My friend paid $1700 for a E-Mac computer for video editing.

[prosaic]

I don't know that you stand corrected. I'm just stating my own experience. Both of his systems, one a G4 and the other a dual G4, have Studio Pro on them. But I just used the simple little included applet (Do they call them that on the Mac?) to handle the creation of my movies. (I used only the dual system, and, if memory serves, it was roughly as responsive as my single processor 2.4 MHz Sony VAIO.

Please notice that I'm talking about just getting video onto the HD, making appropriately-sized cuts, and then writing it out to the DVD. No fancy editing or special effects or any of that stuff. I'm talking about the base layer of DVD creation functionality available to the inexperienced user of a Sony Vaio Digital Studio vs. the same layer of functionality available to him on a Mac. Both processes are so easy that I would think that anyone would be embarrassed to say that they had experienced trouble using either of them.

I have no idea as to whether Adobe Premier is any kind of match for Studio Pro, and I don't really care since I'll probably never use either of them unless I get a lot of time on my hands. But, then again, that's primarily a comparison of applications, not platforms. I would presume that Premier functions similarly on both platforms. I would also guess that Studio Pro would behave similarly on both platforms if it were available on Windows.

Point is that, for a guy who just wants to record DV to DVD, or a guy who just wants to convert old home video tapes to DVD, both platforms are dead simple to use. I guess I'd say that the Macintosh applet's interface is more artfully integrated to look like a part of the whole. (Written by the same people, wasn't it?) But it makes no difference in the relative ease with which the two systems are used -- as far as I'm concerned.

- prosaic

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: Kaieye
Her computer has a DVD burner and 1 gig of SDRAM. She is using a program called Imovie 2 and is thinking about getting Adobe Premier.

I thought that was a expensive paperweight. Any comments or opinions?? I gave them a PC(Athlon 750 with about 384 megs of ram) for N/C and told them that I could have upgraded their PC to outperform their E-Mac...

Or should I STFU because its not my $$$


Kaieye

I vote for STFU. If she already has the computer telling her it sucks will not be helpful.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: prosaic
I don't know that you stand corrected. I'm just stating my own experience. Both of his systems, one a G4 and the other a dual G4, have Studio Pro on them. But I just used the simple little included applet (Do they call them that on the Mac?) to handle the creation of my movies. (I used only the dual system, and, if memory serves, it was roughly as responsive as my single processor 2.4 MHz Sony VAIO.

Please notice that I'm talking about just getting video onto the HD, making appropriately-sized cuts, and then writing it out to the DVD. No fancy editing or special effects or any of that stuff. I'm talking about the base layer of DVD creation functionality available to the inexperienced user of a Sony Vaio Digital Studio vs. the same layer of functionality available to him on a Mac. Both processes are so easy that I would think that anyone would be embarrassed to say that they had experienced trouble using either of them.

I have no idea as to whether Adobe Premier is any kind of match for Studio Pro, and I don't really care since I'll probably never use either of them unless I get a lot of time on my hands. But, then again, that's primarily a comparison of applications, not platforms. I would presume that Premier functions similarly on both platforms. I would also guess that Studio Pro would behave similarly on both platforms if it were available on Windows.

Point is that, for a guy who just wants to record DV to DVD, or a guy who just wants to convert old home video tapes to DVD, both platforms are dead simple to use. I guess I'd say that the Macintosh applet's interface is more artfully integrated to look like a part of the whole. (Written by the same people, wasn't it?) But it makes no difference in the relative ease with which the two systems are used -- as far as I'm concerned.

- prosaic

iDVD is much simpler than DVD Studio Pro (but is much less feature rich obviously). Is that what you're using?

 

[prosaic]

Yup, that iDVD looks like what I used on my brother's system. Could I have been using an earlier version of it? That was about 4-5 months ago, and I can't look at it now. He lives half a country away.

I only used the Mac for making two DVDs, and I didn't do any exploring of the application's interface. I used it without having to do any reading of help files or manuals and without instruction from my brother. Of course that's how I used Sony's Simple DVD Maker, too. For simple-minded folk like me that's really all that's required, isn't it? I mean -- I was talking about "ease" of use. Not capability of making a masterpiece. (Trust me on this. There's no chance that any computer, even a Mac, is going to turn yours truly into Steven Spielberg. 😀 )

- prosaic

 

[Lichee]

well this is all encouraging to hear. i have a dvd burner and have yet to try authoring a DV to DVD. i just havent had time to research that stuff yet. but sounds like it is a piece of cake.

also, yeah i forgot about sony. they make PCs dont they. 😉 my friend bought a new sony a few months ago and it came with a dvd writer. however, i was considering Compaq, HP, GAteway, Dell, etc. although im sure one of the companies i just mentioned probably sell DVD writers like maybe HP and their +RW.

anyways, i stand corrected and i will hopefully try out the dvd authoring stuff.

