[image title="macbook3" size="medium" id="647" align="right" linkto="http://www.fxphd.com/632/thoughts-from-a-single-digiter/macbook3″ ]Yesterday’s announcement of new MacBook Pros from Apple was not-so-warmly received by the post production community. The general specs were improved with more RAM, larger hard drives, and better quality displays. However, one big change in the 15″ flavor was the removal of the Express Card/34 slot, replacing it with an SD card slot. Phil Schiller mentioned that the reason for its removal was that the number of users who took advantage of the slot was in the single digits.
As one of those single digit users, I was looking to upgrade with the refresh of the MacBook Pro line. I won’t be now. I certainly understand their decision to cut costs by getting rid of something that wasn’t used by a vast number of their customers. But as one of their pro users, I’m on a 12 to 16 month upgrade cycle on hardware, so I would hazard a guess that I upgrade more often than many users. Isn’t that worth something?
In fairness, they did leave the slot on the 17″ MacBook Pro. On top of that, in the past Apple has certainly added back ports based upon feeback from users (hello, FW800). But for me personally, the lack of an Express Card/34 slot is a deal killer because I need it to do “pro” production in the field. Why is this and why am I ok to wait? Click through for more…
First off — what possible use would I have for the Express slot? A lot.
P2 Card Reading. We use the HVX200 for most of our production at fxguidetv and fxphd. Initially we used the Firestore, but for Chicago-based and remote production we’ve switched over to using higher capacity P2 cards and the Duel Adapter to load footage onto the MacBook Pro. Even though the files on the Firestore were native DVCPROHD QuickTime files, the time to Log and Transfer from the P2 card pretty much equals transferring over Firewire. Show floor coverage is so much easier using the internal P2 cards on the Firestore — and no worry about the connector dropping out and such. While it’s admittedly a bit buggy, using P2 cards is dramatically better for us at trade shows and while I’m traveling doing interviews as a one man crew.
eSATA Adapter. This is a huge one as well, because file transfer speeds are so much better in real-world situations than FireWire 800. We’ve been buying external hybrid disks now (RAID and non-RAID) with FW and eSATA connections. It really makes a difference.
CF and SD Card Reading. My MacBook Pro already has a card reader…one that is far more flexible than the SD-only version in the new
i agree it’s strange and rather sad decision to cut expresscard. even if i didn’t use it yet, still i understand it’s value for pro users.
now looking to the future i’d suggest apple to rethink its optical drive means. would be interesting to see stats what’s the percentage of constant superdrive users. ok that wouldn’t be in single digits but i guess more pro’s would better asked to put away superdrive than expresscard.
we can only hope apple is actually going this direction – support.apple.com/kb/HT3553 says one could use SD card even to boot os. could this be a first step to phase out optical disk? we’d get lots of empty space with interesting possibilities to fill – external sata interface, maybe few more usbs, etc.
err… just remembered – dear apple, please, please – bring back MATTE screens for heaven sake!! i agree to lose expresscard, superdrive, isight camera, ok- eject key and even trackpad but damn, take away that glare too!!!
I was shocked to read the details on the 15″ upgrade and the removal of express card. I understand NOT having it on the 13″ (I never really felt a need for PCMCIA on my 12″ PowerBook), but even though Apple has centralized the “family” of MacBook Pro systems, it’s less Pro now than it was two days ago. I agree that (hopefully) the ProApps folks will be able to smack the Portable Hardware guys on the head – if your “single digits” spend 10x more on associated hardware and software than the other 90%, they are still a significant portion of your ecosystem.
Here’s hoping Apple figures it out…
I have the same early’08 15″ mbp and I’m a heavy eSata user… I hope Apple reconsiders this decision. I’ve often considered how a MBP with an mxo2 (or one of the new aja io express) AND eSata would be a killer rig for location and studio work. But one would need expresscard AND integrated eSata ports or even, gasp, TWO expresscard slots!! THAT would be something with no competition for the video/DIT crowd, Apple.
Just take a look at how far the people are willing to go to get something like this:
http://panocamera.com/blog/?p=4
Hi there,
The missing slot is a slap in the face, as I use it for the Sony EX1 cards a lot. SD cards are easy to read with a $30 ’34′ adapter, without changing the shape of the 15″. So, I do not get the idea why this will be an clever idea at all.
I feel not pulled to upgrade…not nice Mr. Shiller.
Best
Sassi
Yeah, I have an early ’08 17″ Macbook Pro, HD, matte screen, normal size trackpad,,, 4GB. Works for me just fine. I may pick up a discounted Air for travel needs. Nope, don’t need one of the new ones,,, Who knows, these older models could be come the high-demand machine if Apple continues to move away from pro and toward consumer.
The point is, surely, that Apple already have non-pro models of their MacBooks. Why are they making the pro versions less pro?
I feel that apple is focusing less on the professional market. And quite honestly, if you want choice and freedom maybe the apple ecosystem is not the right thing to buy into. It is just sad for those people who already did huge investments there.
