Looking for free video editor for Mac to edit & create videos? Supports up to 4K UHD resolution and no watermarks on footage, even supports external hard drives for faster video editing. Openshot is another award-winning open-source video editing software for Mac, as well as for Linux. Sep 11, 2018 - There are an insane amount of options when it comes to external hard drives for you Mac, and it can be a pain to look through all of them, but.
For serious movie making, you're going to need to step it up a notch. Especially with 4K, 6k and even 8k video, you need a computer that can handle and process all that gobs of information.
You don't want your computer crashing every few minutes or sitting there locked in the spinning wheel of death every time you make an edit, do you? If you just need to edit a simple 1-minute home movie, you can do that on your iPad. But if you plan to be sitting at your computer for 3-months to a year editing your 60-90 minute feature documentary with multiple layers of video, audio and graphics, you've got some thinking to do to figure out exactly what will work best for your particular needs.
One way to choose your video editing computer is to first decide what video editing software you prefer. Obviously, if you want to edit with Final Cut Pro X, then you'll want to choose a Mac. Or if you've got your heart set on Sony Vegas Pro, go toward a PC.
Mac computers are a standard in the video production world, so you can't go wrong with a Mac. But choosing the right one can be a bit tricky depending on your budget and the level of video editing performance you need. Apple provides a variety of desktop computers including the Mac mini, iMac, iMac Pro and Mac Pro. The Mac Pro hasn't ben updated in a while, so our top pick for max performance is the iMac Pro. With the iMac Pro you get a minimum of 32GB of RAM memory and can go up to an astonishing 128GB in the higher end model.
You get state of the art graphics cards starting with the default Radeon Pro Vega 56 (8GB HBM2 memory). With a price tag starting at $4,499, it’s not cheap for budget-conscience documentary filmmakers, but if you’re looking for high speed performance video editing, this is it. The 27' iMac 5K Retina Display is another great choice for video editing at a bit more affordable price point. Depending on your budget, the base model starts with 8GB of memory, 1TB hard drive, 3.8GHz quad core i5 processor, a Radeon Pro 8GB video graphics card and a stunning 5k display. As budget allows, add additional hard drive space and RAM and bump up to the i7 for max performance. The biggest difference between getting an iMac and the iMac Pro are the rendering times, so if you’re being paid by the hour or are on a tight deadline, iMac Pro is the way to go. Otherwise, the iMac is our overall best choice in Mac for professional video editing.
If you're an amateur video editor on a super tight budget, take a look at the Mac Mini. Make sure to get the model with 2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 CPU, 1TB hard drive and 8GB RAM. (The entry-level model and it's puny 1.4 GHz processor will make video editing painfully slow) Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer or Adobe Premiere Pro (part of Adobe Creative Cloud) are all excellent video editing software options to use with a Mac. Hewlett-Packard ENVY Desktop Computer. If you prefer editing on a Windows-based computer, the Hewlett-Packard ENVY Desktop Computer is a terrific choice.
It’s great for anyone that wants their equipment ready, right out of the box, advertised as “.a stylish desktop with included photo and video editing software, and an expandable solid-state drive.” This machine is a powerhouse with stability and speed for some of the most complex projects. A monitor will have to be purchased to go along with this one but luckily it isn’t so outrageously priced. In addition, enjoy hefty performance with the 7th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700, Quad-Core processor which hits speeds of up to 3.60GHz. One of the best parts about this option is that you can choose between 8GB or 16GB of RAM, whatever your budget will allow. Of course, it’s always possible to upgrade later!
Laptop Computer for Video Editing In general, laptops are not the best choice as a long-term video editing solution. You tend to pay more for less with laptops and the smaller screen size is not ideal for the detail work involved in video editing. But maybe you travel and need a quick video editing solution on the go.
If so, here are some top choices. Apple MacBook Pro. On the PC side, try the ASUS Zenbook. For the price, this laptop comes well-equipped with the power needed to complete video editing projects on the go. While it’s not a long-term editing solution for someone hoping for long term work in this field, it’s a great machine for a beginner or intermediate filmmaker.
