Editing on PC or iBook - Please help me decide

[Tails]

I'm going to buy a digital8 camcorder (Either the DCRTRV120E or CVRTRV320E which has a memory stick support and digital still photo functions, but is around US$150 more)

Anyway... I'm also either going to get a new PC (633mhz, 64mb ram, 11mb for video ram, 15gb hard drive, Windows ME, and lots of USB ports) or an iBook (the cheaper one - 366mhz I believe, 10gb hard drive, imovie2).

The good point to the PC is it's over 1/3 cheaper, and more powerful. But the iBook, that's portable, it's got the great editing software (or so I heard it's great), and learning to use a Mac might be useful for me (wanting to go further into the magazine industry).

So I was wondering which you think I should buy, a PC or iBook, and why? Is there some software for the PC that is just as good as iMovie2, and not too expensive? Is there any other advantages to movie editing on an Mac I don't know about?

Finally, the software that comes with the more expensive Camcorder on CD Rom is called "PictureGear". Is that any good?

Thanks for this help!!! As you can tell I'm really stuck on this.

[Frank Marshall]

Hi Tails,

The questions you're asking here are bound to attract biased responses, so here's mine. I'm a Mac-man at heart but I currently own a PC instead. My dream is that Apple will port their Operating System and application software across to the PC platform. That's me, now let's take a look at your dilemma.

Do you really need the portability of the iBook and are you prepared to pay more for it and get by with less (smaller screen, slower processor, difficult and expensive upgrades)? The general consensus is that one should only buy a portable if you're sure you REALLY need portability. Consider the fact that a 12" screen won't let you see much of your time-line, worse when you're working on a magazine page layout, or that you'll want a bigger hard drive sooner than later (10G goes quickly when working with video), and so on.

Are you prepared to pay more for the simplicity and stability of a Mac? PCs tend to be more of a headache to operate thanks to Microsoft's Windows and hardware incompatibilities but they do offer much more variety in hardware and software, and the machines are relatively cheaper.

On the software front, most video cards come with editing software of some sort. The most popular ones on the PC platform are MGI VideoWave and Ulead VideoStudio, both of which IMHO, suck. I like the time-line metaphor a la Premiere and Cinema, however the filmstrip/storyboard metaphor that VideoWave and VideoStudio use may appeal to you.

I haven't used iMovie or iMovie2 but the Avid Cinema software which came with my G200 Marvel is the fastest and simplest cheapo NLE I've ever seen. I can't imagine a simpler editing program. Sadly, I think Cinema has been killed off. I haven't heard of PictureGear but it sounds like a still picture editor rather than video software.

With desktop publishing, all the main apps have been ported to the PC long ago. Learning to use Photoshop, Illustrator and Quark effectively is far more difficult than learning to use a Mac, like years compared with days.

So, which one and why? The short answer may be that you don't REALLY need a portable...

[This message has been edited by Frank Marshall (edited 12 October 2000).]

[wkulecz]

We got a new G4 Mac and Final Cut Pro software in the lab. While my collegue was showing me how great it was, Quicktime crashed three times. I was less than impressed.

At least when Quicktime crashes on windows 2000 I don't have to reboot, and other applications continue working.

I'd like to believe Macs are "better" and worth the expense, but we've lot of them in the lab and my experience puts them no better than win9x in terms of stability -- Mac users seem to think "it crashes when I do this, then I won't do that" is stability.

Experienced Mac users avoid the problems, I always seem to find them. I have a hard time crashing w2k. While writing my first Linux real time device driver, I only crashed Linux once (and that was because of a typo in what passed for documentation of the PCI config registers on the board I was writing for!). I haven't seen the stability of Linux since machines were running DOS 3.1 and a crash pretty much meant you had a hardware problem. I sure wish one of the "big boys" would do DV for Linux.

You need 13GB/hr for DV with about 100% headroom for "temporary" space. Price this in your Mac/PC comparisons as well. I don't think DV on a notebook will be good for much besides 5-10 minute clips without expensive firewire external harddrives.

Personally, I'm not the least bit sad to see Avid Cinema die.

--wally.

[Tails]

Thanks for your replies!

PC it is.

I just talked to a store here, and decided on a AMD 600mhz with 128 bit of PC133 RAM, 20GB 7200rpm hard disk, 2 USB ports, 8mb TNT2, and Windows ME. There's a few other parts naturally, like the modem, and such. But that's a good price for $2144. Which is around US$1050.

I'm also getting the Premier you mentioned, and After Effects. Pack that with the Camcorder and I think it's all sorted

Thanks again for your replies!

[Frank Marshall]

Just one thing Tails. You might want to do a search here on processors and motherboards. I've had a bit of a look at posts on this subject and last I read, the motherboards for AMD processors are slower and less stable than the Intel BX and i815 based mobos. Also, I think there are still some compatibility problems with AMD processors. I'm not a "fan" of Intel's and the new AMD processors do seem to be technically superior but the majority recommendation here is to hold your nose and buy Intel when building a video editing system. Don't take my word for it though, have a look for yourself.

All the best with it...