Apple KB Article: Final Cut Studio not supported on MacBook

For many video professionals, we use our laptops "in the field" so to speak. We'd like to use a MACBOOK for reviewing Panasonic P2 files (DVCPRO -50HD 720/24P) from an external FW hard drive. I suspect that it should work just fine - If we get one, we'll post the results here - in the meantime, has anyone experimented with this?

- Jason

Here are some benchmarks for both Final Cut Pro, and Motion on the Macbook and Macbook Pro.
http://www.creativemac.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=43717

Does anyone know if the MacBook Pro will ever be offered in black?

Wow thanks, Matt--I was about to go blind looking for answers on this problem after seeing the announcement re: Final Cut on Macbook. (I bought a new 12 inch Powerbook 4 days before the Macbook came out--before buying I expressly asked the Apple salesmen (4, in two different Apple stores in MA and VA) if a smaller version of the Macbook Pro might be coming out soon, since the 17-inch Pro, while it appeared best suited for video editing, burned my hand when I touched it and seemed to weigh as much as I do. To this question I observed lots of shrugs, shuffling of feet and nervous eye twitches...maybe they all had the same sinus problem...or maybe...)

At any rate, your experience solidifies quite a bit my rational sense that I should exchange my new Powerbook for the mid-level Macbook; I wonder if others on this page will get similar results.

Nonetheless, t will be painful indeed on an (irrational?) aesthetic level to let this sleek little featherweight silver machine leave my hands. It's really a gem, but suddenly "vintage"/discontinued, poor thing. I guess this is just the price one has to pay...Not to mention the dashed 10% "restocking" fee.

I have a 2ghz white MackBook with 1.2 gigs of ram... It is very very fast and is running all of my pro apps just fine. I will say when i only had 512 in it that I almost took the laptop back, it was that slow on 512. As long as you get 1 to 2 gigs, this puppy is going to be more than enough. I am very satisfied now that I have more ram in it.

If you look at the KB article in question, it pretty much backs up everything said in the comments here:

"Note: The integrated graphics processor in the MacBook does not permit float processing in Motion and will result in degraded performance and other issues in Motion and other Final Cut Studio applications." (emphasis added)

It looks like everything but Motion will run acceptably on the MacBook, but Motion's incompatibility means that the whole suite is "incompatible".

I'm with you on those points Tess(14)!

Thank goodness somebody's paying attention to this issue of running Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio on the Macbooks, the Macbook Pros, and the 12-inch Powerbook.

Eagerly awaiting more verdicts re: these three models!

Having scoured the Web for hours/days, I've concluded that I'm not alone in wanting two perhaps (??) incompatible things:(1) lightweight/true portability (without this, one eventually starts leaving ponderous, overheating laptops at home) and (2) at least adequate video editing capacity while on the road.

I'm sure Final Cut Express will run fine on the MacBooks

why bother with FCP

I can totally - 100% understand Motion not working up to scratch. However, FCP5 isn’t actually using the GPU a whole lot - Its CPU intensive, and the MacBook is just as capable there.

If you have an FCS licence and intend using it for the FCP5 functionality, then you will have few problems on a MacBook.