New Mac for video editing

TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/30/2012, 9:00 AM
So my dad wants to get a mac for video editing. I'd like Mac users to give their pluses/minuses on the editing on the mac.

Assume he'd want to use Vegas (so that means boot camp+Windows 7), burn to DVD and capture via firewire. He also uses publisher and powerpoint for lots of things.

Editing on Vegas is iffy but he uses my camera so he needs to capture video somehow and I have an HDV camera. PowerPoint he uses a LOT for work and publisher he uses for him promotions company to make the flyers/etc.

So, and good points, bad points, what should he get/avoid/etc.

Comments

ddm wrote on 7/30/2012, 5:48 PM
If he's not a diehard Vegas user, he would probably do just as well with the new final cut on the mac. It's cheaper than vegas and it's full featured as well. Office is also available. If he was a Vegas expert, might be a different story, but it's a lot of hoops to jump thru, and pricey, once you throw in Windows 7 and Vegas. I'm not a final cut fan but it is a capable program.
John_Cline wrote on 7/30/2012, 6:05 PM
I've never seen a Mac-only program that was cool enough for me to go buy a Mac just to run the program. Otherwise, they are just seriously overpriced, aesthetically pretty computers. If he primarily wants to run Vegas, just buy a PC and save a boatload of money. If he's going to buy into the whole rigid Mac-centric way of doing things, then maybe FCP is the way to go.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/30/2012, 6:25 PM
We went to the apple store and the big show stopper atm is no way to make a DVD. Call it old fashioned, but everyone he deals with wants a DVD. They don't want to go to a URL and a flash for everyone is expensive, but iMovie doesn't support mpeg-2/ac3 rendering and there's no DVD burner included.

I gotta say though, they have a great sales team: they answered every question, if they couldn't they got someone who could. If MS put together a store like that a couple years ago, Steve Jobs would of sued them to stop it would be so rediciliously successful. The next store we went to a clerk couldn't help us at all.

He's going to contact Dell and see what they can offer for the same price.
RalphM wrote on 7/31/2012, 3:37 PM
Be aware of the disappearing firewire port issue when buying a new machine...
RZ wrote on 7/31/2012, 3:57 PM
In fact there are microsoft stores similar to apple stores. In fact I bought my Alienware a few months ago. Very interesting place. Check it out.

RZ
TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/31/2012, 5:32 PM
re: firewire
He would have to buy a thunderbolt to firewire adapter. And an HDMI adapter too.

re: MS stores
We checked and there's no PC specific stores anywhere around. I wanted to go to one too. I recommended alienware/dell to him. He liked his old dell.
CorTed wrote on 7/31/2012, 5:37 PM
Just curious, what is your Dad's push to go with a Mac this time around?

Ted
[r]Evolution wrote on 7/31/2012, 5:37 PM
Be aware of the disappearing firewire port issue when buying a new machine...

Mine disappears/drops off and comes back periodically. Very annoying. Especially when you're project &/or media is on that drive.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/31/2012, 9:01 PM
Just curious, what is your Dad's push to go with a Mac this time around?

He has never had great success with windows PC's. They all have had issues for one reason or another: parts would die, software crash, etc. Custom build, off the shelf, doesn't matter. His latest laptop (Sony) had some com-surugiot(?) error that wouldn't let him play or edit any video on his machine. He gave it to someone to fix (someone different then the previous time because the previous guy just wiped the HD and never said anything so all his non-backed up work was lost) and should of gotten it back today, three weeks later. I told him to let me have a quick look and see what's up (not sure why he didn't in the first place).

His previous laptop (dell) had a cooling fan die (twice I think?), the HD die and the WiFi card die. He had the extra warranty stuff on that one so it costs him nothing but a day or two down time each instance. His external drive's controller died a couple months after he bought it but that was also covered under warranty. That laptop was about three years old when he got the Sony.

He knows a couple people who use mac's and they said they never have any issues. I told him they don't do anything to crash their computer, that's why. :) One of them was my sister and I reminded him that her first car had no issues until the engine seized up because she ignored the check engine light for several months and all the oil leaked out. :)

It's not a paranoid thing either, it's every PC he's owned after the Tandy XT he got when I was a kid.

To put it in perspective, I lived in the same house for years under the same conditions and my computers never had a piece of hardware fail, unless it was my direct fault (static's a real PITA). He has a wood stove in his current house. I have a wood furnace in my basement and my computer is down there too (not a finished basement).

So his last idea is to switch to a Mac. I'd imagine their tech support would go nuts with him. :)
Kimberly wrote on 8/1/2012, 8:31 AM
He's going to contact Dell and see what they can offer for the same price.

You will find firewire on Dell's [u]Precision Mobile Workstation[u] models. For that matter, you will find it on the "workstation" level modls for HP and some of the other big names too.

Good luck with the new computer!







TheHappyFriar wrote on 8/2/2012, 5:48 AM
He might not end up getting a new machine now. He let me look at his computer yesterday after he got it back from the guy who had it for three weeks and still didn't fix the issue.

There was a codec pack installed and quicktime. I uninstalled both. I got the crash to stop. Vegas still wouldn't start so I told him to uninstall it, delete the "program files/sony" folder and then reinstall Vegas.

It works now!