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baronn

Best video editing computer ( for me)

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Finding myself in a position where I need to edit my own videos. I have never done this before and haven't got a clue which direction to go. Being told the Macs are the easiest way and leaning towards that. Any and all help will be appreciated but, please be specific and give a reason for the advice. Thanks in advance

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Many posts on this topic, but as most things around here, the answer is.... it depends. What are you shooting? HD or SD? What is your desired output- DVD/youtube? hwhat matters to you in your edits (speed? effects? ease of use etc?)

If you are a mac guy...staying mac would be easy. If not, PC will be fine.

Software- most simple/basic editors are usually free with your computer. Movie Maker in windows and imovie work plenty well for many users. If you want something more advanced, many on here use one of the Sony Vegas or adobe premiere products (movie studio and elements are usually under 100 bucks).

Hardware- for speed of rendering, processor power and number of cores seems to have the biggest impact. having healthy ram space and a good graphics card can also be nice.

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Being told "Mac is easy" is true.
For email, cruising the web, or Facetime.

Past that, they're virtually identical in most every way.
My main axe is a MacBook Pro and my secondary is a G5. Both are running Boot Camp (an application that allows me to run Windows 7 on my Mac).

I run Premiere, Media Composer on both sides, Sony Vegas on the PC partition, and FCPX on the Mac side.
If I want to get things done, I work in Premiere (runs on Mac and PC) and if I want to get things done fast, and compositing/Zplane won't be part of the process, I use Vegas.
Editing on a Mac is slower.
Period.

If it's a multi-use machine and having cute graphics is important, and doing things the "Apple way" works for you, then get a Mac.

I would not use/own Mac if my work did not require one.
The PC-side runs significantly faster for any MPEG-based video format, and the formats play nicely between all editing applications. iMovie doesn't play nicely with FCPX, and FCPX doesn't play nicely with Premiere.
Premiere, Vegas, Canopus, Avid, MovieMaker etc all play nicely with each other.
And you'd save a butt-load of cash on a PC.
However, Mac's are overall better built, sexier to look at, and you'll get laid more often if you use one. Form over function, any day.

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Thanks foir the input everyone. Not sure if this clears it up. I have a PC with a decent graphics card and a quad core processor. I can easily add additional storage if needed, I am looking for the most simple to use, fastest method that gets the job done, Not gonna do anything fancy, just simple leader, interview, walk to the plane, takeoff, interview, freefall and canopy ride and follow up. Ending leader and then get it on a disc to hand over. Any clear choice stand out here?

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For me, it's Vegas, particularly if speed is the need. With tools like Production Assistant, the process can be automated from card insertion.

If you had to render multiple videos at once, Vegas allows your single machine to act as though it is many machines. It's the only app that can Xfer, edit, render multiple video projects at one shot.

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Is Production assistant in that? Nice to be able to setup a leader clip and then just have the clips and transitions all laid out instead of having to do each and every one every time. Not too much of a hassle but seems avoidable.

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Production assistant is a Vegas plugin, a separate piece of software you need to purchase, which I believe only works with Vegas Pro versions and not Vegas Movie Studio.

It is definitely a slick way to automate video production in Vegas though, and highly recommended if you go the Vegas route...

I do very, very little 'editing' on our tandem videos... Production Assistant and Vegas do most of the work. ;-)

"If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

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