Turning computer to an editing pc....

markymarc · Posted: Feb 13, 2005 9:30 pm Post subject: Turning computer to an editing pc....

Well I have my old tower which I no longer use and i was thinking of wiping the drive and starting from zero and using it exclusively has a video editing computer. its a 700mhz with 256ram and 80gb HD... ANyways it does not have firewire and I want to get a card for it to have firewire and was wondering if by just installing http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=587531&CatId=1424 and whatever driver is required if I would be golden????
or does it require something else?

Thanks

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

you can't really screw up on getting a firewire card, but you're going to need more ram than 256mb. also, premiere pro requires a p4 fast processor. (i'm pretty sure of that)

Maestro · Posted: Feb 13, 2005 10:47 pm Post subject:

I bought my firewire card from tigerdirect - $27 Canadian... it's worked fine for me...

Bowen · Posted: Feb 13, 2005 11:42 pm Post subject:

Here is my advice...Sell it and buy a mac mini, it sounds really snotty I know, but I've edited with both PC and Mac, I started on a PC, now I'm on a Mac and i will never go back, I've never gotten a frozen screen, i've never had any problems rendering. In my opinion, it is definitely the best editing machine out there.

If you don't take my advice, definitely get a firewire card, and believe me you will need at LEAST 512 mb of ram (most likely that wont' be enough, b/c when it comes to rendering you'll be SOL).

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

scott a · Ladies Man Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 9810

-=LoneStar=- · Addict Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 751

I think the reliability problems people see with PCs is due to the fact that there are many MANY cheap and crappy PCs out there. If you had hordes of companies in a Mac clone price war, I'm sure you'd find plenty of inadequately tested, poorly engineered, unreliable cheaply-made Macs as well.

If you spend a bit more on a decent PC, like an IBM or some other companies' workstation-class machines, I think you'll find the reliability will easily meet or exceed that of a Mac.

scott a · Ladies Man Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 9810

-=LoneStar=-, the difference between mac and pc is how the computer handles the audio/video. macs are just plain better for this type of stuff. the real difference between mac and pc though is that people with PC's tend to download lots and lots of programs/applications to their hard drive. after awhile some of these programs will cause problems if they are running at the same time or in the background and it will cause the computer to crash/freeze/etc.

basically if you limit the amount of crap you have loaded (and running) on your computer i think you will be just fine.

thats my observation, at least. here at school i try and download as little as possible, and when i edit i pretty much shut off all other programs that i know dont need to run. at home, on the other hand, i have far too much crap on my computer so my computer is slow, frequently freezes (albeit only momentarily), and things like that. both computers are dells and are less than 2 years old.

PimpinD · Addict Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Posts: 785 City: Orlando, FL

macs are for people who couldnt figure out how to make a pc work for them.

ha
Very Happy

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

cRaZyMo · Outlaw Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 106 City: Naples

Bowen, how much does a mac mini cost

Bowen · Posted: Feb 14, 2005 6:05 pm Post subject:

scott a, I was actually using a PC that had never been connected to the internet, there were no downloads of any kind on it. It was a 1.8 gig (I think) w/ 512 mb of ram, P4. Granted I was making a 45 minute movie, It was super shatty when it froze on me.

pimpin D, I don't dislike PC's at all, and when people are doing short videos, such as wakeboarding segments and the whatnot PC's are a great, affordable way to make them. I love how EVERYTHING runs on them, especially since I've transfered into my schools business school (out of the film school). I will definitely own a PC again, but I will own a mac as well.

cRaZyMo, you can pick them up for 500 bucks. It will come with iMovie which is actually a really good program for editing (not what the pro's use, but still a great one). That is just the tower (if you want to call it that, its about the size of a car CD player), you still need to provide, keyboard, mouse, and display, it will work with everything on the market, even if microsoft made it.

cRaZyMo · Outlaw Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 106 City: Naples

thanx Bowen, i'll look into it

-=LoneStar=- · Addict Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 751

Bowen · Posted: Feb 14, 2005 7:57 pm Post subject:

-=LoneStar=-, It is my brothers computer...I don't recall the brand, but it was a fairly good one. He bought it at best buy, his friend, who worked at best buy at the time, highly recomended it.

RD · Addict Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Posts: 626 City: Discovery Bay

Everyone keeps telling me that the big advantage of a PC over a MAC is cost but here I'm seeing everyone say that lower cost PC's aren't reliable for video editing. What's a basic PC cost that's reliable enough for running PremierePro with the drive space/videocard/FW I/O/ RAM and decent processor speed? (forget monitor/peripherals just the "box")

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

"everyone?"

i used a p2, w/ 384mb of ram, 40gb hd, generic firewire card/cable, and was able to use premiere 6.5, never dropped a single frame on capture and never crashed while rendering. built the tower myself...around 200 bucks. first editing i had done was in 2003, and i know, a lot's changed since (comps and premiere pro).

