Which MacBook advice, AVCHD editing , sony vegas or Final Cut?

Hi All,

'tis my first post, and I hope to be the first of many as I take my first step into the "mac world".

I appreciate questions like these have probably popped up a dozen times in these forums, but after so much reading and so much indecision I just need someone to slap me and tell me what to buy.....

I am stuck for choice between a Macbook & Macbook Pro. money isnt too much of an issue as long as its justified, as I would be paying on installments for 1/2 of it.

As my need is driven by Video Editing, hence the reason for posting in this particular section.

A bit about me and my needs....

I recently bought a sony SR11 HD camera (AVCHD) and have been using windows all my life, I edit currently in Sony Vegas pro 8 but thats not to say im set in my ways. Its just what ive been learning and am very impressed by it, I like it.(more on that later)

Partially due to space requirements in my home, I am getting rid of my desktop alltogether. A laptop is what i'm after, primarily for video editing amateur stuff whilst at home and at work, in my spare time or during travel.

Other needs are simply downloading movies, music, browsing & connectivaty with my HDTV.
I want somthing that looks sleek , is compact and easy to carry. The screen size should be simply adequate on the go, and I would be working by connecting to a 19" lcd whilst at home.

Im totaly stuck between getting a Macbook, macbook pro or even a Sony Vaio!


My current thoughts....

This is my thinking at the moment, if anyone could tell me if my thinking is justified or flawed.... Im leaning towards a Macbook 2.4ghz core 2duo, 250GB drive and purchase extra ram to take it to 4GB. I plan on installing both Lepord & Vista. So that I can use Sony Vegas on Vista boot whilst easing myself into the Mac way of life.
Over time if the software is decent enough, id move over to Final Cut Express 4.0. . The small screen, if its adequate for editing on the move, i.e not too much of a hinderance... whilst at home it wouldnt be a problem as id connect to a larger screen. Although shallow, I also really much prefer the look of the macbook. The pro just seems too big for me, and I wouldnt want to carry it around. The sleek white colour of its smaller brother also really appeals to me. Asthetics also sits quite high on my list.

What id really like to know is, how does Final Cut expess 4 compare to vegas & Final Cut pro 6 ?
Can the Pro's graphics card handle Final Cut pro 6? Will I miss out on anything using just express on a macbook with only internal graphics.

How is AVCHD editing on a macbook? will I suffer at all by my choice of going for it over a MBPro.

How is using Sony vegas on vista, on a MB?

my decision for upgrading to 4GB ram justified? I tend to run many things at once.. its about £150 for the upgrade from 2GB.

Anybody used a Sony Vaio? !


Apologies for the length of my post and the complete back to front nature of my paragraphs! but I had to get all the stuff out my head and down in writing...

any help welcome or advice on something ive missed!

thanks

Best would be to get a 15" macbook pro with whatever ram you need..
As you are doing Video Editing & also using Windows Vista, having a decent graphics card would be really helpful..
Moreover 15" screen for video editing should be minimum requirement..
I would recommend you to first use your laptop without upgrading the ram & after that if yu feel the need, you can buy ram at much more cheaper price off ebay than what apple would charge you...

i would avoid a mb for video editing as the integrated graphics card will severely hinder your editing. (even if you go with the viao avoid getting an integrated graphics card make sure it has a dedicated graphics card)

as umang says start with 2 gb of ram and you can upgrade later (look at owc, newegg and crucial for good prices and quality products) many people take the ram jump and may not need it all. why pay for something you are not going to use.

as far as running windows. you have a choice to make are you going to use boot camp which will allow you to boot in to windows or would you prefer a program like fusion or parallels which will allow you to create a virtual computer while running mac os.

many thanks for your replies. Im not familar with parralell/fusion , could you give me a brief low down on the pro's and cons of using this as opposed to bootcamp?

I'm running a MacBook Pro HD 17" with 4gb of ram, 7200rpm 200gig hard drive and have Final Cut Pro 5.1 running on it. I haven't had any problems. It's not a MacPro, which is quite a bit more $$. I also am running Parallels with Vista Business and XP Pro. I did have to bump the video ram allocation for VISTA up so that the screen would properly refresh but am pleased with the performance in all 3 OS's. This is my first MAC and I have to say that I have not been disappointed!! It was worth the extra $$ for the 17" HD screen as I also use it to run Vectorworks 2008 ( CAD ). Hope this helps!!

I forgot to mention, running Parallels I don't have to reboot to swith OS's. I also like the fact that I can drag files between all 3 OS's. My understanding is that you have to reboot each time that you switch with BootCamp.

I strongly would avoid the MB. The HD video is 1920 x 1080 and it does not resize and display well on a MB. It will jitter and jump depending on the player/codec used. The only AVCHD player available for playing AVCHD for the Mac is the one included with Toast Titanium 9. It will not play on my MB without severely dropping frames. Quicktime barely plays my edited HD MP4 .H264 files on the MB.

The same is true playing the same files on my HP Laptop with integrated video. On the PC I use the Oxygen AVCHD player which works better than Toast Player. I do not edit on the PC since all my PCs have integrated video. Forget about playing or edition HD video under Fusion or Parallels.

I know alot of people uses the MBP for HD video w/o any problems.

I made some additional comments about AVCHD in a different thread titled: AVCHD Video Editors - http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111081

Al

sanity1082 said:

i would avoid a mb for video editing as the integrated graphics card will severely hinder your editing. (even if you go with the viao avoid getting an integrated graphics card make sure it has a dedicated graphics card)

as umang says start with 2 gb of ram and you can upgrade later (look at owc, newegg and crucial for good prices and quality products) many people take the ram jump and may not need it all. why pay for something you are not going to use.

as far as running windows. you have a choice to make are you going to use boot camp which will allow you to boot in to windows or would you prefer a program like fusion or parallels which will allow you to create a virtual computer while running mac os.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments, the video size/how it displays on a smaller screen (i.e does it scale it)is something I had not considered and good to know !