To Mac or not to Mac: The Future for Mac-based editors

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Roger Rosales

Apple doesn't care about its customers...unless they're the iphone, ipad or ipod customers.

In other words, they do care about their customers.

Apple is a ship that is changing the direction of its course, and the consumer markets that it is heading into are some lucrative seas indeed.

Their next step: Apple to start making TVs, report says.

[Charles Newcomb]

Soylent Green is people! For God's sake, it's people!

[Richard D. George]

I am fairly familiar with Windows 7. The one thing I will say about OS X is the merciful absence of viruses and other malicious maladies. I have had way more "fun" with such problems on Windows than a person should be allowed to have, and I have used many flavors of anti-virus software, which I updated constantly.

I now have Windows 7 running in VM Fusion on three different Macs, but the use of the internet is solely restricted to required software updates, and I run Norton. The new, free product for internet security from Microsoft failed for a friend of mine.

Also, the constant updates for Windows 7 never seems to stop, and I have to go through the process over and over again, back-to-back, before it all "sticks"

Other's mileage may vary.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Geoffrey Cox

Is it possible to still upgrade from FCS2 to 3 or FCP6 to 7?

Originally Posted by Mathieu Ghekiere

If you can still find a dealer that sells it, just act quickly.

Originally Posted by Bill Pryor

I read that they've pulled all existing copies of FCP7 from their shelves. Is this true?

B&H shows the full and upgrade versions of FCS3 as discontinued. The VideoGuys site says "With the release of the FCPX app, inventory of FCS3 has been very tight. We are now taking orders and hope to have more inventory in 1-2 weeks," and that's for the full version only.

[Bart Walczak]

Originally Posted by Richard D. George

If anyone else is considering switching to Premiere Pro CD 5.5, don't upgrade Mac OS to 10.6.8! It conflicts with the Mercury Playback engine! I was fortunate to see the warnings on the Adobe forum section here at DV Info.

This has already been fixed, you only need new nVidia drivers.

[Alejandro Vargas]

i've had windows 7, WITHOUT and antivirus, and i've never gotten as much as a facebook hack done, EVER.

you need to know what to open, i know this, because my last windows 7 install was 8 months ago, use it daily on the internet forums/facebook/youtube/vimeo and editing video!, latest updates (it updates automatically) and my wife, has had the her computer formatted 5 times in the same period! and she has antivirus!, so it all comes down to HOW you use the computer.

people don't write viruses for MAC because
1. macs are cute
2. everyone hates windows
3. bill gates has more money than steve jobs (ok, i kid i kid)

but seriously, pick up better internet habbits and you'll see how good it is...


and...question...why would you want a VM with windows 7 to not be online?
what can u possibly use it for? wordprocessing?

[Roger Rosales]

Yep- internet use is key. I don't run any anti-virus and i'm in the same boat as Alejandro. No problems on that end. Windows 7 does constantly have updates though and that does get tedious.

"In other words, they do care about their customers."

Not across the board so it seems.

[Chris Barcellos]

I run the AVG free edition as my only antivirus on my Windows editing system CPU. After 10 years, very good. Long ago I learned that Nortons and many of the the other heavy Anti Virus programs end up crashing things more than any virus out there. They also use a lot of resources.

I had a FCP user in my office the other day as we rush edited a small film on Vegas Pro 10. I pulled three different file sources (mp4, avi, and .mov), all with different aspect rations, on to a timeline with out any pre processing. Editing in this fashion is normal for me and I was wondering why he was thinking I had to do something different.

[Roger Rosales]

AVG is good. Sony Vegas has been able to mix and match footage for quite some time now without problems.

[Robert Lane]

I'm surprised how much action this thread has started, but I've seen a few points thrown around that need clarifying or reinforcing:

1. Since XP SP2 Windows machines have been every bit as stable as Mac OS X. However they key to keeping things rock-stable is NOT to use your edit system as your general internet browser or game machine. In fact, most serious post houses never connect their edit systems to the 'net at all specifically for that reason.

2. Windows only needs those constant updates for *internet-based* security, not OS stability. If you have a clean install of XP SP2 or above including Win 7 you do not need to ever get updates from Microsoft unless however a compatibility issue with newer hardware comes up.

