GUIDANCE towards purchase of my 1st Mac - "MacBook Pro"

Hi

This is my 1st post in this Forum. I'm essentially a Win user who's now looking at his 1st Mac - a Macbook Pro 13 or 15.

Having seen a demo of both the 13 & 15, I find there's

1. an Audio Input available on the 15" model that's absent on the 13"

2. The 15" has dual Graphic again absent on 13".

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Questions:

1. What would be the main use of the Audio Input available on the 15" ?

2. While I love the portability of the 13" and find the form size extremely easy for great daily manageability, would the 15" offer any additional benefits that the 13" doesn't ?

3. With years of using Win environment, all my important emails & address-books are in a .pst file of Outlook 2007, i.e. (Microsoft Office 2007). How may I smoothly transfer the .pst file on a Mac to Entourage 2008 so that I could use it for my emails ?

4. I use quite a bit of CD-R & DVD-R burning containing Music albums as images or separate files in WAV, FLAC, WV, WMA & APE etc using ImgBurn, Burrrn &/or Nero Burning ROM. How may I do this on the Mac ?

5. In case I am interested in taking OUT a Digital-Out of my music files from the Macbook Pro so that I may use an outboard D/A processor and playback those files, how do I accomplish this on a Macbook Pro ?


I would appreciate if members would kindly help me out with your suggestions & recommendations.

Thanks in advance!!

audio_engr said:

1. an Audio Input available on the 15" model that's absent on the 13"

2. The 15" has dual Graphic again absent on 13".

Click to expand...

1. The mini-jack on the 13" is a dual input / output port.

2. True - the 15" does have a better graphics capability straight off.

audio_engr said:

1. What would be the main use of the Audio Input available on the 15" ?

2. While I love the portability of the 13" and find the form size extremely easy for great daily manageability, would the 15" offer any additional benefits that the 13" doesn't ?

3. With years of using Win environment, all my important emails & address-books are in a .pst file of Outlook 2007, i.e. (Microsoft Office 2007). How may I smoothly transfer the .pst file on a Mac to Entourage 2008 so that I could use it for my emails ?

4. I use quite a bit of CD-R & DVD-R burning containing Music albums as images or separate files in WAV, FLAC, WV, WMA & APE etc using ImgBurn, Burrrn &/or Nero Burning ROM. How may I do this on the Mac ?

5. In case I am interested in taking OUT a Digital-Out of my music files from the Macbook Pro so that I may use an outboard D/A processor and playback those files, how do I accomplish this on a Macbook Pro ?

Click to expand...

1. I use the audio input on my 15" in order to record from sound desks, plug in a guitar etc.

2. Bigger screen size and a few more bigger bits here and there straight off. For me, the screen size was very important.

3. Click

4. There are utilities available for this on the Mac...might even be the case that those particular software titles have Mac versions.

5. Not sure what you mean exactly but audio out comes from that mini-jack.

True Bassist said:

1. The mini-jack on the 13" is a dual input / output port.



5. Not sure what you mean exactly but audio out comes from that mini-jack.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the answers.

- When you say the mini-jack on the 13 is a dual INPUT/OUTPUT, lets say I want to record using the INPUT but at the same time want to monitor using headphones, I guess its NOT possible, is it?

- If I want Digital Out of my music files out of the MBP 13, can I get that out of the mini-jack Output since its supposed to give out optical ?

audio_engr said:

Thanks for the answers.

- When you say the mini-jack on the 13 is a dual INPUT/OUTPUT, lets say I want to record using the INPUT but at the same time want to monitor using headphones, I guess its NOT possible, is it?

Click to expand...

No, but if you use a digital input instead (say, for example, a USB mic) it certainly is.

- If I want Digital Out of my music files out of the MBP 13, can I get that out of the mini-jack Output since its supposed to give out optical ?

Click to expand...

The mini-jack is analog and optical, so I guess the answer is no. You would again rely on a USB solution for digital out as far as I know.

chas_m said:

No, but if you use a digital input instead (say, for example, a USB mic) it certainly is.



The mini-jack is analog and optical, so I guess the answer is no. You would again rely on a USB solution for digital out as far as I know.

Click to expand...

Hi There,
Apple claims that for the 13, their Mini-jack will output Analog Out and also Digital Optical Out - so I can pass signals to a D/A processor.

Thanks anyway for your suggestions!

BTW - anyone used Parallels Desktop 5.0 successfully ?
as this would solve a lot of my apps queries.

audio_engr said:

BTW - anyone used Parallels Desktop 5.0 successfully ?
as this would solve a lot of my apps queries.

Click to expand...

I have never used Parallels, but I do have Windows 7 installed on my MBP through VMWare Fusion 3.0 and I love it. It works flawlessly, although I can't tell you if it's better or worse than Parallels.