PC or Mac?

[Bartman]

I've donned my full flame suit for this thread as I expect it to get a bit heated but I've got to know, if I choose to buy a new computer in the next few months should I buy a PC or a Mac?

I've got my trusty Canon T2i that will remain in use and I'll probably buy a Sony Nex5N also this winter. Knowing that, is one computer or the other better if I want to be able to edit HD video in their native format?

For the benefit of others (and, to be honest, me) let's talk in layman's terms so we can put down a bit of an education on file formats and software preferences if the discussion goes in that direction.

Having had four Dell computers and a Gateway 2000, I'm biased towards buying another PC but I can be talked out of it.

Thanks in advance for the help and info.

Bart

 

[wayno complaino]

In any other conversation i would say Mac hands down BUT, nearly all set up clients for multirotor FC's need windows so if you get a Mac you'll need it to run windows in bootcamp/parallels anyway. And your already a PC guy....

I feel dirty now recomending a PC, yuck!

 

[Mactadpole]

For the longest time I used a mac. Then when I started to do a lot more GIS and molecular work I went with a PC because more programs ran on those than the mac and I had access to plenty of macs at school. I loved my PC (17" Dell XPS laptop, yeah its a gaming computer but also worked great for what I needed it to do) but once mac came out with the intel chips I went back to mac because I could boot it up as a PC for processor/memory hungry programs or just use parallels to run the pc side from inside OSX for not so demanding programs. I would never go back to owning a PC box. I only have had laptop's so to make my office more friendly I have a 27" samsung monitor and one of those stands to put my mac on next to it and that way I have really nice dual screens. Wireless keyboard and mouse and its awesome. My current mac blow's away many of my colleagues PC's when doing GIS or running genetic analyses on the pc side (windows 7).

17" Macbook Pro (high-res matte)
2.4ghz quad-core i7
8g ram
500g 7200rpm hard drive

Will be curious to see what others have to say too.

Shawn

 

[hugh4g]

Photography.... Mac... only choice

Hugh

 

[gadgetkeith]

hi there bart

my personal exp

i have custom built many pc systems over the years for myself and friends

and have a lot of friends who use macs also

from what i have seen and expirenced from both is great

but to put it in to laymans terms

audio and music etc = mac hands down

video and photography =pc hands down

both pc and mac software can be run on either system with the correct hardware

just each system shines slightly better with one or the other

its a personal choice what is it gonna get most used for

keith

 

[Bartman]

i'm a bit surprised that the mac isn't getting unanimous support.

thanks for the replies.
Bart

 

[gadgetkeith]

one last thing if you go pc route

dont buy off the shelf

do a self build

its so easy and you wont have to compromise

you can have the best of everything

if you buy the latest and greatest you will pay the price

hardware that has been about for a few months is considerably cheaper than stuff thats just been released

if money is no problem then go for what ever

but technology moves at such a pace that even the best is out of date in a few months nowadays

if you are looking for some self build advice you welcome to pm me

keith

 

[Mactadpole]

video and photography =pc hands down

keith

I have to disagree with the photography part of this statement. My wife is a professional photographer and we know several other pro photographers and all use Mac. I don't know about the video side of things.

Shawn

 

[DucktileMedia]

One thing too is that if you get a Nex or any AVCHD camera, the mac has no idea what that is without conversion or dropping it into an editor. i hate it as I ilike the smooth flow of viewing the .mov files straight out of the canon.
That and having to have windows run on your nice clean mac just SUCKS!

I have sold off all my PC's and am all MAC now. I love them and will NEVER go back. but they do have a place when small developers write software. You will get the same performance for a lot less money in a PC but it is still using windows. The mac OS architecture is superior to windows in every way.

 

[BorisS]

Iris what about VLC, for direct opening of AVCHD *.mts files. Works for me.

Boris

 

[DennyR]

The fact is that most industry professionals need both. It is what your clients have as much as what you have and what software you are using. The latest Mac's support AVCHD straight onto FCP. But if you have an old one then you need a ShedworX converter. Most multirotor software stuff does not need a high end machine so an older machine will do.

If you want to do high end video work then a Mac is easier to use but 10K min. to get a pro level machine that can work with 4K red etc. If you want to use Adobe CS-5.5 / Mocha, etc. Then you can build a good PC machine for under 5K. All systems require multiple drives and high end video cards to do the job efficiently. Forget laptops for anything but field capture and playback. The Gap between FCP and Premier/After effects has narrowed and in some respects Adobe is more capable. TV news gathering stations seem to favor PC systems (Typically Avid) whilst Advertising media/Indy film makers is more for Mac users.

If what you want is a simple to use device for uploading to utube and vimeo then you don't need anything but the software that came with your camera (usually PC).

 

[Jules_B]

The fact is that most industry professionals need both. It is what your clients have as much as what you have and what software you are using.

