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General discussion

Cheapest Mac that can Edit Video

Jun 12, 2007 5:13AM PDT

Hi, I'm looking to buy a Mac and I want to do some video editing on it. (video is a side job for me) I'm looking a 2.0 Ghz or faster processor, at least 1 gig of ram, and a decent video card. Hard drive size doesn't matter- I'm going to buy an external.

So what Mac would be best for me? I'm on a very tight budget. I thought about buying a mini, adding a DVD burner, and adding ram, but the processor speed wouldn't be that great.

So should I get a macbook? Or am I better off with an iMac? Portability is not an issue- I'm just looking for the best value for my money.

Discussion is locked

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I'd say a
Jun 12, 2007 8:39AM PDT

Flatpanel iMac. I use a 17 inch 2GHz G5 (about two years old) and edit High Definition (1080i) video pretty regularly...

Consider bumping to 2 gig RAM. For your external drive, FireWire is better. A MacMini will work - but it would be more like driving a go cart in a Formula 1 race... you get there, it will just take longer than a flatpanel ot tower (or laptop).

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Or, and inbetween step...
Jun 12, 2007 10:23AM PDT

...would be to maybe buy last years iMac. I have the bubble-based iMac with 17" flat panel with 768megs of ram, and it works flawlessly. But more Ram is always a good thing. I've been editing for 4 years on this without a glitch. Of course, I have only used iMovie for editing, so Final Cut or Final Cut Express may prove me wrong. Although I've uses iDVD for burning DVDs, lately I've used Toast. By the way (I'm sure you know this), make sure you get a Mac with a Super Drive so you can burn DVDs.

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Editing Video
Jun 12, 2007 9:53PM PDT

All good suggestions.

There may be some that disagree, but when processing video, the graphics card does not play a large part in the process.
Raw computing power is more important. After the cutting and splicing, where you need to be able to see what you are doing, there is really no need for a monitor at all. The rendering and converting to the required format for a DVD, which is where all the processing happens, does not even appear on the screen. In iDVD there is a progress bar and that's about it.

The Blair Witch Project was produced entirely on a PowerBook, pre Intel, and PowerBooks never did have top line graphics cards.


P

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thanks
Jun 13, 2007 3:24AM PDT

Thanks for filling me in on the graphics card. I also do some online gaming (Lord of the Rings Online)- will having a good graphics card help with that?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will probably get an iMac and stick to the specs I mentioned before, though I might add a gig of ram myself.

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Graphics cards
Jun 13, 2007 11:39AM PDT

The iMacs come with decent graphics cards but not as good if you spent $300+ on an after-market card. The latest Intel Macs come with better graphics cards. If you get an iMac, I don't think you will be able to change the graphics cards. You can do this if you get a Mac Pro tower. The iMac graphics cards get better with larger displays.

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But mrmacfixit is right...
Jun 13, 2007 2:06PM PDT

the graphics card is not the long pole when editing video. The CPU is - either when importing or rendering a DVD. Yes, video functionality is needed - and to answer the original post question directly, the CHEAPEST mac to edit video on is the MacMini, and when importing standard definition, everything would be fine - and the video card is hardly used... Even the video in the iMovie window would hardly get it breathing hard (even if it is highdef) but rendering the edited video out to a DVD or whatever flavor QuickTime movie or AVI or MPEG4 or other format goes frame-by-frame and *that* needs CPU cycles (and RAM) big time.

You are correct, upgrading the video card in an iMac is not a field mod most folks want to do (or can do and continue to have the Mac under warranty). You are correct that the larger iMac has a better video card. You are also correct that the MacPro tower has available slots for video cards (among other things), but the MacPro Tower is not the "cheapest Mac that will edit video".

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Not discussed...are you really going to do pro-level work?
Jun 15, 2007 2:09PM PDT

The above answers are fine for iMovie or iDVD, but not for real-world editing. Users of Premiere Pro, Final Cut or After Effects know that 1) a fast CPU and lots of RAM are 100% necessary, and 2) real-time rendering of your effects operations (anything other than straight cuts) requires a faster video card with more RAM. Why? Because when you do cross fades, color corrections, and any number of special effects like transitions, compositing and the like, the Mac must process your video frame by frame so you can preview it. If you don't have a pretty fast CPU and several gigs of RAM, you will have to wait for the processed video before you can watch instead of making changes and seeing the results as you work. Special effects in particular (think Apple's Motion) flatly require a mid-level or higher video card to work at all.

(As an aside, you want the biggest screen you can afford, like the 24" iMac for example, to edit and hold all your palettes and windows. Small screens make editing miserable. Even a second monitor such as a 22" Dell would be a smart purchase.)

So you may need a mid-to-high-end iMac or MacBook Pro to do real-time editing without choppy or delayed playback. And a Mini or MacBook probably won't be fast enough unless you like to sit on your hands while your minutes of footage render. I bought a mid-level Mac Pro for that very reason...and even upgraded to the top-end $300 ATI X1900 video card to guarantee good performance. It wasn't cheap, but it will run anything you throw at it and be useful for years. Consider this purchase an investment that will pay itself off after three or four decent editing gigs.

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Interesting advice...
Jun 16, 2007 2:29AM PDT

... I am waiting for Adobe to send me the CS3 Master suite (academic priced) including After Effects et al. I realized when I bought it that I would have to upgrade my equipment. I had a PC that could run it but I'm just so much faster and happier with my work flow on a mac that I committed my self to the extra expense of buying new equipment (anticipating using it for a few years). From your comments, it sounds like you have some experience with this stuff. Can you tell me where the best, mac oriented, learning resources and forums are on line dedicated to video editing and FX for web use and DVD authoring?

Thanks for any input you can give me.

grim

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Video editing
Jun 15, 2007 3:34PM PDT

If you are not in a hurry, I am editing video on a 900Mhz G3 Mac with 768Megs of ram. I use iMovie, and though it is slow, it works not bad.
My 1.5Ghz G4 Powerbook works much faster and I have no complaints - it has 1.2 gigs of ram.
Bottom line is, unless you are professionally in the business of editing video a lot, ANY Mac with do just fine, as long as you have the ram - don't try it with 512Megs!