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Old December 9th, 2003, 02:35 AM   #1
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good iMAC for chopping video?

You know, I bought this old computer cheap from work two years ago and it serves me well for writing chores and cruising the lovely Internet. The more I read around I find myself thinking about buying a computer for chopping up video to make it better. I just want to buy used and I am thinking about iMAC. Which older iMAC is good for chopping up video to make it better? For nonprofessional use - home movies type of thing only?
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Old December 9th, 2003, 10:18 AM   #2
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For just home movie type use, assuming you'll be using iMovie 3 (free), any of the G4 LCD iMacs should work well. You should be able to get a used iMac G4 800mhz with 15 in. LCD screen, 60GB HD, and Superdrive (burn DVDs) for around $800. Depending on how much footage you have, you'll might need an external firewire drive.
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Old December 9th, 2003, 01:22 PM   #3
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G4 towers are better for video editing and perhaps not as expensive as you'd think.

You can easily install extra internal hard drives into them, saving you the cost of a firewire enclosure for a firewire drive (about $60???) and avoid hassles of firewire drives not working.

A second processor adds about 70% extra performance. With iMovie the second processor probably isn't that useful.

You can use 2 monitors. Dual monitors are cheaper than a single large monitor. You are going to love the extra desktop space.

They're still more expensive than iMacs though. :(
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Old December 9th, 2003, 01:44 PM   #4
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Not knowing exactly what your budget is, I would point out that the old CRT iMac DVSE is fully capable of handling iMovie editing. The LCD iMac's will be a bit faster and if you can find a used one with a SuperDrive, you'll be in the DVD authoring business, too. That's what I currently use (17" iMac) but my old DVSE got me started and I still use it at home.
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Old December 9th, 2003, 04:43 PM   #5
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I am just looking for a cheap used iMAC for chopping video, splicing chopped video together, and then putting it on a VHS tape. It is not like I am going to do a lot of this either. I don't even know how to do this yet. I just want to get started with a cheap used iMAC, because it all ready has firewire built in.
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Old December 9th, 2003, 04:47 PM   #6
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Gotcha.

Then, like I posted earlier, you want an older CRT iMac DVSE. That's the original bubble shaped iMac, but in the later edition that had a slot loading CD/DVD instead of the tray loading. The DVSE model had more memory, Firewire, and a better graphics card. Head to eBay, there are lots of them there.
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Old December 9th, 2003, 05:11 PM   #7
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I agree with Jeff, assuming you just want to run iMovie under MacOS 9.x. I gave my daughter one of the "fruity" iMac DV's about 3 years ago. I think it's a 500mhz G3 with either 256 or 512MB RAM. I also got her a cheap DV camera a couple years back. She and her friend have made some videos that really impress me (they are both acting majors in a conservatory university program). They're just using that off-the-shelf old iMac with its relatively small internal hard drive.

True, it won't be as nice as a G4 machine, and it probably won't be a good platform for Final Cut Pro, but it's certainly a workable tool to get your feet wet and show the world what you're capable of doing.
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Old December 9th, 2003, 08:18 PM   #8
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Thank you. I'll look for the older normal looking one that doesn't look like a light-bulb-less lamp for chopping and splicing pieces of video. I should find one cheap enough which should be good enough. Am I correct in thinking iMOVIE comes with the iMAC? If not, how much does that cost? I guess I will need a fire cable as well. Thankfully I all ready have a VCR and a TV. I imagine I will be needing lots of iRAM. Something like 512 meg-a-bits should be enough, eh?. I'm going to have a whoop for a look now.

Ebay's okay? I'll be careful not to get ripped.

If I find a good deal on the newer light-bulb iMAC model, I'll go with it instead.

Rick,
The Sault.
(Christmas crazy)
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Old December 9th, 2003, 08:51 PM   #9
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I've been meaning to get the wife one too, maybe a new one, maybe a used one; as long that it works and keeps her from watching too much TV. Besides, I'll get to play with imac.
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Old December 9th, 2003, 09:21 PM   #10
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You might also have a look at the eMac. These are G4 machines and really represent the most bang for the buck that Apple has ever delivered. They have a really nice integral 17" flat screen CRT. The new 1ghz models are going for $800. You can probably find used 800mhz machines for much less....
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