Question about PC or Mac

[Erik Lindahl]

The BOX-system you linked to is a 4000 dollar system, still more than the Quad G5 (my previous post was deleted about this and I don’t have the energy to retype it again). The BOXX semed quite crippled in terms av GPU and HDD.

I’d say it’s always best to edit in the native format you shoot in and are going to output to. Shooting and output HDV it’s very good to have this option. It’s seems that PP version 2 actually does have support for this (or versoion 9, depending on how you count). When done with the offline in the native format you can transcode to prefereably an uncompressed codec and then back to whatever output you’re going to do.

When it comes to other formats such as DV50, DVCPHD or Uncompress HD 720p50/60 the info on Adobes site seems unclear (to be honest, PP 2.0 sounds a lot like FCP 5 that was introduced a year ago

[Lee Arnold]

This conversation has been extremely enlightening. I would rather stick with the Mac platform because it is the one that I am familiar with. However, I really need a new machine but don’t have a lot of money at the moment. I was wondering if I spent about $1,000 on a PC I could get something comparable to Dual Core Mac for AE. I would stick with my old G4 for everyday stuff, and just use the PC for AE (the program seems pretty much the same on both platforms). Again I’m a real neophyte when it comes to PC’s, and if anyone could suggest what I could get for less than $1,500 I would really be grateful.

[Bj Ahlen]

Circuit City has this Gateway PC with AMD X2 4200+ Dual-core CPU, 2GB RAM, 320GB harddrive, DVD burner, GeForce 6100 graphics, 19″ LCD monitor and more for $1349. All turnkey: turn on and tune in.

It even has an available PCI Express x16 slot if you want to get an extra hot nVidia 6800GS ($190) or 7800GT ($270) graphics card later for AE7.

That would be about right for an AE system, and you can either add drives inside, or better use firewire drives outside for each project (buy cases and drives for $0.25-$0.50 per GB and assemble yourself (a few minutes of work), or get a Seagate ready-to-use external drive for less than $1/GB.

You can read the user ratings at the site, and you can check out similar systems at your local Circuit City or Best Buy store.

Performance wise this system would be very, very decent for After Effects.

[Erik Lindahl]

Jumping the ship to Windows will cost you in terms of software however. AE7 alone goes for $1000!

[Bj Ahlen]

Well, AE7 Pro bundle goes for $1K (list price).

Regular AE7 is $499, and I’d be surprised if you couldn’t get a platform sidegrade from Adobe.

Worst case you should be able to upgrade to AE7 Pro from an existing AE6.5 (or earlier) Pro for $199.

This assumes you need the Pro bundle (which most people do anyway), it really is an incredible value.

I’ll even stick my head out a bit farther and venture that I think there’s a good chance that Steve Jobs has seen that there is no way that he can get the revenue growth that he badly wants from feeding the world’s professional audio, video, and film jockeys. I would give it much better than even odds that he is putting a vast majority of his company’s resources into living room gear instead.

That’s where he can grow, it fits with his monstrously successful iPod sales, it fits with his desire to find totally new revenue streams based on selling content, and more.

Consumers = rapid growth to feed an empire, pro gear = limited market boutique stuff.

Pro Macs will be a prestige thing on the backburner, and then either eventually peter out naturally or be replaced with something completely different that is 100% incompatible with anything in existence today.

Conceivably he could switch it to all software, that is quite possible.

[Bj Ahlen]

Well, AE7 Pro bundle goes for $1K (list price).

Regular AE7 is $499, and I’d be surprised if you couldn’t get a platform sidegrade from Adobe.

Worst case you should be able to upgrade to AE7 Pro from an existing AE6.5 (or earlier) Pro for $199.

This assumes you need the Pro bundle (which most people do anyway), it really is an incredible value.

I’ll even stick my head out a bit farther and venture that I think there’s a good chance that Steve Jobs has seen that there is no way that he can get the revenue growth that he badly wants from feeding the world’s professional audio, video, and film jockeys. I would give it much better than even odds that he is putting a vast majority of his company’s resources into living room gear instead.

That’s where he can grow, it fits with his monstrously successful iPod sales, it fits with his desire to find totally new revenue streams based on selling content, and more.

Consumers = rapid growth to feed an empire, pro gear = limited market boutique stuff.

Pro Macs will be a prestige thing on the backburner, and then either eventually peter out naturally or be replaced with something completely different that is 100% incompatible with anything in existence today.

Conceivably he could switch it to Apple becoming software-only in the pro space, that is also possible.

[Bj Ahlen]

Well, AE7 Pro bundle goes for $1K (list price).

Regular AE7 is $499, and I’d be surprised if you couldn’t get a platform sidegrade from Adobe.

Worst case you should be able to upgrade to AE7 Pro from an existing AE6.5 (or earlier) Pro for $199.

This assumes you need the Pro bundle (which most people do anyway), it really is an incredible value.

I’ll even stick my head out a bit farther and venture that I think there’s a good chance that Steve Jobs has seen that there is no way that he can get the steep revenue growth, that he badly wants, from feeding the world’s relatively few professional audio, video, and film jockeys.

I would give it much better than even odds that he is putting a vast majority of his company’s resources into living room gear and content instead, based on the Intel Viiv platform for DRM.

That’s where he can grow, it fits with his monstrously successful iPod sales, it fits with his desire to find totally new revenue streams based on selling content, and more.

Consumers = rapid growth to feed an empire, pro gear = limited market boutique stuff.

Pro Macs will be a prestige thing on the backburner, and then either eventually peter out naturally or be replaced with something completely different that is 100% incompatible with anything in existence today.

Or he could switch to Apple becoming software-only in the pro space, that is also possible.

[Bj Ahlen]

Well, AE7 Pro bundle goes for $1K (list price).

Regular AE7 is $499, and I’d be surprised if you couldn’t get a platform sidegrade from Adobe.

Worst case you should be able to upgrade to AE7 Pro from an existing AE6.5 (or earlier) Pro for $199.

This assumes you need the Pro bundle (which most people do anyway), it really is an incredible value.

I’ll even stick my head out a bit farther and venture that I think there’s a good chance that Steve Jobs has seen that there is no way that he can get the steep revenue growth, that he badly wants, from feeding the world’s relatively few professional audio, video, and film jockeys.

I would give it much better than even odds that he is putting a vast majority of his company’s resources into living room gear and content instead, based on the Intel Viiv platform for DRM.

That’s where he can grow, it fits with his monstrously successful iPod sales, it fits with his desire to find totally new revenue streams based on selling content, and more.

Consumers = rapid growth to feed an empire, pro gear = limited market boutique stuff.

Pro Macs will be a prestige thing on the backburner, and then either eventually peter out naturally or be replaced with something completely different that is 100% incompatible with anything in existence today.

Or he could switch to Apple becoming software-only in the pro space, that is also possible.