing reacts and the setup assistant didn't start either.
Any idea what I can do?

The following article may be of help.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3924
Oops, I see this article has been referred to already.
Message was edited by: John Lockwood

I just bought a new Mac Mini 2.5 and it won't connect to the internet.

I got my new Mac mini set up but it won't load the connection, System Preferences Network says it's connected and I compared it to my old Mac Mini and everything matches up (IP address matches except last 3 digits). I open Safari or iTunes and they try to connect but no luck, on Safari the blue bar moves in the address line but stops and nothing happens. I'm on my old mini now so I I'm not having a problem wiht my provider, oh and I've got an ethernet connection to a Motorola surfboard. Any idea what is wrong?

Hello, might try this...
Make a New Location, Using network locations in Mac OS X ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712
10.5, 10.6, 10.7 & 10.8…
System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.
10.5.x/10.6.x/10.7.x/10.8.x instructions...
System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.
The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.
IFor 10.5/10.6/10.7/10.8, System Preferences>Network, unlock the lock if need be, highlight the Interface you use to connect to Internet, click on the advanced button, click on the DNS tab, click on the little plus icon, then add these numbers...
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
(There may be better or faster DNS numbers in your area, but these should be a good test).
Click OK.

New Mac Mini, iMac, or old Mac Pro for Pro Tools?

I asked this in another thread, but just want to get more input from older Mac Pro users from different years (2008-2010..)
I need to upgrade my Mac and am wondering what experiences everyone has had with different options for running Pro Tools and other professional audio applications.
The FW800 port on my iMac recently broke, and rather than spend a lot on getting it fixed I've decided to just sell it to someone who doesn't need firewire and upgrade.
I'm trying to decide between a newer iMac (3.1 or 3.4 GHz) with thunderbolt and USB 3 (but no FW), a new Mac Mini, also with thunderbolt and USB 3, or a somewhat older Mac Pro (2008-2010) with at least a 2.8GHz processor. Any thoughts from those of you who have used any of these, or who know more about computers in general than I do? Thanks.
Another option a friend recommended was looking for a 2011 iMac as they have both Firewire and Thunderbolt, since my audio interface runs via FW.
Thanks!

Might want to ask this on a ProTools forum as well.
fwiw I have a 4 core MacMini Server w 8GB RAM and a 2008 MacPro 8 core w 16GB.
The Mini is used as a general file and A/V server when not specificially tasked with Final Cut Suite efforts.
Unless I have serious Compressor processes running (e.g. converting h.264 to an editable format) that draws on the full cores, the mini can do a good job keeping up with the MacPro.
What the mini won't do is take 3rd party cards or drive multiple large monitors but for digital audio it ought to be fine with thunderbolt drives.
Good luck.
x

Transfer old MacBook Pro files to new Mac mini via wifi stuck

I'm going through the setup of my new Mac mini. The first thing it is having me do is transfer old data and applications via wifi from my MacBook Pro (running snow leopard) it is taking forever (over 24 hours now) and apparently stuck. How do I stop and restart the transfer using Ethernet cable or FireWire to speed up the transfer process. This is a brand new mini running some version of mountain lion. Thanks!

How are you transferring the files now?
To me the easiest, most reliable, and generally fastest method is..
With both computers powered down connect them back to back with a firewire cable
Boot the old computer into Firewire Target Disk Mode by holding down the T key during boot
Boot the new computer and the old computer should appear on the desktop as a firewire drive
On the new computer launch Migration Assistant (found in /Applictions/Utilities)
Follow MA's on screen prompts to transfer the data from another disk drive (the old computer running in Firewire Target Disk mde) This last step is best performed during the initial setup of the new computer when prompted early in the initial setup phase

Is new Mac mini sufficiently powerful to edit HD video in iMovie?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for