11-24-2009, 08:13 AM

Ive been toying with the idea of a new computer. mine is 4-5 yers old now and FULL of stuff including my external hd. The main thing is I want a new one that can handle and play HD video as I want to get an HD video camera. my current pc wint handle it.

so yesterday my gf was asking me weird questions and I told her to not buy me a computer for xmas as Im picky in what I get and its too much. Longstory short we ended up at Best buy and she showed me what she wants to get me.

the 27" iMac w/ LED display, has 1 TB of memory, 4 gigs ram, 3.06ghz processor and all the other bells and whistles. Its a nice looking setup and i know Apple has a nice video program (final cut).

the guy at Apple said I should go with the quad core processor upgrade if Im going to be doing HD video.

now I was almost set on buying it until a friend asked me what I was going to put the video on and he mentioned blu ray which I didnt think about. tat would be awsome.....but Mac doesnt have blu-ray. Is there anything out yet for external burners on Macs? I know final cut supports it so thats all I would need right?

11-24-2009, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by LookingatMacs

Ive been toying with the idea of a new computer. mine is 4-5 yers old now and FULL of stuff including my external hd. The main thing is I want a new one that can handle and play HD video as I want to get an HD video camera. my current pc wint handle it.

so yesterday my gf was asking me weird questions and I told her to not buy me a computer for xmas as Im picky in what I get and its too much. Longstory short we ended up at Best buy and she showed me what she wants to get me.

the 27" iMac w/ LED display, has 1 TB of memory, 4 gigs ram, 3.06ghz processor and all the other bells and whistles. Its a nice looking setup and i know Apple has a nice video program (final cut).

the guy at Apple said I should go with the quad core processor upgrade if Im going to be doing HD video.

now I was almost set on buying it until a friend asked me what I was going to put the video on and he mentioned blu ray which I didnt think about. tat would be awsome.....but Mac doesnt have blu-ray. Is there anything out yet for external burners on Macs? I know final cut supports it so thats all I would need right?

In a word, yes. Although Apple hasn't fitted any of its machines with Blu-Ray drives, there are external solutions available and both Final Cut and Roxio's toast support Blu-Ray.

This is the drive you'd need:

OWC Mercury Pro FW800/400+USB2+eSata BluRay... (MRF8BDSD8X) at OWC

11-24-2009, 08:22 AM

But be aware, there still is no application (that I'm aware of) that will play back commercial Blu-Ray movies on a Mac.

11-24-2009, 08:54 AM

Originally Posted by bobtomay

But be aware, there still is no application (that I'm aware of) that will play back commercial Blu-Ray movies on a Mac.

unless I run windows ive read right?

Originally Posted by cwa107

In a word, yes. Although Apple hasn't fitted any of its machines with Blu-Ray drives, there are external solutions available and both Final Cut and Roxio's toast support Blu-Ray.

This is the drive you'd need:

OWC Mercury Pro FW800/400+USB2+eSata BluRay... (MRF8BDSD8X) at OWC

So it WILL work, it will burn them, and they WILL play on my blu ray player? I havent found much searching so thats why Im asking. Ive read some will burn but not be playable on your player which I think is kinda pointless.

i think thats my only gripe as I could get a pc with internal bluray. the mac just seems much nicer and better quality

11-24-2009, 09:06 AM

Originally Posted by LookingatMacs

so yesterday my gf was asking me weird questions and I told her to not buy me a computer for xmas as Im picky in what I get and its too much. Longstory short we ended up at Best buy and she showed me what she wants to get me.

the 27" iMac w/ LED display, has 1 TB of memory, 4 gigs ram, 3.06ghz processor and all the other bells and whistles.

She's a keeper! Good thinking to keep her identity a secret.

11-24-2009, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by toMACsh

She's a keeper! Good thinking to keep her identity a secret.

Haha. Yes she is!

11-24-2009, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by LookingatMacs

So it WILL work, it will burn them, and they WILL play on my blu ray player? I havent found much searching so thats why Im asking. Ive read some will burn but not be playable on your player which I think is kinda pointless.

