Good editing Mac

tony240sx

tony240sx

Well-known member
I currently have a Pc with Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 a 3.2 gig processor 1 gig ram. Its pretty good but I really think a mac is the way to go. I was thinking of getting an imac with the dual 2.16 processor upgrading to 2 gig of ram and the 256mb video card and having final cut basic installed to learn on and then bumping up to pro if I can. I really dont know premiere all that well anyway so I would rather learn on more of the industry standard and I hear a mac can just handle rendering video and things like that a whole lot better. I would really appreciate any advice you guys could give me on this. I am just starting to try and get serious about filmmaking and I need all the help I can get. Thanks alot.
 
Ive got an iMac 24" at home with the upgraded video processor and 1gb of Ram. It screams for editing DVCPro HD footage at 1080, 720 and all that fun stuff. It renders 90% in realtime, only needs to render if i lay 3 or more effects on a clip in Final Cut Pro. SD footage isnt even close to a problem. Compressor outputs it to DVD incredibly fast. I can recommend that decision 100%
 
Your choice of editing software for a mac is iMovies HD, which comes as part of the preinstalled iLife software, then Final Cut Express, and then Final Cut Studio. Unless I'm greatly mistaking you can't upgrade from Express to Studio, you have to go buy it from scratch, so you might want to research that a little further. In my opinion, if you decide to go for FCS, you might need a little more horsepower than the 2.16 GHz processor you mention, even with 2 gigs RAM. Again, it depends on what you want to do exactly wth it, if you don't need faster rendering you'll probably be fine. I'm pretty sure there is a 2.33GHz processor available for iMac. Possibility of new Macs arriving in the next couple of months, but that's all rumour. Don't buy a new model the minute it arrives... give them about 6-8 weeks to iron out problems before you buy. Also... the jump from PC to Mac is tougher than you might think, as is the jump from Premier Pro to Final Cut... so be prepared for some nail biting. The Mac/Final Cut is fantastic... no two ways about it. It's not perfect. But it's very good.

Hope that's of some help. Good luck with whatever you do.
 
tony240sx said:
I currently have a Pc with Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 a 3.2 gig processor 1 gig ram. Its pretty good but I really think a mac is the way to go. I was thinking of getting an imac with the dual 2.16 processor upgrading to 2 gig of ram and the 256mb video card and having final cut basic installed to learn on and then bumping up to pro if I can. I really dont know premiere all that well anyway so I would rather learn on more of the industry standard and I hear a mac can just handle rendering video and things like that a whole lot better. I would really appreciate any advice you guys could give me on this. I am just starting to try and get serious about filmmaking and I need all the help I can get. Thanks alot.
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If it's a Mac you want, then by all means, go that way. Plenty of helpful folks on the board here who can help.

Just a few points which might save you some money . . .

The "industry standard" is Avid, which is more often used on Windows machines. But it's available for Mac, too.

Rendering is all about processor speed. Macs have no particular advantage there.

But like I said, if a Mac is what you want, then get a Mac. Just clarifying some of your assumptions.
 
Harry, I've run FCP on a 400 mhz PowerMac, and it's insanely stable. I've also run it on the exact specs you described above and it screams like no other. It's honestly faster than the dual 2.3 with four gigs of ram we've got in our studio.

You're right about there not being an upgrade from FCE to the full studio, but reading that this person is already running Premiere Pro, we can probably assume that he's goiong to jump straight to the studio.

Also, the difficulty of switching from a pc to a mac is subjective, and it should be pointed out as such.

Just helping to clarify.
 
I cant imagine the rendering speed getting any sort of noticable difference in a spead bump from 2.16ghz to 2.33ghz Core 2 Duo. It is definatly not worth the money it costs to upgrade. There will always be new macs coming out in the next few months, and waiting another 2 months for bugs to be ironed out just gets you closer to wanting to wait for the new ones, which will put you in the never ending cycle of waiting and waiting. you only live once ya know?

In any case, like Wive said, its subjective, but your not jumping perse' more joining. You can come to the mac at your own pace, and since you said you wanted to learn a NLE, considering again, you arent jumping from Premeir to FCP, you are deciding you dont know premier and want to learn something so you are going to learn FCP instead , you will have no problem.

Plus you get all the benifits of working on a mac for personal stuff besides FCP when you get one , which is a total plus as well! :)
 
I've got an iMac, 17", with Final Cut Express HD. It work wonderfully. My Mac has a gig of RAM and the Intel Core2Duo processor. It works really well. Don't bother with iMovie HD, it's full of bugs and will have you frustrated faster than anything.
 
Wivellicious said:
Harry, I've run FCP on a 400 mhz PowerMac, and it's insanely stable.
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kyle.presley said:
My Mac has a gig of RAM and the Intel Core2Duo processor. It works really well..
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Quote from Apples spec for FCS... "HD features require 1GHz or faster single or dual processors ... HD features require 1GB of RAM or more (2GB recommended)"


You seem to be telling Tony that processor speed, and RAM is irrelevant... that doesn't make sense. At all. :huh:
 
Cynic821 said:
There will always be new macs coming out in the next few months, and waiting another 2 months for bugs to be ironed out just gets you closer to wanting to wait for the new ones, which will put you in the never ending cycle of waiting and waiting. you only live once ya know?
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That's a fair point - playing the waiting game is a big pointless roundabout.... but my point was this... for the love of God, do not buy a new model Mac until at least 6 weeks after it's been released... I know people who got burned doing that, and I'm just trying to save Tony the grief if a new model arrives anytime soon and he wants it. :)

I'm not Mac bashing, btw... I'm using one, and I love it!
 
Holy Harry said:
Quote from Apples spec for FCS... "HD features require 1GHz or faster single or dual processors ... HD features require 1GB of RAM or more (2GB recommended)"


You seem to be telling Tony that processor speed, and RAM is irrelevant... that doesn't make sense. At all. :huh:
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FIrst off theres no new mac that thats slow, second thats for HD features in FCP and any new Mac thats gunna be used to edit will come with the 1gb of Ram. I clearly stated that from 2.16ghz to 2.33ghz will not be worth the price hike imo. THe extra Ram is nice, but thats optional AS WELL as MUCH MUCH cheaper when purchased 3rd party. 2gb (two chips) is like 150 bucks now.

You cant say something like wait 6 weeks no matter what and be so certain. I purchased both of my Macbook Pros within 1 week of their release, the first being a Core Duo 15" and the second the Core 2 Duo 15". Neither had any problems at all, and specifically the Core 2 Duo release was extremly smooth. Not only are you suggesting he wait, which is what you should do, you seem overly adament about him waiting for some reason, and that reason is unknown to me.
 
Thanks for all the feedback guys. I put in my order last night. Im getting the 20inch Imac 2.16 with 2gig ram and the 256mb upgraded video card. Im also having them preinstall final cut express hd. Im just getting into this stuff like I said and im pretty excited about it. From what I have seen the mac should be great for begining video work and editing. If anyone lives in the New York area and needs help on anything or has some ideas I would be happy to get in on any projects I can. I have a dvx100a and I want to put it to some use. Thanks again.
 
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