PC/Mac for video/phot manipulation
Discussion
Current PC is too old and slow to do much bar load and store video and photos so I'm looking for an upgrade, (current machine already maxed out on memory and CPU on a 5+ year old mboard..)
Other than email, web browsing and maybe the odd bit of office type work, the only job the machine will have to do is stitch together video to burn on DVD and manipulate some photos I have.
Through work I can get a 5-10% discount on macs depending on spec, but they still look pricey compared to pcs. The only work like this I've done in the past was on a mac and it was a lot faster and more straightforward..
I know the skys the limit in terms of price/spec, but what would be a reasonable range for home use like this?
Other than email, web browsing and maybe the odd bit of office type work, the only job the machine will have to do is stitch together video to burn on DVD and manipulate some photos I have.
Through work I can get a 5-10% discount on macs depending on spec, but they still look pricey compared to pcs. The only work like this I've done in the past was on a mac and it was a lot faster and more straightforward..
I know the skys the limit in terms of price/spec, but what would be a reasonable range for home use like this?
Pretty much any Mac will be fine (I have a G4 iBook that does movie editing fairly quickly)
I will be getting an iMac when I can afford it. Limited on upgrade, but then not much need to upgrade macs unless you want the very latest and greatest software (I have a 7 year old iMac, that will edit video & photos, just not as quickly as the iBook).
I doubt you will need the power of a Mac Pro, and the mini is a little handicapped (integrated video) unless you already have (usb) keyboard & mouse and a decent monitor, which makes it the cheap option.
So down to what you want to spend really.
Sparks
I will be getting an iMac when I can afford it. Limited on upgrade, but then not much need to upgrade macs unless you want the very latest and greatest software (I have a 7 year old iMac, that will edit video & photos, just not as quickly as the iBook).
I doubt you will need the power of a Mac Pro, and the mini is a little handicapped (integrated video) unless you already have (usb) keyboard & mouse and a decent monitor, which makes it the cheap option.
So down to what you want to spend really.
Sparks
From what I saw on the Gadget Show when they were doing some tests with HD video cameras, a MacBook coped extremely well with the editing and transitions for this. Considering the MacBook is the cheapest in the range I was rather impressed. I would suggest a MacBook Pro would be fantastic for this type of job - and not that expensive in reality. Do not forget that if you get something like iLife with the Mac its got the video and picture editing software which is quite good to start with. Although some Windows PC's come with bundled applications to do this, they are not a patch on the commercial ones and this might cost a bit of cash.
I have tried doing some video editing in the past on a PC and failed miserably. I think the Mac is better for this. Is it a desktop or laptop you are looking for? For a desktop consider the iMac or laptop the MacBook Pro. For a Windows machine, get the most memory and the spankiest video card you can - it makes a MASSIVE difference. Anything that is just a simple built-in card is worth passing by (unless its the very latest high performance ones). Also, think carefully if you want Vista or XP. Vista still seems to suffer with poor performing video drivers - although some are MUCH better than the XP versions. Again, the spankiest cards have great support so do a bit of checking (I have a Dell with a Nvidia card in it and the performance is crap!).
I have tried doing some video editing in the past on a PC and failed miserably. I think the Mac is better for this. Is it a desktop or laptop you are looking for? For a desktop consider the iMac or laptop the MacBook Pro. For a Windows machine, get the most memory and the spankiest video card you can - it makes a MASSIVE difference. Anything that is just a simple built-in card is worth passing by (unless its the very latest high performance ones). Also, think carefully if you want Vista or XP. Vista still seems to suffer with poor performing video drivers - although some are MUCH better than the XP versions. Again, the spankiest cards have great support so do a bit of checking (I have a Dell with a Nvidia card in it and the performance is crap!).
A Mac may look a bit pricey however look what you get included, the iLife suite comes with iPhoto and iMovieHD which will do your video editing easily and reliably, it's what I use. Plus you get a computer that rarely crashes, hangs and has no known Virus problems, well worth a few pounds more.
cjs said:
A Mac may look a bit pricey however look what you get included, the iLife suite comes with iPhoto and iMovieHD which will do your video editing easily and reliably, it's what I use. Plus you get a computer that rarely crashes, hangs and has no known Virus problems, well worth a few pounds more.
Thats pretty much what I was thinking. No real need to go for a PC or Mac specifically, but Macs look on paper to me to be more capable. Have the space for a desktop, but equally happy with a laptop sized machine.. Hmm, 
time for a visit to the Apple Store when next in London..Been looking into this myself recently; need a laptop that I can edit video on, run Lightroom and Photoshop PS3 etc.
Ended up comparing the Dell XPS1730 with the Mac Book Pro 17" and even though I'm a Mac owner I've got to admit it's likely to be the Dell that will win.
At 17" screen size the Dell is offering 1920 X 1200 resolution, has dual SLI video cards, dual 7200rpm disks, 2.3Ghz Core Duos etc etc. It also has an almost full size keyboard and enough IO ports (firewire, USB, s-video etc) to make it a sensible proposition for this kind of work.
For video editing you can pick up a fully licensed copy of Adobe Premiere Elements from Adobe's own store for about £60 so even though it's not included it's not exactly a great cost.
Ended up comparing the Dell XPS1730 with the Mac Book Pro 17" and even though I'm a Mac owner I've got to admit it's likely to be the Dell that will win.
