The results are in...PC vs. MAC
 

Digital Video has run a performance comparison test, much in the manner that we were contemplating, here. In this comparison test, they put an equivalent PC(Athlon) and MAC up against each other while running the same video stream thru AE. Check the results here:


http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/Htm/DVEditHomeSet1.htm

Looks like the PC beat the Mac in the AE 5.5 tests...by quite a margin. I'm not surprised.

I think they said they used OS X? Is AE even available for OS X? Anyway, of course the PC is going to win. OS X is horrendously slow!

Yes, AE 5.5 is a native OS 10 app. Despite Steve Jobs' proclamations Macs are still several steps behind PC's in performance and will likely remain so for the indefinite future. Nevertheless, I've no intentions of switching to using my PC's for video and graphics jobs.

Personally I wouldn't put much stock in that report (especially since Charlie White wrote it, as I seldom agree with anything he says), and I would never definitively tell anyone to choose a PC over a Mac for non-linear DV editing. Speed isn't everything. It all depends on what a person wants to do and how they want to work... some folks are cut out as Mac people, and some folks are cut out as PC people. The real trick is in steering new people without experience in editing on either platform to the one which is best for them.

Huddle up, boys, that's our job!

;-)

You got it, Chris. Perhaps not so obvious in this report is the reputation for reliability and dependability that Macs have. Maybe there should be a SANDRA metric called "Being there when a deadline is looming".

I generally still use OS9 and pictureviewer works fine. I think in 10, they just use QT. What's easier than that? It's built right along the OS.

There is a version of ImageViewer in OS X and it's pretty good. Double-click on a jpg or gif and see if it automatically comes up. If not, poke around in your Utilities or Applications folder; it may need to be activated through initial explicit invocation.

One thing to keep in mind about OS-10 is that it's still in its infancy. I've started using it, and while I miss the warm, snuggly feel of OS-9, X is the future. I'm amazed it works as well as it does for these early releases. Apple will get the speed up in time--I think that at present, they're working out the bugs, rather than just going for maximum smoke. MAC users will typically give up a little absolute speed for elegance.

Vic,

Re: "I'm amazed it works as well as it does for these early releases.", I absolutely agree. If someone would have told me 5 yrs. ago that Apple would switch to a full blown Unix platform (underneath the most non-technical user base in the compputer industry) I would have recommended that they seek help. They've not only done that but they've also introduced a pretty good new gui. I've had, shall we say, a "relationship" with various incarnations of Unix since the mid-1980's. Looking at the book "Mac OSX Unleashed" I am stunned to see just how full-bodied OSX's underlying Unix implementation really is.

In terms of performance, I don't find OS-X distractingly sluggish whatsoever. It does, however, still need some tightening.

From what I've seen of it Ken it looks great. If there's one thing I hate more than programming it's VI and Command Line Unix. It's nice to have something with Unix power/stability and a user friendly GUI. It's one of the reasons I'm switching to Mac for my video/graphics stuff

Mac vs PC? The only time I ever used a Mac, was in College getting my degree in Computer Graphics. They were using mostly G3's, at home I had a 486 DX 100 PC with 64 Meg of ram.

We were deep into 3D animation, another one of those "Mac preffered graphics fields". Our final project was 60 seconds of animation, and were given 3 weeks to finish it. Several students quickly grabbed any empty machine to use for rendering, while doing the modeling on their's.

My machine would take close to 6 hours to render a 10 second segment, only to crash in the last 5 seconds and lose everything. With less than a week left before the assignment was due, I took 3 days off, and finished the project at home on my PC. I got a C due to 3 missed days, but the PC came through.

Since then, I have called them "Crash 'N Toss", and will never use one again. Prejudiced? Damn straight!

When it comes down to video editing head to head (Mac vs. PC) the battle stands between the Final Cut Pro NLE on Macs and Adobe Premiere on PCs. Avid Xpress DV disqualifies since it can only do DV.

Final Cut Pro started as the next ganaration Premiere app written by the original Premiere team. PC folks are still stuck with an old fashioned, generation one, typical ninetees multimedia app like Premiere. I can't believe how stupid the Wintel market is that has all that savvy 2000+ digital video hardware (like VideoPump) but can not deliver a decent 2000+ NLE for pros under 10K...

Interface, Unix core, product design and FCP is what makes me stick to Macs. I have to since I'm importing EDL's, exporting Key Code, onlining to digibeta and offlining 1:20 Mjpeg A with the same amount of disk space as Offline RT (Photo Jpeg) but with maintained quality compareable to DV.

