New unreleased imac for video editting?

[blueicedj]

Well I realize that no one would know if the new imac would be good for this, but I guess what I'm asking is speculation based on the performance of imacs for video editing that are out today.
I'm not a pro video editor or anything (yet, maybe someday), but I would like a system good for video editing, currently I'm making short films and are not sure if the imac is right for me.
I've never used a mac in my life, in fact, the switch scares me as I'm so used to PC's, and have, in the past, made fun of mac users for their incompatability issues, high prices, and left click only mice.
I don't know if the OS will be easy to learn and have the same functionality as Windows.
Anyways, I would appreciate some input on what I should buy for what I need.

 

[zioxide]

Any Mac made within the past 3 years is good for video editing, as long as you have at least 1GB of ram.

In the past, you might have made fun of mac users for incompatibilities and 1-button mice, but now that stuff is false. You can use any two button mouse with OS X, and also OS X has drivers built-in for just about all hardware that has a Mac sticker on the box. You don't even need to install drivers for most things.

The OS is much more intuitive than Windows and much easier to use. The UNIX core makes it more stable and it doesn't get bogged down in 3 months like the registry-based windows does.

Oh, and IMO, Final Cut is the best NLE hands down.

 

[blueicedj]

what about rendering speeds n the such, will the computer slow up a lot if I have an imac with 2 gb or ram and a 2.33ghz processor. Or would the computer be better off as a PC with Vegas Studio?
On reason I like the imac so much is cause it saves space, and in a dorm room this is very important...I just don't know if that space saving is sacraficing performance.

 

[zioxide]

Rendering on a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo w/ 2GB of ram is going to fly. It should be able to do Unlimited RT with SD footage (live preview of effects).

My iBook G4 renders SD pretty quickly, and the C2Ds are about 5x faster than it.

 

[blueicedj]

what if my footage is shot in HD?

 

[zioxide]

what if my footage is shot in HD?

Depends on the format.

Obviously you're not going to be able to playback Uncompressed 10-bit HD with real time effects. You'll be able to play back HDV and DVCPRO HD fine, but I'm not sure about effects. You might have to render first. I don't really have much experience with HD.

What you need to do is make sure you have a fast external hard drive for storing your clips on.

 

[blueicedj]

yea, I guess an imac with a nice firewire external hard drive would be good. Thanks for the help, now I just need to hope that I wont regret buying a mac, haha.

 

[korndog2003]

what about rendering speeds n the such, will the computer slow up a lot if I have an imac with 2 gb or ram and a 2.33ghz processor. Or would the computer be better off as a PC with Vegas Studio?
On reason I like the imac so much is cause it saves space, and in a dorm room this is very important...I just don't know if that space saving is sacraficing performance.

My school bought one a 20" iMac Core 2 Duo 2.33 Ghz, 2Gb Ram, 500Gb Harddrive, Ati Radeon x1600 256mb. It was great, the fastest Mac I have ever used, Windows XP worked great on it also, I loved it!!! It had Unlimited RT but the occasional error would occur but not that often, It was fast!!!