Video Editing System

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CuppaJoe

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Hi Guys,

Maybe you can be of some assistance here:

I have a 69-year old client who is basically a technophobe, but really has his heart set on acquiring a system that can handle his hobby video projects without struggling too much. He also wants something that can handle his huge Word documents without keeling over like his 2011 Core i-7 Sony VAIO laptop is doing now with 8GB of RAM.

He does not break into a sweat at the R37,000 asking price for the 15" Macbook Pro with Retina Display, so price is not the biggest obstacle here.

I want to get him the best possible value for his money and am not overly convinced that the Mac is the way to go where longevity is concerned. I would like this system to last for at least 5 years, so it should ideally be upgradeable later on should it be necessary.

I can put together a powerful customized Windows desktop system which includes a Core i7-4790K CPU, 512GB SSD, 1TB HDD, MSI GTX 960 3D Card and 16GB 2400Mhz DDR3 RAM that should do the trick for about R23,000.

What are your opinions on this?

Which way would you have gone?
 
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The 15" MBP is a video editing beast and the software is incredibly easy to use.

Don't put him off buying one for personal reasons.
 
bwana said:
The 15" MBP is a video editing beast and the software is incredibly easy to use.

Don't put him off buying one for personal reasons.
Click to expand...

Yes, that was in fact the first thing I pointed him towards.

I am just worried he might find learning a complete new OS and Final Cut Pro too much to handle. Just this week he got his first smartphone (without my input), but he has been moaning and groaning about it the whole time. :D

Also, in 2-3 years the Macbook Pro will be obsolete.
 
CuppaJoe said:
Final Kuk Pro
Click to expand...

FTFY.

Stay away. Far away. Final Cut was the rage back in 2007. The entire video industry is moving away from Final Cut to Avid and Adobe. He's better off with Adobe Premiere Pro.

If it's strictly for personal / hobby use, then I'm sure Final Cut X will be fine.
 
genetic said:
FTFY.

Stay away. Far away. The entire video industry is moving away from Final Cut to Avid and Adobe. He's better off with Adobe Premiere Pro.

If it's strictly for personal / hobby use, then I'm sure Final Cut X will be fine.
Click to expand...

I noticed that, but Premiere Pro has an even steeper learning curve than FCP.

He is using Pinnacle Studio at the moment, but his laptop struggles a lot with 1080p footage.
 
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R37000 , geese , thats expensive.

With that kinda money , he can get a 17" full hd panel windows laptop with single gtx 980 Gddr5 8GB vram laptop plus massive storages, 128gb + 2TB , No kidding ... for R32999 ~ 33999 vat incl.

enough perf and storage for his video editing hobby.
 
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CuppaJoe said:
I noticed that, but Premiere Pro has an even steeper learning curve than FCP.

He is using Pinnacle Studio at the moment, but his laptop struggles a lot with 1080p footage.
Click to expand...

If he's editing compressed MPEG material, then his system will lag, unless he upgrades. Converting the material to intermediate Avid DNxHD or ProRes proxies will make a huge difference on even the most modest of machines though.

Premiere isn't a steep learning curve at all if you're accustomed to video editing. It's a lot more feature rich than FCP, integrates with After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop, Audition and a host of others. A far better investment.
 
genetic said:
If he's editing compressed MPEG material, then his system will lag, unless he upgrades. Converting the material to intermediate Avid DNxHD or ProRes proxies will make a huge difference on even the most modest of machines though.

Premiere isn't a steep learning curve at all if you're accustomed to video editing. It's a lot more feature rich than FCP, integrates with After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop, Audition and a host of others. A far better investment.
Click to expand...

Aha, someone who knows his stuff. ;)

The thing is, as I said this client is 69 years of age and not into technology at all. He wants something that "just works".

If he was younger and not intimidated by new tech and willing to put in the time and effort to learn the trade, then I would have agreed.
 
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CuppaJoe said:
Hi Guys,

Maybe you can be of some assistance here:

I have a 69-year old client who is basically a technophobe, but really has his heart set on acquiring a system that can handle his hobby video projects without struggling too much. He also wants something that can handle his huge Word documents without keeling over like his 2011 Core i-7 Sony VAIO laptop is doing now with 8GB of RAM.

He does not break into a sweat at the R37,000 asking price for the 15" Macbook Pro with Retina Display, so price is not the biggest obstacle here.

I want to get him the best possible value for his money and am not overly convinced that the Mac is the way to go where longevity is concerned. I would like this system to last for at least 5 years, so it should ideally be upgradeable later on should it be necessary.

I can put together a powerful customized Windows desktop system which includes a Core i7-4790K CPU, 512GB SSD, 1TB HDD, MSI GTX 960 3D Card and 16GB 2400Mhz DDR3 RAM that should do the trick for about R23,000.

What are your opinions on this?

Which way would you have gone?
Click to expand...

That system you specced sounds good, just add this:
http://www.wootware.co.za/dell-u241...-1920x1200-ah-ips-led-anti-glare-monitor.html
 
CuppaJoe said:
Yes, that was in fact the first thing I pointed him towards.

I am just worried he might find learning a complete new OS and Final Cut Pro too much to handle. Just this week he got his first smartphone (without my input), but he has been moaning and groaning about it the whole time. :D
Click to expand...
OsX is very user friendly - there will be a learning curve but it's not steep.

I do all of my video editing using iMovie. I've got two friends with similar hardware to mine - last years version of the MBP you mentioned - one uses Premier and the other Final Cut. They both do video for a living and they're both no help to me when trying to figure out which direction I will go when I've finally resigned myself to the fact that video is becoming a reality for me because they both swear by their respective software. :o

CuppaJoe said:
Also, in 2-3 years the Macbook Pro will be obsolete.
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Don't be ridiculous. I've also got a 2011 MBP i7 and it's nowhere close to being obsolete.
 
Storage is usually the important bit with video editing. Having a decent RAID external, perhaps with a network interface would be ideal. The nice thing with FCP is their ability to farm out rendering to another tower on the lan, which leaves your workstation open to additional work.

Don't know what the equivalent is on Adobe (Media Encoder?), but I despise their suite of apps that separate tasks that should be on one application just to maximise their profit. My opinion is that if your not dealing with likes of Media Composer or Pinnacle Studio, your better off avoiding the Microsoft ecosystem. If your uncle had any technical expertise I'd point him to the osx86 route so he could have both.

My suggestion is a Mac Mini (I'm serious), and a proper Mac Pro server for actual backend rendering. Once he settles down with his workflow he will thank you. Only downside is that you need two FCP licenses. OSX doesn't have a nice remote desktop system like Windows but with FCP you don't need one.
 
jansdejager said:
My suggestion is a Mac Mini (I'm serious), and a proper Mac Pro server for actual backend rendering. Once he settles down with his workflow he will thank you. Only downside is that you need two FCP licenses. OSX doesn't have a nice remote desktop system like Windows but with FCP you don't need one.
Click to expand...

Screen Sharing works great as does Apple Remote Desktop.
 
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