New Editing Platform

Exar Khun

I plan on going to film school next year and was considering buying a new platform to allow me to do work at home or when I'm not on campus. The school uses Unix based machines. I should probably look into what program they use.
Now I am aware of the popularity of Apples Final cut pro in independant film making circles and was considering a Mac. However I don't own a mac or have ever owned one. I am not against them I just never used one. I was also considering buying components for a PC as I am far more used to these. Do apple hardware specs equate directly to PC specifications ?
I was wondering aside from the benefits of the various programs associated with either windows, OSX or even Unix for film editing. Which would be more prudent to buy a mac or regular PC in terms or performance to cost ratio?
I originally posted this in the computers and hardware section as I was unaware this forum existed and due to the more computer related aspect of this thread over the editing nature of it. I was just wondering if anyone had any insight into a decent rig for editing. I am sorry if I have over simplified this matter in the extreme.....

Thank you.

monkeyfudge

Avid or Final Cut Pro are the two big editing packages out there.

Neither of which are on Unix.

Could they perhaps be talking about OSX which is based on Unix? In which case might be Final Cut Pro that you'd be looking at.

Spec wise PCs and Macs are pretty much the same now that all the Mac's are intel based. Also if you do decide to go with a Mac there is educational pricing that you should be able to avail of.

Exar Khun

Yeah I was thinking Mac too as I said. A laptop would be great but I don't think I could justify spending for the MAcbook Pro. Are there workstation options?

monkeyfudge

Well the new iMac family was just launched today and seem to be nicely priced.

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/irlstore?family=iMac

e999 for the following 20" iMac:

* 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB memory
* 250GB hard drive1
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive
* ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB

And it's e938.96 on educational pricing. I'd look at getting aditional RAM elsewhere as they tend to charge quite a bit to have it pre-installed.

I've 3 PowerMac based editing systems here in work running Final Cut Pro. But You're talking around 3 grand for one of them.

Exar Khun

Thats fairly reasonable, i imagine I'd like something in the middle of that family/entry level to Uber powered super computer divide

extopia

I'm an FCP user myself but it's worth checking out the educational pricing on Avid Media Composer software, now that they've announced discontinuation of Avid Express and reduced pricing significantly for educo users...

That said, FCP is an unbelievable value.

nessymon

i bought Media Composer during the week - 269 euro plus vat and posting - academic version - cant go wrong

Morf3h

Sup G,

Mac's are feckin' deadly. I'm sure you've heard me say it before. I could even give u a tutorial in FCP or whatever.

Here's why you should get a mac:

1. OSX. Once you get to know the interface, you'll never go back. It takes some effort on your part but it's the most user-friendly UI i've used.

2. Despite the price on the website, you can actually get a 20% discount by claiming you are a "Student Developer". I did this for my new MBP and paid 2000 for a 2450 laptop. Basically you email them proof of student enrollment and pay 100 euro to enter the "Apple Student Developer Program." The 100 bucks is paid back straight away! The ASD program is great as well, I got a copy of Leopard for free!

3. FCP is a brilliant piece of software. I've done loads on it and when coupled with it's bundled software, Shake and Motion, you can produce some really cool stuff. Along with the other pro applications such as Aperture, it's a beast of a multi-media machine. You may find that the college will put something towards the cost of editing software, and if that fails, there's always the less legal option. (FCP is over 300 euro!)

4. Apple Support. Apple's website and help documents are outstanding. FCP Ships with millions of video tutorials, most of which is available online too. Any problem is covered, believe me i've checked!

5. Windies compatible. XP can be installed in a matter of minutes on the new macs. So if you can't tear urself away from DOD Source, you can always create a 20/30Gb partition for Windows. There's no way you're getting OSX on a regular PC hardware.

Tbh i'd go for the lowest spec Mac Pro, or get a nice iMac 24" if you can afford it.

Any questions lemme know.

Peace

portomar

Morf3h wrote: »

Sup G,

Mac's are feckin' deadly. I'm sure you've heard me say it before. I could even give u a tutorial in FCP or whatever.

Here's why you should get a mac:

1. OSX. Once you get to know the interface, you'll never go back. It takes some effort on your part but it's the most user-friendly UI i've used.

2. Despite the price on the website, you can actually get a 20% discount by claiming you are a "Student Developer". I did this for my new MBP and paid 2000 for a 2450 laptop. Basically you email them proof of student enrollment and pay 100 euro to enter the "Apple Student Developer Program." The 100 bucks is paid back straight away! The ASD program is great as well, I got a copy of Leopard for free!

3. FCP is a brilliant piece of software. I've done loads on it and when coupled with it's bundled software, Shake and Motion, you can produce some really cool stuff. Along with the other pro applications such as Aperture, it's a beast of a multi-media machine. You may find that the college will put something towards the cost of editing software, and if that fails, there's always the less legal option. (FCP is over 300 euro!)

4. Apple Support. Apple's website and help documents are outstanding. FCP Ships with millions of video tutorials, most of which is available online too. Any problem is covered, believe me i've checked!

5. Windies compatible. XP can be installed in a matter of minutes on the new macs. So if you can't tear urself away from DOD Source, you can always create a 20/30Gb partition for Windows. There's no way you're getting OSX on a regular PC hardware.

Tbh i'd go for the lowest spec Mac Pro, or get a nice iMac 24" if you can afford it.

Any questions lemme know.

Peace

agree with all of above. my only heads up id if you want to work in tv business ( i know you're heading for film, but tv could pay the rent while you do, or at least fill in gaps) you should try get a grounding in both final cut pro and avid. in my experience, avid is harder to learn after using final cut for a while, because avid is slightly more linear in its editing style. this teaches you good grammar for editing which i find is a bit lacking in the way you can fly things around the timeline willy-nilly in fcp. i use avid in my work, and cant concieve being able to edit as fast and efficient as i do if i was using fcp. just bought a mac pro (8 core, 64 bit xeon, oh yeah!) up north, you might consider that with sterling the way it is, i saved about €500

Exar Khun

I'll take that into consideration thanks man.