Will Premiere on the Mac presuade anyone to switch Platforms/Software?
 

I searched the forums a bit and was surprized to not find an active discussion about Adobe's upcomming support for the Mac platform, maybe I'm late. I would be interested to hear people's thoughts on Premiere on the Mac. Is there any current PC users contemplating a platform change? Likewise, are there any FCP users contemplating running Premiere on their mac for increased After Effects support?

I think this is exciting news, maybe we'll see another all out company war. Finnally, we have some competition on the Mac side of things.

Yeah, I'm considering changing platforms to a Mac. Mostly because I'm looking to upgrade my notebook, and I like the specs on the new MacBook Pro 17" coming out.

But I won't be running Premiere. I cut on Avid which has been shipping with dual PC/Mac support since the beginning. Now, since I'll have a MAC, I'm also considering picking up a copy of FCP, so I'll have both of them available. But I don't forsee picking up Premiere unless I just have the cash burning a hole in my pocket!

But no, I don't think you'll see a massive switch from Avid, OR FCP - both of which run on Mac. You'll probably see people like me, who want to move to a MAC platform, bringing along Premiere because its what they cut on.

I'm curious though. Will Premiere ship with copies for BOTH platforms like Avid or will you have to buy a seperate program for each platform?

Well now all Mac's are PC's running Mac OS. So why would anyone change? There is more software on the PC and set up correctly the PC is as stable as any Mac. Load garbage and the PC will fall apart. The Mac has the advantage of far less software available to screw it up!!!!!!!
Treat a PC like a Mac ( buy it and run the software that came with it or just reputable software) and it will run just fine.
I constructed the 4 PC's I have. One cheap for internet mail and surfing, the other 3 for editing. These editing PC's only have editing software on them and most of the Win XP services shut down. They are fast and lean machines. I like Windows because I can get into these services and shut them down if I know I don't need them. Frankly I don't like the MAC big brother approach of the designers know better. I appreciate the wonderful industrial design of the MAC's, but right now they are PC's with software being the difference, hence the competitive start with Safari being made available etc. Frankly Mozilla Web browser( Firefox) and mail( Thunderbird) are better than MAC or Windows!!!!!! They are free for the PC.
On the PC there is the advantage of being able to edit with Edius, Pinnacle, Premiere, Vegas etc etc. Make the choice of software not the hardware because right now the hardware is much the same.

Ron Evans

I used Premiere on the Mac before FCP existed. Switching to FCP was a welcome change for me in 2002. I'm sure Premiere has come a long way since I last used it, but I have no interest in going back.

I thought about buying a Macbook Pro before I got my latest Dell laptop, mainly because Macs can now run both Windows and Mac OS software well. But in the end I wasn't willing to risk the reliability of my core Windows programs for the marginal benefit of being able to run a handful of Mac tools which dont meet my needs any better than the software I already have. Plus I don't like the extremely limited hardware options of Apple computers, which I know some will say is a benefit but it's really just a nuisance. If Apple would unleash the Mac OS to run on standard PC hardware I might buy a copy, but I'm reluctant to get locked into proprietary hardware again like I was when I used Macs a few years ago. My next computer may be a Mac if I can be convinced that Windows truly runs well on them, or if Windows Vista flops so badly that buying a regular PC becomes an exercise in futility.

I do know at least one staunch Mac user who's planning to buy the latest Adobe software so he can get Blu-ray authoring support for his HD projects. I'm surprised that Apple didn't include Blu-ray authoring in the latest version of Final Cut Studio, and that's a good example of why I don't care much about Macs lately. They used to have some substance to match their hype, now they're just PCs with a proprietary bios chip...

It is really cool that Avid ships both the PC and Mac software in the same box, a definite Kudos for them. I think its interesting that Adobe thinks they have a market in Mac users. Currently, if you are running a Mac as an editing workstation, then you are running FCP studio. I realize there are a few people running Xpress pro on a Mac, or even media composer, but this is the exception to the rule and there is no hardware support on this end for the Avids. Now Adobe comes along, with their integrated suite, hardware support for various i/o cards, cineform support, etc. So this might be a package that a lot of people might run at least as a secondary set of apps. Also, maybe their is a few premiere users that would like to use DVD studio pro, or compressor, etc.