One amazon reviewer says, “This is a very well made and quality laptop for the price.” The downsides seem to consist of the small screen, which doesn’t necessarily benefit from the 4k resolution capabilities. Luckily, this fix can be as easy as plugging it into a monitor, so you get the best of both worlds: editing from a large, external screen at home for more detailed work or having the freedom to work from anywhere. Computer Buying Cheat Sheet Here are your basic specs to look for when buying a computer for video editing:. Memory: 8-32 GB RAM or as much as you can afford. Processor: Multi-core Intel i5/i7 models (i7 is best).
Storage: At least 256 GB hard drive, 7200 RPM. Buy as much as you can afford, you can always add external hard drives. Graphics card: Radeon Pro graphics or NVIDIA Geforce GT or greater (bare minimum 1GB). Operating System: Windows 7 (64 bit edition), Mac OS X, Linux (Your OS will likely determine the editing software you go with). Nice size screen – 19-21 inch minimum. Firewire or Thunderbolt Port built in or as an external dock.
As a double major in Film Production and TV/Radio, I constantly witness peers questioning the concept of video editing off of external hard drives. Most post-production courses that I’ve taken don’t focus all that much time on this aspect of the digital filmmaking process, which I hope to remedy with this blog post. Since I’m a double-certified computer technician and an aspiring video professional who already records and edits corporate video content and narrative films through external drives, I believe that I’m a very useful first-hand source for all of the basics. Friends, colleagues and co-workers who’ve ever questioned the subject: this is for you.
If you don’t care about the specifics and just want to know which drive I recommend for PC and Mac platforms: the is the absolute best portable external video editing hard drive that money can buy. If you don’t care about specifics AND want to spend as little money as possible, go for the for Mac or the for the PC.I highly recommend you check the connections on your computer before purchasing to ensure that your drive will actually connect! Take the time to read below if you have no idea what I mean. THE 3 ASPECTS THAT MATTER: 1) Drive Speeds and Types: There are two main types of external hard drives that people use today: Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and Solid State Drives (SSDs). Simply put, HDDs are made up of platters (silverish circular discs) that store information on them.
In order to read from or write to an HDD, an arm inside the drive has to move back and forth and make contact with different parts of the spinning disc. Because they have these moving parts, HDDs are more prone to break and slower when compared to SSD counterparts. Still talking about HDDs, these types of drives come in two speeds: 5400RPM (rotations per minute) and 7200RPM. Typically 5400RPM is for reading and writing data–this is the kind of drive that someone who just wants to back up files would get. When you start getting into video editing, the platters need to be spinning as fast as the possibly can to access different parts of the HD video, audio, pictures and other medial files you’ll no doubt be editing with. The last thing to know about HDDs is that they’re inexpensive. Since most only last a few years before experiencing technical issues, people buy these with the knowledge that they’re only temporary.
Plus new drives come out all the time. So to summarize: HDDs have moving parts, break easier than other drive types, can spin at 5400 or 7200RPM, and are cheap. HDD on the left, SSD on the right. Even a quick glance and you’ll see the difference. SSDs are fairly new in the world of computing.
These drive types have no moving parts–they instead access memory from NAND Flash Memory, which is what smartphones use. Without going into technical details, the main things to know about these drives is that they’re much faster since there are no moving parts and no discs to be spun and accessed, and they’re physically smaller than HDDs. The only two cons to SSDs are that they’re only available in smaller sizes (512GB seems to be the limit nowadays) and they’re very expensive. Whereas you would generally spend $0.15 per GB in HDDs, you spend $0.90 per GB in SSDs. 2) Connections and Ports: There are a lot of different connections out there nowadays, but there are two main ones that almost all video editors use: Firewire 800 and USB 3.0.
Both of these connections transfer enough data per second to be used as efficient external editing drives. In short, USB 2.0 is what everyone commonly refers to as “USB” (which stands for Universal Serial Bus, just for your information).
![Hard drive for video editing for mac pro windows 10 Hard drive for video editing for mac pro windows 10](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125556408/150208526.jpg)
This connection type allows for data transfer rates up to 480 megabits per second (not to be confuse with megaBYTES). Most flash drives are USB 2.0, because this connection is not only perfect for general file transfer, but it’s the most common connection type around. Firewire 800 is the next level up, allow for transfer speeds of 800mbps (hence the name). A Firewire 400 connection exists that transfer at 400mbps, but it’s rarely used anymore. USB 3.0 was introduced in 2008 as the new ultra fast alternative to file transferring, clocking speeds of 5 gigabits per second, or 10 times faster than USB 2.0. That fact alone should help you understand why USB 3.0 is great for video editing: it’s really, really fast–faster than most would ever need.
