Hey thanks! Yes, I did mean upgrading to 2 cards (the 9400M + 9600M GT).

Actually, I'm not married to windows 7, would be fine with Vista if that's more stable on a mac.

Kinemac looks really cool! I'll have to check that out.

Anyone running Vegas 9 on a mac with Windows 7 or Vista and editing HD (AVCHD) footage? How's performance?

Bluff Titler also uses whatever GPU horsepower you have. With the new template packs this can look stunning, but they need a pretty good graphics card.

Also, I've been doing .mxf HD renders and playing them back with the free Sony .mxf player. This looks incredibly good with the best deinterlace I've seen and studio RGB to computer RGB color conversion to boot, but also uses the graphics card engine.

This is why it's good to have Blinky gone. He would be ridiculing Jeff for switching to a Mac. It's nice that folks can ask questions and be given answers without having their plans second-guessed.

This is why it's good to have Blinky gone. He would be ridiculing Jeff for switching to a Mac. It's nice that folks can ask questions and be given answers without having their plans second-guessed.

Then he shouldn't ask w/o specifying a reason for wanting a mac! Of course people are going to second guess, just like if someone says "I want to buy Boris, how will it work with my projects I'm using?" If there's no plans to use the computer for anything that can't be done on any other cheaper system, people SHOULD be saying "wait, you could be wasting you're $$".

Why get a mac? Just because your PC's old? What are you going to do on the mac you can't do on a new & FAR cheaper PC? Every mac head I know will admit there's nothing they couldn't do on a PC too, they just buy mac's because of the extra help using their computer. IE classes that cost extra $$.

I'd say for the price you're spending on the mac get a $500 PC. No reason not to for the price of a mac.

I just did a quick comparison: cheapest macbook from apple is ~2x more expensive then something comparable from Dell, the $1500 macbook has 2gb more RAM while the $1500 dell has a SD hard drive.

I'd say until you can answer the "why" question then you'll be wasting your $$. Especially if you intend to edit with Vegas.

EDIT: if you're going to mac you might as well pick up a copy of some flavor of FCP. Never used it, but lots of mac people won't buy a PC to use something else, so it's got to be decent for the mac. Just because you want (and like) to use vegas doesn't mean you wouldn't like FCP better and odds are it would be much less hassle to work with.

while I think that the Mac is a nice OS. I'd agree there's no sense in going to it unless you have a reason, or if you're looking to simply test drive the OS ( though a mac mini is a far more affordable means of doing so ).

I would also disagree that it will be less hassle to *work with* some flavor of FCP, however it would probably be less hassle to *get to* FCP as opposed to booting into windows and then Vegas.

Especially if you're a vegas editor from the start ( pretty different workflows ).

Dave

Thanks guys... I'll admit, I was worried this would devolve into a Mac vs PC flamewar. Kudos on the fine folks here!

To snuff out that line of debate completely: Yes, I have a specific reason to need a mac. I need to do some work specifically in Keynote '09 (which is like their Powerpoint) for myself and other folks. I have to get the mac for that anyway. Otherwise, I'd stay a happy PC guy.

"however it would probably be less hassle to *get to* FCP as opposed to booting into windows and then Vegas."

Booting into Windows or OSX is the same, you can dual boot or choose your OS to start automatically.

If you're never going to do anything on the mac side, there really isn't any benefit. You'll find similar hardware configurations on the PC side. If you're interested in OSX, having the option of both platforms is very, very handy in media production. I only use the PC side for Vegas and OSX side for everything else. I just prefer the way the mac side works. To each his own.

You won't be disappointed. They're well built machines.

cheno

i really don't care one way or another, as long as it gets the job done and the cheques come in.....

however, after a long series of 'help' calls from two different people regarding pc problems (not vegas related), all of which were either virus / malware, or fiddling where you shouldn't related, i simply told them to get mac's.

a. i told them i know nothing about mac's (i do, but they know i edit on pc)

b. google will give them all the answers they need, and if not, they can always drive apple care crazy instead of me.

c. for the average user a mac doesn't represent much of a challenge or threat.

d. they've enough money to buy one AND the software replacements, eg, office, ps, etc.,

as it is, after using 7 for a few months now, my mac hasn't been turned on for weeks....

leslie

I need to do some work specifically in Keynote '09

Get the "iWork '09" book by Richard Harrington (yes, that guy, Mr. Photoshop").

Classy, practical way to fast professional results, with a DVD-ROM for lesson files and goodies.

I got a few other titles too, but thought this was the best one.

Trust you know about the KeynotePro templates, they're quite a level above most other Keynote and PPT templates, with lots of "WOW!"

I found Keynote easier to learn than PP and more powerful in many areas (not all).

Microsoft is releasing a new version of Powerpoint next year, which looks to become a lot nicer than the current version which hasn't changed all that much since I started using it in the 1980s.

Fun also to see all the alternative uses people have for Powerpoint as a "general graphics program."

the hassle I spoke of (should have been more specific) is in working in one OS, and then having to shutdown and boot up again into a different OS. I've done enough dual booting to know, that it gets annoying after a while.

