No idea what editing software to use

Hey I registered to these forums solely to ask one question.

I love to edit videos and take it pretty seriously (so no imovie) I used to use Final Cut Pro 5 until I had to upgrade my Macbook to snow leopard. When I did this I couldn't use FCP5 any more. It says i 'do not have the hardware needed' without any further explanation. I feel pretty shafted by apple.
I tried FCP 7 but all it tells me is that I 'do not have enough vram' and I've tried hitting esc when the message comes up but it does nothing. I had never even heard of vram before.

So I'm sitting here with my editing taken away from me and all I did was buy snow leopard. I feel like I'm being punished for it

My mac is currently 2ghz intel core 2 duo, mac osx 10.6.8, 2 gb ram. I bought it a few years ago and my understanding of the situation is that my older hardware and newer operating system aren't great friends and I'll have trouble finding a final cut version that will work for me.

So what I would love some help with is knowing what editing software I can actually use on my laptop.
I ordered a new camera which will use AVCHD format.

It does not have to be Final cut PRO, express or something would do. But everythings so costly that I can't exactly afford to keep getting new ones to try out, there always seem to be some completely hidden reason why software won't work on a mac book.

As Macbooks are so expensive, a new one is out of the question. I can't believe it but I'm actually considering buying a cheap PC laptop solely to get some software that actually works and will stay working. So please please please save me from having to go back to PC

I think this is one area that Apple have done badly in, and haven't really thought about their customer base.

You might be able to find a copy of FC Express online that will work with your Mac and OS, otherwise you might want to consider Adobe's efforts.

If you're really serious about editing movies you will need to upgrade your hardware. I can't see doing much editing on a laptop. You need a desktop like the imac and with at minimum 3.06 ghz and 4 GB ram.

Imovie 9 is nothing to scoff at and with your setup should work fine, and cheap too.

lukec316 said:

I can't believe it but I'm actually considering buying a cheap PC laptop solely to get some software that actually works and will stay working. So please please please save me from having to go back to PC

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If you seriously believe that:

a. a cheap PC laptop will let you edit video and
b. that you'll never have to spend money upgrading a cheap PC to get it to do what you want to do

all I can say to that is that you may need some more real-world life experience.

.....get more real world life experience...... thanks for the advice

You might consider this, $83 USD at Amazon.
Amazon.com: Adobe Premiere Elements 10: Software

Also, may want to consider adding RAM.

Why did you have to upgrade to snow leopard?

I had to upgrade to use other software that I needed for a university course I was doing.

I just checked out Adobe premiere elements 10 there and it looks pretty decent. Good value too £60.

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll let you know how/if it all works out

lukec316 said:

I had to upgrade to use other software that I needed for a university course I was doing.

I just checked out Adobe premiere elements 10 there and it looks pretty decent. Good value too £60.

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll let you know how/if it all works out

Click to expand...

Thanks and hope it works for you. I use Adobe PSE but have never tried Premiere. I think you can download a free trial.

FCE 4 works fine! YUS!!!

Problem solved, cheers

lukec316 said:

FCE 4 works fine! YUS!!!

Problem solved, cheers

Click to expand...

Good man, I thought it would.