Hi, my girlfriend is looking to start doing video editing. The first thing that came to mind was mac, but looking at some of thier older models (she is on a budget) I noticed that they were rated very low (500 mhz). I dont know a thing about macs so i wouldnt know how to scale that to pc speeds. anyways, should she go for an older mac, or a newer pc?
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Mac or Pc for video editing?
- Thread starter xmurderx
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[Spectre]
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SGI......oh right budget.....newer pc.
Mac's used to be better than PC's for graphical things simply because the software was more mature. That is not the case anymore (or I would argue even then.........hell all the graphical work I ever do/did has been on DEC/SGI/SUN kit). An older MAC isn't going to be faster than a new PC, won't have a warranty( if you buy it from a manufacturer), and won't run the newest software(most likely). Since the software is more mature now on PC's....the price is lower for the PC(unless you buy that new little underpowered no keyboard/mouse is a selling point....wtf.....thing it will be cheaper)......and you won't have to be constant tech support I would go the PC route.
My .02
Mac's used to be better than PC's for graphical things simply because the software was more mature. That is not the case anymore (or I would argue even then.........hell all the graphical work I ever do/did has been on DEC/SGI/SUN kit). An older MAC isn't going to be faster than a new PC, won't have a warranty( if you buy it from a manufacturer), and won't run the newest software(most likely). Since the software is more mature now on PC's....the price is lower for the PC(unless you buy that new little underpowered no keyboard/mouse is a selling point....wtf.....thing it will be cheaper)......and you won't have to be constant tech support I would go the PC route.
My .02
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What does she plan on editing? What is the budget? What format(s) will she be working with and outputting to?
The major drawback with the PC is all the different hardware and software variables that can make the system not run correctly.
With the Mac, you don't have that problem but you are limited in what you can choose.
I personally prefer the PC for editing, but I believe the Mac is better.
As for the question about the older mac, how old are you talking about?
The major drawback with the PC is all the different hardware and software variables that can make the system not run correctly.
With the Mac, you don't have that problem but you are limited in what you can choose.
I personally prefer the PC for editing, but I believe the Mac is better.
As for the question about the older mac, how old are you talking about?
for someone on a budget, i'd definitely say that she should go with one o fthose new mini macs. easy to use, powerful software, cheap computer (starts @ only $499, but i'd suggest upgrading to a superdrive for dvd burning ability and up to 512mb ram from 256). she'd need a new keyboard and mouse (make sure she gets a two-button mouse, not the single button apple one!) which support usb, cause the mini mac doesn't do ps/2. also she'd need a monitor, hopefully she already has one. the mini mac comes with a dvi->vga adapter incase she doesn't have an lcd display supporting dvi input.
if she were to go for the cheap of the two models, but give it the extra ram and superdrive (oh yeah, and bugger hd, from 40gb to 80), it would cost $724.
cpu speeds on macs are always slower than on pcs. remember how though intel procs are much faster mhz wise the a64 processors are MUCH faster in memory instensive applications like games and vid editing, even with lower clock speed. the mac procs work the same sort of way.
this is a budet, very easy to use, quite powerful vid editing system. she should difinitely be happy. but for video editing she definitely needs the extra ram, hd space, and dvd burner (unless you already have an exteranl dvd burner that uses usb or firewire, in which case she can save the money of getting superdrive (dvd burner) instead of combo drive (dvd reader, cd burner)
if she were to go for the cheap of the two models, but give it the extra ram and superdrive (oh yeah, and bugger hd, from 40gb to 80), it would cost $724.
cpu speeds on macs are always slower than on pcs. remember how though intel procs are much faster mhz wise the a64 processors are MUCH faster in memory instensive applications like games and vid editing, even with lower clock speed. the mac procs work the same sort of way.
this is a budet, very easy to use, quite powerful vid editing system. she should difinitely be happy. but for video editing she definitely needs the extra ram, hd space, and dvd burner (unless you already have an exteranl dvd burner that uses usb or firewire, in which case she can save the money of getting superdrive (dvd burner) instead of combo drive (dvd reader, cd burner)
[Spectre]
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binkgle said:
I just have to say this mae me laugh really hard when I read it. After you listed get a new mini mac you changed everything in it.
And with a monitor will almost certainly double the price on an OLD G4 processor based system. Gave me a good laugh. There other problems with that setup but number one is 80gb? I hope she won't end up with very many raw files. I work in a Lab with all MACS and I am a PC guy. So..
