video editing

[sTiVo]

First post, be gentle.

I am ready to make the switch to Mac to create a machine to do video editing (8MM to DVD kind of thing) and would like to hear some educated input on what to buy. Do I need a Power Mac to be really happy with this process or can I get a lower end machine and still be pleased.

For those that do this, other than the computer itself, what HW or SW do you recommend?

 

[Nugget]

I am ready to make the switch to Mac to create a machine to do video editing (8MM to DVD kind of thing) and would like to hear some educated input on what to buy. Do I need a Power Mac to be really happy with this process or can I get a lower end machine and still be pleased.

Just about any new Macintosh and Final Cut Express will do a great job converting and editing video from any source. Add a cheap DV cam that will do video passthrough to the mix and you'll be able to import any source through the camera, using it to convert from composite/svideo to a firewire dv stream into the computer.

I'm mostly happy running Final Cut on a 1GHz G4 PowerBook with an external display. I certainly find more value in having gobs of RAM and a large monitor than I'd find in having a faster CPU. You can also expect to use a frightfully immense amount of hard disk space. I'd reccomend skimping a bit on CPU and put your money towards disk/ram/display instead -- it'll serve you better for this task.

 

[Lacero]

Unless you have dedicated MPEG2 encoding hardware, you'll a powerful PowerMac to handle the encoding tasks from within Compressor or through Final Cut Pro.

You may want to try out Bitvice Pro 1.6. It has a Digital Video Noise Corrector that will completely remove noise from 8mm recordings. Final Cut Express or the Studio version would be my recommended choices if you are getting paid for these services.

 

[sTiVo]

So, no need to get mezmorized with dual processor g5 PMs? That would be good news for my wallet.

Unless you have dedicated MPEG2 encoding hardware, you'll a powerful PowerMac to handle the encoding tasks from within Compressor or through Final Cut Pro.

My personal home movies are on 8mm so (I think) I would need some external hardware to do the encoding. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[WinterMute]

So, no need to get mezmorized with dual processor g5 PMs? That would be good news for my wallet.


My personal home movies are on 8mm so (I think) I would need some external hardware to do the encoding. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Get a big external FW drive, FW800 if your machine has the interface. You'll need it to capture all the footage too, and it's not a good idea to use the system drive at all. I have a 250Gb LaCie that works well.

The issue with the bigger DP machines is rendering and conversion times, my 1Ghz PowerBook is fine for editing, but the G5 DP's eat it alive when it comes to rendering effects and titles and converting to MPEG2 for the DVD process.

I'd look at a 2Ghz iMac G5 as a minimum unless you really need the portability.

Nuggets suggestion of a DV camcorder with pass-through is sound, it handles the analog signals from your 8MM camera and converts them to digital data passed down a FireWire cable to your Mac. You can get boxes that'll do the same thing, FORMAC TV is a good bet and might be cheaper that a DV cam, although you also get a DV cam as a bonus obviously...

You could use iMovie/iDVD to do what you are planning, it works fine, but Final Cut Express is a much more sophisticated platform, and it's Pro variant is very good indeed.