i mac laptop

I was came back from the apple store. I looked at their laptops and found one in particular that I'm interested at. First question, can someone recommend a laptop that I can use for editing my feature, and second, during the photography phase, will I be needing it or this is only for post production only? It's my first feature so if these questions sound silly, forgive me. I intend to educate my self fully before the production but for now, I just want to know.

thanks
 
Well the computer is always useful on the set to have for word processing and keeping up with documents like the day of days, call sheets, and such. I’m not a mac user yet, so I can’t speak on it’s editing capability, but a laptop is probably not going to have a dual processor like a desktop, and the screen size is significantly less because you can’t add the second screen. That being said, I edit just fine on my single processor HP laptop with an external hard drive and Premiere.
 
I would recommend a Mac, hands down, over a PC. I made the switch last year and am very , very happy about it. I got the 15" Powerbook and I got it off of ebay. I probably saved over $2000 as this model has 1 Gig RAM and the Superdrive (dvd burning) PLUS it has four of five software appications that needed already installed.

The G4s (especially the new ones) have more than enough horsepower to edit in Final Cut. And, like the other poster mentioned, the portability of the laptop is very useful. My 15" screen is big and bright. I did, however, buy a full-sized keyboard and mouse from Apple, and also an iCurve stand so that the monitor is the correct viewing height. It's a cool looking and ergonomically correct set up :)

Oh, and my Mac NEVER crashes. At least it hasn't in the year I've owned it. Ask a PC user if his machine ever locks up or crahses and see what he says.

Macs are also less vulnerable to viruses. Most viruses only run on PCs because they're so easy to target. I've not had one virus on my Mac.

I'd be happy to tell you more. Drop me a line with any other questions.

Ron
 
I'll say my PC hasnt crashed in atleast a year. But then again i built my computer, and built my computer right. A lot of the reason PC's crash, aside from windows, is user error... I dont know about editing video on a mac though...But on my PC i like being able to just swap out harddrives...im not so sure its that easy with a mac, but again, i dont know anything about macs.
 
I doubt most folks want to build their own PC.
I'd also argue that PCs crash because of memory allocation errors (which is the fault of the OS). There's nothing a user can do to crash the system. Open a file that's too big? The OS should be smart enough to handle that. Have too many apps open? The OS should degrade gracefully or alert the user- but not just crash. When the OS isn't smart enough, like say, WINDOWS, then it crashes. I'm sorry but it's a simple fact that Windows PCs crash way more, have more virus attacks, and need 'patching' more than a Mac. Plain and simple.
But anyway...

I have an internal 60G hard drive and I also have an 80G external hard drive for video files. It's there when I need it, and keeps the laptop totally portable when I don't.
 
Processor isn't the problem

The G4 powerbooks are excellent and because macs are designed with the media market in mind they are without doubt the best platform for editing, if you are not going with a dedicated editing system.

What you will need to look into is what else you may need to sucessfully edit your feature. For one thing, you'll not be able to get all your footage onto the built in hard drive unless you knock down the resolution, so you'll also need a substantial number of firewire drives.

I also believe that without additional hardware for capture, you can't get the media into a standard computer at any higher than 4:1, despite what the software says. This mean an additonal hardware outlay of about $2000.

Of course, if you are shooting on less than standard def, ie. mini dv or dvcam this won't be such a problem, because the resolution on your footage won't contain anywhere near as much information. However, once you start looking at Digi Beta or HD, then editing on a laptop, without any additional support isn't going to work and if you are shooting your feature on a format lower than standard def then you are really restricting your ability to sell the film.

However, that all said and done, Final Cut Pro is a superb piece of editing software, which is used extensively in the TV industry as is Avid Express. The mac itself is such a useful media tool, espeically when you use packages like Photoshop for designing credit sequences and as has been said before it is very, very stable. There are lots of good reason for a film maker to own one and very few reason for someone not to.
 
PC's do have problems with memory allocation errors at times. This, though, is more a tendency of wonderful Windows (thank Bill Gates) than the actual hardware used. That said I have been impressed with the stability of WindowsXP. Anyway, there is no reason a PC user needs to use windows. There are plenty of other operating systems that rock out there. I personally like PC's as you can gut them out anytime you get the urge. As I mentioned in another thread - for 2000$ a person can build themselves a rather nice RAID system with a gig of ram.

Of course, all of this is opinion and personal preference. I would suggest working with whatever operating system you are most comfortable with.

And I must agree with Clive - Photoshop rocks :D
 
PC vs. MAC

I'm not a big fan of Macs. But that's because I grew up with Windows, and my only exposure to Macs is through my school, which uses the bottom the line iMacs. And I have to say that those computers crash as much as my old PC, and more often than my new one. Mind you, a good deal of that is because they're connected to a server, and it's a crappy server.

The old Macs were decent machines, but the new ones are absolutely brilliant, assuming you have the wallet to support it. A brand-new G5 Desktop will set you back about $10 000 (Canadian), but for that you do get 8 GB of RAM and 500 GB of harddrive space... I'm sure the equivilent PC would be the same or more.

As for OS... everything before OSX is useless. At the moment, though, there's not a lot of software available for OSX - my school still runs OS9 because we can't get some of the software we need for X. But, for the purposes of this discussion, Final Cut Pro runs on OSX, and I guess that's the most important?

In the end, it really comes down to what you feel more comfortable with. A good PC won't crash, and antivirus software protects you from the internet. I'm more comfortable editing on a PC - I've been using Adobe Premier 6.5 and just recently got Pro.

You can edit with 6.5 on a Mac, but if you want to use Pro you'll need a PC (or install Windows on your Mac, which is possible for some peverse reason). Likewise, if you want to edit with Final Cut you'll need a Mac.

Really, it depends on which OS you feel better with, and which program you prefer... though if you like Premier, I'd suggest a PC, since they stopped releasing it to Mac after 6.5.

Oh, editted to say this: Since you're asking about Laptop vs. PC as well...

Laptops are great. They're mobile, they're small, and they're dead useful. But they're not great for video editting. Generally, they have smaller screens, smaller harddrives, and less RAM. You'll need an external harddrive for sure, and you'd probably want a mouse and keyboard, and maybe even an external, larger, monitor.

Which isn't to say that it's not worth it - all that allows you to edit perfectly well at home, and even do a little on the road. But for your money, you can get a very powerful PC or an average laptop... and I'd rather have the PC.
 
I would highly recommend a Mac myself. I have never used a PC, and I do a lot of video editing on my mac. The laptops are great. Especially if you're using a DVX100 and Final cut 4, you can use Cinetools to convert all your 24P footage (which is using 29.97 timecode) and convert it to 23.98 and would look cleaner. If you can afford it, a powerbook G4 with final cut 4 is a pretty powerful tool. I've never had any problems editing large projects with final cut at least, it works for me.
 
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