-k
A sigh of relief from the PC side.
I have an HP DV7 1243cl 17″ laptop from Costco for $699. It came with an HDMI out and an eSata input. AMD Turion X2 64, and 4gb ram. Because the Red and other HD cams are getting so popular, production no longer wants to pay video assist to provide down conversion in analog. I capture video for pics to put in my notes as a script supervisor and occasionally do some quick edits on the fly. We have to multi-task here in Austin.
The Miranda products have been popular for HD capture: http://www.miranda.com/families_sections.php?l=1 along with the variations of firewire. Another company is Blackmagic: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/
Here in Austin, much of a products popularity starts with the folks over at troublemaker studios fiddling with new things. However, they’re Mac men. But I’m one of the non-conformists since I built all my own editing computers. You can’t get a Mac fixed at 3:00 am. You can build an incredible desktop for the fraction of the cost of a Mac.
What I’m saying is that eSata may be your answer and if you have it built in on a laptop, there is no doubt that the card (input device) you need is being produced as we speak.
Will ya’ll ever consider a PC laptop? I doubt it, but it is something to think about. All of you FX people have to have brains that are better than the average bear, so I have no doubt that you could fix/correct any problem that comes to life on a PC.
You have to admit, the Mac is the “point and shoot” in the computer world. You know those are HP hard drives up on mars in the land rover. There is something to consider about having a PC laptop; Cheaper, Faster, Better… HP is a Texas company and NASA utilizes their products heavily. NASA headquarters are in Houston, Texas. Dreamworks uses HP work stations. Oh, and AMD has one of their main headquarters in Austin. What can I say, we’re PC country.
Oh PC v Mac…
Good luck either way. I just had to add my two cents in about the PC.
Sincerely,
Annie
Oh, I do have to admit… I have an iPhone
Hey Annie — thanks for your comments and perspective, which are totally valid. As far as OSX hardware, I have an a MacBook Pro I bought a year ago and use that for my eSATA work and such. It has all the apps I need as well as the hardware to go with it. My disappointment is the lack of the slot in the new systems.
I’m a tool for job kinda guy and you won’t hear me knocking PCs for their usefulness — I get so tired of the fanboy attitude. We have multiple PC and Linux systems at the fxphd/fxguide/hootennay loft for work-related projects. There’s a ton of software that runs only on a PC and I’m perfectly willing and happy to run with those systems.
From my perspective, I simply like OSX, the hardware, and the software available on Apple’s platform better than the PC. Our web servers are all Linux based, so I’m at home in the OSX Terminal. I’m happy with AE, Final Cut Pro, etc as my main creative tools and they’re available on OSX. As a designer, I like the industrial design of the Apple products much better….and that is is something that goes into my decisions. The bottom line is that in the end, I want to be happy with what I’m using on a daily basis, so that’s why for my personal/work notebook I went with an OSX.
Thanks for such a nice response.
It’s interesting if not complicated how various productions capture HD. The Red is gaining speed and all the camera AC’s (for a lack of a better word over tech) are capturing to the Mac Book Pro. However, there is still the issue of feeding the monitors, video assist, and alas the VFX guy when on set. The red offers so many outputs, including HDMI which is very cool, but the nature of a set requires expedience. Hence one wire. Wireless if possible, but I don’t think we’re there yet. Unless…
Of late in addition to the CF card (P2 on the Panasonic) the Camera AC is also capturing live video as we go to Hard Drives as “backup.” Eventually the CF or P2 card is downloaded as well to a hard drive.
In the cases I’ve experienced, the VFX guy (yet to see a woman) captured off the “one wire” with the rest of us.
In the past, I’ve used my laptop as a monitor and I capture live pictures of what I call “action points” for my notes. Previously production would have video assist down convert the HD signal to analog for the monitors, and me. Not any more, and I have to be able to accept an SDI signal into my laptop. So I’m searching for a input device with the previously mentioned laptop.
What is fascinating though is that there is no one standard right now. Even what I do as a script supervisor has changed. I provide all notes in a PDF with a series of photos set up like an action comic for every setup. I can even add video clips to the PDF. Because of that I don’t have to line a script. But with everyone utilizing VFX in their movies or commercials, I’m also able to capture a picture of green screen, non green screen, etc., and provide them in the notes. A form of compiled logging if you will.
I think the post pipeline and the production pipeline are merging. Everyone is sharing the live feed. So how it comes out of the camera and how it is captured to all the devices, including the monitor, is paramount to the master copy.
With all of this said. Do you suppose – as far as production is concerned – that “live capture” may be heading to a wireless encrypted video stream, and that all these capture devices may be a mute point?
That would be so cool, and maybe Mac Book Pro is already on to something that they haven’t told us about.
Thanks for listening. Oh, and Since I joined FXPH as a student, I can’t stop talking about it and I’m letting everyone know about it!!!
Sincerely,
Annie