Tag: MacBook

Posted on

Aperture Compatibility Checker

Along with Aperture 2, Apple also releases Aperture Compatibility Checker. The apps will check if your system and graphic cards meet the minimum requirements for Aperture 2. Download it here.

Aperture Compatibility Checker

Aperture Checker

Minimum System Requirements

One of the following Mac computers:

  • Mac Pro
  • MacBook Pro
  • MacBook Air
  • MacBook
  • Mac mini with an Intel Core Solo or Duo processor
  • iMac with a 1.8GHz or faster PowerPC G5 or Intel Core Duo processor
  • Power Mac G5 with a 1.6GHz or faster PowerPC G5 processor
  • 15- or 17-inch PowerBook G4 with a 1.25GHz or faster PowerPC G4 processor

Memory requirements

  • 1GB of RAM
  • 2GB of RAM for Mac Pro

One of the following graphics cards:

  • ATI Radeon X600 Pro, X600 XT, X800 XT Mac Edition, X850 XT, X1600, X1900 XT, 9800 XT, 9800 Pro, 9700 Pro, 9600, 9600 XT, 9600 Pro, 9650, HD 2400 XT, HD 2600 PRO, or HD 2600 XT
  • ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 or 9600
  • ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra, 6600, 6600 LE, 6800 Ultra DDL, 6800 GT DDL, 7300 GT, 7800 GT, 8600M GT, or 8800 GT
  • NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 or FX 5600
  • Intel GMA 950 or GMA X3100

Minimum operating system requirements

  • Mac OS X v10.4.11 Tiger
  • Mac OS X v10.5.2 Leopard

DVD drive for installation

5GB of hard drive space for the application and sample projects

Posted on

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.5.2 and Then Some

Apple releases Mac OS X 10.5.2 (build 93C1) today, one day early as expected. The combo Update is update is weighing in at 343MB for Mac OS X and 382MB for Mac OS X Server.

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Build 9C31

Side Note: If all the info from the imaginary source *wink-wink* are correct, we shall see new MacBook Pro release on Tuesday February 12th, 2008. My MacBook Pro Core Duo is not as powerful to handle AVCHD movies.

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Combo Update – 343MB – Release Note
This update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.

Mac OS X Server 10.5.2 Combo Update – 382MB – Release Note
This update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Server Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your server.

Apple also releases:

Security Update 2008-001 (PPC) – 16.7MB | (Universal) – 28.8MB
Security Update 2008-001 is recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X. Security Update 2007-009 has been incorporated into this security update.

Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 – 48.9MB
Leopard Graphics Update is recommended for all users and improves the stability and compatibility of your Mac.

WebObjects Update 5.4.1 for Mac OS X 10.5 – 153MB
WebObjects 5.4.1 is an update release for the version of WebObjects included in the Mac OS X Leopard tools.

Posted on

Meatloaf T. Cat and Panasonic HDC-SD5 AVCHD Camcorder

I would like to share a short video clip of Meatloaf T. Cat, taken using Panasonic HDC-SD5 AVCHD Camcorder.

One minute and a half in the life of Meatloaf T. CatVideo info:

  • H.264 at 960×540 resolution.
  • 3890.41 kbps data rate.
  • 29.97 frame-rate.
  • 1 minute and 30 seconds.
  • 41.9MB file size.

Other info:

Check out other AVCHD Camcorder video clips here:
http://37prime.com/blog/?s=avchd

AVCHD Camcorders I have used:

Posted on

Sony HDR-CX7 AVCHD Video Sample

Sony HDR-CX7

Sony HDR-CX7 was one of three solid state AVCHD Camcorders I considered buying back in 2007. The other two are Sanyo Xacti HD1000 and Panasonic HDC-SD5. After some testing and deliberations, I bought Panasonic SDC-HD5. In addition to that, my friend bought Canon HG10.

I tested Circuit City‘s store display unit sometimes in October 2007. I didn’t even bother setting up the time and date of the camera.

Download the sample here (22.4MB).

Sony HDR-CX7 AVCHD Video Sample

  • H.264 format 960×540 Resolution
  • 3914.68 kbits/s
  • Imported and edited using iMovie ’08 on my 15-inch 2.0GHz MacBook Pro Core Duo
  • Recommeded application to view the video QuickTime 7, MPlayer or VLC

Accessories for HDR-CX7:

Posted on

AVCHD and Mac OS X

AVCHD

iMovie ‘08 Final Cut Pro Icon

On TWiT 128 (10 minutes and 40 seconds into the show), Patrick Norton asked if AVCHD is natively supported in Final Cut Pro. Alex Lindsay didn’t think so, but Leo Laporte said there is. Leo then pointed out that Final Cut Express and iMovie ’08 support AVCHD.

Now, let’s see where things really are right now for Mac users. Final Cut Pro 6, Final Cut Express 4, and iMovie ’08 do support AVCHD format, but not quite natively. It takes roughly 3 minutes to import a 58-second clip in iMovie ’08 on a 2.0GHz MacBook Pro Core Duo with 2GB RAM and 7200 RPM hard-drive (via USB 2.0). On the same MacBook Pro Final Cut Pro 6 consistently crashes in the middle of importing the same AVCHD video clip. UPDATE: There is an apparent conflict caused by Perian Quicktime Component (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306922). As for Final Cut Express 4, I don’t know because I don’t have it yet.

I installed Sony’s Vegas Movie Studio 8 Platinum Edition on a Windows XP PC that my friend and I put together. It has Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6550, 4GB of RAM, and Intel® Desktop Board DP35DP. Sony Vegas took a short amount of time to import the same AVCHD video clip. As a matter of fact, Sony Vegas recognize the “.mts” file format. This is no surprise because AVCHD was developed jointly by Sony and Panasonic.

The advantage of using a disk-based camcorder is the ability to transfer the video clip faster than tape-based camcorders. Videos from tapes are transferred in real time to the computer, because of the limitation of the tape medium. Unfortunately for Mac users, AVCHD is a little bit inconvenient; because it takes almost forever to import those video files. AVCHD requires a lot of processing power, but if the system/program natively supports AVCHD, it’d be easier to copy the actual streams to another hard drive and import them later.

Maybe the next updates to iMovie and Final Cut will address this issue. Until then, Mac users has to be patient when dealing with AVCHD camcorders.

I own a Panasonic HDC-SD5, and also use my friend’s Canon HG10.

Proudly powered by WordPress