Video with lights - Filter or no Filter? Advice Please.

[Andy Phillips]

Mac's are the bane of my professional existance, I hate them with a passion you will never understand.

I have QT Pro for Windows, the HD's are RAID driven, a P4 with an 800 MHz FSB, and lots of mega quick RAM not to mention the 256 Mb NVidea graphics card. You just can't do that with a mucky old smelly Mac.

Oh yes, I also might be a tincy bit biased

Andrew

Originally Posted by Jeremy H

Hi

Just to speak up for Mac editing a bit...

If you've got access to a Mac take a look at iMovie and iDVD - I've done some underwater editing and got super results with very little pain indeed.

An aftenoon with your Camcorder, iLife (iMovie and iDVD) and a few blank DVD's should result in a pretty proffesional result.

Add an upgrade to Quicktime Pro (cheap) or buy Finalcut Express (I have - less cheap!) for shedloads of webby and compression formats and you're going to be producing stuff for the web which is going to be as proffesional as it gets!

Of course, these days you need bags of RAM whatever you're using but with the new Imac starting around the £300-£400 mark I personally think it's quite a compelling combo (Obviously if you're already set up with a good PC then it's probably less compelling)...

Still, been using 'em for 15 years or so - so I'm probably a bit biased...

Jeremy

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Jeremy H

Hi

Just to speak up for Mac editing a bit...

If you've got access to a Mac take a look at iMovie and iDVD - I've done some underwater editing and got super results with very little pain indeed.

An aftenoon with your Camcorder, iLife (iMovie and iDVD) and a few blank DVD's should result in a pretty proffesional result.

Add an upgrade to Quicktime Pro (cheap) or buy Finalcut Express (I have - less cheap!) for shedloads of webby and compression formats and you're going to be producing stuff for the web which is going to be as proffesional as it gets!

Of course, these days you need bags of RAM whatever you're using but with the new Imac starting around the £300-£400 mark I personally think it's quite a compelling combo (Obviously if you're already set up with a good PC then it's probably less compelling)...

Still, been using 'em for 15 years or so - so I'm probably a bit biased...

Jeremy

Have a green for mentioning iDVD, I bought a new Powerbook last week and hadn't heard of iDVD. Your post got me looking and I noticed that it should have come with my Powerbook, I checked on the supplied CD's and there it was, along with other stuff that hadn't been installed so I have now installed the missing software.

Ian

[Jeremy H]

... nearly didin't display that bit - "mucky old smelly Mac" - I've just persuaded it to stop sulking!

I wasn't really trying to say that one is better than the other. Or compare what technical specs are possible in what boxes but I'm now amazed at the results you can get on a Mac in video straight out of the cardboard box!

Having played with stuff previously (remember Premiere, Strata Studio, Avid etc) I'd always felt that video editing was difficult and required Raid type drives + overnight renedering etc etc and gave it up as a bad job.

However, iMovie was a revelation for me. With it I was able to edit my underwater videos quickly and to great effect with one of the shallowest learning curves I'd ever come across in a graphics app. Then, no need to output it to tape - just plonk the movie created into iDVD and burn a DVD you can then give to other people.

The important thing was that I could do it all on my Mac - straight out of the box. No need to install anything else or fiddle with anything.

Obviously if you've already got a PC just prefer them, buying a Mac isn't probably good advice. But - to anyone contemplating a new pooter and considering occasional rather than broadcast type editing - I'd still suggest seriously considering one of these new iMacs (or any Mac - I currently quite happily do all my editing on a 12" powerbook that I use for work and get some technically excellent results despite the source material!)

Hope thats helps

Jeremy

PS: Ian - if you want any help with it send me an email or pm... but you probably won't cos it so simple to use!

[dry suit diver]

if you have a bottom end sony VAIO then all the capture and editing stuff are installed off the shelf even got a DVD burner on the system with click to DVD software too so production is easy peasy.

even my 2 year old laptop has decent editing and capture software but again its a VAIO so its the mutts nuts.

[Mark Chase]

Couple of people I know who do vidio edditing all agree Mac is better and easier than PC. That said all my stuff is PC bassed so I am unlikley to swap.

ATB

Mark Chase

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by dry suit diver

if you have a bottom end sony VAIO then all the capture and editing stuff are installed off the shelf even got a DVD burner on the system with click to DVD software too so production is easy peasy.

even my 2 year old laptop has decent editing and capture software but again its a VAIO so its the mutts nuts.

I have a Vaio PCG-716S and a 5 year old GRT, they are great and you are right about the DVD production being simple. However I must admit that I'm very impressed with my new Powerbook G4 and haven't touched my Vaio's in over a week (I have virtual PC & XP Pro installed on the Mac too)

Ian

[dry suit diver]

Originally Posted by iani

I have a Vaio PCG-716S and a 5 year old GRT, they are great and you are right about the DVD production being simple. However I must admit that I'm very impressed with my new Powerbook G4 and haven't touched my Vaio's in over a week (I have virtual PC & XP Pro installed on the Mac too)

Ian

must admit that macs are what most Profesional video editors use as they are much more crashproof but apple didnt do an iBook when i first got a Laptop so have stuck with PC rather than mac.

[Andy Phillips]

OK, I shall say this once, and once only.

I hate Macs because of the misconceptions that surround them. I have nothing against them as such, but here more cr*p from people about there so called mystical graphics abilities. Bear in mind, I am in the industry.

Mac is no longer better than PC at handling graphics files, they are about the same.

Professionals, that is in the movie industry use Unix, i.e. Silicon Graphics.

Macs look pretty and people in the image making industry like image.

ALL the software you can get to edit movies is available on Mac and PC, I don't necessarily mean that one package will run on both systems, but the most popular one, i.e. Pinnicle Studio does. And the differences between that and UMedia is tiny.

Careful chaps, I'll start ranting in a minute

Andrew

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Andy Phillips

OK, I shall say this once, and once only.

I hate Macs because of the misconceptions that surround them. I have nothing against them as such, but here more cr*p from people about there so called mystical graphics abilities. Bear in mind, I am in the industry.
</snip>

Andrew

I tend not to get overly emotional about inanimate objects but I have to say that after a week of using a Mac I find it far more intuitive than the PC has ever been. I have had no problem doing anything on this machine, from the first time it was turned on it happily found my wireless network and allowed me to connect with no fuss. I have installed lots of utilities again with no fuss, even software for previous versions of the Mac OS installs into the "classic" environment perfectly.

My Mac boots far quicker than my P4 2.8Ghz Vaio does (admittedly 1.5Gb RAM in the Mac and "only" 1Gb in the Vaio), the Mac goes into sleep mode in seconds and recovers just as quickly, none of my Wintel boxes can do this. I have MS Office, Windows Terminal Services Client and even Virtual PC with XP Pro installed so I can connect and administer a MS environment without issues, all in all I find the Powerbook a great piece of kit.

Ian (in the Industry too)

[Andy Phillips]

I was having a playful rant,

But, you try and upgrade an imaging system from an old Mac to a G5 and see if you hate them then.

Andrew