As Steve Jobs put it, BluRay licensing is a bag of hurt.
There is no software on OS X that will playback BluRay movies, but if you had a BluRay burner, you could use it to burn discs, and a BluRay reader would read the data.
As Steve Jobs put it, BluRay licensing is a bag of hurt.
There is no software on OS X that will playback BluRay movies, but if you had a BluRay burner, you could use it to burn discs, and a BluRay reader would read the data.
sportage
Lifer
- Feb 1, 2008
- 11,492
- 3,163
- 136
I've done the 27" imac for 6 months now. And in my opinion...
1. Finding mac apps to do what you did via pc apps are a lot more expensive. Few freebies even worth installing. And even the high priced mac 3rd party apps can be fairly buggy.
2. You no doubt will need to install something to continue to use those pc programs (apps as it were) you can not live without. Just no way around that. You can try bootcamp or parallels, for two solutions.
3. You'll need a external usb drive for expansion. At least a 500GB, but the bigger the better.
4. As a former pc user, there will be days you'll wonder if you made the right decision switching to a mac based system.
5. If you're new to the mac, I'd get in cheaply as possible, like going with a refurb. That way if you find the above issues are deal breakers down the road, you can cut your losses.
6. The above issues are the cold hard facts coming from a pc to mac user.
But its your call...
You will be entering a whole new world of computing. And there will be days you question the reasoning you switched....
1. Finding mac apps to do what you did via pc apps are a lot more expensive. Few freebies even worth installing. And even the high priced mac 3rd party apps can be fairly buggy.
2. You no doubt will need to install something to continue to use those pc programs (apps as it were) you can not live without. Just no way around that. You can try bootcamp or parallels, for two solutions.
3. You'll need a external usb drive for expansion. At least a 500GB, but the bigger the better.
4. As a former pc user, there will be days you'll wonder if you made the right decision switching to a mac based system.
5. If you're new to the mac, I'd get in cheaply as possible, like going with a refurb. That way if you find the above issues are deal breakers down the road, you can cut your losses.
6. The above issues are the cold hard facts coming from a pc to mac user.
But its your call...
You will be entering a whole new world of computing. And there will be days you question the reasoning you switched....
1: Can you name some examples? I did pay for some apps when I switched to the Mac 4 years ago, but I still found plenty of free apps that worked great. When i first switched I was looking for apps to replicate what I did in Windows (eg I used DVDShrink and something else to rip my DVDs) after switching I was looking for apps to replicate what I had in OS X.
2: That is true, if you absolutely must use a piece of software from Windows, then Parallels or Fusion will let you run it in OS X, BootCamp will let you dualboot natively.
3: If you want expansion, then you will need an external. It does not need to be USB, you could use FireWire (which is faster and can be daisychained). The 27" currently ships with a 1TB drive, which is more than enough space for the population at large. I may have 5TB of stuff, but no one else in my family is even close.
4: As a former PC user, there will be days you will wonder why it took you so long to switch.
5: A reasonable recommendation. You can get serious savings on refurbed stuff.
6: The above issues are part cold hard fact, and part cold hard opinion.
Some people take to the Mac, others don't, and that is fine. But don't pass off your experiences as representative of the whole.
5: A reasonable recommendation. You can get serious savings on refurbed stuff.
ding ding ding.
applecare is the strategic hit on refurb/used.
got my MBA rev.b sata for $700 with 2years applecare and the MBA Rev.C SSD for $1200 with 2.5 years applecare.
there is no doubt that i will sell them before applecare ends and there is no doubt a strategic deal will yield you a low cost lease on a computer given their high resale value in general.
A pc however - lol - just won a core 2 quad SFF whole hp business pc (htpc small) with 3/3/3/nbd warranty for $167 . I might get that if i sell it right now; but probably won't get $30 in 2 years
ding ding ding.
applecare is the strategic hit on refurb/used.
got my MBA rev.b sata for $700 with 2years applecare and the MBA Rev.C SSD for $1200 with 2.5 years applecare.
there is no doubt that i will sell them before applecare ends and there is no doubt a strategic deal will yield you a low cost lease on a computer given their high resale value in general.