There’s another port called Thunderbolt made by Intel for Macs, but it’s really not an interface you should consider for purchase. Thunderbolt does boast a 10gbps transfer rate, but you’ll never need that much speed, guaranteed.
It’s also used exclusively on Mac in terms of coming stock with the computer (PC users add on Thunderbolt ports after manufacturer purchase). Plus it’s expensive and limits you to connecting it to Mac products made after 2011 (which came with this port), or any high end video editing computers you may have access to. Unless the drive you’re looking at has other connection types, I wouldn’t recommend Thunderbolt. A quick reference picture showing how long it takes to copy one HD video file to an external drive over four different connections. The less time it takes, the faster it is, and the more useful it is for video editing. Now although a drive may have a Firewire 800 or USB 3.0 connection, that doesn’t mean that your computer will be able to connect. You need to look at your computer and make sure that you have a port to plug the device into.
Firewire 800 ports look like rectangles and USB 3.0 ports are usually coated blue and have a small “SS” mark next to them, standing for SuperSpeed. The graphic below shows you what to look for. Firewire 800 ports are square in shape and have a three-pronged mark next to them. USB 2.0 ports don’t say “SS” and are generally black, and Thunderbolt ports appropriately enough have thunderbolts next to them.
3) Formatting and Partitioning: Lastly, after you purchase a drive, you need to format it and/or partition it. This is the most complicated aspect of external drives, and also the most complex to explain. To keep it simple: External hard drives generally come in two main file formats (meaning the way the drive is formatted–this formatting is intangible coding and affects the way computers recognize the drive when plugged in): NTFS for Windows and Mac OS Extended for Mac. NTFS can be read by both PCs and Macs, but Macs are not able to write any files to it.
Mac OS Extended can only be read by Macs. Why is each format useful/important: because if you know you’re going to be working solely on a PC or Mac, you want the format to reflect that. It’s important for an external drive’s format to match that of the internal drive’s format on any given computer, PC or Mac, if you want it to function properly. Regardless, there are ways for PCs to read Mac-formatted drives and vice versa. Programs like NTFS-3G and HFS Explorer can be purchased and downloaded on PCs and Macs, respectively, to access files from drives with counterpart formats. An alternative to paying for programs like this and having an external drive that can be read from and written to cross platform is drive partitioning.
In its most basic definition, partition involves taking two pieces of a drive and formatting them differently (for example, if you have a 500GB HDD, 250GB would be made to work with Windows and the other half with Mac). The main pro is that you now technically have two hard drives, however the big con is that portioning a drive generally slows its overall performance (and you’d never want to copy files from one drive’s partition to its other partition–think about it and you’d realize this means the arms accessing two parts of a HDD platter at the same time). Another more common way to have a drive that can be read by and written to Macs AND PCs is to use the FAT 32 Format System.
This is what I format a majority of my drives in because of the fact that it can be read across PCs and Macs without any major short-term performance issues. Just like everything else, it has a big downside: file sizes can only be 4GB large.
This can sometimes be tricky depending on what kind of files your camera records (if you’re editing with HD video files), but there are ways around it. If I did a poor job explaining this third section or you still don’t fully understand formatting, have a look at this. They summarized things pretty well. In Conclusion You have to ask yourself a lot of questions before purchasing a drive.
Are you a Mac or PC person, or do you work across both platforms? Do you want to spend extra money for a faster SSD, or save money on a cheaper but larger HDD?
Does your computer support any connection type fast than USB 2.0, or do you need to edit on a different computer? And on that different computer (whether it be at school, the library, etc.), is there USB 3.0 or Firewire 800? All of these things should lead you to a clear choice about which drive is best for you. As I said before, the LaCie 500GB External USB 3.0 and Firewire 800 is my personal favorite and the drive I most recommend. It’s highly durable, extremely fast, easy to format and maintain, and relatively inexpensive.
This post is dedicated to my Single Camera Production Spring 2014 class and Professor Patkanian. Hello everyone! Hope this helped.
