What's involved with upgrading to Final Cut Express HD?

I was just wondering what is involved with upgrading to High Definition. My current computer is a PowerBook G4 and I did not know if this would support the HD. What percentage of users are still using the regular and what percent have upgraded to HD.
I figured that when I buy a new Mac I would upgrade the HD, but until that point I'd stick with the regular resolution. I would need to buy a new HD video camera too.
Thanks for any thoughts!

Hi(Bonjour)!
FCE HD (3.0 and 3.5) is not only for HD editing, it's the new name for Final Cut Express since version 3.0, and you can edit in HDV or SD with the same product.
HDV is pretty demanding on computer power, RAM and storage.
Altough a G4 1,0 GHz meets the minimun requirements to do HDV, pay attention to video card itself. See spec section for FCE HD:
"Macintosh computer with 500MHz or faster PowerPC G4 or G5 (550MHz for PowerBook G4) or Intel Core Duo
512MB RAM
Display with 1024-by-768 (or higher) resolution
An AGP or PCI Express graphics card compatible with Quartz Extreme or an Intel GMA integrated graphics processor in MacBook or Mac mini
Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later
QuickTime 7.0.4 or later
HDV features require 1GHz or faster processor and 1GB of RAM (2GB recommended)
500MB disk space required for applications; additional 16GB of additional storage space for Soundtrack and LiveType content (can be installed on separate disks)
DVD drive for software installation"
A big monitor is also a good idea (kind of one to one pixel at displaying video:the 23" Apple cinema HD display 1920 X 1200 pixels or greater).
Think about an external hard drive to store your captured media.
In the camcorders line-up, it's better to choose a tape recording based one (no hard disk, nor DVD nor media card recorder), because FCE HD allows capture directly from a such camcorder (altough it's possible to download from other sources and convert your material to something that FCE can handles without rendering. A 3 CDD one is better (I own the fabulous FX-1). Many HDV camcorders allows down conversion directly from capturing process: so we can edit in SD format with the same material.
Currently, HDV can be edited on FCE HD, but you will have to print to tape your edited HDV content to keep it in HDV format. You cannot burn HDV or blue-ray DVD ( aka high definition DVD) from iDVD 6 and watch it on a HD TV set.
There are some HD DVD burners around the corner ($$$ to buy and blank DVDs are not cheap) but the choice of software is very limited.
HDV is simply ashtoning to watch on HD tv set and it's the future.
I think you can count on an instant 200$ rebate if you buy a new mac and FCE HD on apple store:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=37C 4CB71&nclm=Moviedeal
Good luck.
Michel Boissonneault

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