osx or windows?

[Alex Gerulaitis]

A Mac Pro would be in the same price range per GHz as the Z800 (which is also dual socket but comes in single CPU configurations).

Z400 only has two hard drive bays (and 4 optical drive bays) which limits its internal storage options.

The Windows platform has the advantage of a much wider choice of graphics cards for CS5 GPU accel – but that’s a moot point if you are set on the Q4K.

The Z400 is more compact and comes with a 3-year on-site warranty included – something that can’t be said about anything Mac.

Other than that, it’s a matter of personal preference, I think.

(Anything I missed?)

Alex (DV411)

[Alex Gerulaitis]

One more thing: with Apple seemingly abandoning enterprise (xserve) and professional markets (pro video apps), is there much future for a Mac Pro? I just don’t see it being a high priority for Apple given most of what it can do, can be done iMacs and MBPs with Thunderbolt, maybe with the exception of serious graphics and OpenGL, or serious computing power.

I would not be surprised if Apple says goodbye to Mac Pros as well, eventually. They have little reason not to.

Alex (DV411)

[Robert Thalheim]

I worked on MacPros and Windows machines with PremierePro and After Effects. From my experience PCs are much much faster with same tech specs.
(Beside the economic facts…)
You’ll have even more features on a PC:

https://community.adobe.com/help/search.html?q=%22%28Windows+only%29%22&x=0&y=0&lbl=premierepro_product_adobelr&site=premierepro_cs5_all&hl=en_US&self=1&area=0

If you don’t want to build a PC your own I can recommend Lenevos Thinkstations too. But a HP z600 or z800 with quadro FX is a dream.

@Alex Gerulaitis, I won’t be suprised either. “PostPC era”

[Dexter Andrada]

I think the missing item in this discussion is the advantage of OSX over Windows7. Having used windows and mac for video editing there are things that should be considered.

1. If you love to fiddle with settings of your OS to make it run well, options galore are available in windows.
2. If you don’t want to be bothered by viruses, you get OSx (at least for now)
3. If you love ProRes Files, then you work with OSx

So bottom line here is what is more important to you and your time and your work output.

FYI, both machines have crashed on me already, but it seems a lot less with the OSx.

[Robert Thalheim]

Really?
ProRes Can be imported and used by Premiere on a Windows machine…
https://support.apple.com/downloads/Apple_ProRes_QuickTime_Decoder_1_0_for_Windows
But as usual, it is not allowed to transcode in to this format on a PC even while this is possible.
With Premiere you have options to transcode and decode Avid DNxHD or Cineform.

It might be true that a good understanding of windows makes up stable running system. With great Hardware its even better.

Work can be done on both Systems, without saying OSX is better. I have seen more kernel panics on OSX than I’ve seen bluescreens of death in my life…

[Erik Mickelson]

3. If you love ProRes Files, then you work with OSx

What is the advantage of transcoding to Prores if Premiere Pro(and others) allow you to edit the native codec? How would Prores be beneficial in any regard? I would think that it would be better for proxy editing Red files, but doesn’t Premiere Pro edit Red natively now?

MacPro 2.26 octo, NVidia GT120, 16GB ram, 4TB SATA Raid that now works in SL, SLeopard 10.6.6, FCPStudio 3, QT 7, Kone LHe

[Chris Knight]

Premiere does edit almost any format natively, including R3D. The need for ProRes is a FCP-only issue. If you need to export to a lossy QT codec, you can use DNxHD, Photo-JPEG (or BlackMagic’s variation of it), Cineform, and countless other 3rd party codecs. If you need 10-bit uncompressed, there are options for that as well (at least in Windows). And as more FCP editors transition away from Pro-Res, the need for encoding to it will vanish quickly.

In addition, if you learn to use Adobe’s Dynamic Link, you’ll realize the need for intermediate rendering is reduced significantly.

[Devin Crane]

Coming from a Windows background after moving to Mac OSX I will never go back. It just works right, could not stand all the crashes involved with Windows machines. My PC buddies thought I was crazy using power management, but have never had an issue with on my Macs. Also rumors our they are about to release a 16 core system with the new lion.

[Dexter Andrada]

Actually think of it as a way to work seamlessly between your FCP projects and as you transition to Ppro.
Premier Pro has no beef with have codec you choose. It will still play and render, but sometime with a slew of codecs to choose from, it does become confusing.

So if your coming from FCP and has used Apple Pro Res Files exclusively, your files will playout.
But as you do more projects on Premiere Pro being able to edit native CODEC (red, p2, etc) will be liberating.

[Drew Barrett]

I never understand what Windows people were using when they say things like that… While my Windows 7 installation runs for days and days and days without a problem. Previous versions there were occasional issues, but realistically there were almost never any real problems after 95, 98… I’ve been running Gnome on Arch Linux as well, which stays up unless I mess it up. And there are virtually no viruses really on any system currently available, unless you install it unwittingly. I’ve had OS X installed on this system as well, but I won’t judge the system based on my Hackintosh.

However when I was forced to work on OS X at my previous job, I had to constantly deal with FCP randomly disappearing into thin air with not even a warning message. There were so many situations where I found myself just staring at beach balls, it was ridiculous. Also, OS X just looks awful to me. Granted, Expose and multiple desktops and all that stuff are nice features… but they can be brought to Windows.