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Thinking about a Mac Book....
Yall
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I'm a gamer, a musician, and a bit of a videographer.
I currently have an eMac 1.0 ghz, with 80 gig external disk (firewire), in addition to a gaming PC. I use the eMac exclusively for Music/Video editing. Lately the mac is just a pain in the ass. OS is way outdated, (I can't even use the iTunes store anymore without upgrading the OS. arrgghh!!!) and for the small area that it occupies, it takes up a decent amount of space.
I was considering replacing it with a laptop to do the video and editing, and then started thinking about a macbook pro as an alternative. The problem is, I just hate the human factors of mac/apple interfaces. Generally good hardware and 1st party apps, but I've been an apple and pc owner my whole life, and for some reason I just don't get it when it comes to macs (and I'm a developer/analyst!!!).
/rant
What I'm getting at is this: with my natural aversion to apples look and feel, should I just get a decent vista laptop and with the money I save on not buying a mac spent instead on software and external storage? Or is there a compelling reason to own a mac with regards to video/music editing.
I have a feeling there is, and maybe I'm just totally missing it.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts, gang.
I currently have an eMac 1.0 ghz, with 80 gig external disk (firewire), in addition to a gaming PC. I use the eMac exclusively for Music/Video editing. Lately the mac is just a pain in the ass. OS is way outdated, (I can't even use the iTunes store anymore without upgrading the OS. arrgghh!!!) and for the small area that it occupies, it takes up a decent amount of space.
I was considering replacing it with a laptop to do the video and editing, and then started thinking about a macbook pro as an alternative. The problem is, I just hate the human factors of mac/apple interfaces. Generally good hardware and 1st party apps, but I've been an apple and pc owner my whole life, and for some reason I just don't get it when it comes to macs (and I'm a developer/analyst!!!).
/rant
What I'm getting at is this: with my natural aversion to apples look and feel, should I just get a decent vista laptop and with the money I save on not buying a mac spent instead on software and external storage? Or is there a compelling reason to own a mac with regards to video/music editing.
I have a feeling there is, and maybe I'm just totally missing it.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts, gang.
Yall on
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It also has all the shit you could need to do what you want with, especially if you're already well versed in the software.
I'm assuming you are using MacOS 9 on that thing and not OSX? I think OSX is quite a bit nicer and I _HATE_ Apple
Currently, Adobe software doesn't really like the new Macs tooo much, but all that really means is a slightly longer start-up load time for the programs. Built-in programs such as iMovie and iDVD are very convenient to have around. Mostly I do all my work on school G5s (except for 3d, which is done on PCs) with Cintiqs and all that, so the Macbook plays the role of a supporting extra computer very well.
I'm using OS 10.2 (not entirely sure of the version.
I do like final cut, but partculars of my copy make it such that I won't be installing it on a new one.
They are pretty...
Can you do audio and video on a Windows machine, vista included? Sure. It's more headache if you've never really tried it before, and there are some very annoying quirks if you both play games (which use DirectX audio drivers) and do music (which do NOT use DirectX audio drivers).
For video, OS X has CoreImage which is really handy if you're playing with video a lot. There's no iMovie or FCP on Windows, so you're usually stuck using Avid (very expensive and specialty) or Premier (which I personally dislike). There's a handful of other programs I ran across when I was still trying to do video on Windows, but as I'm relatively poor, I can't plink down a few hundred just to see if a video program does what I like as a hobby. Having iMovie free is amazing for that.
What grambo said is essentially the crux of the argument, though. You need to go to where the software is. That's why so many gamers swear by Windows. For audio, there's options on both platforms that are often equivalent. There's less freeware audio apps for OS X but, personally, I've never found a free audio tool on Windows that actually sounded good. Utilities such as MidiOX are useful but rather convoluted, and there are equivalent (and easier to use) apps on OS X.
I use a Windows laptop as a VST host, essentially using it to only run audio apps. It has a $100 PC Card audio card and is controlled via MIDI from the Mac and MPC1k. I've imported video to it via FireWire and Windows Movie Maker. It all works, but I won't say it just happened without some effort on my part. And it continues to work because I don't use it for any games (which love changing your audio driver settings
As for the human factors stuff, do you have an apple store near you? If so, go play with the models in your price ranges to see how you feel about them. Talk to the apple guys there about complaints or concerns you have about using the machines, and they'll likely have good input you can see being used immediately. I can't blame you for not liking OS 10.2; we've got it on a computer here at work (the rest of us are 10.4) and it's really just the beginning of OS X getting "good." I didn't have any real interest in Macs until 10.3 started to appear and shortly after it came out I took the plunge. Before then I had no interest in them as computers.
Just so you know, I have an eMac 1.25ghz, and 10.4 Tiger runs *beautifully* on it.
Given what I've heard about 10.2, if nothing else, I'd suggest upgrading the eMac (I'm assuming you have a decent amount of RAM given what you do). If you still are getting a newer machine, you can always use the Tiger disks that come with it to upgrade the eMac as well.
BTW, as far as your original comment about possibly saving money by going with a Vista-based machine, I know it's an argument done to death around here, but lots of recent articles have pointed out how, at least on the high-end of things, Macs are actually pretty competitively priced, so I don't know if you'd actually save anything significant going that route (having just helped my work choose a new high-end laptop myself, I can personally verify this, but then one person's experience isn't much to go on).
In the end, it *is* entirely about where the software is. Personally, for your areas of interest, IMHO the best software is on the Mac side. But if there's some software you just can't live without on the Windows side, then you should lean more towards that (or consider Parallels or VMWare...all hail virtualization!!)
--mcn
There's no point sticking with Mac just because everyone tells you it's better. If you can't see it, don't do it.
As I was trying to say, there's little reason to not go with the MacBook as long as it suits your needs. Your complaints about the eMac's "human factors" are a red herring. You're using an outdated version of the OS that is not actively supported on a machine that barely kept up with the status quo when it was brand new. I suspect your version of Final Cut is equally old considering it even runs on Jaguar. A new machine with up to date software is going to be a totally different experience. Not only will it come with very capable media apps like iMovie and GarageBand but offer a nice upgrade path to Final Cut and Logic.
Head down to your local Apple Store and check out the damn MacBooks. Price wise they hold up very well to the competition, it's not like a PC notebook is going to save you umpteen hundreds of dollars. For a machine the size, weight, and power of the MacBook you'll spend about the same amount of money. The loss leader PC notebooks aren't worth the hassle, especially loaded with Vista.
One thing I hadn't really considered was a G5. I'm probably going swing by the Apple store today and compare prices and specs. I'll let you guys know if this results in a purchase.
Thanks again!
Any potential legal/license issues aside, that wouldn't work as all the new systems use Intel processors and the OS is compiled for that architecture. We probably won't see a universal binary OS until 10.5 (though they may include a PPC and an x86 version in the package as I'm not sure if you can boot a CD that uses different architectures and boot methods (Open Firmware vs EFI))
Protip: Read the thread, especially the part where he mentions he's running 10.2.