| Author |
Message |
Tim Witort
Guest
|
 Posted:
Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:42 am Post subject:
Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
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I have been asked to recommend a "media workstation" for
my church that can be used to edit video, edit photos, and
edit/mix audio. All of my work is done using Adobe products
on a WinXP machine, but several staff members at the church
use Macs. I have not used a Mac to do any of this stuff, so
I don't know how they compare. Price-wise the Mac solution
(a G5 with FinalCut, etc) would be more expensive even with
the discount the church gets from Apple. But I'm always
hearing how easy it is for novices to produce videos and
such on a Mac - and we will have some people with limited
computer experience using this thing.
If we go PC, I'm thinking our software would be Premiere Pro
or Vegas for video, Photoshop for images and Sonar for
audio with a firewire audio interface box. We'd also need to
have something that a newbie could use to import and edit
simple videos. Is there a Windows software product that
would be as easy as iMovie for novices to use for editing
video? I know Premiere ain't it, because I use Premiere
all the time. Maybe one of the Pinnacle programs?
-- TRW
_______________________________________
t r w 7
at
i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
_______________________________________
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Jona Vark
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:42 am Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
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oh lord.. why do they do this every day?
You can produce videos on the Premiere Pro system as easily, I would argue
'easier', than on the Mac. For less $$$. All the way around. With mroe
choices in Software and hardware.
You may have little luck convincing the Mac users of that. Which in my
opinion would be the ONLY reason to go with the Mac.
Both platforms produce the same quality video FWIW.
"Tim Witort" <trw7at@ixdot.netcomdotcom> wrote in message
news:Xns96EDA9F0D2574timwitortwrotethis@207.217.125.201...
[quote]I have been asked to recommend a "media workstation" for
my church that can be used to edit video, edit photos, and
edit/mix audio. All of my work is done using Adobe products
on a WinXP machine, but several staff members at the church
use Macs. I have not used a Mac to do any of this stuff, so
I don't know how they compare. Price-wise the Mac solution
(a G5 with FinalCut, etc) would be more expensive even with
the discount the church gets from Apple. But I'm always
hearing how easy it is for novices to produce videos and
such on a Mac - and we will have some people with limited
computer experience using this thing.
If we go PC, I'm thinking our software would be Premiere Pro
or Vegas for video, Photoshop for images and Sonar for
audio with a firewire audio interface box. We'd also need to
have something that a newbie could use to import and edit
simple videos. Is there a Windows software product that
would be as easy as iMovie for novices to use for editing
video? I know Premiere ain't it, because I use Premiere
all the time. Maybe one of the Pinnacle programs?
-- TRW
_______________________________________
t r w 7
at
i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
_______________________________________[/quote] |
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Richard Crowley
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:42 am Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
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"Tim Witort" wrote ...
[quote]I have been asked to recommend a "media workstation" for
my church that can be used to edit video, edit photos, and
edit/mix audio. All of my work is done using Adobe products
on a WinXP machine, but several staff members at the church
use Macs. I have not used a Mac to do any of this stuff, so
I don't know how they compare. Price-wise the Mac solution
(a G5 with FinalCut, etc) would be more expensive even with
the discount the church gets from Apple. But I'm always
hearing how easy it is for novices to produce videos and
such on a Mac - and we will have some people with limited
computer experience using this thing.
[/quote]
If YOU are going to coach/mentor them, go with the PC-based
solution. Don't succumb the Mac hoax. Windows Movie-Maker
(free) will likely to most of what you need for video editing,
or Premiere Elements if you need more functions, etc. Are there
any FCP users in the church? Did they ask any of THEM for
advice?
[quote]If we go PC, I'm thinking our software would be Premiere Pro
or Vegas for video, Photoshop for images and Sonar for
audio with a firewire audio interface box. We'd also need to
have something that a newbie could use to import and edit
simple videos. Is there a Windows software product that
would be as easy as iMovie for novices to use for editing
video?
[/quote]
Windows Movie Maker
[quote]I know Premiere ain't it, because I use Premiere
all the time.
[/quote]
What about Premiere Elements? Froogle lists several vendors
currently selling Premiere Elements bundled with Photoshop
Elements, both for $150
Maybe one of the Pinnacle programs?