Go MAC. The G4/Mini Series(those Macs with a rotating flat LCD) or a G5 will do wonders.
You are NOT limited. iMovie is a great starter, and Final Cut Pro is on par with Premiere anyways. That and since Quicktime is an Apple Product, iMovie and such give you the full version, so you get Sorenson 3 which is a nice compressor. Slightly off topic but what the heck.
G4's are a bit slow, but they'll do what you need. (800mhz...I Think)
Mini's are nice but they just dont have a STABLE feel since they are well...mini..
G5's while a budget breaker, is a very nice computer. (Well..ares are Dualies, so I don't know the speed of a normal one, also we have 3GB of ram... )
You can also bet that iMovie will come with all of these which like I said is a nice easy to use starting program.
About the PC, while probably a better budget, considering she has a monitor and such, you will have to invest in video editing software. Whereas the Mac's come with iMovie. And you said get an older mac or a newer pc...that doesn't make sense. Why not get a new mac if you are willing to get a new pc??
My 2 Cents.
---
Edit:
By Mini I personally was thinking iMac. Haha, way to be wayyy off me.
Go MAC. The G4/Mini Series(those Macs with a rotating flat LCD) or a G5 will do wonders.
You are NOT limited. iMovie is a great starter, and Final Cut Pro is on par with Premiere anyways. That and since Quicktime is an Apple Product, iMovie and such give you the full version, so you get Sorenson 3 which is a nice compressor. Slightly off topic but what the heck.
G4's are a bit slow, but they'll do what you need. (800mhz...I Think)
Mini's are nice but they just dont have a STABLE feel since they are well...mini..
G5's while a budget breaker, is a very nice computer. (Well..ares are Dualies, so I don't know the speed of a normal one, also we have 3GB of ram...
)You can also bet that iMovie will come with all of these which like I said is a nice easy to use starting program.
About the PC, while probably a better budget, considering she has a monitor and such, you will have to invest in video editing software. Whereas the Mac's come with iMovie. And you said get an older mac or a newer pc...that doesn't make sense. Why not get a new mac if you are willing to get a new pc??
My 2 Cents.
---
Edit:
By Mini I personally was thinking iMac. Haha, way to be wayyy off me.
[Spectre]
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abudhu said:
And........?
Wow never poked around windows xp much have ya? Windows movie maker is in the accessories tab
Cause he said budget?
Spectre said:
Cant you Read...Quicktime = Sorensor 3 = Expensive ass Excellent Compressor for Free.
Wow never poked around windows xp much have ya? Windows movie maker is in the accessories tab
Yes, and I dont fancy it. Used iMovie? Blows it out of the water.
Cause he said budget?
Cause a New PC would cost sooo much less than a New mac? However, granted, it does depend on how new he goes. But then again, a NEW Video Editing capable PC would demand some nice specs, and Id rather build my own comp (which would pretty much put it at a G5 price 1200-1800) then buy a 899 one off Dell...
Tehehe.
binkgle said:
Misleading advertising.
It's not a complete computer.
You still need and lcd, a keyboard, a mouse, yada yada..
1gb, DVD burner, Keyboard, Mouse, 1.42 Ghz G4 processor, 80 gb hdd, 3-4 weeks shipping delay, mac os X = $1223, for a 90 day support?
If mac's are so good, why such a crappy support plan?
And you *still* don't have a screen.
Nobody even wonders about the fact that they charge $425 to go from 256mb to 1gb of PC2700 ram?
and i'm betting at that size, it's some sort of proprietary interface for it, so you can't go and pick up just a 184pin dimm
Wowwee.. Can i have an onboard 32mb radeon 9200se agp4x video card with that? I like uber performance..
And i really love not being able to upgrade my machine.. EVER
=lks= ka druma
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Get what you can afford. I use both and hate both. I wouldn't buy a mac thats not a g4 or faster. If you want to expand, don't buy a mini or imac for that matter.
Don't forget, people that edit video for a living, pro's, have 8gigs of ram and don't watch the budget. <---Gross generalization. I only have 768 and that seems to be plenty for digital photo.
I say PC.
LKS
Don't forget, people that edit video for a living, pro's, have 8gigs of ram and don't watch the budget. <---Gross generalization. I only have 768 and that seems to be plenty for digital photo.
