Help on which mac to buy!?

thegalavanter

Hello,

I've been scratching my head since yesterday (When the New Mac Airs were released). I was all up for getting the new Mac Air only to be sorely dissapointed by the lack of a dedicated graphics card. I only need two things from a computer but its easier said that done. These are something that can edit 1080p videos (I'm not a pro but I do dabble quite a lot). In the very least I'd need 720p. All my videos are uploaded to Youtube and thus are never more than 10 minutes long at most. I dont care about rendering time really. Having a device thats able to do the job is all I want. The other thing I want is something portable and light for traveling.

My ideal option:

Option 1: Buy a Mac Air (the more expensive 11 inch preferably) and use that for video editing and travel. After my educational discount I can get it for €1197 with the Core i7 1.8ghz. The ony problem I see is it may be unable to edit 1080p or even 720p video with only the Intel 3000 graphics card. Or alternatively buy a maxed out Mac Air but either way I'm still stuck with an intigrated graphics card.

My other alternative options:

Option 2: Buy a Mac book Pro 15 inch with dedicated graphics card and spend about €1620 - 1900 on it. This will solve both problems in one sense but at the same time I dont want to mind such an expensive laptop when I travel and also the value for money in comparison to a PC Laptop or even an iMac or Mac Mini is depressing.

Option 3: Buy a cheap €250 netbook and a €1000 PC desktop or similar Mac Mini (I have a PC monitor but no mac mouse/trackpad or keyboard) or even an iMac for up to €1400. This would give me good value for money on my editing options and I'd still have a travel netbook. Ok I wouldnt be able to edit video while I travel, but maybe I could use a remote desktop program to access my PC or iMac from the cheap netbook anywhere in the world?

Option 4: Buy an 11inch portable Mac Air (maybe even a 13inch Air or 13inch Pro) for about €1000 (nothing fancy) and also buy a €500-600 desktop pc which I could use to edit HD with (provided I can find one powerful enough).


Which option would you recommend and why? Any alternatives I'm not thinking of?

Just to add the hard drive capacity is not important. I can simply buy an external hard drive and maybe even a thunderbolt hard drive when they come down in price. Also, I've never had Mac before. I just want to try a Mac for once and maybe get the new Final Cut Pro X. As you may have guessed my max budget is €1600 and value for money is very important. However, my ideal option is to spend no more than €1200. Cheers in advance!!

bertie4evr

I have a 13 inch macbook pro with the Intel HD Graphics 3000 and it handles 1080p video editing fine. Usually it's more CPU horsepower you want when your editing video. Again thats just my opinion and I'm sure other people will have recommendations too.

thegalavanter

bertie4evr wrote: »

I have a 13 inch macbook pro with the Intel HD Graphics 3000 and it handles 1080p video editing fine. Usually it's more CPU horsepower you want when your editing video. Again thats just my opinion and I'm sure other people will have recommendations too.

Fook off no way!! Thats fantastic news. Well, actually before I get carried away.. how long are your 1080p files? Are they 1080 i or p? What format are they? (I'll be using the AVCHD format which is heavy on video editors) What software did you use and did you do much 'editing' or aka mixing, transitions etc etc?

Also, did you find it did everything very smoothly? Cheers mate!

bertie4evr

Most of the videos are about ten to fifteen minutes long, they're 1080p. The format's H.264, and I used mainly Final Cut Pro X and some iMovie.

As for what I did, there was some colour correction, transitions and messing with the audio.

Every thing was very smooth. The fans did kick up sometimes (Especially when trying to stabilise the video) but other then that it was good.

thegalavanter

bertie4evr wrote: »

Most of the videos are about ten to fifteen minutes long, they're 1080p. The format's H.264, and I used mainly Final Cut Pro X and some iMovie.

As for what I did, there was some colour correction, transitions and messing with the audio.

Every thing was very smooth. The fans did kick up sometimes (Especially when trying to stabilise the video) but other then that it was good.

Thanks for that. I've a camera that records 720p in MP4 (H.264) which I've never been a fan of because of the lack of colours, file size and the amount of codec needed which doesnt come standard on any pc I've ever bought. I had to download K-lite to get it to work. It records 1080p in AVCHD which is hard on the computer because its a compression file but I love the clarity in comparison to mp4, you can record for much longer and it has half the file size. If I can get a mac that can manage this I'm laughing. The previous mac had a 320m nvidia which I think was a better graphics card if I'm not mistaken?

stimpson

The Sandy Bridge processors are supposed to kick some serious ass for video encoding. SSD drive can't hurt either.

thegalavanter

stimpson wrote: »

The Sandy Bridge processors are supposed to kick some serious ass for video encoding. SSD drive can't hurt either.

Yes I've heard the same also. Thanks for the comment. I contacted intel and they said as long as the software can support 1080p video output that the intel 3000 graphics card should have no problem doing 1080p video output as well. The software will be iMove or more likely Final Cut Pro which can do the 1080p output according to Apple. Apple also told me that macs support the AVCHD format now which is great too.

I did see a video editing test done on Youtube on the Mac Air 2010 model. He had a 5 min 720p video and while it could edit the video it did struggle to show anything in the preview box and realistically it was unworkable. I do have more confidence in the 2011 model though and I was told by an Apple Mac rep yesterday (in store) that I should have no problems. I just hope she wasnt saying that to just sell it. An Apple Mac rep over the phone had a different opinion (she was unsure) so its hard to know without trying. I believe that Apple have a 14 (business day I think) returns policy so I might download a load of 1080p video samples from the internet and test her out.

bertie4evr

Drop into an Apple shop with the files you need on a usb stick and work away. They don't mind.

thegalavanter

bertie4evr wrote: »

Drop into an Apple shop with the files you need on a usb stick and work away. They don't mind.

The nearest store is in Dublin City centre