Bowen · Posted: Feb 14, 2005 9:17 pm Post subject:

RD, It kinda makes the mac mini appealing doesn't it?

RD · Addict Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Posts: 626 City: Discovery Bay

Believe it or not I built PC clones and sold them to my contractor buddies back in 1986-88! You could make some decent $ doing it back then when IBM and compag were the only game in town and clone parts were just starting to be available. Paid $800 for a used 10mb (yes that's megabyte) Miniscribe hardrive in my first PC. I even hacked the IBM bios and burned my own ROMS so when the unit booted up my name would show up before the unit ever got to the autoexec.bat file. (phoenix and the rest didn't exist then either)

This was well before Dell, Gateway etc existed (why did I ever stay in construction!)(and why didn't I buy the stock)

One of the reasons I'm such a big Mac fan is because of Premiere. It was the first real video editing program that was affordable and it only ran on the Mac for the first few years (1994). Had a Radius videovision card that digitized composite video at about 90 kb a second with a 1 gig parallel head Barracuda which gave me about 15 minutes of crappy looking 640X480 jpeg video. From there I got a Media100, this was a $25,000 set of video cards and software that I bought used for $4000 because Apple switched from Nu-bus to PCI bus and all the Pros had to have the latest. These cards basically did what the $27 firewire card talked about above does. That was at least 2 years before Media 100 would port their cards and software over to the PC. Avid was Mac only back then too.

I've probably spent more $ on this stuff over the years as an expensive hobby then everyone here could if they tried. (and just to make home videos of my kid wakeboarding) So I think the comment about Macs being for people who don't understand PCs is kinda funny. I've stuck with Macs because they work not because I'm too dumb to figure out how to put A PC together!

Anyhow enough of my old fart ramblings I'm just curious how the Mac Mini stacks up against a PC that's reasonably set up to run Premiere cost wise At $500 it's got the drive space/FW port/RAM/video card to run FCP or final cut Express at a reasonably good level if we're talking DV video.

One more tip Apple is going to split their stock 2 for one on Friday the 18th. It went up $2 a share today. It's now about 25% higher then it was right before the internet stock plunge in 2001.

scott a · Ladies Man Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 9810

alright well here is my take on why people might not just buy a Mac because they are going to edit...basically its why i havent converted...

not everyone wants to get a new type of machine just because they wanna edit. i edit quite a bit (err...i used to...blasted school!) and i KNOW i should be on a Mac, but my entire home network has always been on Windows, and thus i have two right now. my dad, in all honesty, probably doesnt wanna have to spend the time to figure out how to get a Mac on our network (even IF it's "easy" to do), and his computer background is quite similar to RD's so im sure he could figure out how to do it...he works on them for a living and took out a $25K home loan to buy his first sometime in the mid 80s.

its kinda comical when people talk about Mac's as being for those people who cant figure out computers, because if memory serves me correctly the first version of windows was a stolen/altered version of the Mac equivalent. RD correct me if im wrong, im guessing you might know...

Bowen · Posted: Feb 15, 2005 8:02 am Post subject:

RD · Addict Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Posts: 626 City: Discovery Bay

Apple stock is up another $3.50 a share this morning - Damn!

Scott,

Apple got the whole GUI idea after one of their VPs got Steve Jobs to visit PARC (Palo alto Research Center) which I believe at the time was a division of Xerox. PARC had actually had developed all the theory, Jobs was the one that realized it's potential. Bill Gates loved the Macintosh and was featured in Apple ads in the late 80's telling everyone it was the computer he liked to use. He was really the driving force behind the original version of Windows. He stuck with it even though it didn't really take off immediately. I was perfectly happy with my PC's back then. I was running Pagemaker for windows and Lotus 123 on my PC's as my main apps.

Back then windows really struggled with things as simple as mouse movement because the core of the system wasn't built around GUI the way the Mac was so there was a huge difference in the way everything worked (which Mac enthusists will tell you still remains today). The funny part is if I hadn't had friends that worked at Apple that were getting me the hardware at 1/2 price using their employee discount I might never have switched.

Apple took Microsoft to court over it but by then Windows had changed enough that the case never went anywhere.

I know how your dad feels, this stuff was just incredibly expensive in the 80's/90's. Selling the PC's I built financed getting the latest new stuff. I remember paying $3K for one of the first 80386 Mboards. That was the first 16bit Intel processor and it was a big deal.

These days you really can't go wrong with either system but the Mac is more user friendly if you're not going to get into the hardware end of it. My oldest daughter loves her PC and says she wouldn't go back after using windows. I should probably build another one and give windows a chance!

JamesWatts · Addict Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 685 City: Santa Monica

How could you use a PC. I really do not understand it. they are slow. they crash. they always stall. and I am friends with kids that build there own crazy nice PC's....they still are not as reliable as a mac. I do understand gamers not liking mac. all the mac games suck. but anything from word processing to video/photoshop/3D, macs are better. especialy with all these newer programs being written for the 64bit system. The prices are not that bad either for what you are getting. I hate the line "macs are for people that cant figure out how to use a PC"....yah im sure that people smart enough to make realistic 3D models, edit muliti-million dollar films, and compose million dollar ads are so dumb that they cant figure out how to use a pc.

