We're upgrading our little theater and trying to decide on a computer (with our limited budget of $650 or so). We're definitely going with Qlab, but I'm getting conflicting requirements for running video.
Q-Lab provides customers with a variety of repair and support services including radiometer & thermometer calibration, troubleshooting and problem solving.
Our video stuff will be pretty simple, single stream to an HD projector, with fades into graphics and such. I don't ever see us using all the fancy effects built into Qlab. We will also have audio cues running. I'm also fine with running compressed video (.h264 vs. ProRes).
Qlab Manual For Mac Download
The Qlabs guys—when I emailed—said we need something with a dedicated video card. But I'm also reading of techs running video on Mini's.
It would seem something along these lines (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-Mini-A1347-MC816LL-A-July-2011-Core-i5-2-5GHz-120GB-SSD-8GB-RAM-/161896703486?hash=item25b1cba5fe:g:FHUAAOSwqv9V5pOs) would serve us, making the 5200rpm disk issue a non-factor with the SSD.
Qlab Manual For Mac Pro
Can any of you chime in with your experience? I've got a pocket full of up votes just itching to be given.