Have you hung around here much to see all the Pinnacle
horror stories?
Do you really need MIDI functionality? You may very
well be able to do the audio production using (free)
Audacity, etc. If you really want to spend several 100
bucks on audio software, I'd rather see Adobe Audition.
Maybe they will bring out an "Elements" version soon? |
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Tim Witort
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:48 pm Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
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Jona Vark seemed to utter in
news:oSh3f.2114$7h7.1834@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com:
| Quote: | You can produce videos on the Premiere Pro system as easily, I would
argue 'easier', than on the Mac. For less $$$. All the way around. With
mroe choices in Software and hardware.
|
Really? As easy as iMovie? I haven't used iMovie (just watched
over people's shoulders), but have used Premiere Pro extensively.
If iMovie really is no easier than Premiere, I'd much prefer Premiere
due to my familiarity with it and ability to train others.
I should snag someone's Mac and bring in my miniDV camera and
edit a quick little movie to see for myself.
Thanks for the input.
-- TRW
_______________________________________
t r w 7
at
i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
_______________________________________ |
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Tim Witort
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:59 pm Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
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|
Richard Crowley seemed to utter in news:11kreduek6e5a76@corp.supernews.com:
| Quote: | "Tim Witort" wrote ...
I have been asked to recommend a "media workstation" for
my church that can be used to edit video, edit photos, and
edit/mix audio. All of my work is done using Adobe products
on a WinXP machine, but several staff members at the church
use Macs. I have not used a Mac to do any of this stuff, so
I don't know how they compare. Price-wise the Mac solution
(a G5 with FinalCut, etc) would be more expensive even with
the discount the church gets from Apple. But I'm always
hearing how easy it is for novices to produce videos and
such on a Mac - and we will have some people with limited
computer experience using this thing.
If YOU are going to coach/mentor them, go with the PC-based
solution. Don't succumb the Mac hoax. Windows Movie-Maker
(free) will likely to most of what you need for video editing,
or Premiere Elements if you need more functions, etc. Are there
any FCP users in the church? Did they ask any of THEM for
advice?
|
I think all the Mac people have been using iMovie to edit
their videos. Nobody has FCP.
| Quote: | If we go PC, I'm thinking our software would be Premiere Pro
or Vegas for video, Photoshop for images and Sonar for
audio with a firewire audio interface box. We'd also need to
have something that a newbie could use to import and edit
simple videos. Is there a Windows software product that
would be as easy as iMovie for novices to use for editing video?
Windows Movie Maker
|
I've heard good and bad about WMM. I'll have to play around
with it a bit and see how it works.
| Quote: | I know Premiere ain't it, because I use Premiere all the time.
What about Premiere Elements? Froogle lists several vendors
currently selling Premiere Elements bundled with Photoshop
Elements, both for $150
|
That's a good idea. And the price is right.
| Quote: | Maybe one of the Pinnacle programs?
Have you hung around here much to see all the Pinnacle
horror stories?
|
Yeah. And I've had some Pinnacle horror stories myself - mostly
hardware though. I recall their software being pretty intuitive
though. I haven't used Pinnacle products for over 5 years and
wondered if they had anything easy and stable now.
| Quote: | Do you really need MIDI functionality? You may very
well be able to do the audio production using (free)
Audacity, etc. If you really want to spend several 100
bucks on audio software, I'd rather see Adobe Audition.
Maybe they will bring out an "Elements" version soon?
|
We don't need MIDI that I know of. But we do want a package
that works with one of the firewire audio interfaces. Not
sure if Audition will work with these. I have Audition Pro,
so I can look into that.
Thanks for the ideas.
-- TRW
_______________________________________
t r w 7
at
i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
_______________________________________ |
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Jona Vark
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Oct 13, 2005 10:29 pm Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
|
|
"Tim Witort" <trw7at@ixdot.netcomdotcom> wrote in message
news:Xns96EE63D74497Btimwitortwrotethis@207.217.125.201...
| Quote: | Jona Vark seemed to utter in
news:oSh3f.2114$7h7.1834@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com:
You can produce videos on the Premiere Pro system as easily, I would
argue 'easier', than on the Mac. For less $$$. All the way around. With
mroe choices in Software and hardware.