 

[prosaic]

FWIW it looks to me as though Sony has put quite a bit of research and development into producing their ready-to-use digital studio systems. I don't know about any of the other x86 vendors' offerings in this area. When I read about people here and other places who try to mix and match hardware components and freeware / shareware software packages it sounds like quite a challenge -- very nitty gritty. I have been able to record DV, VHS and even commercial DVD to my HD and output it to DVD media that will play in all of our standalone players without ever bothering with reading a single help file or readme. If it were harder to do than that, I probably wouldn't bother with it. I certainly wouldn't bother with it if I had to figure out what driver model to use with what capture card and do research to figure out what codecs to use for what type of whatever. I can't make video that much the center of my life. I do this to keep longer-lasting versions of our home movies and to make archival copies of the VHS and DVD movies we've purchased that are especially important to us. I also occasionally capture a cable TV movie broadcast this way. It has all been dead simple. But that's because Sony put the system together for me.

- prosaic

 

[tart666]

Yep, Sony is the biggest threat to Apple, by their own admission. Not wintel, Sony.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: tart666

Yep, Sony is the biggest threat to Apple, by their own admission. Not wintel, Sony.

Hmmm... Maybe, but I'm not sure about that. On the pro side, Sony essentially has nothing that competes with Apple.

On the consumer side I think Dell is more of a threat actually. But if Sony does eventually get their software and hardware design act together, then they may be an eventual threat.

I do this to keep longer-lasting versions of our home movies and to make archival copies of the VHS and DVD movies we've purchased that are especially important to us.

A standalone DVD recorder might fit your bill. $$$, but even easier, and everything is done in real time. ie. Press play on VCR and record on DVD recorder. As simple as that.

 

[prosaic]

A standalone DVD recorder might fit your bill. $$$, but even easier, and everything is done in real time. ie. Press play on VCR and record on DVD recorder. As simple as that.

Actually a standalone DVD recorder doesn't cost anywhere near as much as I paid for this system, and the real time recording would be nice. The problem is that, what with making timed unattended recordings from cable TV (and not wanting the extra minutes before and after, and possibly commercials, to be included in the final recording) and occasionally wanting to do some simple mix-and-match sorts of editing, the standalone just isn't flexible enough. As it is I'll probably get a standalone recorder at some point to augment what I do with the current PC / DVD player / tape player / Digital video cam / color corrector.

- prosaic

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: prosaic

Actually a standalone DVD recorder doesn't cost anywhere near as much as I paid for this system, and the real time recording would be nice. The problem is that, what with making timed unattended recordings from cable TV (and not wanting the extra minutes before and after, and possibly commercials, to be included in the final recording) and occasionally wanting to do some simple mix-and-match sorts of editing, the standalone just isn't flexible enough. As it is I'll probably get a standalone recorder at some point to augment what I do with the current PC / DVD player / tape player / Digital video cam / color corrector.

You can get standalone DVD recorders with a Firewire input (for compatibility with MiniDV camcorders) and a built-in hard drive now, for about US$750.

See here and here.

 

[prosaic]

Cool. Thanks for the links. That info could come in very handy. Maybe I could start using this sucker as something other than just a video editor. I'd bet that games will run pretty well on it, and I'm approaching my second childhood! (Actually, my wife says I never left my first one behind!) 😉

- prosaic

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: prosaic
Cool. Thanks for the links. That info could come in very handy. Maybe I could start using this sucker as something other than just a video editor. I'd bet that games will run pretty well on it, and I'm approaching my second childhood! (Actually, my wife says I never left my first one behind!) 😉

- prosaic

Games? 😕

It's just a DVD on steroids. No games or anything like that.

I have its little brother, the DMR-E30, which has no hard drive. I think of it more of a VCR replacement. The hard drive adds much obviously to the editing capabilities, but the hard drive version was not released in the Canada for some strange reason.

 

[prosaic]

Heh-heh. No, I was referring to the Sony Digital Studio. It has a 64 megabyte nVidia card and a couple of 120 gigabyte hard drives in it. I meant that these newer, more versatile DVD standalones might free up the Digital Studio for game playing and other fun stuff. 😀

- prosaic

 

[rbV5]

I thought that was a expensive paperweight. Any comments or opinions??

E Mac is no paperweight, I wouldn't be embarrassed to use an E Mac with a superdrive at all for video editing. I'd be a bit embarrassed to have made some of the posts in this thread however LOL.

 

[Coherence]

Originally posted by: rbV5
E Mac is no paperweight, I wouldn't be embarrassed to use an E Mac with a superdrive at all for video editing. I'd be a bit embarrassed to have made some of the posts in this thread however LOL.

Hear, hear! 😛