PC vs. Mac

[tommy p]

I want to get a new laptop and start doing some home recording and basic video editing (which I've never really done before), and some promo materials for my band. A really decent PC with a huge hard drive can easily be had for $800 or less and the Mac is WAY higher. I've been told Macs come with really good software to do the things I want.

Would it be better to get the cheaper PC and put some money into buying good software for it or go straight for the Mac? I'm concerned that Mac-ophiles play up their awesomeness and I would end up buying all kinds of extra software for it too.

[mathman]

A desktop iMac starts at 1199, a Macbook laptop starts at $999. If you are not already really into recording and video then either of these is plenty powerful for what you want to do.

They all come with iLife which includes Garageband, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, iWeb, and iDvd.

What is so powerful and easy about ilife is all the apps work together seamlessly to create whatever digital content you want.

Get a decent firewire or usb interface and connect it to your mixing board and record into garageband. After recording the whole band add a few tracks and add extra guitars, keys, percussion, or drums. Use various plugins to master the recording right in garageband. It comes with basic compressors, effects, and reverbs.

Or record each track individually and build a complete song.

Then send the song directly to iTunes with one menu choice. Then take photos and video with a digital camera camcorder. Import to iPhoto by just connecting the camera.

Edit the photos with lots of features to crop, fix colors, add special effects right in iphoto.

Open iMovie and select any of the video or photos you have in iPhoto. Simply choose from a list then add text, special effects, transitions, and many cool features, including green screen and more.

Select from the music in iTunes or if you wish to use the ilife preview, choose any song created in garageband to add to the video. Adjust sound volumes, move the audio to align with the video/pictures in the iMovie video and then choose to share from menus right in iMovie to facebook, flicker, Youtube and more. Click a button and send the movie to iDvd where you can create a professional looking DVD of the band's music, video and pictures. Everything in iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes is accessible at anytime from a browser in iDVD. ( actually all the programs talk to each other to share digital content.

Then use iWeb and any of the content to create cool looking websites with any of the digital content in any of the programs.

PC's can do any of this stuff but they programs don't connect with each other so easy.

[jaberwock]

I changed to Macintosh a year ago and would never go back to a windows PC; just one example, it took me weeks to get my M-audio project mix to integrate with cubase on my PC, it took about 30 seconds with Logic on my Macintosh.

Yes Apple is more expensive but the extra productivity, and ease of use more than makes up for it.

The only down side of my Macbook pro that I can think of is that it only has two USB ports.

[SteveB]

I'm a mac guy, but I HATE iMovie. The interface makes no sense to me at all. Just saying.

[mathman]

I'm a mac guy, but I HATE iMovie. The interface makes no sense to me at all. Just saying.

I like the early iMovie, hated iMovie 08, really disliked iMovie 09, and can tolerate iMovie 11. The 11 version finally has enough features that I can use it again but I don't like the interface. Definitely want to enable the advanced menus and features. I've used it enough to be able to use it now. I've finally moved up from Final Cut 5 to latest Final Cut studio but I will still use iMovie for simple things at school. Sometimes I'll combine stuff from iMovie into my final cut pro project.

Someone who is starting out may not be so biased on how the program looks and shouldn't be hindered by the interface as much.

[burningyen]

All of the "produced" videos on my youtube channel were edited using iMovie. I was a complete novice at it and had it pretty much fully sussed out within 10 minutes. If you have experience working with a DAW like ProTools or Logic, that will help but isn't necessary:

http://www.youtube.com/burningyen

As a PC user from 2003-2008, I shudder to think what it would take to do the equivalent on Windows.

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

Mac, no question. I was an IBM engineer in the 80's and did a ton of programming on the PC. DOS, Pascal, assembly language, machine code, and even a bit under the original Windows. I had a side business doing custom scientific software for a couple of years. Up until 3 years ago we always had PC computers.

And I will never go back to Windows!

The MAC is generally built from higher quality components than the typical inexpensive PC, so the MAC is going to last longer. The operating system is superior in several ways, including the fact that you don't have to do any regular tweaking, cleaning, or maintenance to keep it running smoothly. No need to run anti-virus, and if you do run anti-virus it is much less intrusive on the system.

