Editing: Amiga, PC Toaster, or Mac Final Cut Pro?

[Starrfoxx]

I'm doing some research and gathering some opinions on various editing solutions for video, and I was hoping to get some feedback on three scenarios and what you thought was better and why?

Scenario 1:  Fix up my ol' Amiga 4000 with the existing Toaster/Flyer that I have.  It's old hardware, but it would get the job done until the Amiga motherboard dies.

Scenario 2:  Use the Amiga Toaster as an upgrade path to the PC Toaster for the new PC I built that has a 2.6 AMD Ahtlon Dual Core chip.

Scenario 3:  Invest a little more money than the PC Toaster and getting a MacBook Pro which comes with iMovie. Not only could I install Final Cut Pro on this machine and edit videos while away from home, but with the Intel processor it will allow me to run Win XP and utilize the PC games/software that I already have.  Plus, the Macs come with iLife which has some great software for making music, movies, and DVD's.


So which scenario do you like and why?

[cpfuture]

If you're going to spend some cash I'd forget about option 2 and go straight for the Mac. OS X rocks. You can also run Windows and you'll have a system that's new. You'll have real 21st century software and hardware with the support that goes along with it and lots and lots of other users utilising the same software and hardware, which means you'll have lots of forums and tutorial websites with active users who have the same set up as you do. And let's not forget how sexy the Macbook Pro is.  ;-)

So either option 1 or 3, I guess. But that's just my opinion. Hope you have fun whatever you choose!!
 :-)

[TheMagicM]

Go with either a PC running Windows XP & whatever video software or a Mac.  I'd go Windows + PC.

[bloodline]

Option 3: iMovie is pretty good... and Final Cut is brilliant. Plus you get a MacBook Pro which is a mighty productivity workstation... I use mine with Logic Pro, which means I can have a whole Professional recording Studio with me at all times!!

[Jose]

Depends on what you want really. For SD, specially if you only have a few videos to edit, I defenitly would use the Amiga, the quality for SD stuff is more than acceptable and the other solutions imply a much bigger investment.
If you want to future proof solution and really get into editing then I'd get a Mac.

[wlfrancis]

Greetings,

I would say go with the Mac.  iMovie and Garage Band are both great entry level software for video and music and if you don't need to do anything to fancy you may not even need Final Cut Pro.  The Mac will give you an experience that is much more fun and Amiga like than you will have on the PC plus as you said you can run Windows on it when you have to since their are a lot more games for Windows.

If you have the cash it seems to fulfill all your needs the best.  I never had a full flyer system however and have toy'd around with the idea of getting one just for nostalgia sake.  Thing is anything I did on their that I wanted to share would have to be output to my Mac anyways to burn DVD's and make internet ready versions of.

Good luck with whatever path you choose.

[spihunter]

Since you already have a PC you should just use that and get the Adobe production bundle. I would keep it off the net though, so you dont have to run Virus scanners & Ad-ware spyware remover.

I would also skip Vista & stay with XP at all cost!

If money is no problem then I would highly suggest the Mac book pro w/ Final cut pro hands down

[Starrfoxx]

spihunter wrote:
Since you already have a PC you should just use that and get the Adobe production bundle. I would keep it off the net though, so you dont have to run Virus scanners & Ad-ware spyware remover.

I would also skip Vista & stay with XP at all cost!

If money is no problem then I would highly suggest the Mac book pro w/ Final cut pro hands down

I thought about Adobe software, but I believe it's going to be a steep learning curve too.  I'm pretty sure it's different than what I'm used to on the Toaster/Flyer.  I'm not too worried about my PC being on the net.  I keep it well protected, it hooks up through a router, and I use Firefox mostly to surf.  I'll stay away from questionable sites.  I intend to stay with XP Pro for awhile, although I've toyed with the idea of getting Vista.  If I did get Vista, I would certainly set up a dual boot system with XP as well.

Money is kind of an issue.  For now, I'm working tons of Overtime at work in hopes to save up for one of the 3 scenarios.  The MacBook Pro is definitely the most expensive one and that's without FCP.  But I have used iMovie before in film classes, so I'm not a complete stranger to it or Macs.

