I am looking to buy a new computer that I will use just to edit and make video's. I am not up to date with all the cool computer stuff so I figured I would ask. Any suggestions? or hookups?
If you want to get into video editing, stay with Mac computers. They are specificly designed to do audio and Video editing. If you get a PC you will need to get lots of processor speed and lots of memory. It will still take about 4 times longer to do things with a PC compared to a MAC. Mac's cost a little bit more, but they will last you a good while. One thing to think about is Mac's are kind of a double edge sword, you can do great things with audio and video editing, and do your occasional serach on the net, but thats about all they are good for. I would go into a Apple store and talk to someone, they will have more specifics on it. I know there are a view on the board that have Macs. Best of luck.
Uhh no clue what your talking about. It might have been so 5-6 years ago. Since mac uses intel now a days performance is virtually identical. Software makes all the difference.
I have always heard that Mac is the best for Audio and Video editing, but I don't have any first hand experience using a Mac. I hope to get one in the not to far off future.
This pc build will be able to run anything you throw at it for about $800 (not including monitor) Intel Q6600 quad core cpu - $180 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115018 Mobo EVGA 680i SLi (you could find a cheaper one but I have it and it runs perfectly) - $180 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188012 Memory - G Skill 2 x 1 GB - $37 (awesome memory and you could double it getting 4 GB for $75) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098 graphics card XFX 8800 GT $115 (after rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150272&Tpk=XFX 8800 GT Power Supply - CORSAIR 750W Sli ready - $99 (after rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006 Sound Card (not needed but if you want a small upgrade from mobo) Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 5.1 - $27 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102010 DVD/CD Drive SAMSUNG DVD+R - $28 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151173 Case COOLER MASTER 690 Mid Tower (you could find a cheaper one but it just looks good and keeps everything cool - $75 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137] HD Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s - $70 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288
Just get a fast CPU(quad core preferred), lots of ram(3 gigs or more), and lots of hard drive space to store the raw video. The rest doesn't matter really. A DVD-burner if you want to make them into home movies that will play on your DVD player or just for archiving the video once its done. Macs are great but if you are not already familiar with them then I would not bother unless you want to switch and use a Mac for all your day to day stuff as well as the video. Getting one to just do the video would be a waste.
Thats more or less what I was speaking about. Apple software is gear more towards it. You can do it with PC, as I mentioned, but from my experience they need lots of RAM and processor speed. Software designed for windows requires much more RAM to do normal tasks in video editing.
The reason why macs are better for video editing is not for the hardware, it is because almost ALL of the good video editing/graphic software is first writen for macs, then changed to work on PC's. I am a PC person by trade and my company uses 99.9% PC's but we have a few high end macs for video editing.
I know nothing about computers...however I built the one that I'm on now and its been the best computer I've ever had. Its way easier to build one than you would think.
and 90% of statistics are made up. I am not hating on Macs so don't take me the wrong way but the build i posted would out perform any mac up to the $1800 price range and atleast match if not out perform their $2200 system. Again you can do anything on a pc you could do on a mac. It all comes down to software. Getting a mac just to use for video editing would be a waste of money.
Again, it isnt the hardware....It is the software.. The reason why Hollywood uses MACS is because of Final Cut Pro and all the other video editing/rendering software ONLY available for MACS. We have even done tests inhouse on PCS vs MACS on the same software rendering huge files and the MACS hands down beat the PCs everytime. If the software was orginally designed to run on a mac, it will always run better on a MAC vs a PC. PS - The stastics are NOT made up. Every person I know in the movie/film industry uses a Mac. Again, I personally do not own a mac and would probably never own one but if all you are doing is video editing, a Mac is a much wiser choice.
KSU uses macs for ALL student video editing. I had never edited a video a day in my life and Final Cut Pro was so stupidly easy to use my 3 year old cousin (who has his own PSP/Nintendo DS) could have used it. I had a group project to make; we added video, still shots, music, and voice overlays.