I say PC.
LKS
[Spectre]
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abudhu said:
There are free compressors out there......and not everyone uses quicktime.
Yeah well your statement is still misleading. OSX comes with a rudimentary video editing program and so does XP.
Yes, I don't like it though.
Uhhhh....yes. G5's are a tad expensive.
However, granted, it does depend on how new he goes. But then again, a NEW Video Editing capable PC would demand some nice specs, and Id rather build my own comp (which would pretty much put it at a G5 price 1200-1800) then buy a 899 one off Dell...
Tehehe.
Wait i thought you were for a mac....know you are for building your own PC.
And friends don't let friends buy Dell.
Go with a Mac, if you feel like it.
Final Cut Pro (hell even Final Cut Express) is simply amazing software.
Combine that with Shake, Motion and DVD Studio Pro and you can do some pretty fancy stuff.
(Of course that in itself is expensive just for software, but you'd be paying about the same for the equivalent software on the PC end. You *will* be paying for it, right?)
The Mac mini is a decent deal for whats in the box. and like I tell EVERYONE thats been asking me lately about it, you DON'T need to get an Apple Keyboard or apple mouse, you DON'T need to buy the memory from apple, and you CERTAINLY don't need an apple proprietary monitor. (It has a DVI port, but it's DVI-I so it can use a DVI-VGA converter)
I also wouldn't recommend an LCD for Video Editing, anyway.
Also add to the fact that it can handle HD content quite easily (along with the new iMovie, FCP HD and FCE HD)
If she just wants to toy around in video editing, meaning getting a feel for it and seeing if its right for her, then you wouldn't need something Uber powerful. (I do FCP / DVD SP on a g4/733 with 1gb of 3rd party RAM and I get along fine. Render times are long, but hey. And this is 720x480 29.97fps NTSC full length DVD 8MBps MPEG2 stuff)
Final Cut Pro (hell even Final Cut Express) is simply amazing software.
Combine that with Shake, Motion and DVD Studio Pro and you can do some pretty fancy stuff.
(Of course that in itself is expensive just for software, but you'd be paying about the same for the equivalent software on the PC end. You *will* be paying for it, right?)
The Mac mini is a decent deal for whats in the box. and like I tell EVERYONE thats been asking me lately about it, you DON'T need to get an Apple Keyboard or apple mouse, you DON'T need to buy the memory from apple, and you CERTAINLY don't need an apple proprietary monitor. (It has a DVI port, but it's DVI-I so it can use a DVI-VGA converter)
I also wouldn't recommend an LCD for Video Editing, anyway.
Also add to the fact that it can handle HD content quite easily (along with the new iMovie, FCP HD and FCE HD)
If she just wants to toy around in video editing, meaning getting a feel for it and seeing if its right for her, then you wouldn't need something Uber powerful. (I do FCP / DVD SP on a g4/733 with 1gb of 3rd party RAM and I get along fine. Render times are long, but hey. And this is 720x480 29.97fps NTSC full length DVD 8MBps MPEG2 stuff)
Apallohadas
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You guys are funny!
Goto the Apple page, and pick your MiniMac. Then update it to include the super drive, memory, 80 gig HD, etc. 1,132.00.
Goto Delldevil and look at the Celeron D, 1 gig ram, dual optical drives, 80 gig HD, 2 year support package, (including keyboard and mouse). 725.00
I think he said Budget at some point. That may mean less than 1K. I know that Apple sprinkles crack on their products. I sniff my iPod frequently and wonder why. But let's be realistic. On a BUDGET, he can get a great PC product or an old outdated crappy Apple product.
Goto the Apple page, and pick your MiniMac. Then update it to include the super drive, memory, 80 gig HD, etc. 1,132.00.
Goto Delldevil and look at the Celeron D, 1 gig ram, dual optical drives, 80 gig HD, 2 year support package, (including keyboard and mouse). 725.00
I think he said Budget at some point. That may mean less than 1K. I know that Apple sprinkles crack on their products. I sniff my iPod frequently and wonder why. But let's be realistic. On a BUDGET, he can get a great PC product or an old outdated crappy Apple product.
Spectre said:
Indeed, but Sorenson is one of the best compressers out there. Always nice to get things for "Free" Though I do suppose you "pay" for it with the price tag of the Macs
iMovie is not Rudimentary when you know how to use it well.
Ok.. :-D
For Real.
