Migrating PC to Mac

[lonny]

I am very tempted by a new 24" imac to replace my home pc and I know this is a topic that has been discussed before but I have a few questions which I don't think have been covered and would appreciate comments on :

- PSP movie conversion. At the moment I use pspvideo9 on the pc which is good. Is there a mac equivalent - i've done some googling and found ipsp but reviews are mixed - any other suggestions?

- I need simple word processing abilities - just to keep cv uptodate and do the odd letter. What are the cheap/free alternatives here? I've heard of openoffice - is this any good?

- I need a decent bit torrent client - something like azereus?

- iTunes - I'm thinking of getting an ipod as well to replace existing mp3 player and at present I have about 15MB of mp3 & wma music (no DRM on the wma). I thought that itunes could convert from wma into its internal format but having read other threads today I have seen that only pc itunes can do the wma conversion and I got that working today. I am happy enough to do the conversion on the pc before I buy the mac but I would need some sort of migration procedure to get all my files to the new mac - can I just copy all the files in the MyMusic/iTunes/iTunesMusic directories or will the new mac refuse to recognise these files even though there is no drm??

A last resort is to use parallels on the new mac but I really want to get away from ms altogether. I have a Dell pc with a legit copy of xp home on it which will be redundant once I get the mac - can I use this license of xp on the new mac? is this easy to do??

Thanks,

Lonny

[eyebeebe]

Azureus is a java based client, and is available for the Mac.

A copy of Parallels is highly recommended as there are quite a lot of websites which don't seem to like Safari.

AFAIK there is nothing to stop you transferring the XP licence to Parallels.

WMV support was very patchy but seems to be improving as time goes on. I'd have thought it the same for WMA.

No idea about PSP things but I wouldn't have thought it would be a problem. (You can always use Parallels for it though).

ETA I think OpenOffice is the same across all its versions. Why not download the Windows version and have a look. I looked at it a few years ago and it seemed powerful enough for what you want it for. No doubt it has improved since then.

Edited by eyebeebe on Saturday 30th December 21:50

[m12_nathan]

The Dell license will be an OEM one so not transferrable to parellels.

[oldskool]

"Bits on wheels" for torrents:-

www.bitsonwheels.com

And iSquint for video conversion:-

www.isquint.org/getit.php

Edited by oldskool on Saturday 30th December 22:23

[mrsimba]

I love the mac's too...

I'm just always put off by the thought that the slightly more obscure software just is not compatible,

Office, Photoshop, Quark, Acrobat, ect are all Mac compatable

BUT... If you want to update your Snoopers database (or Origin) your stuffed as they don't offer Mac support

[ThePassenger]

In terms of the everyday software. Office, Thunderbird, Firefox have OS X versions, so you can dump Safari and .Mail if you wanted to. 90% of the extensions for FF and TB are platform agnostic so Windows, OS X, Linux... doesn't really matter to them.

Things like updating a Snooper are difficult, although Parallels / BootCamp can be put to good use. Don't quote me, but since the move to x86 hardware WINE might also be an option.

On OS X, iTunes is the default music player, it might do the 'Windows' formats you've mentioned; however VLC is also available to OS X and it will play WMA/WMV files. PSP video transcoder... it's probably a front end to ffmepg or some such and wouldn't surprise me if ffmpegX doesn't have a 'do PSP' default option.

[The Dude]

PSP movie conversion - FFMPEGX. You also have the benefit of possibly one of the best video conversion programs ever. And it's free.

Word Processing - Open Office or more specifically Neo Office (OSX port of Open Office) - it's free and does pretty much everything MS Office does.

Torrents - I use BitTorrent.

iTunes. There's loads of free OS X programs to do the conversion, dead easy. One of the best is "Switch" (but when I just checked their site seems to be down). Personally, given you only have a small amount of WMA files, I'd just rip the CDs again to MP3 as converting from a lossy format to another one you are bound to get some degredation - may or may not be noticable depending on your listening setup and original quality of the WMA files but I'm just picky Once converted just add them to your new library on the Mac, job done. You could convert them on the PC too (funnily enough you can get the Switch program I mentioned on Windows), then copy over to Mac, add to library in iTunes and you're done.

XP Licence. Yes you can transfer it. I rang MS and did mine (to use on Bootcamp but the principle is the same) and they were actually quite helpful, talked me through the procedure on the phone.

