PC user just got Macbook for Video Editing?

I've been a long time PC user (still am), but I keep hearing from alot of folks that the Mac is the way to go for Photo and Video editing...

I'm a Windows Adobe Premiere user, and love it... but I wanted to see what the other side is like...

I have a new MacBook Pro 15", 2.66ghz and I have Final Cut Pro. I've been trying to learn it; but I find that there is nothing special about video editing on the Mac - I don't see the advantages of a MacBook over a PC at this point....

Am I missing something?

Please enlighten me... I want to drink the koolaid!

-Joe

No Cool Aid here at Mac Forums. You should have stuck with the Windows machine and Adobe Premier that you obviously prefer and not wasted your $$$ and Time.

Also what was this special video editing magic you were expecting to find on Final Cut? It's an excellent application but not magic.

jpkinfla said:

Am I missing something?

Please enlighten me... I want to drink the koolaid!

-Joe

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Yes, you're missing something ... you're missing how well the OS and machine work.

Video editing software, particularly on the pro level, is all pretty similar. I happen to like FCS ahead of Adobe Premiere, but that's not to say AP sucks (besides, it's available for Mac as well anyway). But all of the video editing systems BASICALLY work alike.

What's different is the hardware and the OS.

If you can't see the obvious difference (and, imo, clear superiority) of OS X and the MacBook Pro, then I agree ... you wasted time and money.

Everyone is different - like dtravis said, you probably should have stuck with a windows machine and at most rented a Mac with the appropriate software to see what it was like.

Personally, I like editing in FCP and using Motion, DVDStudio Pro and Compressor to do my video editing a lot more then I enjoyed using Adobe Premiere, AE, Encore, etc. - but that is me - When I started using FC it just felt more "natural" to me if that made any sense compared to when I used Premiere (and so you know - I have used Windows based machines for years to edit video, including using FAST Video Machine, FAST VM NLE version, Razor, several different versions of Premiere, Pinnacle Liquid Edition Pro 6, so it's not like I used Mac/FCP and then tried all of these other packages - I went from those packages to Mac, and only made the switch to Mac in early '09 after I borrowed gear).

My personal vote is - if FCP isn't for you, and you don't like OSX, sell the Mac and get a killer windows based system and get Premiere for it. If you love OSX, but don't like FCP, look into Premiere for Mac. If you just can't stand OSX (it's not for everyone), but kind of like FCP - that's really not enough to stick with Mac, sell it and get what you feel most comfortable - and ultimately - most productive with.

JMHO

Thanks...

First off, I do not regret the purchase of my MacBook Pro... I am enjoying using it, and working with the OS.X.. and I have Windows 7 running with Parallel, and its quite sweet!

My point here is, I have always heard Mac users sing high praises about how you need to have a Mac to do video editing and photo editing... About how a PC just won't cut it... how better the Mac is... etc etc..

So, I bought one. I love it. I also love my PC and Windows 7.. I'm learning Final Cut Pro, and I do enjoy using it also... as well as Adobe Premiere. Each does certain things well.

BUT - I honestly do not see ANY difference between working with the Mac vs. the PC. As for the OS, there are pro's and con's - but both Windows 7 and Mac OS.X are similar and I can not say one is better or worse than the other... I love the style of the Mac, the design of the system - how Apple thought about pretty much everything... but I am also lacking certain things, like a "HOME" and "END" key on the keyboard...

So, I thought I'd ask the experts - what am I missing? I'm not going to sell my Mac, cause I really do like it... and I'm actually moving all my PC based stuff to this as my main computer... (I like running my Visual Studio development system on the Mac using a Windows 7 virtual machine)..

Home is Fn + left cursor. End is Fn + right cursor. Also, Page Up/Down is Fn + cursor Up/Down.

As far as what you're missing? I'm not going to trot out the standard lines about no-malware, reliability, lack of maintenance and complexity - but surely you've had to notice the 15 second boot times, instant sleep/wake (that is truly functional) and the simple matter of not having to reboot the machine constantly?

Thanks for those keyboard short-cuts, they are a life saver!!

Yes, I do notice and appreciate the quick start-up times! I have though had to force quit a few applications, such as the new Apple Aperture 3 trial version - it froze on me, or was taking up so much CPU I couldn't do anything... and eventually had to reboot...

I do not have any Antivirus for the MacBook... it is a nice thing; though I'm always skeptical that one day someone will come out with a slew of viruses for Mac's. And on the PC side, never really rebooted it that often... perhaps once every few days, nothing too excessive in my opinion.