Wait i thought you were for a mac....know you are for building your own PC.
And friends don't let friends buy Dell.
No I was just saying, for the specs needed for a Good Video Editing PC you might as well build a new one, which would put its price tag on par with the current price tag, of a pre-built mac. Make sense now?
And I must bow to the second statement. Haha. Silly Dell.
---
I am not sure how you could build/buy a decent video editing computer for under 1 grand. That seems like one helluva challenge. I know you can obvisouly build a computer for less than that, but importing/exporting would take some time...*yuck* /sidethought.
[Spectre]
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http://www.mini-itx.com/news/13909018/
Since everybody is still talking about htis thing here is what the guts look like in case anyone has missed it.
Since everybody is still talking about htis thing here is what the guts look like in case anyone has missed it.
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The origanal poster hasn't answered any of my questions yet, and my questions are the most valid ones here.
I do video editing for a living, I just don't do any of those hollywood blockbusters.
I've got a personal system here at the house that was used reliably to edit a feature length film.
you can pick up the parts to build the same system I have here for under $500.
Here is the specs for the machine as it sat when it was used to edit the movie.
P3 733mhz
512megs of Ram
Asus P3V4X motherboard
Matrox RT2000 editing card
Matrox G400 Video card (this is part of the RT2000 system the card above needs this card to function and came bundled together)
10 IBM 75gig Drives in removable storage bays (thess were the largest/most cost effective drives at teh time, up to 2 were used at a time and half were backups)
19" Viewsonic Monitor.
this system is a realtime editing system and only required rendering if you did slow-motion with motion smoothing, did more than 2 layers of video or titles, or any special filter that wasn't part of the realtime effects package.
After the film was done, I upgraded his PC to a 2.4ghz P4 and he gave me the P3 setup.
I then bought the RT2000 system from him for $100. he then bought a 24" Wide SGI monitor and gave me the 19" viewsonic.
So basically for $100 + the cost of a case and some drives, I now have a complete realtime editing machine.
You can capture DV, S-video, and composite with this system and output DV, S-video, and composite. Also, while editing the outputs are enabled so you can see what it looks like on a video monitor in real time to make sure that you have everything in the safe area of the tv and that the colors are correct (assuming that your TV is calibrated).
Last week I had to make a DVD for someone and that is where you see the need for a faster CPU, it took about 4 hours to process the 45minute program into a DVD-Compliant Mpeg2 file.
At the studio, we use P4's with a Matrox RT2000, RT2500, and an RTX.100.
RTX.100 does realtime DVD encoding so it only takes as long as your project is to make a DVD Compliant Mpeg2 file.
I do video editing for a living, I just don't do any of those hollywood blockbusters.
I've got a personal system here at the house that was used reliably to edit a feature length film.
you can pick up the parts to build the same system I have here for under $500.
Here is the specs for the machine as it sat when it was used to edit the movie.
P3 733mhz
512megs of Ram
Asus P3V4X motherboard
Matrox RT2000 editing card
Matrox G400 Video card (this is part of the RT2000 system the card above needs this card to function and came bundled together)
10 IBM 75gig Drives in removable storage bays (thess were the largest/most cost effective drives at teh time, up to 2 were used at a time and half were backups)
19" Viewsonic Monitor.
this system is a realtime editing system and only required rendering if you did slow-motion with motion smoothing, did more than 2 layers of video or titles, or any special filter that wasn't part of the realtime effects package.
After the film was done, I upgraded his PC to a 2.4ghz P4 and he gave me the P3 setup.
I then bought the RT2000 system from him for $100. he then bought a 24" Wide SGI monitor and gave me the 19" viewsonic.
So basically for $100 + the cost of a case and some drives, I now have a complete realtime editing machine.
You can capture DV, S-video, and composite with this system and output DV, S-video, and composite. Also, while editing the outputs are enabled so you can see what it looks like on a video monitor in real time to make sure that you have everything in the safe area of the tv and that the colors are correct (assuming that your TV is calibrated).
Last week I had to make a DVD for someone and that is where you see the need for a faster CPU, it took about 4 hours to process the 45minute program into a DVD-Compliant Mpeg2 file.
At the studio, we use P4's with a Matrox RT2000, RT2500, and an RTX.100.
RTX.100 does realtime DVD encoding so it only takes as long as your project is to make a DVD Compliant Mpeg2 file.