Really? As easy as iMovie? I haven't used iMovie (just watched
over people's shoulders), but have used Premiere Pro extensively.
If iMovie really is no easier than Premiere, I'd much prefer Premiere
due to my familiarity with it and ability to train others.
|
I wasn't really thinking about the iMovie or MovieMaker class of apps.
Premiere is NOT hard to use and if you are familiar with it teaching it to
others will offer them more possibilities.
| Quote: |
I should snag someone's Mac and bring in my miniDV camera and
edit a quick little movie to see for myself.
Thanks for the input.
-- TRW
_______________________________________
t r w 7
at
i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
_______________________________________ |
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Mike Kujbida
Guest
|
| Posted:
Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:41 am Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
|
|
Tim Witort wrote:
| Quote: | I have been asked to recommend a "media workstation" for
my church that can be used to edit video, edit photos, and
edit/mix audio. All of my work is done using Adobe products
on a WinXP machine, but several staff members at the church
use Macs. I have not used a Mac to do any of this stuff, so
I don't know how they compare. Price-wise the Mac solution
(a G5 with FinalCut, etc) would be more expensive even with
the discount the church gets from Apple. But I'm always
hearing how easy it is for novices to produce videos and
such on a Mac - and we will have some people with limited
computer experience using this thing.
If we go PC, I'm thinking our software would be Premiere Pro
or Vegas for video, Photoshop for images and Sonar for
audio with a firewire audio interface box. We'd also need to
have something that a newbie could use to import and edit
simple videos. Is there a Windows software product that
would be as easy as iMovie for novices to use for editing
video? I know Premiere ain't it, because I use Premiere
all the time. Maybe one of the Pinnacle programs?
|
If you're considering the PC route, you really should take a serious look at
Vegas, especially since you mentioned "edit/mix audio". Vegas started as
out a multi track audio editor and added video on version 3. It's only
gotten better over time. As far as ease of use, I work at a local community
college and we have several student edit suites with Vegas. Students with
limited computer skills are happily editing by themselves in less than an
hour. My co-worker runs a recording studio as well and he's produced
several CDs with Vegas. It also plays very nicely with Sonar. M-Audio and
Edirol firewire boxes are both highly recommended. There's a great user
community for Vegas with a LOT of plug-ins available for free. The ones
that do cost money are very reasonably priced (especially in comparison to
Apple products).
Mike |
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TonyP
Guest
|
| Posted:
Sat Oct 15, 2005 1:21 am Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
|
|
Mike Kujbida wrote:
| Quote: | Tim Witort wrote:
I have been asked to recommend a "media workstation" for
my church that can be used to edit video, edit photos, and
edit/mix audio. All of my work is done using Adobe products
on a WinXP machine, but several staff members at the church
use Macs. I have not used a Mac to do any of this stuff, so
I don't know how they compare. Price-wise the Mac solution
(a G5 with FinalCut, etc) would be more expensive even with
the discount the church gets from Apple. But I'm always
hearing how easy it is for novices to produce videos and
such on a Mac - and we will have some people with limited
computer experience using this thing.
If we go PC, I'm thinking our software would be Premiere Pro
or Vegas for video, Photoshop for images and Sonar for
audio with a firewire audio interface box. We'd also need to
have something that a newbie could use to import and edit
simple videos. Is there a Windows software product that
would be as easy as iMovie for novices to use for editing
video? I know Premiere ain't it, because I use Premiere
all the time. Maybe one of the Pinnacle programs?
If you're considering the PC route, you really should take a serious look at
Vegas, especially since you mentioned "edit/mix audio". Vegas started as
out a multi track audio editor and added video on version 3. It's only
gotten better over time. As far as ease of use, I work at a local community
college and we have several student edit suites with Vegas. Students with
limited computer skills are happily editing by themselves in less than an
hour. My co-worker runs a recording studio as well and he's produced
several CDs with Vegas. It also plays very nicely with Sonar. M-Audio and
Edirol firewire boxes are both highly recommended. There's a great user
community for Vegas with a LOT of plug-ins available for free. The ones
that do cost money are very reasonably priced (especially in comparison to
Apple products).
|
Mike, while I agree with everything you said (especially the audio
editing) Liquid Edition has been a very stable and reliable product for
many. No, it doesn't get the press the others have (Pinnacle knows
nothing about advertising, but do know how to market a "budget" NLE in
Studio). Pinnacle has been bought by Avid (and we all know who they are,
not that it makes you produce a better video).
