Not wanting a PC v Mac debate...

[Danny]

...but I'll ask anyway.

My 16 year old son is developing a keen interest in video editing and basic web design. As we need to get a new household computer I would like to know whether there is any real benefit in paying the premium Apple demand for their products and getting an iMac. Is the iLife sofware bundled with a Mac any better than the free software that comes with a PC, or are there other Mac products out there than genuinely have the edge over their PC equivalents, without costing a fortune.

We are on a tight budget so my current inclination is to invest in the best PC we can afford and use the savings to invest in some decent video editing software. But is this being short sighted?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

the ilife software is very good, and certainly a good starting point. imovie is a great introduction to video editing, and garageband is a combined multitrack sound recorder and effects package. one major selling point of ilife is that the various applications all work very well together; in imovie you can select an audio track from itunes or an image from iphoto and add it to the library or to your timeline. ilife is very easy to get to grips with.

macs are also quite well built. there are well built pcs of course, but i doubt these are at the cheaper end of the scale.

industry standard video editors such as final cut are very expensive (and work on macs anyway). adobe do premiere for pc which is not bad either, but less intuitive than imovie.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Although I'm a long term user of Macs, they have all been in engineering with high end modelling and cad packages. However recently I got my very elderly father an iMac and have worked through some of the iLife and iWork modules with him as he's learnt. I've been stunned at how good they are, especially if you really explore their capabilities.

Most people 'assume' (with the encouragement of the computer industry) that doing more than the 'basics' on any computer requires at least an upgrade, if not a complete new software bundle, leading to the ludicrous norm of people using MS Word to type simple letters, etc. But there's masses of resources around to help you get the best out of these basic packages and usually it's a lack of knowledge or talent that is the limiting factors, not a lack of software capability.

 

[derall]

As to the OS debate, I don't really care what my computer is running. I've used Mac OS Classic, OSX, suseLinux and all flavours of Win. I am no longer a Mac fan; they all have their strengths and weaknesses. These days I work almost exclusively on Windows - XP at work, Vista at home. Do a lot of graphics work with Gimp (freeware vrsion of Photoshop) and QTPFSGUI (HDRI), and that runs great on Vista

Look on SourceForge, loads of good - usually free - software. Don't know about the video editing, but the do have video conversion, web authoring and FTP software on there.

Just don't be tempted to buy Roxio Creator Suite 10. Biggest, bloated heap of steaming sh!te you will ever install, and a nightmare to fully uninstall

 

[another_dave_b]

...but I'll ask anyway.

My 16 year old son is developing a keen interest in video editing and basic web design. As we need to get a new household computer I would like to know whether there is any real benefit in paying the premium Apple demand for their products and getting an iMac. Is the iLife sofware bundled with a Mac any better than the free software that comes with a PC, or are there other Mac products out there than genuinely have the edge over their PC equivalents, without costing a fortune.

We are on a tight budget so my current inclination is to invest in the best PC we can afford and use the savings to invest in some decent video editing software. But is this being short sighted?

The only benefit I can see in your case would be video editing with Final Cut, which is only available for Apple Macs, but it won't come free on a new machine.

 

[Trevvy]

I use a G5 all day and would recommend a Mac over a PC anyday - far more robust. You can get Final Cut Express for a fraction of the cost of the Pro version and that does the vast majority of tasks you would need for editing video.

 

[ACS]

When I am asked about this very subject I always suggest that the person looks at the cost of getting the chosen device repaired, without warranty cover.

Microsoft based, PC engineers are ten a penny, accredited Apple engineers are few and tend to be based in high population area such as cities. I live in Fife and the nearest Apple support to me is Edinburgh, about 1 hours drive each way.

I use Apple products and PC / Laptops that use both Windows and Linux operating systems on a daily basis and to be honest each has its own strengths and weaknesses’.

Basic web design can be achieved using a basic text editor (notepad for instance) if you learn the basic’s of HTML coding. There is lots of advice and tutorials available even free packages

We teach student video editing on a Windows based platform using Movie Maker 2 and some of the more astute users have achieved some excellent productions. Having master MM2 we move them on to Adobe Premiere Elements 2.

If cost is the principle consideration then a Windows based pc or laptop would fit the bill and upscale the software applications as your son gains knowledge and experience.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

as an added thought dannyg, if your son goes on to do video editing or similar at college, it will all be done on macs with industry standard software. a compatible machine at home will save a lot of grief and allow more time for creativity, rather than replicating the idea done at home on different software at college.

 

[Carwash]

Quite apart from OS preferences, the fact is that you'll get iMovie - which is an excellent entry-level video editor - for free with a new Mac. I doubt you would be able to get an equivalently specced PC + an equally good video editing suite for less.

For web design it really is just down to personal preference - as long as you have access to a capable text-editor, it doesn't really matter what you use.

EDIT: Although there is one caveat: unless you install Windows as well somehow, web development on a Mac makes testing under IE more difficult.

 

[Danny]

Is there a PC equivalent of Final Cut express?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

no (as in you can't get it any other platform).

you might for pc consider adobe premier elements which is a bit less than final cut express, and better than windows movie maker.

i'd still recommend imovie as a good starting point. it's basic enough to give a good introduction, and powerful enough do do some great stuff with. it will also teach some of the concepts behind video editing which adobe premiere is written with the assumption that you know, if you see what i mean.

 

[another_dave_b]

There are some drawbacks to owning a Mac that you should consider. MS windows is the dominant operating system, and you will find that it will be assumed that if you're using a computer, it runs some flavour of MS Windows.

I'm currently doing an open university course, using a Mac, but the software I get as part of the course package is for MS Windows. In my case I could tinker with it to make it work on a Mac, but that's not always the case.

Sage, the dominant accounting package in the UK, doesn't run on Macs. Channel 4's free catch up service, doesn't work with Macs. etc.

If it's a family computer, you have to consider more than video editing.

 

[Danny]

We teach student video editing on a Windows based platform using Movie Maker 2 and some of the more astute users have achieved some excellent productions.

How does Movie Maker 2 compare to iMovie?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

There are some drawbacks to owning a Mac that you should consider. MS windows is the dominant operating system, and you will find that it will be assumed that if you're using a computer, it runs some flavour of MS Windows.

I'm currently doing an open university course, using a Mac, but the software I get as part of the course package is for MS Windows. In my case I could tinker with it to make it work on a Mac, but that's not always the case.

Sage, the dominant accounting package in the UK, doesn't run on Macs. Channel 4's free catch up service, doesn't work with Macs. etc.

If it's a family computer, you have to consider more than video editing.

if it's an intel mac, dave, you can dual boot it to run windows, or use parallels to run it within osx. the days of "you can't do this on apple hardware" are long gone.

 

[another_dave_b]

EDIT: Although there is one caveat: unless you install Windows as well somehow, web development on a Mac makes testing under IE more difficult.

That is an excellent point.

If your son is interested in web development, any website *has* to work in Internet Explorer, so you'd need access to an MS Windows machine for debugging.