I'm not saying that a Mac is better than a pc, but there is different support as far as software, and I'm curious to see why Adobe thinks they have a market in PC users.

Um, Avid was originally DEVELOPED for Macs. And yes, there is hardware support for Mac/Avid. And plenty of people/schools edit with Mac/Media Composer machines. But don't take my word for it, drop by and read the AVID for MACS forum at www.avid.com Plenty of platform/hardware support/gripes and brags that you'll find on any NLE forum. Plenty of professional houses using them too.

That's why AVID has always shipped with copies of BOTH platforms. Last time I checked, you could still by a MAC system directly from AVID.

My point: No hardware I/O (I.E Mojo) nor any xpress studio for mac. Adobe production studio offers a few advantages there. I'm sure Xpress and Media composer runs fine on Macintosh computers.

AVID Mac supports SDI Mojo... Really, trust me.

Thanks Richard,

Your right, I checked Avids site, and buried in there is media composer and MOJO SDI on the Mac. Has this happened since the Intel Macs came out? Man time flies, I set up a express studio lab at a college two years ago and I know that there was at least no studio support with the mac. No lanshare support either. I guess I could be wrong about MOJO (not that this is really that great of news, I have talked to many editors that have fried their mojos updating AVID, and also I have read more than a few posts that the mojo really doesn't add anything for a well equiped and maintained machine). This is big news too then, especially for Media Composer, being able to have a portable laptop system and being able to interface with an HD-Cam deck is huge, especially at this price point. Any word for Mac studio support? What about Lanshare?

Unfortunately, all of this is off topic to my original post about premiere running on a Mac. The avid suite, while nice doesn't offer the same capabilities (and vice versa) and is at a different price point and at a different level of hardware integration (AVIDs are very picky machines, am I wrong?). I always thought FCP to be the main competitor for Premiere at least for someone deciding on a platform, now they don't have to, but maybe this is a non-issue. I didn't get quite the response that I was looking for, but thank you Richard, I think I learned something valuable here.

Wait, no mojo sdi isn't HD, I guess adobe has a hardware support advantage afterall, in that it can do uncompressed hd at a price point AVID can't really touch. What about adrenaline support for the mac? (I'm going straight back to AVIDs site)

Yep,

Adrenaline support for the mac confirmed. Now I just need a $50million feature to edit so that I can afford the expense.

They had a pretty huge market before the switch/war to Windows only...

The point to my response Greg,is "no". There is more than one choice for editing software that is cross platform.

You asked if there were any PC users contemplating a change in platforms. And by illustrating my own position - someone who will probably be moving across platforms to a Macbook Pro this year - I'll be doing it BECAUSE of Avid and FCP - not because of Premiere.

So I think I addressed your request and followed up on your misconception that there was "Finally" going to be some competition on the MAC for editing choices. Clearly, there has been for years.

I miss typed, I meant to ask why Adobe thinks they have a market in Mac users?

Richard,

I think its less of me seeing your point as it is you not seeing mine. AVID has a terrific feature set and I do like it's scalability (I know of a company working with an editor on the west coast, they have a pc, he has a g4 laptop, and they are able to send project files and media between parties and have the same project on either system, very cool), I like the cooperative editing features of the lanshare/unity as well, (the editing lab I helped set-up had eight Express studio machines, all hooked up to a lanshare, all could colaborate on the same project, we tested it, very cool again). Whether Final Cut Pro was the only solution for the mac wasn't my question at all, it was how Adobe's suite sold for the Mac would affect people using Final cut on the mac and Premiere on the PC, that's all. I'm sorry that I didn't clearify that AVID also runs on the Mac, but my negligence wasn't because of ignorance, this is something that most people take as for granted. I am going to be running xpress myself, and I would like to buy a Macbook Pro, mostly because my clientel largely has Final Cut systems and I would like to be able to do some work at home (I'm in pc land here). But again, all of this is off topic. Thank you for your response.