Thinkin' about a Mac

[maddie]

Hello, for the past few years I've been doing all my video editing, ripping, etc. on a PC. I've heard good and bad things about using Macs. What I'd like to know is, are there programs such as SmartRipper, DVD2AVI, TMPGEnc, that can be used on a Mac or are there as stable of programs out there to do just this. I know the formats of AVI, MPEG and RM are compatible with Mac, I just want to make sure that what i'm used to can be incorporated into this new purchase.
Also, is imovie and idvd good editing programs, or should I stick with Final Cut when it comes to Mac?

Thanks for any and all help!
Happy Easter!

[Comberman]

Maddie - get serious. You need a Mac like you need a hole in the head!! Not only is it inferior in the OS side of things; but in terms of what you can use with it, a good PC is worth a dozen Macs working in parallel. Buy a Mac and you will be setting yourself up in a limited market. 85% of the punters who write very good freeware (for virtually any application) write for PCs. Just take a browse around ZDNET, Cnet or any magazine forum and count the numbers of (Mac-ware) and the numbers of (PC-ware) there are (freeware/shareware). Nuff said!
All the best

[Toast B|M]

https://www.apple.com/switch/

half of them look like weed addicts, no joke!!

this one is my favorite btw

http://www.apple.com/switch/ads/ellenfeiss.html

going back to the topic..i second the early opinion. iuse mac everyday and dont see anything special abt it..multi tasking is hell becasue its just NOT fast enuf! and its hard to find the applications nand software, no freebies for apple u have to pay tons of money to apple for every little and bit you need.
i hope u get the pt.

[chickeneater]

my sister had to get a mac for school (graphic design) and it can't do anything like linux or even windows can do. I only got like 1/16 of teh divx movies that I have to play on hers. It was hard rying to find teh software to just PLAY it.

Windows has a lot more programs and editing software so it looks down HARD on macs. since macs are really restricted on what they can do, I doubt that you could encode or edit a divx file.

Learn how to build your own computer...You can save even more money.

[SKD_Tech]

There is a couple macs at my school and I hate them. You can set it right next to a PC and it isn't going to run even 1/3 of the programs a PC will. Also they don't have the new advanced CPU's as far as I know I think they are at 1.26 GHZ and what is the new Pentium 4? 3.06!

Also who really "likes" Quicktime anyways?

[chickeneater]

macs definetly have an inferior processor, but not by much.
the 1.26ghz has a 3MB cache and is made by motorola. they are just taking their technology in a different way.
my sisters mac is only 800mhz, but seems that it would easily be a 1.8Ghz P4.

[Comberman]

Maddie,
My previous reply to your thread-starter may have given you the impression that I am anti-Mac. Well, I’m not. If the truth were known I cut my desktop computing on an Apple 2E, which was far removed from the huge IBM mainframe computers on which I began my career in IT. From this you might assume that I am close to being a candidate for a Geriatric Home, but I have a few years to go yet before the wheel turns full circle and I end up being wheeled about (again!!). The Mac has it’s good points: Macs are widely used in video production; up until a few years ago Macs were the most popular computers in schools and colleges (certainly here in the UK); and Macs were the most favoured by newspaper offices.
If anyone were to ask my advice on the subject of Mac vs PC, I believe I could be totally objective in responding, but I would have to place the PC up front for one very good reason: versatility. Having had experience in both camps, I personally believe that a PC can do everything a Mac can do and in many cases do it better, but a Mac could never do everything that a PC can do simply because of its lack of versatility. A Mac will give you the Moon, but a PC will give you just about everything within your observable universe – and give you change out of your pound or dollar.
Kind regards

[Batman]

For divx/xvid and mpeg-1/mpeg-2 encoding I would recommend using a PC. Ripping, encoding, and format conversions will be more complex on a MAC as most of these tools are created specifically for Windows based PC's.

The only advantage of a MAC, is when using certain specialized (usually high end) graphics/multimedia packages and/or Quicktime.