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Thank you for your thoughtful and thorough
commentary.
I've never had any formal PC training. I have
watched various tutorials at freevlog etc. and I can see why people say Mac's
are much more intuitive. I've been reading discussions far beyond my
comprehension on all of this and am reasonably certain I want to end up using
Final Cut Pro.
However, while reading the intro to a book about
it, they advised "against" attempting to dive directly into Final Cut Pro.
I ended up buying a book on Final Cut Express and reading about "nondestructive
editing" versus "destructive editing" makes me feel like I should just get a Mac
with iMovie or with Express Cut Pro ($300). I could upgrade to Final Cut
Pro later.
I have been spending six to ten hours daily for the
past couple months researching, watching blogs, etc. I fully expect
working with video and vlogging to be the central part of my life in the near
future. I've already shot over twenty hours of mini-dv footage for a
documentary I am working on for street fairs over the past couple months.
I am retired and have no other interests that can compete with video at this
time.
That made your comments here especially
interesting:
On the editing front,
I mean for example that
there is a great compositing software called
Motion 2 which ships with the
full Fina Cut Studio. It makes use of
lots of CPU and graphics card power
& RAM, in order to try to do as
much stuff in realtime as possible,
rather than having to render the
content in non-realtime. Its good because
when you are in the middle
of creating something (eg an elaborate title
sequence) you can see all
the changes straight awa in high quality, the
workflow is smooth and
that means a lot regarding enjoying the
process.
I definitely want to keep my options open to HD
video, that is exactly why I want to go with the G5 tower and all the specs
given in the price quote. I've been hanging out at the Apple store quite a
bit and have attended several of their workshops. In fact, I have an
appointment tonight at the Genius Bar in SoHo to discuss the options with
them.
I really don't want to make a mistake like I did
while buying the $800 Sony HC42 without realizing it didn't have a plug-in for a
wireless mike. It had been several years since my last "flurry" of filming
with my Hi-8 camera.
Certain things like the internal harddrives I
believe have to be in your original configuration. The 8GB I believe could
be added later just like upgrading to Final Cut Pro from Express. I am
going to make a decision by Monday because there comes a point where you have to
make a decision.
Thanks again Steve for your thoughts. I met
someone else at the NYC Vloggers meeting who also thought PCs gave more bang for
the buck and were better than Macs in many ways.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 1:19
PM
Subject: [videoblogging] Re: Advice
needed on computer and camera purchase
Heres what I think:
Mac isnt the only sensible
choice, PC for video editing makes sense.
It depends on quite a few
factors, such as what you are used to. And
really how much you enjoy the
editing software thats available for the
platform is probably the single
biggest factor.
Final Cut Pro is not cheap, as your quote demonstrates.
Now it is
certainly worth the money if you love it, its a package that is
loved
by many, but some people prefer other choices. This may affect
the
Mac/PC decision, so I would advise getting a demo of Final Cut
Pro
before you spend that sort of money.
Maybe you already know you
want to use Final Cut Pro for sure, could
you give some more clues in
general as to which of your choices you
are already more certain of,
whether youd like the cost to be much
less etc?
Moving on to the
power of the machine, I suggest that comes down to
how much of your life
you are planning to spend editing & compressing
stuff. What sort of
volume of workload are we talking about? Are you
going to be editing and
encoding minutes or hours of video per week?
The main factors which
determine what power of PC you need are how
sophisticated a editing you
want to do is, and how long you are going
to want to spend waiting for
footage to encode. On the editing front,
I mean for example that there is a
great compositing software called
Motion 2 which ships with the full Fina
Cut Studio. It makes use of
lots of CPU and graphics card power & RAM,
in order to try to do as
much stuff in realtime as possible, rather than
having to render the
content in non-realtime. Its good because when you are
in the middle
of creating something (eg an elaborate title sequence) you
can see all
the changes straight awa in high quality, the workflow is
smooth and
that means a lot regarding enjoying the process.
Bear in
mind that in terms of performance:price ratio, PCs get you
much more bang
for your buck. So you could spend less money on a PC
and achieve faster
encoding of footage than the equivalently priced Mac.
All PCs and Macs
that currently exist will be out of date at certain
things in years.
But pretty much all current PCs and Macs can edit
video quite nicely, so if
you are still doing the same sorts of things
in 2 years, they wont be
obsolete at all. An example of going out of
date as it relates to video
editing could be if you are interested in
High Definition video. This takes
more power during editing/encoding
missions, so will benefit from increased
speed of machines ina year
or 2s time.