Very true, we run two Mac Pros as full HD edit setups and for post production, but then also run two very high-spec PCs for 3D visualisation work. So it definitely, for me at least, comes down to what you're trying to achieve. I'd never say one or the other is better or worse, both are great at what they do. The Macs run FCP solidly and the PCs run stuff like 3D Max natively. The PCs can come into their own a bit when you need to put together a custom system, which is what I've done, as you have more choice with components such as graphics cards, etc. So, if you need a powerful workhorse then you can specify the motherboard, the processor, etc., etc., and fine-time to get the results you need. With the Mac that avenue is more of a dead-end. And then of course there's overclocking, but that's a different topic altogether, but very useful. In a nutshell I'd say both are great, but I'd sway towards saying Mac for video/photography and PC for more specialised stuff. But that's only based on my needs, everyone else will be different.

 

[gadgetkeith]

overclocking with pcs is like fine tuning a race car engine to get max performance

this is what drives the pace of tech out in the real world

there is far more hardware and software available for pcs vastly more developers etc etc "Macs are catching up "

best bang per $$ power and perfomance =pc due to more development

macs were origonaly designed as a home computer where as a pc was designed for the office and pros PCs have the lead at the moment

who knows what the future will bring

but as for pro editing or what ever you want

its all down to the user operator in the end depends what system you have trained on or feel more at ease with etc etc

the skill is always in the user operator to get the best out of the software hardware combinations available

so from asking whats best mac or pc you will always get a 50/50 mixed bag of answers and opinions from user operators

in the end you yourself must decide what system is the one for you

its a personal thing and always will be

keith

 

[Bartman]

Iris what about VLC, for direct opening of AVCHD *.mts files. Works for me.

Boris

what is VLC? it allows viewing and editing of AVCHD files directly from the SD card?

what format are the files from the Sony camera? AVCHD is the resident format for Canon, no?

 

[BorisS]

what is VLC? it allows viewing and editing of AVCHD files directly from the SD card?

what format are the files from the Sony camera? AVCHD is the resident format for Canon, no?

Quicktime dosent have AVCHD codec thus doesent let you play the files for a quick view. VLC http://www.videolan.org/ lets you view the files quickly. Otherwise is use FCP to transfer the files in. But it converts them to prores which takes time. So VLC the only method i know of to just view the files.

Boris

 

[Bartman]

I'm approaching the point where my kopter and mount will be mature enough to be used without much further development so my next hurdle is learning to capture good video and edit it to be a presentable product. I'm not anticipating any academy awards in the near future but I'd like to be able to work from the files the camera creates and be able to skip the process of converting to lower resolution before being able to edit. As it is now (totally irrelevant given the age of my machine) I have to convert to a pseudo-HD format to even be able to watch video without skipping and stuttering which drives me crazy. Thanks for the help. I wouldn't have guessed that the PC would have been given even a small amount of respect in the conversation so that's good to see. Having had a PC on my desk since 1992 I'm a bit likely to go that route if it doesn't create a bottleneck in my ability to work with video files.
Build your own though? I had friends that did that way back but I've always been a Dell.com kind of guy. I suppose I could give it a try as I've done my own (and everybody else's in my family circle) repair and troubleshooting over the years. Maybe a build thread of a high end PC is in order along with a newb's perspective on video software and editing?
Bart

 

[Bartman]

Quicktime dosent have AVCHD codec thus doesent let you play the files for a quick view. VLC http://www.videolan.org/ lets you view the files quickly. Otherwise is use FCP to transfer the files in. But it convert them to prores which take time. So VLC i the only method i know of to just view the files.

Boris

Thanks for explaining that Boris.
Bart

 

[DennyR]

.
macs were origonaly designed as a home computer where as a pc was designed for the office and pros PCs have the lead at the moment Quote



It is only in the last two years that PC's have come anywhere near the level of video editing performance that Mac's have achieved. However the complatency that comes with being top dog allowed Adobe to catch up.

 

[redridinghood]

It's more like what flavor ice cream do you like or what color is best.
That's it unless you work on CGI's. Computer generated images are usually left for the pc boys.

Price wise you can custom build a pc that does the job better, faster and cheaper.

 

[DucktileMedia]

Boris, thanks for the VLC idea. I never thought of using it on the mac. I bought Aunsoft's converter and it is great but it wont play my 1080 60p files without glitching. And my macpro is MORE than capable of the task. Conversions take horsepower.

Bart, if you are in a PC household and you are used to it without complaints of viruses or windows complexities, then get another pc. You dont need to spend twice as much for what you are doing. You just want to be able to have enough power to use the latest formats. Anything you buy now will do it. A PC with the i7 will cost 1/3 that of a mac pro. Spend the extra money on a nice monitor and graphics card. It's easy to get carried away with specs. At the end of the day it is the creative mind that outperforms the fastest hardware.