editing 20h of hdv footage for $5000 : mac or pc ?
by Benoît Des Roches
on
Aug 30, 2009 at 11:35:13 pm
Good evening,
I'm an amateur filmmaker. I switched to a Sony V1U camera, filming 20 hours in HDV, 30p this summer and having a lot of stills. I need to upgrade my PC. I'm torn between switching to Mac or staying with PC. My budget is $5000, max. It boils down to Vista Ultimate 64 SP1's vs Mac's interface stability, power invested in the hardware, and ease and versatility of the editing software( FCP 7 vs Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 vs Sony Vegas Pro 9.0a), as I understand, so far.
I've been with Vegas 7 for DV editing and had many crashes. I wonder if Mac is more stable and worth investing in vs staying with PC but being deprived of FCP...I would like an educated opinion, please. Thank you very much for considering my question, as to whether I go Mac or PC.
Re: editing 20h of hdv footage for $5000 : mac or pc ? by Fred Jodry on Sep 1, 2009 at 5:04:29 pm
Beno^it, t sounds like you don`t have quite enough money to get out of your DV Vegas 7 groundhog hole complete with it`s lots of... crashes but that`s my first plain guess.
1. You are an Amateur not Pro editor and this will be your first edit with the new equipment (?) A new Mac Pro with no mods will cost you $2900. Add to this, bought software, cards, cables (and more cables), test equipment and boxes, those $30 headphones you`ve been needing, blank software, "Kitchen Sink CD", FCP etc!, maybe a Jaz drive for flipping medium- short sequences (and rushes) the easiest way, and more. A Bamboo mouse and favorite keyboard etc. could do absolute wonders to reducing errors but costs at least $100. How about the price of extra electricity at your (home?) doing this. Your wallet will say ouch! Going to the next Mac down, a Mac Mini sounds somewhat low horsepower but more important, not as upgradable, and even more more important, not as modifyable.
2. Number two is not an observation but a suggestion. Find as many Mac buddys near you as possible and this will help your education and guessing area a lot, a whole lot. Remember though that most of them are audio heads not video heads... (Pros), therefore you`ll need to buy some different hardware than they use.
3. Since this is a platform war and war is war, how about a donated or found Athlon 64 and tossing iAtkos on it (repeatedly until you get it right) then go Mac the rest of the way?
My experience with digital Sony cameras usually comes from still camera Sonys not video ones but with moving video before the snap. The black levels and white levels constantly noodle up and down about 5 ire or 5% (ire and percent are nearly the same value as each other) leaving a honey trail of video errors to patch. Looking at a Sony on an oscilloscope can be pretty sickenning.
Find some private Program Exchanges for marketting when you`re done.
Tell us how you did, audio, lessons and all, you hear?
editing 20h of hdv footage for $5000 : mac or pc ?
by Benoît Des Roches on Aug 30, 2009 at 7:35:13 pm
Good evening,
I'm an amateur filmmaker. I switched to a Sony V1U camera, filming 20 hours in HDV, 30p this summer and having a lot of stills. I need to upgrade my PC. I'm torn between switching to Mac or staying with PC. My budget is $5000, max. It boils down to Vista Ultimate 64 SP1's vs Mac's interface stability, power invested in the hardware, and ease and versatility of the editing software( FCP 7 vs Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 vs Sony Vegas Pro 9.0a), as I understand, so far.
I've been with Vegas 7 for DV editing and had many crashes. I wonder if Mac is more stable and worth investing in vs staying with PC but being deprived of FCP...I would like an educated opinion, please. Thank you very much for considering my question, as to whether I go Mac or PC.