A pc however - lol - just won a core 2 quad SFF whole hp business pc (htpc small) with 3/3/3/nbd warranty for $167 . I might get that if i sell it right now; but probably won't get $30 in 2 years
1. How so???
2. Internet Explorer and some games are the only reasons I go into Windows or use Paralles (I use both) If not for bad programming at work and sites that only work in IE I would never need to go into Windows excect to play a couple games from time to time.
3. Why on earth do you have to have an external drive? I don't I back up all my files to my server via my network using time machine and I upgraded my HDD to 500gb, you can even raid if you are not afraid of a bit of modding.
4. I wonder why it took me so long.
5. Refurbs are definatly FTW.
6. No that is completly opinion.
Agreed. Anytime you find you have doubts as to why you switched, I just boot into Windows for an hour or two. I quickly find my answer.
nerp
Diamond Member
- Dec 31, 2005
- 9,865
- 105
- 106
Agreed. Anytime you find you have doubts as to why you switched, I just boot into Windows for an hour or two. I quickly find my answer.
Maybe your answer is the same as mine: Steam and Source for Mac sucks horribly.
1. iWork is $79. Pages and Keynote which come with it are excellent and in some ways better than Word and PP. There are a lot of good freebies: SuperDuper(much better backup than Timemachine but free version you can't do incremental backups, $29 for full version). GraphicConverter, Plex, OpenOffice, Handbrake, FF, Chrome, Eclipse. Of all the 3rd party apps I've used only Plex and Oracle's SQLDeveloper are a bit buggy otherwise I can't remember the last time an app crashed that wasn't those two. And SQLDeveloper is just as buggy on a PC. The the best 3rd party app ever for a Mac which is OmniGraffle Pro has been rock solid, now compare that to how many time Visio crashed for me under WinXP. For development Eclipse is super stable on a Mac. And Chrome which is my favorite browser is for the most part stable(shockwave can cause issues sometimes but I can just kill the one thread if it misbehaves) and looks way better on a Mac than a PC. And finally there is macports so you can install a lot of good 3rd party CLI and X11 open source software. Oh and then there is iMovie which comes free with your mac and totally rocks any windows equivalent.
2. Games which I don't need on my work mac
Now where things get a bit dicey with a mac is when you use it at a work. MacOffice 2008 has a terrible replacement for Outlook called Entourage and believe me I'm counting down the days for the next version of MacOffice later this year. iCal doesn't cut it when it comes to creating meeting requests(WTF I can't add distro lists nor search for users!?!) and Apple Mail is lacking a lot of features in Outlook. Also when I collaborate on documents I have to use Word and PP which are pretty good on the Mac but using Pages and Keynote which I prefer isn't doable on a collaboration project without a lot of converting back and forth and without losing comments made from PC users.
Also annoying is setting up printers on a mac. Bonjour used to auto discover printers but that hasn't worked for a long time for me so I have to manually setup the network printers. Same for network drives. I have to manually setup the smb drives. But once you get past the initial setup pain it's easy to access the printers and network drives except for when I click on a link in email that refers to a network drive I don't get directed to it like I do on a PC.
Before Windows7 came a long, the mac was a slam dunk for me over WinXP and Vista at work for me which is java development, writing documents, architectural design diagrams(OmniGraffle totally owns for this) and bash/python scripting(man I don't miss that cygwin kludge in windows). I have to admit Windows7 is very nice so it just comes down to what you prefer. Can't really go wrong with either choice. They both have their advantages and annoyances. For mostly gaming win7 is a no brainer over a mac.
Yup. Steam constantly crashes in OS X, and performance is quite subpar. I still play Starcraft 2 in OS X, but that's usually because I'm too lazy to reboot.
