Should I switch my workflow over to PC? at DVinfo.net

Brian Boyko · March 9th, 2008, 03:55 AM

I've been thinking long and hard about the possibility of moving my entire production over from Mac to a PC based solution. My MacBookPro is practically tethered to my desk anyway, I'm either uploading something, downloading something, compressing something, converting something, reverse telecining something... that I might as well have a desktop. And since I could probably get a good price for my 6-month old MacBook Pro...

I could probably replace Final Cut Pro with Vegas, which is what most of the windows-based people use, and Apple Color with Magic Bullet Looks/Colorista. But I'm not sure what I'd use in place of Compressor, a program that I tend to do alot of stuff with. I'm also not sure what I'd do to compress to H.264.

I'm also not sure of the straight-up editing speed difference. Maybe my Mac/Leopard dual-core rendering times will be faster than a PC/WinXP render time.

Or maybe I should just get a MacMini and see if I can't set up QMaster on it, and get "quad core" that way...

Colin Pearce · March 9th, 2008, 04:31 AM

I always strongly recommend that people choose a NLE and stick to it. Experience and familiarity with a program is very important, and saves a lot of time. If you have much experience on FCP, stick with it.

Recently we were in a time-restricted film competition. Unfortunately we wasted a significant amount of time because someone had recently bought a Mac with FCP. We were all much more experienced with Premiere Pro.

That said, certainly where I live if a person is editing on a PC, they are almost certainly using Premiere Pro. I only know one person who has used Vegas, and he quickly changed to Premiere as most of his contacts use Premiere.

Paul Kellett · March 9th, 2008, 08:10 AM

Vegas Pro 8 can compress to h264.
It just goes by a different name in Vegas pro 8,it's called Sony AVC.

Paul.

Dana Salsbury · March 9th, 2008, 10:52 AM

Vegas has superior file management and font application. FCP has Livetype, but I miss Vegas in that regard.

Pretty much everything else is superior in FCP. My production time is nearly half what it was in Vegas. I would say far more than half considering how often Vegas crashed or the operating system gave me grief. My stress level is far less today.

Both have their merits. Respectfully, PCs are cheap, but Macs are made for this stuff. I lost thousands converting to Mac, yet I think it has already paid for itself. Others might say the opposite, but know that the conversion process itself is pricey considering time, etc.

Brian Boyko · March 10th, 2008, 03:58 AM

Mmm. I suppose what I could do is try using BootCamp, and putting an XP partition on the Mac. It's just that with only 160GB on the hard drive, I'm kinda packed for space. (And yes, I've got 2.5 TB in external hard drives on the same desk right next to me...)

Dana Salsbury · March 10th, 2008, 12:30 PM

Gosh, I would do that if you really wanted to go with Vegas. It's tempting to see the grass as greener on the other side.

Cameron Naghibi · April 8th, 2008, 10:32 PM

well if you do switch look for a PC with XP pro or home edition, vista is a RAM sucker

Perrone Ford · April 9th, 2008, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dana Salsbury

Pretty much everything else is superior in FCP. My production time is nearly half what it was in Vegas. I would say far more than half considering how often Vegas crashed or the operating system gave me grief. My stress level is far less today.

Sounds like to me you had underlying issues with your machine. Can't blame Vegas for that. If you're faster cutting in FCP, that's cool. Some people fine they cut faster in Vegas. I've heard it both ways. In the 3+ years I've been running Vegas, I have not had a single OS crash, or Vegas crash. Not one. And I've run Vegas on two different PC's. Three as of 2 weeks ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dana Salsbury

Respectfully, PCs are cheap, but Macs are made for this stuff.

I won't go there.

Cameron Naghibi · April 9th, 2008, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dana Salsbury

Respectfully, PCs are cheap, but Macs are made for this stuff.

= |
whhaaaattt PC's are realllllyyy powerful and cheap! mine was only 800 and got 4 GB ram, 500 GB HDD and, a duel core 3.50 ghz AMD CPU

Bill Ravens · April 9th, 2008, 05:01 PM

Guess I'll add my .02.
If you're editting HD(v), I wouldn't give up on FCP to go to Vegas. The current version of vegas is pretty messed up. Dropped frames when importing m2t's, incorrect luma values in the preview window, scopes are flaky. Neither would I use premiere...my experience there is a lot of crashes/freezes. Both Sony and Adobe have absolutely no customer support to speak of. I've dropped Vegas, now using Edius and starting on Avid Media Composer. Edius is pretty nice, real time preview. Edius works in the YUV colorspace, just like FCP. Vegas and Premiere work in RGB....messy transformations there. My only complaint with edius is that it won't do 1920x1080 30p, but, it's promised to be coming. Media composer will run on Mac or PC and is pretty much of an industry standard. If you can edit in Avid, there's a lot more work available.