The hours and hours and hours you spend on Windows maintenance are given back to you. The simplicity of ownership is alone worth the added cost of getting a Mac. Really!

I have really liked using iMovie, btw. Pulling in video, photos, and music is very simple and intuitive. Burning DVDs or uploading to YouTube is easy.

Up until now I have been using an old decrepit Windows laptop for recording, running Guitar Tracks Pro software. The software works just fine except the laptop is too anemic to run it quickly. We have installed Logic Express 9 recently on the desktop Mac, and I am looking forward to using it.

[LordOfTheThighs]

I've had a great experience with iMovie. I've made a handful of DVDs, of my daughter's high school cheerleading

squad, family vacations, and most recently a DVD for a one of the graduating cheerleaders. She said it made

more than a few people cry. (and not from my shitty production ... )

I'm probably gonna move on up and score the new Final Cut X. I feel I've used iMovie as much as I can, and

wanna expand my learning with FCX.

[mathman]

I've had a great experience with iMovie. I've made a handful of DVDs, of my daughter's high school cheerleading

squad, family vacations, and most recently a DVD for a one of the graduating cheerleaders. She said it made

more than a few people cry. (and not from my shitty production ... )

I'm probably gonna move on up and score the new Final Cut X. I feel I've used iMovie as much as I can, and

wanna expand my learning with FCX.

You can make really great looking dvds with iDvd. Awesome program.

Just curious. Are you using iMovie 11 or iMovie 09? 11 has quite a few more features and both hide their advanced features. In case you haven't enabled them try setting the preferences on for "Show advanced tools".

Provides access to dual mode toolbar, keyboard controls, cutaways, picture in picture, green screen, additional replace modes and chapter markers.

[kenjones]

I'm probably gonna move on up and score the new Final Cut X. I feel I've used iMovie as much as I can, and

wanna expand my learning with FCX.

The new version of FCP (FCP X) was just released yesterday. I have read that it will open iMovie projects - which is something that all previous versions of FCP were not able to do.

[LordOfTheThighs]

You can make really great looking dvds with iDvd. Awesome program.

Just curious. Are you using iMovie 11 or iMovie 09? 11 has quite a few more features and both hide their advanced features. In case you haven't enabled them try setting the preferences on for "Show advanced tools".

Provides access to dual mode toolbar, keyboard controls, cutaways, picture in picture, green screen, additional replace modes and chapter markers.

I'm still using iMovie 09, and rendering it to disc via iDVD. I've been hesitant to go with iLife 11, because of some

stories I've seen online, about ppl losing pics and projects after upgrading from 09 to 11. I really dig how the

Apple software all works together as a unit. Open iMovie and drag pics and vids from iPhoto, songs from iTunes, etc.

Worth the extra cost, for me. Easier the better. Makes a noob like me look like a vet.

[mathman]

You can make really great looking dvds with iDvd. Awesome program.

Just curious. Are you using iMovie 11 or iMovie 09? 11 has quite a few more features and both hide their advanced features. In case you haven't enabled them try setting the preferences on for "Show advanced tools".

Provides access to dual mode toolbar, keyboard controls, cutaways, picture in picture, green screen, additional replace modes and chapter markers.

I'm still using iMovie 09, and rendering it to disc via iDVD. I've been hesitant to go with iLife 11, because of some

stories I've seen online, about ppl losing pics and projects after upgrading from 09 to 11. I really dig how the

Apple software all works together as a unit. Open iMovie and drag pics and vids from iPhoto, songs from iTunes, etc.

Worth the extra cost, for me. Easier the better. Makes a noob like me look like a vet.

I know what you mean. I waited a few weeks for the updates to iPhoto to get straightened out before I updated. I've since updated about 30 Macbooks from 10.5.8 to 10.6.6 and iLife 11 with no loss of data at all.

The new slide shows in iPhoto 11 are really cool and you can export them out and use them in iMovie or right to iDvd. iMovie 11 is a worthy upgrade. But if you are thinking of Final cut X then you can buy iPhoto or Garageband or even iMovie separately from the App store now.