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4K Video on a Mac - what are you using?

Joined
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Location
Perth, Western Australia
Website
www.loftyvisions.com.au
Hi folks

I pick up my Inspire 1 at the weekend (coming from a P2V+) and would like to know what monitor Mac users are using to work with 4K?

I have had a look at Apple's website and they have a few approved monitors (for big $$) but I've also read that some TVs will work too.

I have a late 2013 MBP 15inch Retina (16GBRam/1TB SSD) so I don't need to buy a 5K iMac if I can get a decent monitor.

Best newish monitor I could find for the price is this:
https://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=29708

Would love to hear your views.

Thanks
John
 
Try editing some footage with your mac before you get a monitor. Your 2013 machine will probably struggle and change the priorities.
 
i am running late 2014 MBP 16GB/Nvidia/512SSD

FCPX runs fine. at 2k it runs perfect, davinci resolve is a no go on 4k realtime its totally gone and too laggy to use, for a smooth 4k editing you will need to render proxies of all your media witch requires lengthy initial transcoding. but after that your fine.

i do all my editing at 4k but my final versions are always full hd or 2k
 
It's not a hassle BUT needs latest generation gear. Just try and you'll know soon enough. BTW you get the performance hit even if you edit for a 1080 output, the bulk of the job is decoding the source video.
 
You can create "proxies" in FCP so you can work flawlessly with 4K videos in an iMac 21.5" 2012 as mine...
 
I'm using an early 2011 MBP (Didn't realize how old it was until I just checked because it just works!) but I've done a few upgrades, 16GB of RAM, 500GB SSD HD and that's it. I can play 4k files but I can't edit them. I create Proxy files 600 x ??? and edit via Premiere Pro. Replacing the proxy with the full res files once I'm ready to render.
 
the real difference is made by the graphics card, cpu and memory has not changed a lot in the last 4 years.

FCPX and davinci uses graphics card to process realtime. you can always connect an external monitor to your MBP. i have 2 ultra wide LG screens (no 4k but they do 2k very well)
 
the real difference is made by the graphics card, cpu and memory has not changed a lot in the last 4 years.

FCPX and davinci uses graphics card to process realtime. you can always connect an external monitor to your MBP. i have 2 ultra wide LG screens (no 4k but they do 2k very well)
 
Running (playback) and editing are two completely different beasts. You'll find that there aren't many mobile video cards that can handle 4k editing. Things really start to go downhill when you add effects and start to colour grade the video (since you'll most likely be shooting in log).
 
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Thanks Mazz, nice! Well it seems I had nothing to worry about. Here's my rMBP plugged into a 40inch Philips 4k monitor running perfectly. That's a FCPX project from start to finish, a Logic Pro project and two Chrome windows all on one screen. I prefer the max retina setting however for text size.
 

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Hi folks

I pick up my Inspire 1 at the weekend (coming from a P2V+) and would like to know what monitor Mac users are using to work with 4K?

I have had a look at Apple's website and they have a few approved monitors (for big $$) but I've also read that some TVs will work too.

I have a late 2013 MBP 15inch Retina (16GBRam/1TB SSD) so I don't need to buy a 5K iMac if I can get a decent monitor.

Best newish monitor I could find for the price is this:
https://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=29708

Would love to hear your views.

Thanks
John
Hi folks

I pick up my Inspire 1 at the weekend (coming from a P2V+) and would like to know what monitor Mac users are using to work with 4K?

I have had a look at Apple's website and they have a few approved monitors (for big $$) but I've also read that some TVs will work too.

I have a late 2013 MBP 15inch Retina (16GBRam/1TB SSD) so I don't need to buy a 5K iMac if I can get a decent monitor.

Best newish monitor I could find for the price is this:
https://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=29708

Would love to hear your views.

Thanks
John
 
The Inspire records in a nasty, highly compressed codec. Decoding it for playback and editing steals a lot of horsepower from your machine.

I typically transcode to ProRes(LT) before the edit. It adds a step up front, but makes editing, FX, grading, etc. so much smoother.
 
We edit in 4K all the time using FCPX via Black Magic Studio which feeds a 4K LG monitor. The wonderful thing with FCPX is it creates HD Proxies for you to work in on import if required. That way you can scroll around the timeline effortlessly for the bulk of your edit work in proxy mode - then view the 4k filed for preview and export at the click of a mouse button!
 
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