4K Video Editing on a 12" MacBook? #Helpful Post

and we need as much power as we can get

if we're going to have any hope of

editing 4k so this is Apple's 12-inch

MacBook on paper it is terribly under

power with a 1.1 gigahertz core

processor notice great graphics so if I

told you it could not only edit but also

export 4k video faster and more

efficiently than a PC with more power

you probably think I was crazy but keep

watching recently Linus tech tips drop

the video posing the question can you

edit 4k video on an ultra portable

laptop my immediate thought was yeah of

course you can but the more I watch the

more I realize how much simpler of a

process it was doing so with Final Cut

Pro 10 they went with an Asus Zenbook

ux302 3 you configured with an i7 2.5

gigahertz processor 12 gigs of RAM and

dedicated Nvidia GT 940m graphics now

not only should this obliterate the

12-inch MacBook it's actually a 13-inch

laptop and falls closer in line with the

13-inch MacBook Pro but to keep things

interesting we're going to stick with

the underpowered MacBook to begin with

Linus and company try dropping footage

straight from their cameras in the

premiere pro only to discover less than

stellar results CPU usage was pegged at

a hundred percent right away to the

point where we were measuring

performance in seconds per frame not

frames per second so in order to even

have a snowball's chance in hell with

that they had to take the original

footage transcoded on a desktop bring it

back to the laptop and then turn the

playback resolution down to a quarter of

the original just to get a workable

experience but how did the MacBook fare

with a 12-inch MacBook I was able to

transfer 4k sony fs7 footage directly

onto the laptop and add an entire 4k

video without transcoding scrubbing

across clips in the timeline was

surprisingly smooth and while playback

was definitely a little choppy it was

workable now if you've never used it

Final Cut Pro 10 will actually render

your timeline in the background while

you're doing other tasks so with this

clip here for example I applied a layer

of color correction and as it renders

out it's converting the timeline into

ProRes no desktop needed after it's

rendered you can see how smooth playback

is it's crazy scrubbing is butter and I

can instantly switch between full screen

playback and timeline playback without

missing a beat and keep in mind this is

all done within one machine if I did

follow a workflow similar to Linus I

could transcode all the footage on an

iMac and then edit off an external SSD

with a MacBook but that almost seems

unfair scrubbing and playback would be

instantaneous with no background

rendering

needed and all that is cool and well but

what about exporting with lino setup

after all was said and done his

two-minute 4k h.264 export took around

17 to 20 minutes as far as the 12-inch

MacBook goes I decided to take it up a

notch

not just export a two-minute 4k video

but a near four-minute one 3 minutes and

54 seconds to be exact so while the

MacBook does this thing let's take a

moment to read a few of my favorite

tweets to all those who thought I was

nuts

see you at CES 2017 when it's all done

exporting things you could do while you

wait

build a new PC install premiere re-edit

your video export it uploaded to YouTube

and nap Jon's resolution for 2020

hopefully the video finishes exporting

after you chopped a video on a 12-inch

MacBook did you cook your turkey on it

so jumping back to the export we are

just about done 6 minutes in a second

when it hit 100% in 6 minutes and 12

seconds when I stop the clock now just

to make this just a little more interest

and I wouldn't did the exact same export

but with background rendering off so the

entire timeline had not been rendered

yet so all the color correction and

everything was done through the export

similar to what you would find in

Premiere and even that with the video

twice the length

exported in just under 13 minutes so

even in the worst case scenario Final

Cut Pro 10 with a video twice the length

was still faster than a PC with more

power in Premiere Pro and on top of that

to solidify things if I took this

project and cut it down to 2 minutes

that export took 3 minutes and 20

seconds now to make this even more

interesting Linus and team I present to

you a challenge myself versus your

entire team weapon of choice as far as

computers go so you can pick your crazy

36 core server and let's go head-to-head

with a challenge and creating a video

from start to finish now if you guys

want to see that make sure to smash that

like button so John's with TLD and I

will catch you guys later