So basically, I'm weighing all factors to decide my purchase.  Cost, overall use, etc.  The MacBook Pro would essentially replace my current XP Pro laptop that I have right now.  My desktop PC I custom built, so that I had a nice upgrade path over the next several years.  The PC is mainly used for games, but thought it would be nice to have my video editing in just one tower computer.  Unfortunately, I don't think there's a really good editing solution for my laptop PC, unlke the MacBook.

I love the Amiga dearly, but it collects dust mostly and I'm not sure what else I would use it for except for the Toaster and old games (which I can play on WinUAE).

[Aegis]

The PC 'Toaster is a little overkill - especially as you're just looking at editing. If however you're interesting in using a NewTek product, check out SpeedEdit - it looks pretty slick!

Of course, you can't go wrong with Final Cut either :-)

[spihunter]

@Starfoxx,


Like other have said, The Macbook pro is a win-win situation if you can afford it because you can dual boot it with Win XP and it comes with ilife.

imovie/idvd is a pretty decent editing package if you dont need high end features. I'm suprised how much they do for free bundled software. As far as learning curve goes your not going to get any better.

jeez, I sound like one of the guys at the Apple store :lol:

I'm not a zealot! I swear!

[spihunter]

Aegis,

SpeedEdit looks pretty cool!. I wish they had a demo you could download to try it out?.

[Pyromania]

The Amiga Video Toaster Flyer is a great system, we are still surprised how much we use it. We can't use it for Oil Change the movie though since that is all shot in HD. Newtek had no solution for HD editing even on Windows so we started editing the film on Final Cut Studio. We have FCP & SpeedEDIT @ DiscreetFX. We are used to the NewTek workflow from way back in the Amiga Video Toaster days so we like SpeedEDIT better. We did start the editing of our film back in 2006 on FCP though, only because SE was not available and Oil Change is shot in HDV so our VT[4] could not edit it. Ironically our PowerMac G5 dual that is only two years old died.

Apple has been rude and a big pain getting it fixed since we did not have AppleCare. So the film is being re-edited with SE. FCP is a nice program and can do just about anything if you like the interface, we don't. But if you have any Mac issues Apple can be a pain to deal with. So depending on your needs the Flyer and or SpeedEDIT might be the solution for you. Mac OS X is nice, better than Windows but I think you will find Final Cut's interface a pain.

[koaftder]

Don't go the Amiga route. One hardware problem and you might as well have spent the money on the mac.

You could get trusty old used drill press, but when it breaks, and you swallow the repair bill, you'll want to kick your self knowing you spent more on that when you could have in the end spent less on a new one with a warranty. (and the new one does more)

[AmigaPixel]

Starrfoxx wrote:
I'm doing some research and gathering some opinions on various editing solutions for video, and I was hoping to get some feedback on three scenarios and what you thought was better and why?

Scenario 1:  Fix up my ol' Amiga 4000 with the existing Toaster/Flyer that I have.  It's old hardware, but it would get the job done until the Amiga motherboard dies.

Scenario 2:  Use the Amiga Toaster as an upgrade path to the PC Toaster for the new PC I built that has a 2.6 AMD Ahtlon Dual Core chip.

Scenario 3:  Invest a little more money than the PC Toaster and getting a MacBook Pro which comes with iMovie. Not only could I install Final Cut Pro on this machine and edit videos while away from home, but with the Intel processor it will allow me to run Win XP and utilize the PC games/software that I already have.  Plus, the Macs come with iLife which has some great software for making music, movies, and DVD's.


So which scenario do you like and why?

I am in the same boat as you. I do some editing on the pc with studio Plus 9. (Yes I know very buggy but I learned how to make it much more stable.) At the same time I am revamping my A2000 and just added a Video Toaster 4000. I plan on using the output of the Toaster to the input of my PC capture card. It maybe redundent for SD video but it makes it fun way to use my Amiga for production again. Besides I always wanted a Video Toaster but I never could afford one until recently. I used to drool at them when they cost $2000. I got mine for$60 on Ebay! By the way I am just south of you in Tucson. It would be cool to hook up. :-D

[bloodline]

Pyromania wrote:
We did start the editing of our film back in 2006 on FCP though, only because SE was not available and Oil Change is shot in HDV so our VT[4] could not edit it. Ironically our PowerMac G5 dual that is only two years old died.

Just goes to show, you shouldn't use antique machines for commercial projects! ;-)