Chromebook for DIT work

Valentin Farkasch · May 5, 2016

First off I have no experience with chromebooks but I'm looking for an affordable option to do onsite data transfer.

Essentially an alternative to a MacBook Air.

Now Red Cine or DaVinci are not gonna run on it but has anybody used it to get files from a card to a drive and if so are there any DIT tools / software for DIT use?

any feedback much appreciated

Adrian Sierkowski · May 7, 2016

Honestly; I'd just go with some flavor of Mac or a well built out PC system; you'll really need to be able to run those programs on set to actually do an DIT based stuff. If you're just copying files, you stilll may need to open them up to make sure they worked....

Landon D. Parks · May 7, 2016

Chromebooks are great for word processing, web browsing, and well, maybe watching Youtube. However, ChromeOS is not software friendly, and you'll find no professional video or film programs that work with the OS. Even for tasks like offloading files, I use Red Giants Offload program. If you're looking at a chromebook range, I'd suggest looking for a lower-end PC laptop. They can be had for less than $300 that will work.

Although, In reality I'd suggest spending at least $500 on a laptop for the task you mention. Offloading is a very intensive task that may well send some smaller computers through the mud. I have a small, MiniITX computer I bring to set for offloading. It helps to have additional hard drives, and the laptop form factor has just never appealed to me.

Edited May 7, 2016 by Landon D. Parks

Satsuki Murashige · May 8, 2016

Most hard drives and card readers that you'll get thrown at you as a digital loader will be USB3 or Thunderbolt. The drives from client will need to be formatted as Mac OS Journaled 99.99% of the time.

In terms of software, you'll be expected to have and be able to run at a minimum Shotput Pro, Adobe CC, Final Cut Pro X, and Davinci Resolve 12. Once you get onto bigger jobs, there will be other software solutions expected like Silverstack.

Expect to also purchase a 600-1500w UPS, a Sonnet Expresscard SxS Thunderbolt reader, a USB3 CF/SDHC multi-card reader, a USB3 CFast reader, extra Thunderbolt cables, extra USB cables, Thunderbolt to FW800 and Ethernet adapters, some sort of eSATA solution, and a 25' stinger. If you go on to do some DIT work and require SDI output out of the laptop, a Blackmagic Mini Monitor is a good thing to have in the bag.

So just get a top spec 15" Retina MacBook Pro with maxed out RAM. Or a 13" if you're really on a budget. Anything else is not worth the hassle. Once you get into real DIT work with transcoding, creating looks and LUTs, and require a calibrated SDI monitor, you'll need to upgrade to a Mac Pro or two.