Windows Or Mac???

[IDlike2thankTHEacademy]

hi, just getting into filmmmmaking, going to filmschool next semester, seems that most assignements will be shot in minidv and edited on G4's/ imovie4.
mac seems to be the system of choice in the industry from the little i have learned so far - is that true?
i am looking for a reason to dump my aging desk- and laptop and get just one laptop.

so should i get a powerbook? should i get a g4? (over a $1000) or go for a g3 (500) and maybe upgrade?
what size of memory and harddrive do i need to get?is the superdrive dvd burner necessary?


has anyone made the switch and was it hard? there seems to be very little free software for mac on download.com

is it generally pain/ expensive to get software?

what is the big deal about mac's? are they so much faster?
would it not be better to spend the money on a windows-based laptop with twice the speed?

is mac good for computer-based music-making?

why did search for 'mac' yield nothing at all?

thanks much!

 

[Boz Uriel]

Hey welcome to the board, I hope you enjoy your stay.

Ahh the age old question, PC or Mac. This will rage on and on.

If I were you, I'd call the film school and get the names of a couple instructors and ask them. Or maybe this has been asked so many times that the information desk already knows the answer. Another good source would be recent grads. I would say if the school caters to Mac's, get a Mac.

WARNING: The following answers are provided for your information and possible entertainment. They do not necessarily reflect the IndieTalk message board, it's affiliates, partners or members.

Mac's suck.

I'm a techie, have been all my life. I can build a PC to your specifications and guaranty my work. All you have to do is answer a bunch of questions and I will build you box tailored to fit your needs. Every Mac I've ever touched, in five minutes I've wanted to use it for target practice.

has anyone made the switch and was it hard? Ask 'spinner' she's going through the process right now.

is it generally pain/ expensive to get software? Yes / True of both

Are Mac's faster? No

what is the big deal about mac's? You could ask the same question about Saturn cars (probably not funny to non-US residents). Mac users are all part of a brainwashed cult. They actively recruit members and (I'm told) do strange things to small woodland creatures.

would it not be better to spend the money on a windows-based laptop with twice the speed? Yes

is mac good for computer-based music-making? Don't know, never tried.

why did search for 'mac' yield nothing at all? My guess is you're using the search incorrectly.

If you buy a Mac you will find a very large support network of Mac users, who like yourself, are completely lost and drifting in a technical world that refuses to open itself up and offer it's true essence to the masses.

But that's JMHO.

 

[learnfilmonline]

Ok man listen to who you want, I have both i love computers to death I love Pc's just as much as I love Mac's. But if your thinking about diving into the film world you have to go mac man, not saying pCs can't handle the job they can. But all my macs have out lasted all my PC's, and as for viruses spyware what my mac has never been infected with any virus. So yes you will pay more I won't lie, but I have a house payment and i still stick with macs. So every PC user is going to say that Mac users are a cult get real people, we just know what we like.....Good Luck.

P.S this post was made by a Mac powerbook G4, and I didnt even get one popup...

 

[knightly]

macs suck to pc folk...and pc's suck to mac folk.

I use both...I prefer mac...I'm mac folk.
I could make the same arguments about PC's that boz made about the macs. It's what you're used to that makes the difference. truth be told...they're both about the same at doing stuff.

 

[Ricky Dash]

LOL, that was a good Question though... I've own nuthing but PCs, and have premiere pro, Liquid Edition, Vegas... ect. I was truely blown away with what a friend of mine created with his MAC using Final Cut Pro 3. So much that I just picked one up (G4). It's not the best but should get the job done. I also picked up Final Cut Pro HD with Live Type, and Motion. I know that it's going to be alot to take in, especially when I have no clue on how to do anything on a MAC.

 

[Thunderclap]

I used to use PC's exclusively but two years ago I made the switch to Mac. Was it hard? No.

Why do I now choose a Mac over PC? Several reasons: my PC kept getting bogged down with spyware and viruses. I used Premiere to edit on and I consistently had problems with it (i.e. render issues, program glitches and flat out crashes). I also generally have a lot of programs open at once for multi-tasking... Windows had a tough time with it and would usually crash a program or the whole OS within 30 minutes. These problems may have been alleviated in those two years but I doubt it.

Mac, on the other hand, has been making leaps and bounds over the last several years. They constantly have updates, I rarely have problems with Final Cut Pro, I can have many programs open at once with no slow down, and it feels good to give money to someone other than Microsoft

The best advice I can give is to go to an Apple store and play with one of the Mac's there yourself. See if it feels right to you. Do the same with PC. Experiment on both and make your decision off of that.

 

[directorlca]

As far as the processors go, if you can start on a G4, do that.

 

[Beeblebrox]

mac seems to be the system of choice in the industry from the little i have learned so far - is that true?

Yes.

so should i get a powerbook? should i get a g4? (over a $1000) or go for a g3 (500) and maybe upgrade?

Powerbook is your best bet for an editing laptop. Get a G4.

what size of memory and harddrive do i need to get?is the superdrive dvd burner necessary?

Max out the RAM. Get as big an external Firewire drive as you can afford. A Superdrive is handy but not necessary.

has anyone made the switch and was it hard?

No. I use both PCs and Macs everyday. They are very similar, with minor differences that aren't too difficult to overcome.

there seems to be very little free software for mac on download.com

is it generally pain/ expensive to get software?

The Mac has less software, but what it does have tends to be very good. What you're mostly interested in for editing is FCP or iMovie (which is free and comes with it), Photoshop, AE or Shake. Those are all expensive, high end apps but as a student you can get substantial discounts.

what is the big deal about mac's?

They are nice, but I don't find them any significantly better than Windows PCs.

are they so much faster?

