Mac Mini for light video editing and DVD creation

This may have been covered before, but I am new to Macs and know very little about there capabilities in terms of speed. I am looking to purchase my first Mac to replace a Pentium 450MHz PC and to complement my Pentium III 1GHz laptop. I upgrade very little and feel that the capabilities of the Mac Mini and its price point is a viable option to a new PC, but I have a few questions.

I would like to use a Mac Mini (upgraded to 512MB) for light video editing. I will be using video from my Canon DV Camera (has firewire). Is iDVD good for this compared to Pinnacle Studio version 9 and is the speed of the Mac Mini good for this? Pinnacle Studio came with my DV camera and I use it on a 1GHz PC Laptop (it runs okay, can be a little slow rendering transitions, just for a speed comparison).

In addition I'm not sold on the Super Drive yet. My question regarding the super drive is this: Is the super drive in the Mac Mini a DVD+-R (ie. it does both DVD+R and DVD-R)? I ask because my DVD player, XBOX, and laptop read DVD-R best (I am getting varied reports online). Also I already have a TDK external DVD burner (firewire or USB connections), can I use it with iDVD? According to the TDK website it will work with Mac OS X, but I remember hearing reports that other DVD burners do not work with iDVD. If this is true what software do you recommend to video editing and burning?

Thanks for the help.

You should be able to edit video on that system. I found a hack that enabled me to burn DVDs with iDVD and an external DVD buner. The is another way to get the burner to work with other applications. Macman will most likely stop by and give you the information on that.

I have a Canon also and decided not to down load the Pinnacle software when i purchased the camera since have Apple PowerBook. IDVD is a slow for me since I am using a 500Mhz system, but it gets the job done. As for the DVD+/-R question, I think the latest superdrive supports both.

I used to be a loyal PC user. I had two desktops and a laptop. Each one was P4 w/ 1.8Ghz or greater, a large HD and at least 768MB DDR ram in each. I have a lot of gizmos and gadgets-ranging from dig. camera to dig video camera. A also do some light vid. editing and photo albums for personal memories. I just got an iBook G4 1.2Ghz, 60Gb HD, 712MB DDR Ram. The reason I am telling you all this is because since I got my iBook I have not even touched my PC's, theres no point. I can do everything on my iBook that I had to do on 2 or 3 PC's. I am going to get rid of all my PC's and get the Mac Mini. I am going to get the base model w/ 512MB DDR ram. I would suggest you purchase an external DVD writer in a case w/ 2.0 USB and firewire. I would also get an external HD, around 160-250Gb.
You will basically be unstopable, no matter what you are tryinng to do. Hope this helps.

J

newmacuser21 said:

...I would suggest you purchase an external DVD writer in a case w/ 2.0 USB and firewire. I would also get an external HD, around 160-250Gb...J

Click to expand...

Hi newmacuser21,

What external DVD writer/HD would you recommend? Would anyone buy the mini with an upgraded Superdrive? I have a G4 here at work with a Superdrive and want a mini for home, but don't know if it's worth upgrading when I buy it... Any ideas?

Cheers, Lee