[eyebeebe]

ThePassenger said:

Things like updating a Snooper are difficult, although Parallels / BootCamp can be put to good use. Don't quote me, but since the move to x86 hardware WINE might also be an option.

Don't know about using BootCamp but DON'T use Parallels for updating a Snooper. I tried to update my Indago with it and ended up with the process crashing half way through leaving me with a wiped SD card and a trip back to Snooper for the unit for a reprogram!

[malman]

The Dude said:

XP Licence. Yes you can transfer it. I rang MS and did mine (to use on Bootcamp but the principle is the same) and they were actually quite helpful, talked me through the procedure on the phone.

Either the person at MS doesn't understand their own OEM licence, or they didn't realise it was an OEM licence, or you had a retail boxed copy.

if its OEM it comes with the PC and dies with the PC
retail can be transfered thats why its more expensive to buy

Dell licences are OEM they cannot be transfered

[Leithen]

Back to the proposed purchase of the 24" iMac - although I doubt the model will change substancialy, wait until the MacWorld Expo has taken place Mid-Jan. Mr Jobs likes to pull rabbits out of the bag and there is always the likelyhood of spec changes/upgrades after the event.

[ThePassenger]

Leithen said:

Back to the proposed purchase of the 24" iMac - although I doubt the model will change substancialy, wait until the MacWorld Expo has taken place Mid-Jan. Mr Jobs likes to pull rabbits out of the bag and there is always the likelyhood of spec changes/upgrades after the event.

*Puts on prediction hat*

Preview of OS X 10.5
iLife 07
iWork 07
Minor upgrades (faster procs, memory upgrade?) to the existing range. Possibility of a 30" super iMac... doubtful.

I don't think Apple have anything major up their sleeves to be honest.

[lonny]

Thanks for the suggestions guys - much appreciated. Of course my 15MB wma collection is actually 15GB - still manage to confuse those 2... It looks as if the conversion tools are out there

I will probably wait for leopard and if I have to I can buy parallels + a winxp license for about £100 on amazon so maybe that's the way to go.

[page3]

ThePassenger said:

I don't think Apple have anything major up their sleeves to be honest.

There should at least be 'iTV' which is good timing to replace my ageing Neuston. Rumours also suggest the possibility of a Video iPod and MacProne - although they always predict these two. None of these affect the purchase of an iMac, of course.

[page3]

lonny said:

I will probably wait for leopard and if I have to I can buy parallels + a winxp license for about £100 on amazon so maybe that's the way to go.

Waiting for Leopard is a good idea if you can resist that long.

Of all the people I know who have just moved to Mac, all of them intended to dual boot or run Parallels. None have done so. I'd recommend seeing how you get on with the Mac alternatives before going the dual boot/Parallels route. You could be pleasantly surprised. Obviously, if you need to run a specific bit of PC software, then that's another matter.

[HiRich]

lonny said:

I will probably wait for leopard and if I have to I can buy parallels + a winxp license for about £100 on amazon so maybe that's the way to go.

It's definitely worth waiting until the Jan 9th announcement, then watch the reports to understand what it means, and watch for talk of another announcement a fortnight later (a common trick)
When Leopard was previewed in September, it clearly wasn't the whole story - in fact Steve Jobs said as much. Expect at least one wow feature, which might be very significant to you, now that it's too late for Vista to incorporate something similar.
Also in September Jobs went through the digital hub/digital lifestyle strategy ("Apple in the den, Apple in the living room, Apple in your car, Apple in your pocket". In itself fascinating, I think this is where hardware developments are going to be seen (ie not the actual computers). iTV will probably come, and there are clues that it actually does more than originally promised. Similarly, the long rumoured MacPhone may arrive - rumour has it in production since December.
And let's not forget that intel announced the quad-core chip went into production in December. I wouldn't put it past Apple to throw a couple in a PowerMac with Leopard for a headline 8-processor machine.

For utilities, you could do worse than a few hours searching www.versiontracker.com

[jimothy]

lonny said:

PSP movie conversion. At the moment I use pspvideo9 on the pc which is good. Is there a mac equivalent - i've done some googling and found ipsp but reviews are mixed - any other suggestions?

Handbrake

http://handbrake.m0k.org/