New iMac - Good for NLE?

Does anyone have any thoughts on the new iMac? It's priced decently and I have not purchased my first NLE system yet (cost factor).

http://www.apple.com/imac/

[Bill Ravens]

not a good review:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2836842,00.html?chkpt=zdnnp1tp02

I read the article. The critic actually commented more on how the item was deviously unveiled at the tradeshow, keeping all reporters in the dark about the new imac, except TIME Magazine, which was an exclusive. I agree with him on that. Such behavior between the two companies, Apple and AOL, should not be tolerated. AOL (TIME Magazine) and AOL alone would surely have benefitted from this sort of disclosure. If it wasn't for their Canadian source, that is.

However the new imac looks amazing. Responding to the reporters comments, " Are you blown away?" Oh yes, I am. It's affordable and has just enough to get you started. I'm definitely looking into more. Of course, I'll be looking into more reviews, but I think it has potential.

Upgradeable to 768megabytes of RAM
60 Gigabyte hard drive
GeForce 2 Graphics Card
Superdrive

But don't buy one right away. Give it a little TIME.

[Ken Tanaka]

David Coursey seems more miffed that Time got the story before Ziff Davis. This wouldn't be surprising since he's a journalist cum techno-meister.

But to answer the original question, I don't really know and Coursey's pseudo-review offers nothing useful. Based solely on the system's physical design and specs I'd be inclined NOT to get one as a platform for a NLE for the primary reason that it's clearly designed as a prix fix appliance rather than an expandable and adaptable platform. The new iMac appears to have the same design and marketing strategy used for the older iMacs as well as for the iCube; it's aimed at the futz-phobics who want to get email and their grandchildren's pictures. Nothing wrong with that, mind you. It's a good market. But it's not the same mission as that of a video editor. For a bit more you can get a very good G4 that can service your NLE needs as well as other future puposes.

I do, however, heartily endorse using Macs as a NLE platform.

I have one of the newer imacs and it works perfectly for imovie, and final cut pro. all you really need is a lot of hard drive space and ram. of corse the imac isnt going to be as fast as the G4s but it gets the job done, and thats really all that matters. you may need to mess with you configurations to run FCP efficently.

[John Klein]

I have an original iMac DV SE which has, I think, a 400 Mhz G3 Processor. I added an 80 GB firewire drive and some RAM and it worked fine. I literally had my first movie out of the box and finished to tape (50min) in about 2 1/2 hours with iMovie. It made me an active DV guy. It really started me off.

The new iMacs just unveiled yesterday are G4s running about twice as fast and use the LCD display. So while it isn't the ultimate, it will work just fine, and then some.

That article never really talked about how Apple usually gives away software with their PCs which is why they cost a bit more coming off the shelf (like iMovie, iTunes, etc). That, and it costs money to make a friendly computer operating system and innovative, hardware.

Go for it, never hurts to buy the apple care warrantee when the PC is over $1500 IMO. Also install your own RAM to the max right away.

[Bill Ravens]

then there's this perspective:
http://www.appleturns.com/

This new imac blows away my current g4/500/a103 machine which works great. I use premiere 6, the occasional iMove2 (don't tell anyone) for the occasional quick and dirty, and DVD Studio Pro on my current setup. The new iMac beats my system hands down except for max ram (I have 1.5 gb, imac maxes out at 1 gb) and display (I have a 17 inch Dell 1702fp lcd vs the imac's 15 inch lcd - same resolution though). My external equipment (firewire drives, cdrw, fw hub, etc) works on either. For a low-cost way to do nle and dvd authoring, how can you beat the top end iMac at $1799?

SD-Diver

[Ron Pfister]

Hello!

While the specs of the new iMac make the current G4-minitower lineup look a bit pale, I have one major reservation:

I truly dislike LCDs for any application that requires judging tonality and color at least somewhat accurately. Nothing beats a CRT at color fidelity and stability!

My view is that the new iMac is perfect for just about anything other than graphics, imaging or video work - due only to the LCD display.

I welcome other opinions!

Hope this helps,

Ron

[John Locke]

I've got to throw in my two cents on this. Before I got my new souped-up G4, I was using an older Mac tower with minimal everything, and was still able to use FCP. Granted, it was slow...but it worked.

This new iMac has features I would've dreamed of having back then. It should work fine.

As for CRT vs. LCD...I use the Cinema Display and I love it. There's more contrast for sure, but I'm still able to visualize the end product on a TV. Once I hook up a monitor (which any TV will do), that will no longer be a problem anyway. Reason I haven't hooked up an NTSC monitor is because the display I have has worked just fine.

Bottom line is...if you're working on a limited budget, go for the iMac. It'll handle your needs. Be sure to get the Super Drive.