But with a twist! I've heard in the past macs are better at photo/video editing but I don't really want to buy one of those huge imac things so in terms of PC vs PC laptop would it be the same for mac land that a macbook would be slower than an imac?

So if a laptop is a lot slower than a PC, is a macbook slower than an imac of similar spec? My current laptop and my previous PC were almost identical except my laptop had an 8700M while my PC had an 8800 GTS and for most things they were almost identical in speed but not quite and load times on the laptop were piss poor because of the slower drives.

Next question, is it possible to swap the hard drive in a macbook for something faster or does this void the warranty? I'd ask a shop keeper but they'll probably just tell me it will just to try & get me to pay more, shifty bastards.

Is the software that comes on a macbook any good at opening mpeg transport streams and AVCHD files? Pity there's no way I can test this, no one I know has a macbook :(

Why not get a mac mini if you want a desktop?

I swapped the hdd and ram in my MBP and was told that if the installation of it didnt cause the problem, then it was fine. Obviously apple don't replace those parts if they fail.

My laptop drive is also 7200RPM and uses less power than the standard MBP drive so you can make them pretty zippy. Honestly Snow Leopard is bloody fast. I prefer OSX for my photos and movie stuff over windows now.

I don't want a desktop that's the whole point. I'm happy with my desktop as far as game performance goes but since everyone is so adamant macs kicks ass for video editing and I hate my current laptop I thought it might make a nice change. I was just wanting to know if the step in performance between full on imac and a macbook would be a big one or whether a macbook would be suitable for editing videos.

Also, if I downloaded photoshop off adobes website for windows, could I just go download it again for mac and use my current serial or are the mac/windows serials different? I'm pretty sure lightroom (which I have the dvd of) has both a mac & windows version with the same serial so I presume all adobe stuff is the same?

I've used macs for video editing and didn't think there was anything overly impressive about the experience, if anything it was just more annoying not having access to as much other software and not being used to the mac os.
If you know about PC hardware and know your way around the PC software world then you're better off sticking to what you know.

I don't have any benchmarks but I've heard the HFS+ filesystem is a lot more efficient at random-access intensive stuff like video editing since the file system doesn't fragment files for most part. Might want to Google it though.

I've used macs for video editing and didn't think there was anything overly impressive about the experience, if anything it was just more annoying not having access to as much other software and not being used to the mac os.
If you know about PC hardware and know your way around the PC software world then you're better off sticking to what you know.

I don't care how much other software I have access to if it's all s***, I'd settle for just one good, fast piece of software/hardware combo.

I suppose that brings up another question, what about all those codecs & codec packs & whatever, how versatile are macs for playing videos? I remember having to jump through hoops to find dvdcss for slackware all those years ago but apart from that the built in media players in slack/ubuntu could play most video formats.

TBH I'm also bored with windows, been using it for years and the screen on my current laptop is really really REALLY s***house.

last edited by whoop at 12:01:57 20/Sep/09

I don't care how much other software I have access to if it's all s***

Often when I'm working on something I find myself having to download some tool or something to do just one specific task, whether it be for transfering files, or a multimedia thing, or something to do with DVD software, and when these situations came up when I was using a mac it would just s*** me, because you find the program you want and what operating system is it made for? not mac.

Maybe your an idiot?

I started using a mac with little exposure and I have found plenty of apps and downloads just fine. Its actually EASIER to install and uninstall apps on a mac as well.

If you want to do video editing on a laptop you are better off getting a macbook pro rather than the macbook. Dont buy the apple HDD and Ram upgrades, you can get it yourself for far cheaper and its piss easy to do.

Video Codecs are not a problem at all and apple supports Final Cut (which is OSX Only and loved by many video editors) or Adobe Premier which is extremly popular as well. Or if you want REALLY basic easy s***, use iDVD

Go to myer or something and try one out, play around with it. I used to hate macs but I discovered it was more the annoying mac users and not the OS and Hardware itself. Its nice coming home after fixing windows all day and my mac always works fine.

Is the software that comes on a macbook any good at opening mpeg transport streams and AVCHD files? Pity there's no way I can test this, no one I know has a macbook :(

Just put some test footage on a USB drive and take it to an Apple Premium Reseller. All Apple Premium Resellers have at least one Macbook on display as well as most of the Apple range of software (usually not the pro software) installed so you can plug in you USB drive and try the footage with the software. Not sure of what level of video-editing you're after but iMovie and Final Cut Express is what you should test. Keep in mind Final Cut Express costs $268, and if you're looking at pro software then you can get the whole Final Cut Studio bundle for $1499 - not bad for a bundle that includes industry standard pro HD video editing, colour grading, compositing, digital output, DVD authoring and sound mixing tools all-in-one.
As for laptop, that's a no brainer - you should be looking at the Macbook Pro range, which start at $1899.