Thank you for the feedback, Robert! To answer your question, yes, performance is pretty much the answer. In layman’s terms: if you’re editing video (especially HD video), it will put much less strain on the computer to have the editing software on one hard drive (typically on the primary one with the operating system) and the video being edited on a separate drive. If the software and video was on the same drive, they would both need to be accessed at the same time, making the hard drive and computer’s processor work much harder.
It’s not necessary to use two drives, but it’s definitely optimal. Hope this helps! I am buying a MacBook Pro, and I’m choosing between a cheaper 13” with 250gb and the pricier one with 500gb. I think I need at least 500 gigs for storing photos and films and games that will amass during the years I’ll have the computer. So, would it be clever to buy the cheaper one, but then buy the LaCie HDD to make up for the cheapest’s lack of space?
I would save around $200 by doing so AND getting a total of 750gb, but I’m worried that it might be a roundabout way of doing things. What would you recommend/do? (I have recently started making films as a hobby, and noticed it kind of eats away the gigabytes on my old-ish 2009 iMac hah. Anyhoo, great blog post!). Hello there Nils, First off, thanks for the nice comment and positive feedback! I’m glad the blog post helped you out. =) Second, I definitely think that the answer to your question really depends on your workflow and level of enthusiasm for producing video/photo content.
If I were you, I would definitely save the money and choose the smaller MacBook Pro HDD with an external LaCie. Doing so saves you money (as you said, especially if you buy from LaCie’s “Brown Box” discount section) and gives you greater control over HDD usage. Plus, like I state in my post, doing HD video editing off two drives is faster and less stressful for the computer. However if filmmaking is more of a hobby and less of a job or deep passion, it may be better off to go with the larger MacBook HDD (simply because you won’t have to worry about maintaining an extra HDD or toting it around when traveling). What works for you is really what matters, especially when dropping the big bucks on Apple products, haha. If you want to have more control, power, performance, and are willing to take on the extra piece of hardware, I say go for it! If not, you’d be fine with the internal HDD any size you want.
The choice is yours, and hopefully my recommendation helps! Hello Natalie. First off, thanks for reading and commenting! Second, you’re not doing anything wrong. Depending on the quality/resolution of the pictures and videos you’re taking, the overall size of files can build up FAST. If you’re taking HD video and high-res stills frequently, I’m not surprised you hit 1TB total after a long period of time.
The LaCie 500GB HDD I recommend is great for editing editing a few projects at a time, then removing the files you don’t need and moving onto new projects. If you’re looking for a drive with higher storage (because 500GB is small for certain projects, especially a bunch of HD home videos over the years), I’d say look into one of the Seagate External Desktop HDDs. Their sizes range from 1 to 5 TBs, and they’re USB 3.0 which means fast file transferring and editing. Hopefully this info helps you on your search for the right HDD! Daniel, Thanks for posting this article. I am trying to optimize a simple video editing set-up, and after hours of searching, your blog has been the most helpful. But I still have a few questions I am using a MacBook Pro for light video editing.
Basically I have to film a lecture series, maybe adjust volume a bit and chop out lengthy silences, and upload to cloud storage for final editing off site. I have OS X and iMovie on an internal SSD (480GB Crucial M500). The video camera puts AVCHD files on an SD card. In iMovie, I can import/transcribe the AVCHD and choose the destination drive as the external drive. Then after minor editing, export as an MP4 file (H.264 format) – presumably to the same external drive. At this point, would it be better to export to a second external drive? I ask because it would seem we are trying to let one drive do only reading, and one drive only writing.
Alternatively, I could import the raw files right onto the internal SSD, and export the finished work to the one external drive. Any thoughts on how to make the “Export” process as fast as possible, would be greatly appreciated. I am looking for an external storage for my son (a film student) as a present I have narrowed it down to LaCie 250GB SSD mostly because he will be moving the drive around alot back and forth from school,work, home, friends.
He pretty much carries his camera and Mac everywhere he has run out of room on his Mac and asked for external storage before I make the purchase I want to make sure it will meet his needs. Would 250GB be enough room for him to edit his films? How many could he hold on there before he would have to store it else where (how many projects could he be working on at a time before having to complete one and get it on it’s final home DVD or SD to submit to teacher or work or festival) He is currently working with a Sony Handycam HD 1080 (one step below a true professional camera). Hello Laurice, Thanks for the comment! I think you’re on the right track with the drive you’ve mentioned for your son.