Isnt that what he said he wanted it for, was for video editing. I agree though, if you are wanting to do more than just video editing and occasional web surfing, I would stick with weapons build he listed for a PC, that is a pretty good build.
macbook pro FTW. Or you can just pay me to edit the videos for you and I will use my Mac To buy a decent Mac will run you about 2k. The Macbooks are what like $2,200? Final Cut doesnt come with it. The Final Cut Studio is roughly $1200 but they have cheaper versions for around the $300 range but that doesnt include the other programs for color correction and effects (if your not an editor you probably wont use this) I'm sure I could do it for a good price, or exchange of services. If you get a PC, I have Avid I will sell for cheap. It retails for about $1500. I can do it for $250
I'm going to totally skip over the Mac v. PC hardware argument, because nobody wants to listen to a Mac fanboy anyway, and jump right to software. If you're just making small movies for now, definitely go with a Mac. The software that comes standard on a Mac (iMovie) is far superior to any other free software you could get especially in terms of usability. You've also got two flavors to choose from with a new Mac, iMovie '08 and iMovie HD. When Apple put out iMovie '08 they changed a bunch of stuff around, and since some people were pretty upset about it, they made the iMovie HD (the previous version) available as a free download for owners of '08. That's my two cents.
depends on what kind of editing you're looking to do... commercials? professional animation? (ala beowulf?) how extensible does the system need to be? you can run PC stuff on macs as well, they are intel-based. but they won't run quite as "strong" NO, PCs don't go tits-up or have all kinds of wierd issues like the MAC commercials play out. Those commercials are geared towards their (new) core-customer... people who don't know what they're doing with a computer. MACs used to be a technician's machine... there are plenty of us that are a little pissed about how "candy assed" it's become. but vista isn't much better. you can build a "lot more" PC for the price you would spend on a mac if you go with a "geekbox" (like weapon's suggestion) you had best "brush up" on your own geekness. it's like running a modded car, you don't "set and forget" RE: 80% of movie houses: do NOT use macs to edit. ever heard of avid? softimage? lightwave? 3ds? macs are good for out-of-the-box editing with finalcut pro. you can make tv-quality commercials with it. on the flip side, you could do the same with adobe products that are built for WIN and MAC. my background: over 12 years of using both mac and pc for interactive design. and i currently reside in the television advertising world. to be fair there is a sea-change going over to final cut just for the cost-savings aspect. a good mac system with FCP is a lot cheaper than a full-on avid station
so is there nowhere that sells the mac for a decent price? Or are they only sold at the apple stores?
best buy sells macs. But you can't get the g5's there. Apple's website is best. You can customize any computer/software you want up to 25grand worth of stuff
I have a MacBook Pro, im somewhat of a photographer, and do a little video editing too. Its perfect, pricey, but wont be out dated for a long time. Cheaper route would be the new macbook its pretty amazing. Also any mac from the store comes with aperture(photoediting) iDVD and IMovie(video edit). all really good programs. Just my 2 cents.
You need a Mac because Final Cut Pro in the gold standard in video editing (except for avid i guess) and it's only available for MAC. I use the ones in the video lab here at Tech and the PC's just dont compare even though i'm an ardent PC user.
Just spent the last 30mins watching the tutorials on apples site about Final Cut Pro. I think I must have it, which of the Mac systems would best run that software.
Any of the "pro" machines would be best for Final Cut, but the iMac is pretty handy and can work very well if you put some more ram in it. You can also buy Macs from Amazon or many other resellers on the internet like MacMall.com. The best thing about getting one from Amazon instead of from Apple is that you don't pay tax. You get all the same stuff in terms of warranty and support, too. It would also be worth looking into getting a refurbished Mac direct from Apple's site. They still come with the same 1-year warranty that a new Mac has. _ Michael
get a pro, and buy as much as you can comfortably afford - and the largest monitor you can afford as well, you'll find out quickly how your palettes will take up a lot of screen. mac hardware is not inheirently "ahead of the curve", and you will need to buy something that will be viable in 3 years... and if you get serious about this you will need upgraded and/or new gear every 3 years at the least.
do you need it to go with you? if so, a laptop mac will work. even if you hold off on purchasing final cut, iMovie is good enough to start with. it's not as simple to learn as the first version, but it works great. and it does HD. if you're going to do all the work on it from home, get a tower or the iMac. they're just that much cheaper and faster. with room to grow internally (tower is anyway). keep looking here, it rotates everyday or so. http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals?mco=MTM2MDQ also, if you have an educator in your family they get the best Apple prices. If you want simple, you can't go wrong with the Mac OS. if you want cheaper faster more difficult, build your own PC.