From my investigation I don't think a MacBook is slower than an iMac in relation to PC desktop -vs- PC laptop. If anything they are just as capable albeit with the hardware limitations imposed on the MacBook.

If you are doing video editing than get the MacBook Pro as you'll want the extra hardware spec - also check out the Apple Refurb store as you can get some good discounts there. I just missed out on $400 off 13.3" MacBook Pro because I'm not impulsive enough :(

Oh, if you get your hard drive and/or RAM upgraded at a Premium Reseller it doesn't void your warranty. Obviously those components will be covered by the retailer you go to and not Apple.

I suppose that brings up another question, what about all those codecs & codec packs & whatever, how versatile are macs for playing videos?

http://perian.org/

Often when I'm working on something I find myself having to download some tool or something to do just one specific task, whether it be for transfering files, or a multimedia thing, or something to do with DVD software, and when these situations came up when I was using a mac it would just s*** me, because you find the program you want and what operating system is it made for? not mac.

http://osx.iusethis.com/

Why would the Apples be better ?
Im wondering because if i wanted to make a profit from Software Id want to see that software on as many machines as possible.
Why wouldnt it be available on both systems ?

Well, if you look at Final Cut Pro that apple develop, its better for apple to hog it because then people buy their OS, their hardware and their software. Its actually a really smart way of doing it, because they also know it will work on their platform as advertised.

Apples aren't "better" - they're just another choice. It comes down to the feature set of the NLE software and what you need it to do.

Final Cut Pro may be swatting the proverbial (AVCHD) fly with a cannon, if all you're looking to do is apply a few cuts, titles, transitions and the like. So it's really the NLE software, and the hardware it runs on (and to a lesser extent, what intermediate codec it'll use to edit with when native editing isn't realistic/possible).

The OS is largely irrelevant. That's a whole religious debate on its own.

One thing I will say about Final Cut Pro - everything requires transcoding to something Apple endorses, typically ProRes wrapped in Quicktime. Native format editing is rarely possible without buying third party software to wrap/unwrap inside FCP.

Not that I would ever recommend native AVCHD editing. The format is horrible for anything I'd call 'responsive' - it's an aquisition and delivery format *only.

I have a new Macbook pro and it kicks my desktop pc's ass (ok so PC isn't the newest thing out but it isn't bad at all). like no kidding I even stopped playing wow on my pc (just use that for games now) because it's that good. And I used to hate macs/mac fanbois as much as the next person, now I've used one extensively I don't.


As far as osx & stuff goes, I've never had a problem with finding programs for osx (actually there's usually less 's***' programs out there to weed through, and I find them faster than for PC. And OSX is by far a metric f*** ton better for design work compared to pc. I can't really answer specific questions with regard to video editing because I've only used the macbook for one job like that, but I'll just say I didn't have any problems with it.

All it takes is a little getting used to osx and s*** like control, alt/option & command key shortcuts and you'll have no worries.

Yeah, took me a while to get the shortcuts down pat, but its worth learning them.

My biggest gripe is iphoto is a great idea and program but unfortunatly it uses a bloody library system which makes it annoying as f*** to get photos out of and backup and share on other computers.

Iv gone back to picasa 3 until I figure out a better way

Lightroom hands down for photomanagement. On the video front have you given some thought to picking up a secondhand macpro add a bit of ram swap out the drives to something a little faster

Eds: I use lightroom to manage my photos. It imports them usually by date which you can then add to specific catalogs & there's a range of export options and it can even upload to certain photo websites through the use of plugins or it has built in html/flash based web gallery generation + built in FTP upload capabilities.

As for what kind of software I'm after, I've been playing around with motion tracking & having one scene/image follow something else in another video around so it's a bit more than basic but I don't think I'll be needing any sort of 3d transforming & warping any time soon but who knows. I've been using a trial version of adobe after effects (f*** me its confusing at first) and I know it comes in mac form.

On the video front have you given some thought to picking up a secondhand macpro add a bit of ram swap out the drives to something a little faster

I'm not really sure I trust second hand stuff much anymore. I'd prefer to have the full warranty behind it.

Apples aren't "better" - they're just another choice. It comes down to the feature set of the NLE software and what you need it to do.

Just all the crowing from apple users about how their stuff just works and how much better and faster and prettier it is and (granted this was a while ago) how much better at video/photo editing macs are. Has current PC hardware caught up in terms of media performance? If so I might as well just save my money & stick with my PC, perhaps consider a quad core cpu upgrade or something.

most components in macs are actually soldered in, i wouldn't recommend getting a Macbook and upgrading the HDD just to have better video editing.. are you loosing focus on what you want your laptop to do, going a bit over board for just video editing? Final Cut Studio is your friend, depending on the level of editing - I've found this thanks to some help full people on here :)

As opposed to components in PC's being what, held in with sticky tape? I'm not really sure what you're trying to say and I've read your entire post 5 times. Or are you saying the big desktop macs are like laptops where nothing is changeable?

