Alright so Im about to buy a Mac Book Pro for College. I have been a Windows lover for years. Im just wondering though would I be able to hook up my Samsung 19 Inch LCD monitor to the Mac Book Pro because I just bought it and I don't want to sell it. Also is it possible to convert my 250GB hardrive that I have now into an external hardrive that would be compatible to Mac's operating system if I backed up the captured footage which would be .avi and then reformated it so it would work on a mac? As of right now I have a Pentium 4, 2.53GHz, 1.5GB or ram, and if I were to buy the Mac Book Pro I would get it with 2GB of ram, basically what Im saying is, will it be much faster than my current PC? Lastly Adobe programs.... Do any work on the new intels or would I have to boot up windows to use Photoshop, After Effects, Premier (Although Im probably going to switch to FCP maybe I don't know) Anyways if someone could answer any of my questions it would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
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Basic Newbie Questions
- Thread starter NewAge
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Yes, you can use your external monitor on the MBP.
Yes, your existing 250GB can be configured to work on your Mac. It may or may not need to be reformatted to do so - perhaps someone else can clarify. The .avi footage would likely work on a Mac without issue.
I don't know how much faster or slower the MBP would be, since it largely depends on what applications you use. If it's the ones listed as concerns for the Intel Macs, then I'd venture a guess to say they'll likely be roughly on par until Adobe releases Universal versions of the applications. At that point, they'll probably smoke the PC version.
Yes, the Adobe apps will work (I use them on my MBP) but they run via Rosetta. They won't be as efficient as a Universal application, but they will run. You won't have to boot into Windows.
As an aside, what's driving you to switch from your PC to an MBP? Not that I'm disappointed or anything, just curious.
Yes, your existing 250GB can be configured to work on your Mac. It may or may not need to be reformatted to do so - perhaps someone else can clarify. The .avi footage would likely work on a Mac without issue.
I don't know how much faster or slower the MBP would be, since it largely depends on what applications you use. If it's the ones listed as concerns for the Intel Macs, then I'd venture a guess to say they'll likely be roughly on par until Adobe releases Universal versions of the applications. At that point, they'll probably smoke the PC version.
Yes, the Adobe apps will work (I use them on my MBP) but they run via Rosetta. They won't be as efficient as a Universal application, but they will run. You won't have to boot into Windows.
As an aside, what's driving you to switch from your PC to an MBP? Not that I'm disappointed or anything, just curious.
Thanks for the fast respose. Well Im going to College for Film and my highschools editing class that I was in we used mac mini's which were alright I guess. But I want a good laptop and Mac's are really nice. Most PC laptops are horrible. I have had my PC for 4 years now and have had no problems. Im just ready to make the switch completly to Mac because everyone says they are better for multimedia and I have finally came around and realized that they were right all along while I would make fun of them before haha. Would my monitor just be a mirror or actual duel monitor system?
One thing to bear in mind with the Adobe apps. If they are Windows versions, they won't run on the Intel Mac unless you run them in Windows.
However, if they're registered, you can ask Adobe to send you the Mac version. You send them a certificate to say you've destroyed the Windows install disks and they send you a set of Mac ones.
However, if they're registered, you can ask Adobe to send you the Mac version. You send them a certificate to say you've destroyed the Windows install disks and they send you a set of Mac ones.
Cool - I doubt you'll regret buying a Mac, especially for the type of work you do.
As for the monitor - it will be a dual-monitor, not a mirrored setup. It'll be nice!
Edit: good point, Applespider, I hadn't considered that he may have been asking if his existing PC versions would work.
As for the monitor - it will be a dual-monitor, not a mirrored setup. It'll be nice!
Edit: good point, Applespider, I hadn't considered that he may have been asking if his existing PC versions would work.
NewAge said:
As emw said the answer is yes, you can. but reformatting depends on how it's currently formatted. OS X can read but not write to NTFS, so if that's the format, you could copy over all the contents onto the internal Mac disk before reformatting the portable HD. It it's currently formatted in FAT or FAT32 then no formatting is necessary. I would presume that since it's a 250GB drive though, that it's not FAT32 since Microsoft limits the formatting of a FAT32 drive to 32 GB. There are various third party formatting solutions that get around this though, with a max size of 4TB. The other option is to reformat in Mac HFS+, which is the Mac's native format.
If you plan to ever plug your drive back into a windows machine to transfer data, I would suggest going with the FAT32 format which is compatable with both systems. But one caviet is that a file is limited to 4GB under FAT32, which is about 16 minutes of raw DV or HDV footage, so if you plan to transfer long clips from tape, or capture straight to disk, this would be a consideration.
As for the FCP question, deleting a clip within FCP does not change anything on the actual hard drive, it just removes it from your project clip browser. You're going to love FCP, and the other apps that make up Final Cut Studio - LOTS more control than iMovie,.
Good luck in school!
Regarding the monitor. I remember reading a while back about a couple of Samsung LCD monitors not being fully compatible with Macs. The issue was that the monitor's controls (i.e. brightness, contrast, etc) were done in software, rather than hardware and that Samsung did not provide Mac software.emw said:
I'm not saying that your Samsung is this way, just that it may be. It'll still work, but you won't be able to adjust the monitor's settings.
ft
Alright thanks for all of the positive feedback guys. I will be ordering my Mac Book Pro in August along with the free iPod Nano offer to University and College students.