Videoguys link (and you can get the Pro version (BOB) for $499)
http://www.videoguys.com/edition.html
They have other reviews of it.
One thing that I like about it is how everything is integrated into the
interface, which is highly customizable. You can do everything from
multi-cam editing to burning dvd's without leaving the interface or
loading another program.
In the end though, it is the editor that produces the video. NLE's are
only a tool. The right tool can make the job easier, but owning a hammer
doesn't necessarily make you a carpenter. |
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Mike Kujbida
Guest
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| Posted:
Sat Oct 15, 2005 2:30 am Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
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|
TonyP wrote:
| Quote: | Mike Kujbida wrote:
Tim Witort wrote:
I have been asked to recommend a "media workstation" for
my church that can be used to edit video, edit photos, and
edit/mix audio. All of my work is done using Adobe products
on a WinXP machine, but several staff members at the church
use Macs. I have not used a Mac to do any of this stuff, so
I don't know how they compare. Price-wise the Mac solution
(a G5 with FinalCut, etc) would be more expensive even with
the discount the church gets from Apple. But I'm always
hearing how easy it is for novices to produce videos and
such on a Mac - and we will have some people with limited
computer experience using this thing.
If we go PC, I'm thinking our software would be Premiere Pro
or Vegas for video, Photoshop for images and Sonar for
audio with a firewire audio interface box. We'd also need to
have something that a newbie could use to import and edit
simple videos. Is there a Windows software product that
would be as easy as iMovie for novices to use for editing
video? I know Premiere ain't it, because I use Premiere
all the time. Maybe one of the Pinnacle programs?
If you're considering the PC route, you really should take a serious
look at Vegas, especially since you mentioned "edit/mix audio".
Vegas started as out a multi track audio editor and added video on
version 3. It's only gotten better over time. As far as ease of
use, I work at a local community college and we have several student
edit suites with Vegas. Students with limited computer skills are
happily editing by themselves in less than an hour. My co-worker
runs a recording studio as well and he's produced several CDs with
Vegas. It also plays very nicely with Sonar. M-Audio and Edirol
firewire boxes are both highly recommended. There's a great user
community for Vegas with a LOT of plug-ins available for free. The
ones that do cost money are very reasonably priced (especially in
comparison to Apple products).
Mike, while I agree with everything you said (especially the audio
editing) Liquid Edition has been a very stable and reliable product
for many. No, it doesn't get the press the others have (Pinnacle knows
nothing about advertising, but do know how to market a "budget" NLE in
Studio). Pinnacle has been bought by Avid (and we all know who they
are, not that it makes you produce a better video).
Videoguys link (and you can get the Pro version (BOB) for $499)
http://www.videoguys.com/edition.html
They have other reviews of it.
One thing that I like about it is how everything is integrated into
the interface, which is highly customizable. You can do everything
from multi-cam editing to burning dvd's without leaving the interface
or loading another program.
In the end though, it is the editor that produces the video. NLE's are
only a tool. The right tool can make the job easier, but owning a
hammer doesn't necessarily make you a carpenter.
|
Tony, you're right that a lot of us do forget about anything from Pinnacle
because of their reputation. It really is too bad as their higher end gear
does get very good reviews from a lot of users. Hopefully Avid will help
turn this around. Not that I really want them to though as I'm a Vegas
zealot and keep pushing it :-)
Mike |
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Tim Witort
Guest
|
| Posted:
Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:04 pm Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
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|
Mike Kujbida seemed to utter in news:3r8n9bFhiv8dU1@individual.net:
| Quote: | If you're considering the PC route, you really should take a serious
look at Vegas, especially since you mentioned "edit/mix audio". Vegas
started as out a multi track audio editor and added video on version 3.
It's only gotten better over time.
[snip] |
I've gotten several glowing recommendations for Vegas. If they have
a downloadable demo, I'll check it out. Thanks.