Eug
Lifer
- Mar 11, 2000
- 24,139
- 1,791
- 126
I have a ton of my Macs. See my sig. I too agree that finding software for specific stuff is sometimes harder on the Mac, and even when you do find it, sometimes it may be more expensive or less feature rich.
That said, I find Macs generally a simpler endeavour out of the box than corresponding PCs. Macs tend to be short on shovelware and long on simplicity, but at the expense of tinkerability.
As for the 27" iMac I'm not totally enamoured with it. Why? Cuz if you're short like me it's hard to have it be ergonomic. That chin on the 27" iMac and the fact that it's not height adjustable means that it's very hard to set up nicely for when the rest of the desk/chair setup is done. Personally, I'll probably downgrade to a smaller one, but with a quad-core CPU. The other option is a Mac Pro with appropriate monitors, but that costs way too damn much. And I don't want a Mac mini as my primary machine because the hard drive is slow. It'd be better with a SATA external drive, but SATA doesn't exist on consumer Macs. FW800 is adequate, but damn expensive. The drives are expensive, and the hubs are too. (Yes I have FW800 drives and a FW800 CF reader, as well as a FW800 hub.)
BTW, I consider AppleCare almost mandatory with some of the more expensive consumer Macs. Of the Macs I've bought new, I've had problems with an iBook (video), TiBook (paint, power adapter), MacBook (handrests, optical drive), iMac G5 (Firewire), iMac Core 2 Duo (Firewire, GPU), and now with my iMac Core i7 (fan sensor flaky).
My MacBook Pro is so far OK, but I don't actually use it much. I didn't buy AppleCare for it either, because it was a cheaper one, and on the cheap consumer Macs, getting AppleCare becomes comparatively very expensive.
That said, I find Macs generally a simpler endeavour out of the box than corresponding PCs. Macs tend to be short on shovelware and long on simplicity, but at the expense of tinkerability.
As for the 27" iMac I'm not totally enamoured with it. Why? Cuz if you're short like me it's hard to have it be ergonomic. That chin on the 27" iMac and the fact that it's not height adjustable means that it's very hard to set up nicely for when the rest of the desk/chair setup is done. Personally, I'll probably downgrade to a smaller one, but with a quad-core CPU. The other option is a Mac Pro with appropriate monitors, but that costs way too damn much. And I don't want a Mac mini as my primary machine because the hard drive is slow. It'd be better with a SATA external drive, but SATA doesn't exist on consumer Macs. FW800 is adequate, but damn expensive. The drives are expensive, and the hubs are too. (Yes I have FW800 drives and a FW800 CF reader, as well as a FW800 hub.)
BTW, I consider AppleCare almost mandatory with some of the more expensive consumer Macs. Of the Macs I've bought new, I've had problems with an iBook (video), TiBook (paint, power adapter), MacBook (handrests, optical drive), iMac G5 (Firewire), iMac Core 2 Duo (Firewire, GPU), and now with my iMac Core i7 (fan sensor flaky).
My MacBook Pro is so far OK, but I don't actually use it much. I didn't buy AppleCare for it either, because it was a cheaper one, and on the cheap consumer Macs, getting AppleCare becomes comparatively very expensive.
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quackagator
Senior member
- Jul 1, 2002
- 913
- 22
- 81
You say it's for your dad? I'm 73 and have a mac mini refurb. Got a 23 inch monitor and a back lite keyboard which is really nice for these tired old eyes. I done windows for about 20 years and switched to mac. I think he will like the mac a lot.
Eug
Lifer
- Mar 11, 2000
- 24,139
- 1,791
- 126
The drive was $120 + case, and the discs are $3 a shot.
I use hard drives for regular backups, but tend to archive some of the more important and larger stuff to disc for permanent storage. It's been becoming much harder lately with even dual-layer DVD though, which is why I went with Blu-ray.
The discs go in a disc album in the cupboard at home or in my office, while the hard drives stay connected to my computers.
For my main iMac, I have a hard drive for my boot drive, a second hard drive for my data drive, and a third hard drive for a secondary backup using Time Machine.