If you definately want
a Mac but dont like the look of that quote, the
iMac G5's are quite nice
and a lot cheaper. Ive got the 2Ghz 20"
version, got it a few months back,
and its handling video stuff quite
nicely. In contrast the Mac Mini that I
got previously was not really
up to the job, it can do it, but I wouldnt
want to spend too long per
day using it as an editing machine, just a bit
too slow. The Mac is
more enjoyable to use, but the much cheaper PC that
sits next to it
beats it hands down for footage compression times. But the
PC is more
noisy so its annoying to even have it switched on.
I cant
really give any camera advice.
Anyway this is just my opinion, hope its
of some use, if I were you Id
spend a while hanging round an Apple sotre
and seeing if you like what
you see.
Cheers
Steve of
Elbows
--- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Randolfe Wicker
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> I am having great difficulty deciding
what level of computer I
should buy. My current Gateway computer is
seven years old and
doesn't have the capacity to either process film or
burn a DVD.
>
>
>
> I know I have to get a
new computer. I've spend several weeks on
filmmaker sights
like
>
> http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/ I
know I have to get a Mac because my
main focus will be turning my digital
videos into vlogs and documentaries.
>
>
>
>
A professional who produces cable TV shows on a regular basis gave
me
specifications for a computer that I would probably never outgrow.
He told
me B&H Photo was probably a better place to buy Macs than the
Apple
Store.
>
>
>
> I submitted my specs to
B&H Photo and got the following quote. The
problem is that I feel
like I might be buying a new jet airplane
before I even have my pilot's
license.
>
>
>
> I'll post the specs and
prices here. I would appreciate any
comments from those of you who
have experience. I don't want to make
a mistake. I bought the
newest HC42 Sony Mini-Dv camera for $800 (one
chip) and discovered later
that it didn't have a plug in for a
wireless mike.
>
>
>
> For filmmaking, I know I will need a three-chip
camera. I liked
this fellow's suggestion of getting a Sony HVR HDV/DV
camera for $3200
because it can shoot in the format of one's
choosing.
>
>
>
> I intend to start with
vlogging and then slowly master editing so I
can produce full-length
documentaries. I know vlogging can be done
with minimal resolution
video. I just want to get a Mac that I won't
find useless a couple
years down the pike.
>
>
>
> Here are the
specs and the prices. Please share your experiences.
I've never
owned a Mac and never really mastered Windows XP.
>
>
>
>
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Qty Brand Item Description Price Total
>
>
SKU#/Catalog#
>
>
================================================================================
>
> 1 APPLE 2.7G/DP/2x256/400/6800/BL TTH/TRAIN/REG 3,599.00
3,599.00
>
> #APPM27YJ/
>
> This Item Has Free
Shipping.
>
> CONSISTS OF:
>
> 1 APPLE
2.7G/DP/2x256/400/6800/BL TTH/AP EXTRM/REG
>
>
#APPM27Y/Z0BM001VT
>
> This Item Has Free Shipping.
>
> 1 MAGNET-MEDIA OS TIGER TRAINING DISC/REG
>
>
#MAOSTT/INSTIGDVDAM
>
> This Item Has Free Shipping.
>
> 8 TRANSCEND 1-GB DDR-DIMM (PC3200)/REG 199.00 1,592.00
>
> #TR1DD3200Q/TS128MLD64V4
>
> 1 APPLE 3-YEAR APPLECARE
F/POWERMAC G SERIES/REG 239.00 239.00
>
>
#APACPM/M8850LLA
>
>
>
> 1 HITACHI 400GB
SERIAL ATA DRIVE/REG 399.00 399.00
>
> #HISAHD400/0A30229
>
> 1 APPLE FINALCUT STUDIO SOFTWARE w/FREE TRNING/REG 1,279.95
1,279.95
>
> #APFCSQJ/M9911ZA
>
>
>
> CONSISTS OF:
>
> 1 APPLE FINALCUT STUDIO EDITING
SOFTWARE/REG
>
>
>
> #APFCSQ/M9911ZA
>
>
>
> 1 MAGNET-MEDIA DVD: INSIDE APPLES FINAL CUT
STUDIO/REG
>
> #MAFCST/
>
> This Item Has Free
Shipping.
>
> 1 B&H-PHOTO RAM & SOFTWARE INSTALLATION/REG
249.95 249.95
>
> #BHINSTALL2/
>
> =========
>
> a.. Total: 7,358.90
> b..
> Randolfe (Randy) Wicker
>
>
> Videographer,
Writer, Activist
> Advisor: The Immortality Institute
> Hoboken,
NJ
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