3. If Sony Vegas had ever been a native Mac OS X application that's what I'd be using; it is a very powerful, fast and stable NLE. It's on par with but not quite as powerful as PP CS5.5.

4. Remember that switching NLE's or worse, switching over to a PC-only platform will COST you money TWICE. First in the expense of purchasing the software/hardware and second, in the time it takes you to get up to speed with the new environment.

DO NOT assume that if you're a master at FCP that you'll breeze through a system migration of any kind; there will always be "gotchas" that will spring up and you need to allocate time to deal with and fix them.

5. Although the future of FCP is now questionable you still have the option of running Boot Camp to get the best of both worlds. So yes, you always pay a premium for purchasing Apple hardware, but you can't run Mac OS X on a dedicated WinTel machine *without* creating a hack-intosh type rig. Definitely not recommended for any user at any cost.

6. If you follow the advice in point #1 you'll NEVER need any antivirus/anti-spyware on your system, thus nothing to slow it down in the background.

I can't stress enough that while FCP X has turned everything sideways for all of us, FCP 7 remains a very compelling reason NOT to spend any new monies on software - not just yet.

For those who are on older FCP versions, "7" is a worthwhile update as it adds compatibility and bug fixes that plagued previous versions.

In the end remember that software/hardware choices are nothing but tools; if you pick the best tool for your type of work then you'll be fine. Making an emotional bond to your tools or becoming blindly brand-loyal is not only counter productive, it's also a great way to toss money out the door.

[Charles Newcomb]

You don't have to buy a PC to run Sony Vegas Pro. I've got it on my MacBook Pro, running under BootCamp... the best of both worlds. I've got Vegas on there because I used to do a lot of news, and with Vegas I could cut very fast, then render to an mpeg2 for FTP uploading without having to leave the program. But I don't do news anymore, thank God.

Still playing with FCP X. So far so good. I'm coming around to the new look. The media management is going to tax my old brain for awhile, but I think I can get used to it.

I don't miss FCS 3 (sold mine this week). I was never crazy about it, anyway. But I liked it more than I do Premiere.

If I get into a situation where I need to do some really serious editing and bring other editors into the mix, I can call my son-in-law and use one of his company's Avid suites.

[Thomas Smet]

My boss at work loves Sony Vegas and I have been forcing myself to play around with it under bootcamp. It has a few holes here and there but it is a very solid NLE.

My solution for dealing with viruses with Windows is to do my web surfing on my iPad.

When it comes to Windows it really does come down to three main areas where get viruses.

1. Adult content. Adult sites have a lot of drive by downloads that infect Windows.
2. Illegal software sites. Viruses just waiting to happen.
3. Junk email.

Avoid adult sites, illegal hacked software and take care with email and Windows can be very solid. I refuse to use virus protection because I view it as just as obtrusive as the viruses themselves. Plus I think viruses are a conspiracy and are created just so people will live in fear and waste money on virus protection every year.

Anyway getting back to Vegas. Those of you who work with RED should at least check it out. It supports native R3D files and works very well. At work our main editor uses CS5 to edit our RED footage but the boss loves Vegas and has used it on a few smaller projects. We all protest Vegas so it doesn't get used very much but we are really starting to consider using it more.

[William Hohauser]

My experience with Windows XP based production switchers and control room transmission equipment is that viruses get in and slowly ruin the system even with no Internet surfing done on the computers. Windows 7, I don't know as many companies still haven't upgraded their control software to it. The kicker is that some popular virus software sometimes treats the control software as viruses! Tricaster switchers have this problem. As Robert says, the best course of action is to isolated the PCs from the internet completely and download updates on another computer if they are really needed.

[Daniel Weber]

If anyone is interested a have an unused copy of FCS 3 upgrade that has never been registered. I tried to sell it on the forum here but no one was interested.

I wonder if anyone wants it now that FCPX is hated by everyone...

I think that I will post it for sale again.... :)

Daniel Weber

[Scott Shama]

Hey Daniel, I would jack up the price on that FCS3 upgrade and put it on eBay! That thing is going to be like gold at least until the first FCP X update. ;P