[Jeff Carpenter]

Hard to say. At the moment I don’t think there’s much difference. Most programs don’t make full use of the hardware no matter what system you have. So today, I’d say the cheaper one is the better choice.

But Snow Leopard is coming out next year and this is one of the major problems its going to tackle. Then, as Adobe updates their programs to work well with that you may see software pushing the limits of hardware again.

But I really can’t say how that’s going to work out since it’s all in the future. I guess I would say that if you can comfortably afford the 3.2 chip, go for it. It may pay off in the future. If, however, you’re sacrificing somewhere else (less RAM or a smaller screen, maybe?) to afford the chip then don’t make that sacrifice. You won’t see a big enough difference today to make that trade-off worth it.

[Jeff Carpenter]

If you compare the same specs you should find that Macs are slightly more expensive to similar PCs.

You didn’t say what PC you found for $500, but I’m betting it has MANY differences from the $3,000 Mac. Find something that’s the same specs and you’re probably looking at a $2,700 PC, or something like that.

So are Macs more? Sure, a little bit. But it’s totally worth it. I could spend an hour listing reasons, but I think it’s just as good to say that I own 3 Macs at home and just successfully convinced my office to switch our 5 video-editing systems over to Macs.

I believe very strongly in this stuff. No other system has tempted me in the slightest in the past 5 or 6 years.

If you have more specific questions, I can answer them, but for the general “Should I buy?” question I would have to say ‘yes.’

[Jeff Carpenter]

As you’ve found, flipping the photo after you take it seems to be the way it was designed to work. If you want the video flipped in real-time, I don’t think it does that.

A somewhat cheap solution is the $10 “iGlasses.” It’s a bit of software that adjusts the camera signal upstream of any applications.

https://www.ecamm.com/mac/iglasses/

It has a bunch of different controls like brightness and color and stuff like that. I have used it enough times that I considered to be worth the price.

[Jeff Carpenter]

You’ll need the disks to fully do what you’re asking.

Otherwise, you can create a new account, log into that, and set it so the computer auto-logs onto that one when you start up.

You’ll still have all his programs, but things like iCal, Safari Bookmarks, and Address book will be empty.

[Jeff Carpenter]

The 2 stores Zane mentioned are probably your best bet.

But if you want to do a little research before you call them, this site is usually pretty helpful with questions like this:

https://www.apple-history.com/

Find your computer on the timeline and it shows all the technical specs for that machine. This info is available many places, but I find this site easiest to search since it lets you list machine by category or by release date.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I do everything though http://www.crucial.com.

Their step-by-step tool should confirm or deny your research. I’d trust whatever it says. If all else fails, give them a call.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Start a new user admin account, log into it, and erase the original account from there.

Not only can you not fully change the name like you’re asking, I’d suggest this anyway. Who knows if he downloaded some weird driver that changed a setting somewhere?

Now that I think about it, I’d actually consider reformatting the whole drive. The biggest problem with the last OS update was for people who had logitech mouse drivers installed. It’s going to be very hard for you to figure out similar problems in the future if you don’t know what was done to the machine.

But if you don’t want to re-format the drive, at least start a new account. That’s a pretty good solution and takes almost no time.

[Jeff Carpenter]

You can drag filters into the bin area, right alongside video clips.

So, start a new project and tear off the “Effects” tab so it make it’s own window. Drag your favorites from the effects folder right into the bin area. Then, save the project.

Go ahead and restore, wipe, or whatever you want to Final Cut. When your effects get wiped out, just open that project and drag them back the other way.

I keep copy of that project with me on a flash drive in case I need to use someone else’s system. I get all my favorite effects without messing up that person’s favorites.

[Jeff Carpenter]

When you’re done at the end of the day, try saying a new file with a number. For example, your folder should end up looking like this:

My_Project 01
My_Project 02
My_Project 03

There’s no reason you SHOULD have that problem, and this doesn’t actually fix the problem. But hopefully it will give you a workaround that at least gives you a saved file that is correct.

This is just a guess, but give it a try and see if it works.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Red is a particularly problematic color. Always has been for video.

Try the ‘RGB Balance’ filter and tap down the red saturation slightly. It might help a little without giving up too much red.

Perhaps not, but it’s worth a try.