So, yes, I like multiple backups.
One problem with hard drive based backups is generally it's just one or two, with the stuff at the most recent backup saved. If you want a file from a few months ago that you inadvertently deleted, then you're out of luck, because your latest hard drive backups would have been more recent than that. Having some sort of backup from back then (eg. on optical disc) would solve that problem.
I use hard drives for regular backups, but tend to archive some of the more important and larger stuff to disc for permanent storage. It's been becoming much harder lately with even dual-layer DVD though, which is why I went with Blu-ray.
The discs go in a disc album in the cupboard at home or in my office, while the hard drives stay connected to my computers.
For my main iMac, I have a hard drive for my boot drive, a second hard drive for my data drive, and a third hard drive for a secondary backup using Time Machine.
So, yes, I like multiple backups.
One problem with hard drive based backups is generally it's just one or two, with the stuff at the most recent backup saved. If you want a file from a few months ago that you inadvertently deleted, then you're out of luck, because your latest hard drive backups would have been more recent than that. Having some sort of backup from back then (eg. on optical disc) would solve that problem.
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hellotyler
Senior member
- Jul 19, 2010
- 214
- 0
- 0
sportage
Lifer
- Feb 1, 2008
- 11,492
- 3,163
- 136
Im not knocking my imac, Im just saying the switch may not be the love affair many mac users lead one to believe. I suppose if you were always a mac user then you'd be fine never knowing Bill Gates products. And if thats possible, I'd strongly suggest the mac world rather than the pc world, for the computing newbies. But if you have only known the pc, then the switch "WILL" take some getting use to.
And Im not taking commands or user ability.
I mean to do everything on a mac that you did on a pc. Or need to do.
As for the pricey mac apps, I have found no equal to dvdfab for the mac. Especially not an all in one easy process such as dvdfab gives. And I do not want to pay before I try something like "toast" to see if that will do what I need. "toast" offers no free trial.
Also, I needed to do two things on the mac I did on my pc. One is to do audio editing with various audio conversion support, and the other is to do live audio capture from the mac "what you hear" output.
I used freebies when doing that on a pc, but two mac apps that did just want I needed for the mac were 3rd party apps, and each cost around $80. That would be fine except the two apps crashed often on the mac. $80 for a buggy 3rd party app is pretty lame. I was also looking for something to capture youtube video on a mac.
On the plus side... while taking some time to get use to, Im finding iMovie to be far superior for video movie making. Much much better than pinnacle studio that I used on the pc, and paid several $100 for, along with buying updates. And pinnacle still crashed constantly or would freeze up.
As for the need for more disk storage, the imac cannot be expanded by adding several drives internally (or even one additional drive), like with most pc's. So its a good plan to get the largest internal drive available when shopping for your first imac.
As for bootcamp, it will not install windows 7 on my 27" imac for some reason.
All goes well until a required reboot during win7 install. After that reboot all video is lost (black screen). I've never got beyond that point using bootcamp.
There were several suggestions for others with the same issue, on the forums, but no sure fix or debugging of what the problem was caused by for sure.
And dvdfab in parallels will read from a dvd, but will not write back to a blank dvd. Dvdfab just keeps asking for a blank dvd media regardless, even though a blank is inserted. Dvdfab in parallels will not detect the required blank dvd. I've had other flakey issues with pc programs under parallels, where a destination path or folder location issue brings up during install, where an "cannot find network location" error haults the install process. No network drives are in play or being used btw.
Sooo, parallels "kinda" works. And bootcamp will not install win7 for me.
So I continue to look for mac equals to pc programs I once used on the pc.
I'd rather not need to use parallels or windows programs at all.
Oh.. and whats up with the iDVD issue not able to burn a dvd from an made iMovie project?
iDvd takes some 10+ hours to burn a simple 10 minute iMovie to a dvd thru iDvd.
The only way I've found to do this fast is to save the iDvd as an image, then use the mac disk utilities to burn the dvd image to a dvd.
