Buy A Mac or Build a computer for HD Editing.

[Boxing Filmmaker]

I soon will be getting a Canon T2i or 7D (footage is basically the same so doesn't matter).

I downloaded some raw test footages of it and it lags horrible when I try to edit in Sony Vegas in my laptop.

I am thinking of building a computer to edit HD videos once I get an HD camera. Should I buy a mac because I hear those are perfect for editing videos plus I can use Final Cut Pro. Or should I build my own Windows computer (I would build a MAC computer but I hear that's not even allowed)? Sorry for my lack of experience in computers, but that's what I need to know.

Thanks.

 

[chilipie]

You might not even need a new computer. The video from Canon DSLRs is encoded as H.264, which is a very compressed delivery codec, not an editing codec. You can get fantastic looking video for web download at relatively small file sizes, but ultimately it is designed for watching video, not editing it.

If your laptop is quite old and/or underspecced anyway you might still want to consider upgrading, but first have a look at software like Cineform's Neoscene, which will convert your H.264 clips into something a lot more manageable.

Finally, are you using an external hard drive as a scratch disk? This is recommended whether you're on a laptop or a desktop, as it makes it quicker to access footage and saves wearing out your system disk as quickly. It is even more pertinent on a laptop though, as laptop HDDs are often smaller (physically, not data capacity - 2.5" v 3.5") and thus denser, leading to slower data access. If you haven't already, I would strongly recommend investing in a a largeish external HDD (probably at least 500GB) for HD video editing, and one with faster connections than USB 2.0 - Firewire 400, Firewire 800 or eSata.

Hope this has been some help.