Not sure what you mean by losing focus or going overboard either. I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier because I changed my posts so much before finally posting them but I hate the screen on my current laptop so video stuff isn't the only reason for my queries about macs. I remember listing hating the screen as a reason but maybe I ended up not posting that bit. Also battery life is shocking, it'd be nice to be able to watch an entire dvd without it popping up asking me to charge or change the battery.

i wouldn't recommend getting a Macbook and upgrading the HDD just to have better video editing

Upgrading the drive was just a side question, I wasn't expecting something as simple as a hard drive to give better performance to applications that are graphics & memory intensive.

I meant you can just unplug a card in a PC etc - where as Mac you cant, so its not so user friendly for upgrading. Sorry i should have specified - unless u have a soldering iron and know how to solder and trust yourself not to destroy your machine, i don't recommend upgrading.

I have a 24" iMac - i love it. The screen is immensely awesome. I highly rate Mac for what i use it for.

I meant you can just unplug a card in a PC etc - where as Mac you cant, so its not so user friendly for upgrading. Sorry i should have specified - unless u have a soldering iron and know how to solder and trust yourself not to destroy your machine, i don't recommend upgrading.

Mac upgradability is fine in the Mac Pro's, you can switch out anything, the soldering is more for the CPUs on the "cheaper" macs, but really there isn't really any point when the laptops/imacs are all custom chassis's/cooling systems. All macs you can easily swap out HDD/Ram.

is it possible to swap the hard drive in a macbook for something faster or does this void the warranty?

Its fine, just be careful when swapping and replace the drive to the stock if you ever have to send it back (they don't really care, but its 1 less thing they can blame).

Is the software that comes on a macbook any good at opening mpeg transport streams and AVCHD files? Pity there's no way I can test this, no one I know has a macbook :(

Already been mentioned, shell out for Final Cut Studio (well worth the money), and go through the workflow of getting stuff into Prores. Im pretty sure you need to install the Sony software for the conversion (s***ty annoying sony formats). There are a heap of podcasts out there on final cut workflows.

Also, if I downloaded photoshop off adobes website for windows, could I just go download it again for mac and use my current serial or are the mac/windows serials different?

Its a different serial for legit, as well as CS3/CS4 lock the serial to the machine anyway, so you need to do the deactivate/activate crap. Adobes activation drives me insane, I've lost a legit CS license due to forgetting to deactivating on a written off machine. PS: Alternatively *cough* serialbox *cough*

Codecs - Perian for I/O + Flip4mac if you have to deal with WMV crap (+ Sony etc codecs if needbe)

Why would the Apples be better ?
Im wondering because if i wanted to make a profit from Software Id want to see that software on as many machines as possible. Why wouldnt it be available on both systems ?

Because media industries like video have a much higher mac usage than traditional use, Apple is a big pusher with video technology (h263 / Quicktime) and are integrated right into the OS, and the Apple pro apps (which they won't make cross platform) are industry standards. Most video apps on OS-X hook into FCS in some form.

Upgrading the drive was just a side question, I wasn't expecting something as simple as a hard drive to give better performance to applications that are graphics & memory intensive.

I've swapped in SSD's to all of my production macs, and then have large external drives for media. It makes a big difference for me at least for snappyness, but each to their own.

2c

I think simul pretty much nailed it on the head without resorting to sales pitches such as "Macs virtually have no viruses" and "it just works"!

XaltD, it is true that most Macs have soldered components (simply because majority of them are designed for non standard compact form factors, such as your iMac) but you are forgetting the Mac Pro, which is designed specifically for pros and everything is upgradable except the CPU. That's not to discount the Macbook Pros or iMacs, which are still great for all but the most extreme intentions. They are perfect for designers who care more about designing without any hassles rather than worrying about the power of the computer. Unless you really need to have more than one hard drive, a dedicated pro graphics card or two, a quad-core CPU or two, or more than 6GB RAM, the Macbook Pro or iMac are fine.

The main reason why I started using mac's for photo editing and video production work is that they offer me better work-flow for what I am doing when I am doing it. For everything else I use the slaw of other boxes for other tasks this includes vm as well. I had a conversation with my father in law while we where building and designing his plc control system. He mentioned that 5 years ago he would never envision me using osx, but at the end of the day it functioned as a tool that got the job done quicker. Thats not to say that osx on a whole for every given multimedia task (hate that word) is better in every instance.

Mac's don't get viral infections is a utter s***, it should read less susceptibility but not total immunity to viral payloads and malware. Because at the end of the day its the piece of meat between the keyboard and the screen which is responsible for mashing the buttons and all it takes is lack of education and password prompt box. The attitude of security through obscurity is one that I hope changes amongst mac users.

Expense is all relative, while I view the bottom half and the server side of apple as a waste of money I see that 5000 series quad core xeon's are not cheap either let allow adding a workstation board and ram




last edited by HerbalLizard at 09:47:20 22/Sep/09