At 17" screen size the Dell is offering 1920 X 1200 resolution, has dual SLI video cards, dual 7200rpm disks, 2.3Ghz Core Duos etc etc. It also has an almost full size keyboard and enough IO ports (firewire, USB, s-video etc) to make it a sensible proposition for this kind of work.
For video editing you can pick up a fully licensed copy of Adobe Premiere Elements from Adobe's own store for about £60 so even though it's not included it's not exactly a great cost.
GnuBee said:
Been looking into this myself recently; need a laptop that I can edit video on, run Lightroom and Photoshop PS3 etc.
Ended up comparing the Dell XPS1730 with the Mac Book Pro 17" and even though I'm a Mac owner I've got to admit it's likely to be the Dell that will win.
At 17" screen size the Dell is offering 1920 X 1200 resolution, has dual SLI video cards, dual 7200rpm disks, 2.3Ghz Core Duos etc etc. It also has an almost full size keyboard and enough IO ports (firewire, USB, s-video etc) to make it a sensible proposition for this kind of work.
For video editing you can pick up a fully licensed copy of Adobe Premiere Elements from Adobe's own store for about £60 so even though it's not included it's not exactly a great cost.
That's one hell of a brick.....Ended up comparing the Dell XPS1730 with the Mac Book Pro 17" and even though I'm a Mac owner I've got to admit it's likely to be the Dell that will win.
At 17" screen size the Dell is offering 1920 X 1200 resolution, has dual SLI video cards, dual 7200rpm disks, 2.3Ghz Core Duos etc etc. It also has an almost full size keyboard and enough IO ports (firewire, USB, s-video etc) to make it a sensible proposition for this kind of work.
For video editing you can pick up a fully licensed copy of Adobe Premiere Elements from Adobe's own store for about £60 so even though it's not included it's not exactly a great cost.
Leithen said:
That's one hell of a brick.....
^^ what he saidWe've got quite a few big XPS laptops here at work, and whilst they're impressively powerful machines, nobody bothers taking them anywhere any more because they're just too big and heavy (and the power supplies are like house bricks). They're also horrendously ugly, so nobody can bear the shame of being seen off-site with them
IMHO if you want a laptop, compromise a bit to get something that's actually portable like a 15inch MacBook Pro or 15inch Dell XPS (or Precision, if you want something that doesn't look like it was styled by a Max Power reader). If you want uber power then stick with a desktop.
Time to take Pod for a 
and leave him to sort out my PC. Yes - it's a big box by anyones standard but you need a screen that big if you're playing with Photoshop with largish images and want the palettes open.
With something like Premiere Elements it also means there's enough space to see multiple timelines.
The 7200 spinners will make sure that you can realistically edit video and that an 85mb PSD file doesn't take an hour or so to load.
I don't know where the OP is pitching themselves in terms of photo and video manipulation though - if it's just home stuff and tinkering then this is over the top and I'll concur that a Mac Book or smaller MB Pro will be fine - if it's commercial stuff, long videos or heavily manipulated images then they're going to need the horsepower that something like the Dell will deliver.
I suspect it'll run on battery power for about 1/2 hour though.
You can get similar spec from Alienware but it'll cost more although you can then opt for the raid SSD drives.
With something like Premiere Elements it also means there's enough space to see multiple timelines.
The 7200 spinners will make sure that you can realistically edit video and that an 85mb PSD file doesn't take an hour or so to load.
I don't know where the OP is pitching themselves in terms of photo and video manipulation though - if it's just home stuff and tinkering then this is over the top and I'll concur that a Mac Book or smaller MB Pro will be fine - if it's commercial stuff, long videos or heavily manipulated images then they're going to need the horsepower that something like the Dell will deliver.
I suspect it'll run on battery power for about 1/2 hour though.
You can get similar spec from Alienware but it'll cost more although you can then opt for the raid SSD drives.
GnuBee said:
I don't know where the OP is pitching themselves in terms of photo and video manipulation though - if it's just home stuff and tinkering then this is over the top and I'll concur that a Mac Book or smaller MB Pro will be fine.
Home stuff and tinkering. As it was all shot by an idiot, its not likely to get better with post processing. A quick tinker with a laptop at work confirms that my old machine at home is well past its sell-by date; I uploaded half my images and videos in about 10 minutes from the external drive whereas it took nearly all day to do the same on the PC at home. Time for a change..
I have a 2.2 Macbook with 4Gb of Ram, it will run Final Cut Pro Studio in OSX 10.5 with no problems, even Motion runs ok.
When booted into Vista it will run the complete Adobe CS3 collection without hiccup, even complex after effects stuff.
The screen resolution could be a bit higher, but then you compromise with a larger footprint. Recommended.
Macbook will do the job, a MacBook Pro a better job, a Mac Pro excellent job. Go for the mid spec on each range and you will be fine.
The Macs are considered more expensive but in reality they aren't once you compare spec for spec and add the iLife etc.
When booted into Vista it will run the complete Adobe CS3 collection without hiccup, even complex after effects stuff.
The screen resolution could be a bit higher, but then you compromise with a larger footprint. Recommended.
Macbook will do the job, a MacBook Pro a better job, a Mac Pro excellent job. Go for the mid spec on each range and you will be fine.
The Macs are considered more expensive but in reality they aren't once you compare spec for spec and add the iLife etc.
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