Newbie Macbook Buyer

Hi Everyone, just joined your forum.

I'm a keep PC user, but I'm wanted to test the water with a Macbook (Black) notebook.

I'm doing this because I'm getting into Digital photography and video editing, but theres a few questions that I would like to ask you all before I go out and buy a macbook.

I have a fair amount of Divx video footage, also avi and home made dvds that I would like the be able to edit etc, would the mac be able to do this straight out of the box or would I need other software or codecs?

My main concern is divx and avi playback so I would also like it to perform this task also.

Other question is would it be able to convert and edit dvd footage into divx or xvid format? or is the mac a pure quicktime MP4 format machine?


I'm quite happy with all the other software such as itunes, garageband and other programs.

I visited the Mac store last week but the young guy in the store could not answer my questions.

Thanks in advance, looking forward to chatting to you all

Pete

Playback of divx files is much the same as in Windows. You have to download a simple codec and you're good to go.

I honestly didn't know the answer to your second question, so I went ahead and imported a divx file into iMovie to check it out. After fiddling around with the video a bit, I went and checked out the export settings. I found the following list of available options:

3G
Apple TV
AVI
BMP
DivX
DV Stream
FLC
Hinted Movie
Image Sequence
iPod
MPEG-4
Picture
Quicktime Media Link
Quicktime Movie
Windows Media
AIFF
AU
Wave

There is also an options button available, so you can customize the settings even further.

Looks like the Mac will do everything you need it to

Hi Kash, thanks for your quick reply, that's good news on the playback and editing front.

I appreciate your reply, just need to find out my second question so if anyone could kindly add that would be super.

All the best

Pete