Dave

True, but that's why you use Fusion or Parallels. Just a keyclick and you're in the parallel universe.

Or you can put Vegas on the OS X desktop (really!).

Course...

Have you had good luck with Parallels or Fusion? Lack of dual monitor support and firewire were the reasons I never went that direction. Initially on a demo of Fusion, Vegas seemed to run as fast as it did with bootcamp...

cheno

Quick question: I have a bunch of old miniDV tapes that I need to transfer to digital via firewire and an old miniDV camcorder. If I transfer them directly through the OSX side and just save them to disk, will I be able to open them in Vegas on the Windows side (once I get around to installing windows, vegas, etc)?

Or will the be in some unreadable format or hidden when you are logged into the windows side?

Thanks!
Jeff

Vegas doesn't like reading Mac quicktime files, which is what you'd get on the OSX side. There's rumor that newer versions of quicktime on the pc will read mac dv .mov files but I haven't tested this. Don't ever have any come my way I need to work with.

I capture everything to ProRes in Final Cut Pro (which will play back in Windows with Quicktime 7+) and then edit on either system. Biggest drawback on the PC side is Vegas no likie a lot of .mov files on the timeline or media bin.

I'd capture in the OS you'll be doing your editing / DVD authoring from.

cheno

I use both Vegas (PC) and Premiere Pro CS4 (Mac). When I capture straight to the HDD (DV material) on the Mac, I use OnLocation (QuickTime files). I have no difficulty using these in Vegas. YMMV - codecs and the like...

Rick

I started with Parallels when they were the best, then switched to VMWare Fusion when they got better features (and had better support).

They both support multiple monitors since early last year at least.

VMWare said they supported up to 10 monitors accessible from Windows, and they used to demo a setup with 8 monitors "not sweating it at all."

There is a new Parallels 5, but I'd stick with Fusion anyway because the company is more solid. All that corporate use has resulted in support taking problem reports more seriously.

I ingest via SDI since years, so I can't advise on tape capture through firewire.

Last night I helped a friend who was going to buy a MacBook (the consumer model). I showed him this one instead, a MacBook Pro with a 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo on a 1066 MHz bus, 2 GB DDR3 RAM (expandable to 8 GB), LED-backlit widescreen display, SD card slot, 7-hour Lithium-polymer battery that is designed to last 1000 cycles (vs. 250 or so for regular Li-Ion batteries), 8x Combo Drive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW), 802.11n Wi-Fi, illuminated keyboard (great for editing in a dark room), aluminum unibody (carved from a single block of aluminum) and more.

$999.00 for a factory-refurb with a full 1-year warranty, extendable to 3 years for about $150 (which is much less than typical computer store plans). No rebate hassle.

So what's the catch? This model has a 13.3" screen, great for mobility but less so for editing (1280x800 resolution, was great not that long ago :O). So for heavy editing, hook up a 24" monitor (as little as $179 nowadays and you may have one already). You can still use the notebook screen together with it.

If you prefer a 17" 1920x1200 resolution notebook, there's this one, with 4GB /320GB and an anti-glare LED-backlit screen that is so good it practically brings tears to my eyes whenever I see it (it really is that good). But it's $1,999, also without any rebate hassle.

What would you suggest for a desktop mac, running Vegas with Fusion and Adobe CS4.

I still think hackintosh is a viable solution.

Same hardware, just buy an OS from apple and run a hackintosh via OSx86 (Google it if you want to know more).

Dave

A lot of the pro outfits that equip editors and post artists now push the 27" iMacs for this.

The 27" iMacs are available with an ATI Radeon HD 4850 GPU, which provides very very good performance also for GPU-accelerated apps, and is very pleasant for Vegas.

The question is if you need SDI I/O or need to use other expansion cards. If so, you need to go to a Mac Pro, from ~$2,150 (well, I have SDI I/O also for my MacBook Pro through an AJA IO).

If you're editing for a living, it seems a bit too exciting to use a Hackintosh, and software vendor support could be a challenge. If you get a problem with Fusion or Adobe CS4, they'll likely choke when the error logs show you're running a "Hackintosh."

So, here's what I think I'll do:
1) Create a windows 7 partition with bootcamp
2) install vmware Fusion 3
3) run vegas 9 through Fusion 3
----- or-----
3) run vegas 9 through direct boot to windows if performance is sluggish

How much space should I alot to the windows 7 partition if I plan to be editing in Vegas? (or will any scratch/temp folders be outside that partition?)

Your plan is what I plan to do when I switch from XP to 7.

Will you be running anything else in the Windows 7 partition?

Some people here run incredibly small partitions, I'm not sure how they do it.

Hey Course, I have a quick question for you (it is off this topic) but you mentioned that you use the AJA IO I have been wondering how the heck do you pronounce AJA is it A J A or is it like saying Aha, just something I have been wondering.... :-)

Paul B

Also to be on topic the new 27 inch Imacs have been looking very good to me. I really want to learn Final cut, but I dont want to give up my Vegas and dont want to spent a boatload of money for a Mac.