Huskergirl

Its about time to get a new computer and we are in a dilemma about what will be the best option. Currently we have a 6 year old HP, nothing fancy but it has worked well for us. Bryan does some gaming and I do some graphics and thats about it. Through Bryan's bonus program at work we have the option of getting just about any computer we want.

We are looking at switching to Mac since I am getting back to my roots and starting to do a lot of film and graphics work again. However, there is a debate that Windows PCs are now just as effective. I'm good at applications but I'm sadly ignorant when it come to comparing operating systems.

We are looking at the Mac G5 or 17" Powerbook G4. We will have to buy the monitor for the G5 which is costly, and keep in mind we have to switch all of our programs too.

What is your advice? Should we make the switch? If we do, why should we spend the extra for the G5 over the Powerbook? I will really appreciate your comments!

Dante(suzuka)

Old school wisdom said that Adobe and other software makers created thier programs for Macs. That's not entirely true anymore. Likewise you can get most of the PC games in Mac version these days with low hassle. The most important part is going to be your video card and RAM. And I beleive it's still true that it's easier to ahem, 'aquire' programs for PC's as opposed to Macs. Arggg, Matey!

JimmyB

Huskergirl, Cecelia and I say hello. Since a lot of my past has been in both marketing and business applications I might be able to offer up some advice. From a professional view in I am a firm believer that Windows is a remarkable tool when it comes to an overall sound solution. However if a majority of your work will be focused mainly around graphic design and video production than your better alternative will be thew MAC. If your choice is MAC I would suggest that you wait until the new MAC comes out. I last heard that it was going to be released around the latter part of October. Hopefully this will be of some assistance.
Take care,
Jim

cashout

WARNING --- VERY LONG REPLY!!!

Huskergirl,

I made the switch to Mac back in January. Similar situation to yours (6 yr old compaq).
My main issue was video editing. I just could not find a better way to do what I wanted to do for the money without going for a Mac. I got a powerbook and it has just been great.

Here is the summary of my experience so far:

HARDWARE:
Powerbook is less expandable than a comparable PC laptop (Only memory and ONE PCMCIA card can be added)
Powerbook has pretty much all you need built in
- 2 USB ports (v2)
- Modem
- Ethernet (Network)
- Firewire (NO PC LAPTOP HAS THIS AND ABOUT 50% PC DESKTOPS STILL DONT HAVE IT)
- You have the choice of getting a built in DVD-R burner. This is pretty handy for VEditing.
(I got an external one because I thought I'd eventually hook it up to a PC... but
that does not look like it is going to happen..)
- Multiple display support. That is you can view something on the laptops LCD and something else on an external monitor. It is great for video editing and graphics work. This is only available on the powerbook not on the ibook (for the G5 you need a special video card). This is not possible on a PC laptop.
The resolution on the smaller Powerbook is 1024*768 and it looks great. You forget very easily that it is only 12 inches. 12 inch PC laptops don't look so good.
The power adapter for the Powerbook is smaller than a PC laptop and you can get a cable to plug it into a plane seat. For a laptop PC you need to buy (and carry around) a whole new adaptor just for the airplane.
The powerbook is jut too darn SEXY! No PC offering comes even close!
DOWNSIDE: There is no such thing as a docking station for the Powerbook. That really bothered me at the beginning. Still does sometimes.....

The G5 is also a pretty darn good machine. I can't comment on it since I don't own one.

Operating system:
As far as realiability, viruses and performance the MacOsX V10.3 (Panther) beats Windows hands down. I leave the laptop running for weeks without a problem (only turn it off to move it). You never get "low resources or out of virtual memory" errors. Not even my newer (3.2 Ghz 512Mb Ram) PC at work running win 2003 server (I do web development) stays up as long. I have to reboot it at least once a week.
Because the MacOSX is unix based you don't have to deal with dll hell like you do on
windows (although I have been writing some .Net stuff at work and it is pretty cool in that regards too. Not many software is based in .net yet)

Software:
You can get pretty much anything you need. There is a mac version of Office and Outlook. The mac does not suffer from the lack of software it once did.
Unlike what Dante said, you can also *get* most software via 'friends'. The four words you need to know are limewire, broadband, saltmine and versiontracker... nuff said!
HOWEVER, you don't need to change any of your non graphics software!!
I use Virtual PC. This program lets you run a windows environment inside your mac. You run all your old software inthere. My wife only uses the programs we have in the virtual PC and is happy as a clam. The only downside is that using a USB printer with VPC requires you to turn the printer on AFTER you have started the virtual PC and gone into full screen mode. This irritates the heck out of my wife...
Also, VPC is not recommeded for gaming.


CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST.....

cashout

VIDEO EDITING:
Like they say: "Girl, video editing on a Mac is better than sex!!" (If they don't say it, they outgh to)

I used video editing software on a PC before. I also spent 3 months last year
looking at PC based video editing software and the only one that
felt right for me was Adobe Premiere. One look at Imovie and I was hooked!
For about $900 less than Adobe you get most of what you need to do
video editing. Nothing on a PC compares to it. If you want all that Adobe Premiere
offers you can upgrade to Final Cut Pro (which I did).

For DVD authoring you have IDVD which like Imovie beats anything on a PC (short of
really expensive stuff). If you want pro stuff you can go to DVD Studio Pro (which
I also did. But mostly because IDVD only works with the internal DVD-R burner - that
I don't have)


Ok. Enough of the good things. Here are some bad things:

1. No docking station
2. Less expandable
3. More expensive (maybe not so much nowadays)


Before I forget, You mentioned something about having to buy a Mac display. Not necessary. I am using my 4 year old 17" monitor that I got for the PC when the orignal monitor died. The powerbook came with a little adapter. It was plug and play.So I am pretty sure you can use any analog PC monitor (even LCD). Unless ofcourse you want to have the 20 something inch widescreen apple monitor...

cashout

Third and hopefully last post:


Why would I go back to PC?
If you are like me and my wife, we sometimes 'overbook' the computer. No big disputes but lots of teasing and eye rolling....
Sure, you could just buy another laptop but it is not the same. No nice desk setup, phone within hand reach, have to move files around, etc.... you know what I mean.

There is this software that is only available for PCs that allows you to have up to 5 people using the same computer at the same time. All you need is to add USB keyboards, mice and get extra monitors.

The beauty of it is that since you are all using the same computer you can do a few things:
- No need to move files around between laptops
- No need for a file server
- No need for a network switch and bother about sharing the internet connection
- All software installed on the computer is available to everyone.
- The program sets up different profiles for each user so there is no need to put up with each others desktop preferences. Even if you had two laptops you would from time to time have to deal with this.
- You can buy the biggest meanest PC you can afford without having to try and get one 'good' computer for Vediting and one 'not so good' for mundane tasks. The program gives you all the power of the computer if it is available.

cashout

Last post I promise!!!

Here is a pic of my setup.
On the shelf you can see the Firewire hub, the USB hub, DSL Modem (under the hubs), DVD burner, Firewire Video Drive (which can also be hooked directly to a video camera - very neat trick shooting video without using a tape!) and USB Jukebox.
Under the big printer you can see the PC which hasn't been turned on since Feb...

Zangerzone

Cashout

Got a question for ya and I may have some more questions later. 1st off, do you feel that your G4 powerbook is adequate for video editing/movies or would it be better with a G5 because of it's dual processors?

cashout

The G4 is adecuate for most things. With Imovie the rendering is realtime (except for titles and transitions) and there is no complaint from here. Transitions and titles take 5-10 secons to render but they are rendered as you create them so there is no big wait at the end.

With Final cut there is more rendering involved if you do two video streams (Picture in picture) and it can take a while depending on how long the mix is. I usually don't mind it taking 10 minutes to render two streams of video that are 1 minute long. This is because by the time I have the two clips cued up to the exact frame, music and effects I am ready to take a 10 minute break anyway :-)

The part where I wish I had a dual G5 (or even a dual PC workstation) is in the dvd burning process. The output from Final Cut and Imovie has to be re-compressed into what is called
MPEG Transport Stream. This usually takes a very long time (With the MACOS you can do something else on the computer in the mean time without fear of crashing it - but that just adds to the recompression time). For the Fall Colors Video (40+ minutes) it took almost 3 hours to create the Transport Stream (Only done for the first copy)

Also, the Internal DVD burner is much slower than the external ones you can get (another reason I went that way). THe internal burner is only 2X whilst the external TDK I got is 4x for DVD-R and 8x for DVD+R. The difference in speed is felt more because you have to wait an extra 10 minutes when burning the first copy of the dvd ON TOP of the recompression time.


Before I forget: There is something in the processor of the 15 and 17" Powerbooks that makes them faster. I forget what it is but I only found out after I had my 12" Powerbook for a month. I remember wishing I had known before.

Lets also not forget that you don't wanna do video editing with anything less than 764MB of RAM!

Zangerzone

what is the current hourly rate these days for freelance work in video editing?