Never ceases to amaze me how the debate always overtakes the question in these threads. Some of you care way too much what others think and do, and have a serious propensity for being sure of things that you could obviously know more about before being so sure. That said, I don't do much video editing, so my two cents on the OP question isn't worth much. Like most. Perhaps we should let the people with experience in the specified areas of the question at hand discuss it.
Are you looking for personal use? There is a cheaper version of final cut. Otherwise it's mostly a pro program and corporate environments will spend the money.
FInal Cut Express is great if you just want to do video editing. You lose access to Color and enhanced color plugins of FCP as well as the amesomness that is Compressor. That just costs you extra time. Quicktime 7 and Quicktime Conversion in FCEXPRESS work fine. The only software worth touching on a PC is Avid and it's a bit dated. Do not listen to anyone who recommends premiere. It crashes like nothing you have ever seen before. FC is one of the best programs I've ever used. Motion doesn't have anything on After Effects though. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB278Z/A?fnode=NDQ4OTY4OA&mco=MTA5MDg2Mzk
Ditto - like I said earlier in this thread - we have 6 post suites. 2 run FCP total costs about 15K each and 4 Quantel Suites at about 120K each. The Quantel suites are ALWAYS having issues. The FCP suites rarely have problems. and a say again - IF YOU DO GO PC - make sure you spend the money and buy the high-end computers with the GOOD quality components. if you don't, you will be sorry - don't skimp if you plan to edit video.
Buy Final Cut Express if you just want to do editing. The full blown expensive version is Final Cut Studio and includes several other programs like Color (very very nice color-correcting and grading software), DVD Studio Pro (a nice and powerful DVD building software - not as good as the super-high end DVD software, but very nice for most networks and post houses) Soundtrack Pro (a nice audio-editing software), Motion (motion graphics software - although some like it better than After Effects, I don't). Its a great great package of software for the price. Keep in mind, the majority of films are done with FCP, Avid and Quantel. Those are the three main ones. There is a reason people don't use other products. By the way...as someone pointed out earlier - Avid did leave the Ma. But they returned to the Mac a couple of years ago & the only reason Premiere left the Mac was because once FCP took off, sales of Premiere for the MAC dissappeared.
I use Vegas Video on my PC and I do my Sony Handycam's M2ts video editing there. It's decent. I still lose a lot of quality on the video, unless I'm making it for online upload. I am the most patient person in the world for anything... but working on my slow-ass XPS laptop with these videos and getting lag on the preview window makes me think I might need a "new" laptop.
Hmmm...since I started this thread I guess I'll update.... I recently bought this desktop from MicroCenter about 2 weeks ago. Pavilion Elite HPE-110f for $607. Code: Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) Motherboard Chipset AMD 785G Chipset Processor AMD Phenom II X4 Quad-Core Processor 925 Processor Speed 2.8GHz Level 2 Cache 2MB Level 2 Cache Front Side Bus 3600MHz Frontside Bus RAM Installed / Max RAM Supported 8GB DDR3-1333 SDRAM (Expandable to 16GB) Memory Configuration (4) 2GB DIMM Memory Modules Memory Slots Available (0) Available 240-pin DIMM Slots Hard Drive 1TB Serial ATA Hard Drive Multimedia Drive LightScribe SuperMulti DVD Burner Display Type Display Not Included Video Card ATI Radeon HD 4350 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0325401 I used to edit on something much much slower, and I gotta say that this is more than enough for what I need right now. I use Sony Vegas Pro 9 right now, and I was never able to edit m2ts files before because it was extremely slow. This PC has run very smoothly so far, and considering I was originally thinking about twice as much...I'm happy with my choice. I gotta say that i still like Macs though. It's all we have at my school, and I'm currently taking an editing class where I'm beginning to learn Final Cut. Love everything about Macs right now, and I will definitely be buying one in the future...I just hate that they cost so much!
I still don't understand these kind of people. What can a Macs do that a PC can't if you're talking about hardware? What you're going to do. Buy a Macs and stare at your desktop for it design of do your even care about the performances for the price that you can get with a PC? I can put together a nice looking PC including case and monitor for a cheaper price that can easily outpower a Macs in the same price range.
I'm getting into some video editing stuff as hobby (been doing a lot of photography before) and I could use some help. My computer is getting a little old and things take forever or lag horribly with video. Really, I need a new computer anyways. I know the whole Mac vs PC debate and I'm open to both options. Regarding Macs...are the iMac's suitable or are people talking about the Mac Pros? The price isn't too bad for a iMac Core i3 21''. Then on the PC end, what's the most important thing to look out for? I've tried out Vegas and I like the layout. Not trying to stir up the whole debate, just looking for decent options and I don't want to go overboard knowing that this is just hobby.
You can do DV and HDV on it just fine, but real uncompressed HD would require more power. It should be fine for hobby stuff - Have fun.
My old Power Mac 65 really slowed down on me about a year ago and I purchased a mac-mini because I already had a nice hd monitor. It runs FCP very smoothly for me.