No.

would it not be better to spend the money on a windows-based laptop with twice the speed?

Not if you're going to be a filmmaker.

is mac good for computer-based music-making?

Yes. In fact, Garageband, which comes free, is a VERY useful tool for music creation and mixing.

 

[vvalverde]

Okay, since the student discount has come up, I have to know. Doea buying the program with the student or teacher discoutn really give the exact program as if you or I who aren't either were to buy it? B?c if it is, now I am seriously going to kick myself in the a**. anyone bought either FInal cut or Avid with the student discount?

 

[knightly]

good software site for the mac (and windows):
http://www.versiontracker.com

good editing package (expensive, but not completely out of reach):
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio (don't forget to check for student discounts)

good free editing apps:
http://www.apple.com/iMovie
http://www.avid.com/freedv/index.asp

G4 will handle editing just fine...I have a dual 1.42 Ghz Machine at home and it works about as fast as a 3-4ish Ghz PIII

of course, the G5 at work screams through renders like I have extra free time...I used to use that time for getting coffee and takingout the garbage.

 

[Beeblebrox]

ODoea buying the program with the student or teacher discoutn really give the exact program as if you or I who aren't either were to buy it? B?c if it is, now I am seriously going to kick myself in the a**. anyone bought either FInal cut or Avid with the student discount?

It depends. Some student versions are disables, others aren't. I bought the student version of Premiere Pro and it's fully functional. I believe the same is true of FCP. The student version of Maya is disabled from commerical use, however, but then again it's also totally free. You have to check with the manufacturer.

 

[tableware]

I've used both. I'm currently using a Powermac G5, and I've found it much more efficient than any PC I've used. (The PCs at work crash during word processing tasks.) And OS X looks much nicer than Windows.

It's also been really easy to switch.

 

[DirectorX]

Microsoft makes Windows XP Pro and Home. One crashes often, the other [much more] often. Interesting to note that Apple makes only one version of OS X. I believe this version is (so much) richer in features, secuirty and stability than any version of Windows money can buy today.

Besides that, out of the box, with a Mac purchase you get iLife. You can already start making movies/music without buying anything else. I don't even want to talk about Windows Movie Maker. iMovie can even edit HD. I don't even know if Premiere can do that out of the box yet. On Mac you also have the choice between Final Cut Pro and Premiere.

would it not be better to spend the money on a windows-based laptop with twice the speed?

A Powerbook is made of Alluminun, its keyboard lights up (very cool feature), has wireless internet ,bluetooth , USB 2.0, Firewire 400 & 800, DVD+-RW/CDRW (some have only CDRW with DVD-ROM), Gigabit ethernet, all standard. You can swap batteries if you're out in the field without turning it off and each battery show's you it's charge level at the push of a button. I don't think there's anything else you can put in it that it does not have.

 

[rdoblas]

Alright, well I work for the applestore in Boca Raton. Definately for film and videoediting you want to go with a mac. Why, because the video editing program iMovie is a very simple and easy to use application. When I first got into macs like 2 years ago it started with this program which lead to me learning final cut pro HD without too much trouble. If you are sure you want to go portable with a laptop I would definately recommend the 15'" powerbook G4 with a superdrive(only because if you want to burn your movies onto a playable DVD then you will need the superdrive). If you wouldnt mind going desktop(which i would recommend) than you can get a brand new iMac G5 with a superdrive for $1499. This computer is much faster than the laptop about .5 GHz faster in macs and about 1.15GHz interms of PC language. The laptop will cost you about $2299. Either or gotta love the mac.

 

[Beeblebrox]

Microsoft makes Windows XP Pro and Home. One crashes often, the other [much more] often

I don't want to start a flame war, but this is such a mound of FUD. There is little if any difference in the inherent stability between Windows XP and OS X. In fact, in all the time I've been using both side by side, OS X has suffered only one kernal panic, and XP has suffered none. That's a negligible difference.

I'm all for recommending the Mac for video editing, specifically for FCP, but I don't think this kind of misinformation is necessary to do that.

 

[DirectorX]

I don't want to start a flame war, but this is such a mound of FUD.

Me either, so please relax.

I don't think this kind of misinformation is necessary to do that.

My comment was based on my experiences. I demanded a lot from my PC and my Mac. My first Mac was slower and older than my PC.

I don't feel I am biased in any way. I remember when I first used Mac (Mac OS 9.x) I found it very akward. Just changing the volume was a hassle (for me anyway). It took a while for me to not like, but just accept Macs in general [yes, I used to hate them]. But since then, I think they have conquered more land than Windows in terms of reliability. After all, if you were to ask random Windows users on the street what comes to mind when they think of Windows more would say something like the "Blue screen of Death, CTRL-ALT-DELETE, etc." I think less Mac users, if asked the same question in respect to Mac OS would have such negative answers.

 

[Beeblebrox]

My comment was based on my experiences.

Based on MY experience, I could say that OS X was much less stable than Windows because of my kernal panic, but that wouldn't make it true, now would it?

The BSOD is largely a relic of the past (and I don't just mean my personal experience) apart from running the most buggy, crappy software or software. And even then, it's usually a matter of shutting down that application, much like Force Quit on the Mac.

So again, OS X is not inherently that much more stable, if at all, than XP. There are plenty of reasons to choose a Mac over a PC. This isn't one of them.

 

[knightly]

No offense but, I must say that this is the most bizarre mac vs. pc debate I've ever been privy to. Thank you, carry on.

 

[phoenix]

I work for a major computer company and I get paid to play with the new hardware coming out, one thing I try out is how quickly I can start up and how stable Pinnacle 9 is. Now I must say that I am part of the pentium line of computers, but I also use a mac at my house. I think that you should ask your profs what software they are going to be requesting and let that deside for you,