Adrian,
Your mention of the "vi" editor just gave me temporary symptoms similar to those found in recurring malaria patients; fever, sweats, incoherency. Sitting at an amber-phosphor Wyse dumb terminal stumbling through arcane keyboard commands to navigate through vi...eewww...where's my quinine water!!

I have to lay down now.

The only thing I hate more than VB programming is VI. At least my experience with it was on a black and white screen. I haven't touched an amber monitor since the days of

10 Start
20 Print "I hate VI"
30 Goto 20
40 End

Can't even remember if that's right

Quick, hit the "Break" key!

Martin_M, I suggest you take a look at Sonic Foundry's Vegas Video 3. There are some VERY pleasant surprises in this inexpensive program...and it's getting better.

billravens,

Thanks for the tip! I'm really open to any new NLE solution. Vegas Video looks good...for DV. I hope they will be opening up to the professional market soon. DV makes it limited in serious post production. I need to work in other formats than DV (5:1 compression). I need 1:1. Some times I even need 1:1 HD over 250MB/sec RAID. DV is 6MB/sec. A Mac doing uncompressed SD/HD is something like 17K. Base price of the equivalent wintel HDBOXX system is something like 50K. And it can't do DV like FCP.

I think video scalability is THE thing of today. Locking systems down to only one video format is rediculous. If you are a developer and your not meeting the demands of video scalability you will be forced to drop prices. We are seeing this happening to a lot of high end developers like Maya and Avid. There is no way Avid can keep on selling us SD uncompressed systems for 60K when you can get it at better image quality with a Mac and 8 bit/10 bit card (Igniter or Voodoo) for under 8K with 24fps capability!

If you are never doing anything more than DV I think the Vegas Video system is OK. Even if you can't batch from EDL's. And can't off line film cutting with exports of Kodak Keycode lists. And it has no OMF support like FCP3 with Automatic Duck. But hey! The Vegas Video NLE is almost half the price of FCP! But the $400 your saving when not buying FCP will give you a lot more bang for the buck if you deside to spend it on FCP.

But keep in mind that DV is fine for photographic material but it sucks at any type of CG or broadcast graphics (sure you can do trashy skate video graphics but forget advanced compositing). The solution is to shoot DV but not edit DV unless it has no graphics or VFX or you are doing an offline.

I will keep hoping for a serious wintel threat to FCP. Competition is good.

Speed, schmeed.

Sitting back and taking in the spectacle of the OSX Cinema display desktop, graphic-rich dock, translucent windows, genie effect openings, and with Photoshop 7.0 and FCP 3.0 spread all over the screen, buttons glistening...it's no contest...

...Macs are sexier than PCs.

This has got to be the most "Loaded" type of argument around (the internet is FULL of threads on this subject) ...

..as a long time pc user (ever since the Timex Sinclair- anyone remember those??) I've got to say most people who have used pc's and have tried Mac's often switch to Mac's as a result of the ease of use and just the fact that they seem to do exactly what they're aiming to do- the biggest complaint I have is that OS 9 has frozen a few times and it's terribly frustrating to have something freeze in the middle of a project...I'm willing to bet that ounce for ounce pc processores can outgun Mac processors but with the Windows OS and a thousand pc makers- there's always going to be issues with compatibility etc..the biggest Mac plus is the fact that when you buy a Mac you get the OS and software all made by the same company that makes the computer- if Microsoft ever decided to make a PC 100% on it's own- it would either be a dedicated powerhouse or a horrible wreck...I'm sure pc makers wouldn't want MS to start making pc's anyway....

...anyway- count me in on the Mac bandwagon- Final Cut Pro is just rocking the NLE industry and the fact that it's a Mac only app is just a plus- I wonder if Apple has ever considered making it available for pc's...would be interesting.

<<<--...anyway- count me in on the Mac bandwagon- Final Cut Pro is just rocking the NLE industry and the fact that it's a Mac only app is just a plus- I wonder if Apple has ever considered making it available for pc's...would be interesting. -->>>

I can only hope Apple doesn't -- look what happened to AOL after they opened the gates to non-MAC users!

Yeah AOL became a mega powerhouse with tons of money! Quality be damned!

Interesting note about OS 9, Steve. Yeah I've seen it freeze on occasion. But never during video editing. Usually when it freezes it's when I'm putzing around with Internet Explorer. Using Netscape will often make Netscape crash but it won't freeze. I wish they'd update Opera to what it is on the PC (awesome browser).