March 9th, 2008, 03:55 AM	#1
Brian Boyko Major Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 773	Should I switch my workflow over to PC? I've been thinking long and hard about the possibility of moving my entire production over from Mac to a PC based solution. My MacBookPro is practically tethered to my desk anyway, I'm either uploading something, downloading something, compressing something, converting something, reverse telecining something... that I might as well have a desktop. And since I could probably get a good price for my 6-month old MacBook Pro... I could probably replace Final Cut Pro with Vegas, which is what most of the windows-based people use, and Apple Color with Magic Bullet Looks/Colorista. But I'm not sure what I'd use in place of Compressor, a program that I tend to do alot of stuff with. I'm also not sure what I'd do to compress to H.264. I'm also not sure of the straight-up editing speed difference. Maybe my Mac/Leopard dual-core rendering times will be faster than a PC/WinXP render time. Or maybe I should just get a MacMini and see if I can't set up QMaster on it, and get "quad core" that way... __________________ Equip: Panny GH1, Canon HG20, Juicedlink, AT897, Sennh. EW/GW100, Zoom H2, Vegas 8.1

March 9th, 2008, 08:10 AM	#3
Paul Kellett Trustee Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Bristol UK Posts: 1,273	Vegas Pro 8 can compress to h264. It just goes by a different name in Vegas pro 8,it's called Sony AVC. Paul. __________________ Round 2 GH5,FZ2000

March 9th, 2008, 10:52 AM	#4
Dana Salsbury Major Player Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 859	Vegas has superior file management and font application. FCP has Livetype, but I miss Vegas in that regard. Pretty much everything else is superior in FCP. My production time is nearly half what it was in Vegas. I would say far more than half considering how often Vegas crashed or the operating system gave me grief. My stress level is far less today. Both have their merits. Respectfully, PCs are cheap, but Macs are made for this stuff. I lost thousands converting to Mac, yet I think it has already paid for itself. Others might say the opposite, but know that the conversion process itself is pricey considering time, etc. __________________ www.LegacyHDV.com Weddings \| Corporate \| HMC150s \| FCPX \| Encore \| Lion

March 10th, 2008, 03:58 AM	#5
Brian Boyko Major Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 773	Mmm. I suppose what I could do is try using BootCamp, and putting an XP partition on the Mac. It's just that with only 160GB on the hard drive, I'm kinda packed for space. (And yes, I've got 2.5 TB in external hard drives on the same desk right next to me...) __________________ Equip: Panny GH1, Canon HG20, Juicedlink, AT897, Sennh. EW/GW100, Zoom H2, Vegas 8.1

March 10th, 2008, 12:30 PM	#6
Dana Salsbury Major Player Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 859	Gosh, I would do that if you really wanted to go with Vegas. It's tempting to see the grass as greener on the other side. __________________ www.LegacyHDV.com Weddings \| Corporate \| HMC150s \| FCPX \| Encore \| Lion

March 9th, 2008, 04:31 AM	#2
Colin Pearce Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 99	I always strongly recommend that people choose a NLE and stick to it. Experience and familiarity with a program is very important, and saves a lot of time. If you have much experience on FCP, stick with it. Recently we were in a time-restricted film competition. Unfortunately we wasted a significant amount of time because someone had recently bought a Mac with FCP. We were all much more experienced with Premiere Pro. That said, certainly where I live if a person is editing on a PC, they are almost certainly using Premiere Pro. I only know one person who has used Vegas, and he quickly changed to Premiere as most of his contacts use Premiere.

April 8th, 2008, 10:32 PM	#7
Cameron Naghibi Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Glen Allen, VA Posts: 59	well if you do switch look for a PC with XP pro or home edition, vista is a RAM sucker

April 9th, 2008, 05:01 PM	#10
Bill Ravens Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: santa fe, nm Posts: 3,264 Images: 10	Guess I'll add my .02. If you're editting HD(v), I wouldn't give up on FCP to go to Vegas. The current version of vegas is pretty messed up. Dropped frames when importing m2t's, incorrect luma values in the preview window, scopes are flaky. Neither would I use premiere...my experience there is a lot of crashes/freezes. Both Sony and Adobe have absolutely no customer support to speak of. I've dropped Vegas, now using Edius and starting on Avid Media Composer. Edius is pretty nice, real time preview. Edius works in the YUV colorspace, just like FCP. Vegas and Premiere work in RGB....messy transformations there. My only complaint with edius is that it won't do 1920x1080 30p, but, it's promised to be coming. Media composer will run on Mac or PC and is pretty much of an industry standard. If you can edit in Avid, there's a lot more work available.