MAC Newby! Need advice!

[itskindaliketha]

Ok, here goes. I work at my church as a video editor. I have been editing on a PC for 5 years now and we have just made the switch to MAC. We just purchased the Mac Pro G5 and Final Cut Studio 2. ~ A big difference from Ulead! lol.
My question is, at our church we finalize all sermons on to DVD's at the end of every service. Then my job is to take those DVD's and edit the sermons on the computer and produce a half hour tv show. Its been going great!...that is until I got the MAC! I hear that we can use Handbrake to convert to a Final Cut format...but is there someone who can help me find an easier way to do this whole process?...and still stay within a small budget. Becasue I know DV tapes get pretty expensive. ~ What about loading all sermons into an external?

[Qion]

What are you used to doing with the PC? I'm probably unclear on your workflow, but it sounds like the most practical solution would be to go directly from the cameras via FireWire or USB. If you cannot do that, using HandBrake, ffmpegx, or the like is fairly straightforward.

Also... are you using a Mac Pro, or a PowerMac G5? They are two different machines. The Mac Pro has workstation-class Xeon processors.

[itskindaliketha]

I use a Mac Pro...on a PC I am used to hooking up my DVD player with adapters to my PC and capturing that way.

I am currently exploring the possibilities of capturing real time into a PC program from the church video booth into a external and converting. Then loading raw video in MAC using the external. What do you think?

[Qion]

That solution sounds viable to me. You could also buy a convertor box for the Mac Pro and capture video in the same you did with the PC. A decent 1TB external would cost about the same.

[itskindaliketha]

Thank you for your help. I appreciate it. I am probably going to try to go with the external route. thats if I can get the funds to secure it! lol. You know how it is...trying to get approved funds for something your bosses dont understand when it comes to this stuff is difficult! Thanks again

[Qion]

No problem. And of course I know how it is, it's virtually part of my job description to fight the managers.

[Satcomer]

I remembered seeing this at during the last Macworld and you might be interested, Renewed Vision.

Also as anew Mac user maybe a good books like Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition and Final Cut Pro 6 For Digital Video Editors Only.

[MACBOY29]

Originally Posted by itskindaliketha

Ok, here goes. I work at my church as a video editor. I have been editing on a PC for 5 years now and we have just made the switch to MAC. We just purchased the Mac Pro G5 and Final Cut Studio 2. ~ A big difference from Ulead! lol.
My question is, at our church we finalize all sermons on to DVD's at the end of every service. Then my job is to take those DVD's and edit the sermons on the computer and produce a half hour tv show. Its been going great!...that is until I got the MAC! I hear that we can use Handbrake to convert to a Final Cut format...but is there someone who can help me find an easier way to do this whole process?...and still stay within a small budget. Becasue I know DV tapes get pretty expensive. ~ What about loading all sermons into an external?

i can certinly help you with that if you record using an external camera make sure it is a firewire cam corder plug it to the back of the g5 which sould have a firewire port open finalcut 2 and import directly from the camcorder into final cut you should chek out the youtube site and let my buddy eric meek show you a few things on fcp or you could use imovie 06 which i can show you how to do that where abouts do you live i live in northwest of toronto ontario canada of you ;ive near there i could give you my phone number and i could guide you through it step by step otherwise emeek77 would be a benfit to you