How many films he could fit on there and edit at the same time depends on what codec and file type he’s filming at, plus how much footage he generally films per project. Any standard 1080P camera (I used to own a standard definition Handycam and now own a Canon HD camcorder) shouldn’t be recording files that are too large, so it’s safe to say he’ll be able to fit a few projects on there at least. I still standby the Lacie Rugged drive I recommend in my post, but the one you’ve mentioned will provide him with something he can plug and play into his laptop, travel around with and submit files to professors (and burn DVDs). Here’s wishing you and yours Happy Holidays! Hello Leahy, Thank you for the kind words and comment. It’s my belief (based on years of experience editing HD video on the go) that the Lacie Rugged Triple 500GB is the best bang for the buck, even though it only spins at 5400RPM.
If you’re willing to spend slightly extra for the G-Drive that spins at 7200RPM, it’s also a very solid choice. It ultimately depends on the kind of video you’re editing (standard 1080P HD, Ultra HD, 4K, etc.). Hopefully that helps. Have a great day and a wonderful holiday! Helpful article, much appreciated. I’ve been using EditShare’s Lightworks to learn editing, produce small projects, etc.
I’m not so sure how to now manage all the media on my external HD (Seagate, desk top 3tb). I do not know about other NLEs, but I experience a lot of “media off-line” if I try to move files. If I delete one log in a project, then that media shared in any other project is deleted.
Now I wonder once an external HD becomes full and, say, I want to transfer a portion of projects to a different drive, how would I keep everything linked? In other words, once a HD is full, does the editor make sure all the edit media stays on that HD and never to be moved or shared? And what you think about Exfat? ( sorry my english) I have a information very different about Lacie: Some months ago I went at Adorama in Manhattan, and the current seller Daniel recommended me G-drive as the best option – according the everyday experience of him, its more common problems with Lacie, despite the fame of this brand – G-drive is cheapest, have ssd and 7200rpm options, I choice 1 TB 7200rpm to test, and it has been working good and without problems.
I used Exfat format, that works good in my mac, but windows sometimes have problems to read it. I edit a video project, and all clips was in this external HD, works fast and good ( I have core i7, 16 ram, small ssd for the aps). Because the instability of the windows with the exfat, I am in doubt now on what format to choose to format a 3TB HD for backup. ( I need urgently do backup of my G-drive in this HD ). I am thinking choice the native mac Format ( case sensitive journaled or not?) for booth, the fastest G-drive for editions, and the slow 3TB to backup, in order to avoid problems, should be the better decision?
If eventually be necessary work at my laptop PC, I will try read the files with this HFSExplorer ( I never used it). Do you have some experience with Exfat?
Because The this limitation of FAT, dont work with files over 4 GB, it doesn’t work for me. I graduated CUNY Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College with a dual B.A. In Film Production and TV/Radio in Spring 2015. This was my blog during college.
I had so much fun posting and appreciated every comment received. I have since stopped using this site and now post media in other places. You can follow me on YouTube at 'I Kid You Not', on Instagram @dankidsyounot or via my website, www.passingplanes.com. Thanks for reading! BEST PERSONAL BLOG JUDGES' CHOICE AWARDEE. More About Me.
Contact. contact-formcontact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/contact-field label='Message' type='textarea' required='1'//contact-form. College Life. Hilarity made by college students for college students.
The blog for my Arts in NYC Macaulay seminar. The blog for my Peopling of NYC Macaulay seminar. The blog for my group project created for our Science of NYC seminar.
The blog for my Future of NYC Macaulay seminar. The place to go to see all the UtopiaOfDaniel videos.
Cool Beans, Man. A great site with all sorts of freeware and demo programs for your Mac. You ever hear those random catch phrases and one-liners that your friends say they found online?
This is where they found them. My main YouTube channel for funny videos and short films.
My Favorite Sites. My number one favorite web series. The AVGN reviews old video games in a high-larious way.
(Parental guidance is advised). One of my favorite web series. The Critic posts reviews of old movies and TV shows every Tuesday night. (Parental guidance is advised). A weird video series about blending things in an official BlendTec blender.
This is a really funny web series for fans of children’s trading cards and anime alike.