I am a graphic designer, web designer, and do some video editing every once and a while. I started on a pc and made the move to a mac while in school, when I finally got fed up with the overall reliability of the pc and the speed at which adobe software and video software runs. All adobe products and video products are built for the mac and then ported over. Although macs are more expensive they also retain there value. Just check ebay and see how much a 4 year old powerbook still sells for. Also on that note if you are going to buy from apple check out the refurbished stuff they sell on there online store http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP.../RSLID?sf=wHF2F2PHCCCX72KDY&nclm=CertifiedMac it is usually heavily discounted and basically new, and if you purchase the apple care warranty (which I recommend regardless of buying new or refurb) you will have nothing to worry about. Also check ebay I bought a last gen 17" powerbook g4 for $1000 about 1 1/2 years ago that still had applecare for a couple months and the thing has been great for web work, photoshop, and even some video editing. Though I would go for a intel based mac book pro now if I was doing it again.
Most professional editing companies use an expensive ass AVID setup. Mac's are pretty common in media though.
85% of video shop have budget for that high dollar stuff. For Doug Mac is the way to go in the long run.
If you're looking for speed, Quad core intel, best one you can afford. I don't know what hardware Macs run these days.
A real Avid suite consist of some big hardware pieces call the Adrenaline, Liquid, and I think there's one more. Avid itself is software but requires a Dongle (usb drive) in order to run. Matt, Mac's are on the quad core Intel too.
I think Mac would be the best bang for your buck Doug. Im assuming you are wanting to edit your race footage and stuff around the shop? You could get a macbook pro and just use IMovie on the rd, I doubt you will need a full fledge Final cut pro suite.
Doug it sounds like you need to be looking for a MAC based on your needs. Can you build one? Technically yes you can. However, I get the feeling you just want something that works and won't have you in the case(under the hood) making adjustments here and there. In all reality a MAC is a name brand PC just like HP or Dell. They even use the same chips now. You can even load OSX on a PC built with the Intel chip (everybody knows this) and there is even a version that loads on an AMD64 now. What does all this mean? How deep do you want to get with it? The MAC will give you an easy buy and video edit out of the box, or save some money but be a little more involved in getting the box setup for what you need. I hope this helps. if it's not running a UNIX kernel it's crap!
Doug you need to get some vids of Lucy like this one.....this video makes me DROOL! http://www.vimeo.com/1975245
I have been a Microsoft guy since 1990. I have build tons of my own computers. XT, AT, 286, 386, 386/387, 486, Pentium, Pentium Pros, Cyrix/IBM 5X86, AMDs... on and on and on... I have installed Microsoft DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1... even used the OPK (OEM Preinstallation Kit). I was one of the first installers of Windows 95. I have been a subscriber of the Microsoft Action Pack.... until now. My Microsoft Action Pack just expired in 10/31/2008... Why have I let it lapse? I went over to the dark side. I bought a Mac. At first it was the Mac mini.... then the iMac... and ...another iMac... then I bought two more Mac minis and will be buying a Macbook Pro... Why? Because Mac hardware is so stable. I have a couple Sony Vaio notebooks that are pretty stable too. The main issue I ran into was that most build your own hardware dies or is so unstable. Another reason for letting my Microsoft Action Pack subsription expire is because the Vaios came with Windows XP Professional, so no extra license is needed. Also the Macs come with their own licenses and other stuff. For simple video editing, Mac is the best way to go.