I'm honestly not sure of how the BluRay codecs work. But I would imagine that if Final Cut can encode a BluRay disc, that it would do so in such a format that a BluRay player could play it.

i think thats my only gripe as I could get a pc with internal bluray. the mac just seems much nicer and better quality

Macs are usually made of nicer, high-end materials, but the underlying hardware is very similar to that of a standard PC. The real reason for buying a Mac (in my opinion) is to run OS X. But if you are content with Windows and are not prepared to make any changes in the habits you've developed over the years with Windows, you might find yourself disappointed.

That probably not what you were expected to hear on a Mac forum, but it's the truth. Macs are not for everyone.

11-24-2009, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

I'm honestly not sure of how the BluRay codecs work. But I would imagine that if Final Cut can encode a BluRay disc, that it would do so in such a format that a BluRay player could play it.



Macs are usually made of nicer, high-end materials, but the underlying hardware is very similar to that of a standard PC. The real reason for buying a Mac (in my opinion) is to run OS X. But if you are content with Windows and are not prepared to make any changes in the habits you've developed over the years with Windows, you might find yourself disappointed.

That probably not what you were expected to hear on a Mac forum, but it's the truth. Macs are not for everyone.

I totally understand that, thats why Im asking around.

most people crap on Macs though about the price which to me means either a) they are cheap or b) they just havent looked into them.

I just did a side by side of a Dell xps and the Mac 27". i tried to spec them as close as possible. the dell ends up having 2 cd drives and a tiny bit more mb on the graphics card but other than that they were equipped with the same hardware and the dell got a 27" monitor. the dell was $100 more retail wise.

11-24-2009, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by LookingatMacs

I totally understand that, thats why Im asking around.

most people crap on Macs though about the price which to me means either a) they are cheap or b) they just havent looked into them.

I just did a side by side of a Dell xps and the Mac 27". i tried to spec them as close as possible. the dell ends up having 2 cd drives and a tiny bit more mb on the graphics card but other than that they were equipped with the same hardware and the dell got a 27" monitor. the dell was $100 more retail wise.

Yep, totally agreed. I'm not trying to talk you out of it - just want to make sure you have realistic expectations (which I think you do, considering how much effort you seem to have put into your research).

11-24-2009, 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

Yep, totally agreed. I'm not trying to talk you out of it - just want to make sure you have realistic expectations (which I think you do, considering how much effort you seem to have put into your research).

Im trying to...my girl just brought this up 2 days ago and Im trying to figure it out before black friday arrives...lol

how hard is it to upgrade a new imac? say add ram. online its $200 but what about later down the road?

i see there are no options online to upgrade the video card? is that upgradable?

11-25-2009, 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by LookingatMacs

how hard is it to upgrade a new imac? say add ram. online its $200 but what about later down the road?

RAM is easy. There's a trap door that opens to add additional SODIMMs (laptop memory). And you don't have to get the memory from Apple, you can get it from any vendor (Crucial, NewEgg, etc).

Internal hard drive is another story.

i see there are no options online to upgrade the video card? is that upgradable?

No, it's an all-in-one system board and the GPU is soldered fast.

11-25-2009, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

RAM is easy. There's a trap door that opens to add additional SODIMMs (laptop memory). And you don't have to get the memory from Apple, you can get it from any vendor (Crucial, NewEgg, etc).

Internal hard drive is another story.



No, it's an all-in-one system board and the GPU is soldered fast.

hmm...maybe thats another thing to consider.

is the ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics with 512MB going to be ok for what I want to do? hd video editing on Final cut and blu ray?

11-25-2009, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by LookingatMacs

hmm...maybe thats another thing to consider.

is the ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics with 512MB going to be ok for what I want to do? hd video editing on Final cut and blu ray?

Sure, you don't need a terribly powerful video card for 2D video. If you were 3D modeling or gaming, that would be a different story.

Even still, the 4850 is a pretty strong card.

11-25-2009, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

Sure, you don't need a terribly powerful video card for 2D video. If you were 3D modeling or gaming, that would be a different story.

Even still, the 4850 is a pretty strong card.

gotcha...do you know if Apple has since fixed the issue's with the card I keep reading about? Im assuming so since its the only card you can get now.

11-25-2009, 03:26 PM

If you add RAM yourself, it can void your Apple Warranty, BTW.