-James

-=LoneStar=- · Addict Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 751

scott a · Ladies Man Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 9810

JamesWatts, ive come to the conclusion that every single one of your posts are filled with nothing but opinion, and thus quite worthless compared to what RD is posting.

and im perfectly happy with my PC, thank you very much.

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

89comp · Posted: Feb 15, 2005 7:37 pm Post subject:

I usuallly edit on my mac with Final Cut HD, iTunes, Motion (After Effects type program w/out the rendering time), Safari (web browser) and file sharing services running. No problems whatsoever. It helps when you have 2.5 GB of RAM though. Don't skimp on your RAM or video card. The video card does all the video drawing and RAM keeps your computer from being a bear when you start rendering big sequences and want to do something else (like surf the web).

Gotta love that stock price too...i got in @ $7...

As far as the scrapping the PC point...I think it is good one. Building your own PC is cool until something goes wrong and there isn't any tech support # to call. Sure you can call your geek buddy, but he will probably be too lazy to get off the couch to come help you. I built my own "Power Tower" in 2000 and it was cool for a while until things started to go wrong (for no reason).

Case in point, I traded my old Dell Inspirion for an Apple Powerbook 8500 (I think) and ended up selling the apple on ebay for $200 more than I could have gotten for the Dell. With the mac mini, you get a lot of computer for not a lot $. Plus you can keep your monitor, 2 button mouse, and keyboard. Also, I just attended a film festival that was done soley with iMovie and I saw some really, really good work. I would still be using iMovie if it wasn't for me needing to do muliple chi-squares with different video tracks. Remember, iMovie comes with the machine...

RD · Addict Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Posts: 626 City: Discovery Bay

I bought some more Apple on Monday for $79 it closed last night at $88. You may not love their computers but it's issues like this that get people back into buying hi-tec stocks.

JamesWatts · Addict Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 685 City: Santa Monica

ScottA its a thread about what is better a mac or a pc. everyone else is posting there opinions. And IMO, macs are better for what I do (video and graphics) and what the person posting this wants to do. If someone asked me that in real life. i would tell them that they are better off buying a mini mac and using FCP in my opinion. than putting a few hundred into there existing (probably outdated) PC.

If you dont find my posts usfull. DONT READ THEM.

Nor*Cal · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 9479 City: Sac

JamesWatts, no it's a thread about PC's!!! However you MAC users choose to interject how you think your comps are better. THIS IS NOT A THREAD ON WHAT IS BETTER... NOW BOW OUT AND LET PEOPLE WITH SOME USEFUL ADVICE SPEAK.

IF YOUR POST ARE NOT APPLICABLE TO THE THREAD AT HAND, DON'T POST THEM.

scott a · Ladies Man Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 9810

jumalian · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 7625 City: san diego

oops! that was a pretty big eff up! Laughing

JamesWatts · Addict Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 685 City: Santa Monica

Yes. I slept in english class a lot. But mostly i just do not take the time to correct stuff. It's a internet forum you get the point. and i was not the only one to say that he should get a mac on this thread. All you DV camera, Adobe guys with all your little wakeboarding clips of your friends think you know everything. And it amuses me. you are all pretty up tight and rude about opinons. They are my opinions. they probably are all wrong. but hey they work for me.

-James

Nor*Cal · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 9479 City: Sac

scott a, he's obviously better than all of us... Because he's paying to go to an art and film school. Good to know his inflated sense of self allows him to project false assumption about the videos people on here are making. Not to mention he thought you were commenting on his grammar not on his ability to comprehend written language

JamesWatts, get over yourself and please move on. You haven't grown up much since our first encounters... Figured college would make you a little more mature... My mistake.

JamesWatts · Addict Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 685 City: Santa Monica

I did not claim to know everything. and I didn’t say anything about me going to film school. And my "inflated sense of self" is not what allows me to comment on the videos that people put on here. I am commenting on my knowledge of film/video, whatever want to call it. and my experience.

I never have claimed to be better than anyone, or know more than anyone. I am just giving my opinion and thoughts. and a lot of my thoughts on the stuff that is on here is negative. because most of it is all crap. wakeboarding films are not that great, it shows when you see them try and shoot little stories in the beginning of their films. I Respect the guys that make those films. and in no way do i think that i am "better than them" I quit commenting on the Video clips people put on here. and all the other stuff. I Really haven’t said anything that negative in a while. Everyone on this board is offended WAY to easily. Just because i don’t have a positive comment on something does not mean that i think i am better.

All I satiated was my opinion very politely and yes a little miss spelled. then you Scott A had to turn into all this other stuff.

-James