Anyhow, all said and done; I enjoy this new MacBook Pro. Its sweet, fluid, functional, and nice... all in one small aluminum box. Way more stylish than my old Dell XPS laptop.

-Joe

Another side note to consider - if you prefer premiere over Final Cut, if there is a Mac version of the Premiere version you have a license to, Adobe allows a platform switch (I think it's one time) to migrate from pc to mac or mac to pc - couldn't hurt to look into if you'd prefer to use Premiere

Hmm... good point about Adobe Premiere... I think I'll stick with Final Cut Pro on my Mac, as I still use Premiere on the PC for my workflow... once I get familiar with FCP, I may make a switch entirely...

A couple points I've seen with FCP that is a bit annoying when coming from Adobe Premiere, is the rendering of segments of the sequence when overlaying titles, or effects... Adobe Premiere doesn't do that. Also, I shoot with a AVCHD HD video camera, FCP requires me to Import and Log the files; where as Premiere works with them natively.

-Joe

I started with sony vegas on a PC, then moved to mac and final cut. I've found not only that I like Final Cut more, but also having it combined with mac os x is amazing! Even the small tools like expose and spaces help a lot when editing. It also seems to me that Final cut is very popular throughout the cinematography industry. And finally, no applications crashing and interrupting the workflow!

If you are editing AVCHD, stick with Windows. I just had to buy a Windows laptop because I was so fed up with how insanely idiotic Apple was regarding imovie and AVCHD. First you have to convert the MTS files to MOV using imovie to do anything with it. That alone takes about 3 minutes for every minute of video. Then you have to edit and render it back out to MOV which takes another 4-5 minutes per minute of video, its ridiculous. That was importing at imovie's optimized 960x540 setting too, not even importing at full HD!

Windows can work with the MTS files right off the cam and rendering to WMV is a breeze. A 1280x720 HD file only takes a tiny bit longer than real time and full 1920x1080 only takes about 2 minutes per minute of video the file sizes are way smaller than MOVs. Having said that, my Windows laptop is running an i3 processor with 4GB of RAM as opposed to my imac with a core 2 duo and 2GB, but still. I love my Mac, but working with AVCHD files are just awful with it.

Why not just install Windows on the Intel Mac Via BootCamp and run it native on the same machine? Then you could have had both without another machine.

dtravis7 said:

Why not just install Windows on the Intel Mac Via BootCamp and run it native on the same machine? Then you could have had both without another machine.

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Well I needed a laptop for travel anyways and needed something with a nice processor to run Photoshop and edit HD video. I really wish Apple could find a way to make working with AVCHD easier, they do most everything else so well.

mbell75 said:

I really wish Apple could find a way to make working with AVCHD easier, they do most everything else so well.

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AVCHD is a format that is *specifically designed* not to be an "editing" format. This applies *equally* to Macs and PCs. They *both* have to be converted into an editable format.

That you know how to do this on a PC and (apparently) not on a Mac has no bearing on "how well" Macs works with AVCHD content.

chas_m said:

AVCHD is a format that is *specifically designed* not to be an "editing" format. This applies *equally* to Macs and PCs. They *both* have to be converted into an editable format.

That you know how to do this on a PC and (apparently) not on a Mac has no bearing on "how well" Macs works with AVCHD content.

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Ok, would you mind telling me how to do this on my Mac without having to convert the files to MOV before they can be edited? On my laptop, I can take the MTS files directly from the camera, drop them into WMM and begin editing, no need to convert anything.

My understanding is that AVCHD requires a lot of horse power to decode and display. Power that is better spent on real time feedback of effects, transitions, audio mixes, etc.

When editing thos MTS files, does WMM display in real time with little to no delay of effects, transitions, and multiple audio channels?

xstep said:

My understanding is that AVCHD requires a lot of horse power to decode and display. Power that is better spent on real time feedback of effects, transitions, audio mixes, etc.

When editing thos MTS files, does WMM display in real time with little to no delay of effects, transitions, and multiple audio channels?

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Yep, everything runs flawless in WMM. I am not doing anything super intense though. Just some trimming, transitions and text but it doesnt even slow down a bit. But like I said, this laptop is no slouch. Its running an i3 processor with 4GB of RAM and a dedicated graphics card. So its not really fair to compare it to my core 2 duo imac with 2GB of RAM. However, even if I had a Mac Pro, it still wouldnt change the fact I cant work with MTS files straight off the camera. Dont know if its true, but I am told Adobe Premier is the only way you can edit MTS natively on a Mac. Even FCE and FCP have to convert them to either AIC or ProRes files which is time consuming and an extra step.