Retro-Universal: Advice on computer setup (Mac user)

[woods01]

Hey Filmshooters,

Just picked up my Retro-Universal today! I'm wondering what kind of computer setups people are using with it? My main computer is a 2.6 Gz MacBook Pro with a solid state hard drive. I could set this up with a dual boot to use the PC capture software. But I am considering getting an inexpensive PC laptop to use for capture (I do have some other personal household uses to use with a PC). But if a dual boot works then obviously that would save me some money.

I'm not doing this as a business, I've got thousands of feet of my wife's family movies from the 60s to digitize, plus a heap of my own films to bring into the HD era. So I'm looking for a reliable setup.

Thx.

John

[MovieStuff]

Hi, John!

I don't know anything about Macs but my advice would be the same even if you were going to edit on a really nice PC. Remember, using the Universal is a two part process. You scan all your film and then you set the software up to export overnight in the desired format, such as HD or SD, .MOV files or numbered image sequences, etc. So, whether you are running a business or not, it is always best to avoid bottle necking to be the most time efficient. If you capture and process on the same Mac or PC that you are editing on, then you can't be editing on anything while the Universal is transferring film. Having a cheap PC laptop or desktop to capture and process on would allow you to start editing and color correcting your files on your MAC while other films are still being transferred on the PC. You would capture to the PC, plug in a cheap external USB hard drive, then export to that drive overnight. The next morning, you could just unplug that USB drive and take it over to your Mac for editing. Granted, transferring to the same Mac or PC that you are editing on will initially save you money on hardware, but your loss of productivity due to bottle necking has an intrinsic value over the span of your project, as well.

My two cents...

Roger Evans
owner, MovieStuff, LLC

[woods01]

Hm, I hadn't actually considered how the data workflow would operate. Another consideration beyond just the gigahertz, thanks Roger.

[milesandjules]

Hi guys...yes try the mac

Our universal just arrived last week and we love it. Its another very epic looking machine Roger!

As a mac users we were pleasantly surprised that it works perfectly fine in boot camp in win 7 64bit.

I'm using a old iMac 3.4ghz iMac12,2 and it runs fine, even doing uncompressed capture out to a 2tb usb 2 hard drive.(this iMac doesn't have usb3 so can't test it)

For playback you need solid state or raid. ...for editing I'm using a data tale 4bay thunderbolt raid and it plays back perfect (in mac os haven't got any editing programmes in bootcamp to try). I haven't tried a single ssd over usb2 but I'm pretty sure it won't be fast enough for playback...a usb 3 or thunderbolt single ssd would probably work but haven't tested it yet.

We didn't want to have to buy another pc because we love the mac displays and also it would just add more clutter to our shed/studio even more. But a second machine would be better for the render bottle neck like roger says...but that can be a mac .

So what you can do is test it out on bootcamp and see before buying a pc ...you will need to buy a winnows copy though.

Have fun. Can't wait to do some more transfers....haven't even tried the 16mm gate yet.