Obviously an iDvd bug issue they need to address. Im not the only one seeing this iDvd issue when burning from iMovie. It is a common problem complained about on the forums.
And Im not taking commands or user ability.
I mean to do everything on a mac that you did on a pc. Or need to do.
As for the pricey mac apps, I have found no equal to dvdfab for the mac. Especially not an all in one easy process such as dvdfab gives. And I do not want to pay before I try something like "toast" to see if that will do what I need. "toast" offers no free trial.
Also, I needed to do two things on the mac I did on my pc. One is to do audio editing with various audio conversion support, and the other is to do live audio capture from the mac "what you hear" output.
I used freebies when doing that on a pc, but two mac apps that did just want I needed for the mac were 3rd party apps, and each cost around $80. That would be fine except the two apps crashed often on the mac. $80 for a buggy 3rd party app is pretty lame. I was also looking for something to capture youtube video on a mac.
On the plus side... while taking some time to get use to, Im finding iMovie to be far superior for video movie making. Much much better than pinnacle studio that I used on the pc, and paid several $100 for, along with buying updates. And pinnacle still crashed constantly or would freeze up.
As for the need for more disk storage, the imac cannot be expanded by adding several drives internally (or even one additional drive), like with most pc's. So its a good plan to get the largest internal drive available when shopping for your first imac.
As for bootcamp, it will not install windows 7 on my 27" imac for some reason.
All goes well until a required reboot during win7 install. After that reboot all video is lost (black screen). I've never got beyond that point using bootcamp.
There were several suggestions for others with the same issue, on the forums, but no sure fix or debugging of what the problem was caused by for sure.
And dvdfab in parallels will read from a dvd, but will not write back to a blank dvd. Dvdfab just keeps asking for a blank dvd media regardless, even though a blank is inserted. Dvdfab in parallels will not detect the required blank dvd. I've had other flakey issues with pc programs under parallels, where a destination path or folder location issue brings up during install, where an "cannot find network location" error haults the install process. No network drives are in play or being used btw.
Sooo, parallels "kinda" works. And bootcamp will not install win7 for me.
So I continue to look for mac equals to pc programs I once used on the pc.
I'd rather not need to use parallels or windows programs at all.
Oh.. and whats up with the iDVD issue not able to burn a dvd from an made iMovie project?
iDvd takes some 10+ hours to burn a simple 10 minute iMovie to a dvd thru iDvd.
The only way I've found to do this fast is to save the iDvd as an image, then use the mac disk utilities to burn the dvd image to a dvd.
Obviously an iDvd bug issue they need to address. Im not the only one seeing this iDvd issue when burning from iMovie. It is a common problem complained about on the forums.
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- Jan 4, 2010
- 1,989
- 20
- 81
Interesting comments guys.
I think I will still get the iMac even though they don't have Blu-Ray since it's primarily for my dad.
I was also wondering if VMWare Fusion can run Windows 7 along with OS-X? In other words, I would like to run both Windows 7 & Snow Leopard. How do I do that?
Thanks.
I think I will still get the iMac even though they don't have Blu-Ray since it's primarily for my dad.
I was also wondering if VMWare Fusion can run Windows 7 along with OS-X? In other words, I would like to run both Windows 7 & Snow Leopard. How do I do that?
Thanks.
With either VMWare Fusion (my preference) or Parallels (other's preference), you install the VM software, and then they make it dirt simple to install Windows. You tell it which version to install, put in your serial number ahead of time, tell it where to put the VM and how big to make it, and away you go.
Once installed, update Windows and install AV. Although the viruses shouldn't be able to mess with your OS X files, if you want the most seamless joining then you will be sharing your documents and desktop with both OSes.
Another thing you can do is, if you want Windows 7 natively installed as well, you can do that first using BootCamp (free with the Mac), and then have Parallels or VMWare use that as the Virtual Machine. You can edit the files directly from the native install, no need to maintain 2 separate instances if you don't want to.
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