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Dell vs Apple
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[David Roth Weiss] “Keep in mind, hardware companies ONLY fix their hardware, they don’t fix software and they don’t fix peripherals. And, most issues are NOT typically with the computer hardware itself, but rather with integration of software and peripherals.”
Quite true, but definitely an issue with Apple. Let’s say you have an older machine and you’ve steadily updated it. You have a problem and take it to the Genius Bar. They determine it needs to be wiped and a clean OS installed due to OS corruption. In that case, they will only bring the machine back up to what was “current” for that machine. If the machine is old enough to be considered “vintage”, then they will not install the current OS. That’s up to you.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Walter Soyka] “I took a Mac to an Apple store several years ago to have a MBP logic board replaced. I had to go the mall, and my computer had to go back and forth to Texas. It took a few days to get back.”
I had my 2009 Mac Pro at the Apple Store a couple of years ago. They had the machine well over 10 days trying to troubleshoot what was ultimately a bad logic board. During that time they blamed the video card, blamed the RAM and even damaged one of the Xeons. Fortunately all was made right and the cost was downright reasonable for the logic board.
I had asked whether changing the logic board would require reserializing all of the software (which I knew it would). The tech said, “No, why should it?”. When I got it back there was a lot of reinstalling and cleaning up to do. And of course, plenty of e-mails to plug-in companies to get them to deactivate stuff so I could properly reinstall it.
Of course, if I had only had Apple software, then his answer would have been sort-of correct. There, the App Store would have only seen this as a new machine under my name.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “Quite true, but definitely an issue with Apple. Let’s say you have an older machine and you’ve steadily updated it. You have a problem and take it to the Genius Bar. They determine it needs to be wiped and a clean OS installed due to OS corruption. In that case, they will only bring the machine back up to what was “current” for that machine. If the machine is old enough to be considered “vintage”, then they will not install the current OS. That’s up to you.”
Absolutely true Oliver… This is why I lump all three major manufacturers together in this discussion – not one of them really knows the needs of video editors when troubles exceed the most basic of common hardware issues.
For example, anyone who goes to visit a so-called Apple Genius when issues arise with a FCP system knows well, not only do the geniuses NOT know how to troubleshoot FCP and FCPX, they are forbidden to do so by Apple management, who put the fear of God into their employees about what they can and cannot deal with.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss ProductionsDavid is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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[David Mathis] “Windows belong on a house, not a computer! ;-)”
Unless you want run a machine with two CPUs as well as multiple GPUs.. 🙂
Shawn
You can do that with a 2009 Mac Pro
Gabe Strong
G-Force Productions
http://www.gforcevideo.com -
It’s certainly true that VARs add value, but if the narrative is “you can run a Mac yourself, but you should only buy a PC from a VAR,” that’s where I would disagree. If you can manage your own Mac, you can manage your own PC. Yes, it’ll be different, but I find a lot of Mac users who complain about how difficult Windows is to maintain (it’s not) have simply forgotten how much they know about Macs.
There are levels of support, with Noah’s DIY build at the bottom, my HP in the middle, and your VAR-tuned workstation at the top. You usually get what you pay for. Choose according to your needs.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
Yosemite belongs in California, not in Cupertino.
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[Jim Wiseman] “I’m certainly not in Hollywood or San Francisco any longer, but I get on site service for my Mac Pros here on little Kauai in Hawaii, at least under Applecare, cost covered.”
Apple’s on-site support is limited: it’s desktops only, it depends on the location of an Apple-authorized service center (which have all been killed in my area by Apple’s own retail stores), and Apple may request that you replace things with “readily available parts” first.
But your point is true that Apple does have on-site repair.
[Jim Wiseman] “Sold and supported Avids and Media 100’s on Macs and another system on Windows. No comparison that the Windows systems, both the computers, IBM and Intergraph, and Windows system software caused me many more headaches than Mac hardware and OS.”
I’m sure that’s true, but Intergraph and IBM have been out of the workstation market for a long time now. One of my contentions in the platform wars is that a lot of anti-PC Mac users are making judgments based on real experiences with significantly older versions of Windows. I think a lot has changed, and it’s evident in Windows 7 and later.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Gabe Strong] “You can do that with a 2009 Mac Pro”
Yes, you can, but it will be bandwidth-challenged and with a RAID and I/O card, you’ll be out of expansion.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
Hey David,
[David Roth Weiss] “When Tim suggests HP has a department that specializes in video support etc., I don’t believe he is speaking from personal experience, but rather from HP’s marketing materials. HP will fix your workstation, but if there’s anything else wrong, drivers, add on peripherals, networking, etc., their technicians will not touch it.”
With all due respect to your own experiences, I disagree with this. My HP ZBook pro works like a dream for Adobe CC and HP is keeping me very happy with pushing out drivers and notices. The Laptop itself is a portable video workstation (as suggested by HP directly when I discussed it with them), and HP built it for that purpose. So you may not have found the department within HP, but they do exist and they are very good at what they do.
All the Best
Mads@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk -
To each his/her own.
Ive gone through the ringer with both Mac and PCs as well as Unix.
I work closely with the IT department (corporate staff of over 3000 employees).
I deal (and manage) with Digital Signage which is forced to use PCs (over 200 player nodes) and a few Virtual Servers.
I will take my chances with Digital Creative Media any day on the Mac period.
Again to each his/her own.
Now of course for pure grunt Maya/Rman stuff, I use a BOXX/DELL combo 🙂
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