[jaredbkt]

I am trying to make sure a friend of mine does not get a PC for his DV editing system. He is looking to spend about $5,000 so the cost is not a huge deal. However, I want to provide him with solid proff of why Hollywood chooses the Mac platform. I've given him so info so far and he's liked what he's heard. Basically, he's open to the best solution. I'd just like some great info, maybe some links I can use. Thanks in advance for any help.

[icruise]

I'm not sure how important it is whether Hollywood chooses the Mac or not (and in fact the Mac is still a small player there in many ways). It's nice to know that many pros choose the Mac, but I would be more concerned about whether the Mac will accompish what your friend wants to do, and I would focus on issues of usability and so forth in my argument. I personally wouldn't want to try complex video editing on the PC just because of all of the compatibility problems and so forth that I have read about with people not getting their equipment to function properly. (This has probably changed a bit since the introduction of XP, but is still a valid concern). Would he be using Final Cut Pro or perhaps Premiere? (I assume he won't be just using iMovie with a $5000 budget).

You might also play up iDVD and the superdrive as easy ways to burn DVDs that don't exist on the PC. I assume he will be getting a Tower equipped with a Superdrive. Reviews I have read always say that the PC alternatives aren't as good or easy to use as iDVD.

[hmurchison2001]

Apple and Final Cut Pro just won it's second Emmy.

Steven Soderbergh used Final Cut Pro to edit his next move Full Frontal

Apple has been acquiring good companies(Nothing Real, Silicon Grail, Emagic, Zyante, Prismo Graphics) with plans to become a serious player in Desktop Video Production. You're friend would not be risking a thing by going Apple. Even I'm amazed at how aggressive they've become with grabbing marketshare and you know what? It's working. FCP is a bonafide smash and it's only in version 3.

Apple now has a

NLE in FCP
Kick Azz Compositing in Shake($5 G's so your friend won't be using this anytime soon with his budget)
Kick Azz Audio in Emagic
Titling- I've dinked around with India Titler(Prismo Graphics main program) and while some effects were cheesy some were really impressive. Apple's gonna do good things with it.

Zyante- makers of FW. Apple will be pushing FW hard as well.

Now is a good time to buy. Check out this deal

http://www.apple.com/promo/finalcutpro/

This gives you

FCP
Deck 3.5- a great mature Multitrack recording program
Pinnacle Commotion- Outstanding Rotoscoping and some compositing.
DVD Studio Pro- DVD Authoring. Nice integration with FCP

Plus a $300 rebate. sooooo

$1700 Dual 867 Powermac
$1700 Software

= $3400 leaving $1600 for ancillary equipment. More Ram..Large HD's Monitors, Camera etc.

Shiza...I'm kinda jealous here. He's lucky.

[jcarr]

I would tend to agree. It's more of a Final Cut Pro vs. everything else out there, than it is a Mac vs. Windoze issue. Final Cut Pro is definately where it's at.

Now with real-time effects, color correction and the new Cinema tools for 24P HD editing, it's even more of a no brainer.

[VRL]

In a word, YES.

[dlefebvre]

Jcarr is right, the real issue is Final Cut Pro. It's an amazing application and it eats Avid Express DV for breakfast. It's even better than an Avid Media Composer on some aspect (there's many of Final Cut compositing features unavailable to the Composer). So unless you have a $100 000.00 for an Avid|DS, go for Final Cut.