-- TRW
_______________________________________
t r w 7
at
i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
_______________________________________ |
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Mike Kujbida
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:41 am Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
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|
Tim Witort wrote:
| Quote: | Mike Kujbida seemed to utter in news:3r8n9bFhiv8dU1@individual.net:
If you're considering the PC route, you really should take a serious
look at Vegas, especially since you mentioned "edit/mix audio".
Vegas started as out a multi track audio editor and added video on
version 3. It's only gotten better over time.
[snip]
I've gotten several glowing recommendations for Vegas. If they have
a downloadable demo, I'll check it out. Thanks.
-- TRW
|
They do ( http://tinyurl.com/7czza for Vegas and Vegas+DVD Production Suite)
and I hope you'll be as impressed with it as most others are :-)
Mike |
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Gary Hendricks
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:20 am Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
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|
Hi Tim,
I'd choose a PC for that kind of application. The thing is, most people
(sad for Apple) would be more familiar with PCs than MACs. And if you
need a simple software program to edit video, the best one to go for is
the free Windows Movie Maker, Ulead VideoStudio or muVee AutoProducer.
I'm not sure how iMovie stacks up but those 2 products above for
Windows are simple enough for novices.
***********************************************
Sincerely,
Gary Hendricks, Desktop-Video-Guide.com
Essential video software programs for making digital videos:
http://www.desktop-video-guide.com
*********************************************** |
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Tim Witort
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:56 pm Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
|
|
Gary Hendricks seemed to utter in news:1129699227.920755.167460
@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
| Quote: | Hi Tim,
I'd choose a PC for that kind of application. The thing is, most people
(sad for Apple) would be more familiar with PCs than MACs. And if you
need a simple software program to edit video, the best one to go for is
the free Windows Movie Maker, Ulead VideoStudio or muVee AutoProducer.
I'm not sure how iMovie stacks up but those 2 products above for
Windows are simple enough for novices.
|
The more research I do, the more I lean in this direction. Another
factor in favor of the PC solution is maintaining the machine. I
and many others involved are very familiar with building, upgrading,
maintaining PCs, but Macs are an unknown entity.
-- TRW
_______________________________________
t r w 7
at
i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
_______________________________________ |
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AnthonyR
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:47 pm Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
|
|
"Tim Witort" <trw7at@ixdot.netcomdotcom> wrote in message
news:Xns96F45B0ACB0B2timwitortwrotethis@207.217.125.201...
| Quote: | Gary Hendricks seemed to utter in news:1129699227.920755.167460
@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Hi Tim,
I'd choose a PC for that kind of application. The thing is, most people
(sad for Apple) would be more familiar with PCs than MACs. And if you
need a simple software program to edit video, the best one to go for is
the free Windows Movie Maker, Ulead VideoStudio or muVee AutoProducer.
I'm not sure how iMovie stacks up but those 2 products above for
Windows are simple enough for novices.
The more research I do, the more I lean in this direction. Another
factor in favor of the PC solution is maintaining the machine. I
and many others involved are very familiar with building, upgrading,
maintaining PCs, but Macs are an unknown entity.
-- TRW
_______________________________________
t r w 7
at
i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
_______________________________________
|
It's not as much as Mac's are an unknown entity as it is the free market is
widely available on the PC side,
so say your motherboard goes, you have a choice of hundreds to stick to
replace it that will fit your case.
And you can shop for the best deal, where on the Mac side, only one will
replace the existing one, and you have to order it from apple, if
a consumer even can? I think you'd have to be an apple authorized dealer to
even get the parts.
More along those lines...
AnthonyR. |
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Gary Hendricks
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:52 pm Post subject:
Re: Is Mac or PC best for this application? |
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|
Thanks right, Tim. Hey I'm an experienced PC guy too. I know next to
nothing about Macs. Althought they sure look cool ... hahaha.
Trust me, if you think the folks using the computers are leaning more
towards PCs, then get a PC solution.
*********************************************************
Sincerely,
Gary Hendricks, Desktop-Video-Guide.com
The best digital video tutorials and how-to guides:
http://www.desktop-video-guide.com
********************************************************* |
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