But this Mac will be MUCH faster than my computer that I have right now right? 2.53GHz Pentium 4, 1.5GB of ram?
But this Mac will be MUCH faster than my computer that I have right now right? 2.53GHz Pentium 4, 1.5GB of ram?
Given that your current PC is 4 years old (heck, even if it was less than a year old), I'd say it's pretty likely this Mac will smoke it.NewAge said:
Plus, you don't have any of the overhead for virus/spyware/adware applications.
Or Windows.
Of course, you could always wait for the Mac Pro desktop.
NewAge said:
-NewAge
Thunderous, resounding yes.
They alread have OS X versions you can move to, then when they release the versions that work directly with the Intel Hardware (Universal) you simply update.
What's happening now is that Adobe has OSX versions for PowerPC hardware - it'll run on the Intels, just not as fast as native. Though still about 80-90%.
Nothing to worry about.
NewAge said:
Adobe has OSX versions of their Creative Suite, yes, but not ones that run natively on the Intel Macs. The current OSX versions they have DO run on the Intels, without any extra workarounds, but they run a little slower than they will when they come out with fully Intel-compatibile versions.
I've got an Intel iMac, and I use CS2 regularly. Works fine.
Can't wait for CS3, though.
As you probably realize, Adobe's apps run fine on the Intel Macs. They are slower than on a fast PowerPC Mac, but still usable for fairly simple stuff. I'd say Photoshop is approximately as fast on my Intel iMac as it was on my 12" PowerBook G4. I don't find it painful to use Photoshop on my iMac, although for anything serious I do prefer to use my G5 for Photoshop.
As for when Universal versions of Adobe's stuff will be out, no one knows for sure, but it's probably going to be sometime in spring/early summer of 2007. You should be aware that Adobe Premiere hasn't been updated for the Mac since version 6.5 and while it is OS X compatible on a PowerPC Mac, I don't know whether or not it will work on an Intel Mac, and in any case it won't be updated again. That's no big deal really though, because I think you'll find FCP a better solution. FCP is the reason Premiere is no longer on the Mac. Nobody wanted Premiere anymore after FCP came out. After Effects is slated to be updated for the Intel Macs, and version 7 is now available in a PowerPC version.
As for when Universal versions of Adobe's stuff will be out, no one knows for sure, but it's probably going to be sometime in spring/early summer of 2007. You should be aware that Adobe Premiere hasn't been updated for the Mac since version 6.5 and while it is OS X compatible on a PowerPC Mac, I don't know whether or not it will work on an Intel Mac, and in any case it won't be updated again. That's no big deal really though, because I think you'll find FCP a better solution. FCP is the reason Premiere is no longer on the Mac. Nobody wanted Premiere anymore after FCP came out. After Effects is slated to be updated for the Intel Macs, and version 7 is now available in a PowerPC version.
NewAge said:
Yep. PowerPC apps run on Intel Macs through Rosetta seamlessly. Install them just like normal, click on the icon, and that's that. Do realize that the upgrade to CS3 will not be free, it'll cost money. Not that that's necessarily a problem, but some people seem to assume that the Universal versions of Adobe's stuff will be a free upgrade when they won't.
This is a good point - Adobe's plan is to provide a Universal version for their next normal release, as opposed to simply recompiling the same feature set for the Intel Macs. As a result, this upgrade will cost about as much as any other upgrade release from Adobe.mduser63 said:
ftaok said:
I just found this out the hard way. I found what I thought was a really good deal on a 19" white bezel Samsung lcd (I wanted the white to match) When I open it I find that the included software, of which the name escapes me (colorsync?), is not Mac compatible. Samsungs website has a download for a mac version but I couldn't get it to work.
Basically if the monitor in question has no external buttons there is no way to adjust brightness/contrast except through the color profile thing in sys preferences. And even at that, the first step is to adjust the brightness to a certain level, which you just can't. You can adjust the gamma and the contrast, but not the brightness.
I ended up keeping it because I liked it because it was white. I did the best I could on the profile adjustment. Looks pretty good I think. Much better than the 17" crt it replaced.
VoodooDaddy said:
-VoodooDaddy
If you'll forgive me for paraphrasing for NewAge's benefit...
-NewAge
Basically, if any part is non-standard, beware.
I know that runs contradictory to what you may have heard about Macs, but it's true.
You see, it was true that there were days of uberproprietaryness in all things Apple (monitor cables, drive connection, serial cables (ADP), NuBus instead of PCI, soldered processors and RAM, even network ports (AAUI)), but along with the high-profile change to Unix with OS X in 2000, came a quieter one. Adoption of industry standards, or rather, the completion of the move to it (VGA Video, Firewire, USB, IDE, PCI, SDRAM, Cat5, etc)
So you see the irony. What once used to be so closed, is now accepting of standards (in some cases has created them, case and point: IEEE1394 aka FireWire).
Your MBP will come with a VGA > DVI Adapter.
From Apple.com:
In the box
MacBook Pro
MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug and power cord
Lithium-polymer battery
Apple Remote
DVI to VGA adapter
Install/restore DVDs
Printed and electronic documentation
From Apple.com:
In the box
MacBook Pro
MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug and power cord
Lithium-polymer battery
Apple Remote
DVI to VGA adapter
Install/restore DVDs
Printed and electronic documentation