Mac or PC . . . what's the difference?

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rubyeye
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Mac or PC . . . what's the difference?

Post by rubyeye » Sun Aug 04, 2002 9:36 pm

Just going over Red_Wolf's Mac guide to AMVs and it finally sparked an age old question: What the hell makes the MAC such a superior platform for digital media?

Those of you who really know, please share with me this enigma wrapped in a conundrum. Really, what is it - a smarter algorithm for producing better color, faster processor for image conversion, are Macs simply built for video (which I suspect they are, but really why)?

Certainly it has a better program for editing like Final Cut Pro, but based on my experience, anything you can do on a Mac can be done on a PC. I mean it's the program you are using, not the platform. Virtually every program I use on my PC is also available on a Mac. I can't conceive there is any difference in using the same software on a PC as opposed to a Mac.

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Post by alternatefutures » Sun Aug 04, 2002 10:33 pm

You're right, there is really no difference (in practice) except for the software available. For every leg up the Mac hardware has it also has a bottleneck, the overall effect is that the two systems tend to even out.

And it has a different program for editing, not a better one. It may be better than Premiere, but the PC has editing programs that are better than Premiere as well.

As for difference in programs, I had the misfortune of using Photoshop 6 on a G4 running OS9. My PIII blew it away in performance. It's funny too, as I think Photoshop was actually coded on a Mac, so it should have been running circles around my hardware. Oh well, Macs and I never did get along anyway.

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klinky
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Post by klinky » Sun Aug 04, 2002 11:04 pm

The reason the Mac was considered such a awesome media design platform was because of it's l33t color matching and font systems that were available way back when. It also had a GUI to begin with.

It took awhile for the PC to catch up in terms of media editing ability. Win3.1 wasn't something that could really handle media editing. Really once Windows 95 came around and people actually started thinking about going above 256 colors is when it started to change for the PC ;)

Still the PCs have sorta a jumbled font and color matching system, but what with basically any software out for the Mac also being available for the considerably faster & cheaper PC, it's not much of a wonder why the PC has sort of taken over.

Plus with the PC you can use a bunch of nice little non-commercial utilities that have been written just for it(Virtual Dub is a good example), or you can even write your own(it's easier on the PC then on the Mac).


~klinky

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Sinime
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Post by Sinime » Sun Aug 04, 2002 11:25 pm

I think this page would be a good read for someone in this forum asking about Mac vs. PC.

http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/2002 ... cvspc2.htm

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kthulhu
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Post by kthulhu » Mon Aug 05, 2002 1:22 am

Amiga rules you all!

Well,it would've,had the Commodore head not been such a lame fuck-up. The same guy went to Atari afterwards (Commodore's rival in the bitching PC market,of all things),and flushed that company down too.

Anyhow,the Amiga could show something like 4096 colors at once(as opposed to the 16 shades of gray Mac and 16 color PC),had great sound(better than Mac internal speaker and way better than the PC beep device),a stable and fast GUI,and a nice amount of RAM when it came out in 1985.

What could've been I guess... :cry:
I'm out...

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Sinime
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Post by Sinime » Mon Aug 05, 2002 9:12 pm

Oh, yeah... what about the TI 994A back before Amiga was even concieved? It could talk and had a screen resolution of 256x192 with 16 colors. :lol:

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Red Wolf
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Post by Red Wolf » Tue Aug 06, 2002 4:58 pm

kthulhu wrote:Amiga rules you all!
Anyhow,the Amiga could show something like 4096 colors at once(as opposed to the 16 shades of gray Mac and 16 color PC),had great sound(better than Mac internal speaker and way better than the PC beep device),a stable and fast GUI,and a nice amount of RAM when it came out in 1985.

What could've been I guess... :cry:
Yeah, and Xerox invented the first mouse, Ethernet networking, and the first GUI operating system.

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Post by trythil » Tue Aug 06, 2002 5:50 pm

Erm. The underlying technology for Ethernet was invented at the University of Hawaii -- it was known as ALOHANET, and predates Ethernet by a few years. (One of the most important pieces being the collision-detection method used by Ethernet, Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection, CSMA/CD for short.)

Xerox PARC did invent the first GUI, but I don't think it was a full OS.

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Red Wolf
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Post by Red Wolf » Tue Aug 06, 2002 6:00 pm

User Advantages

The Macintosh operating system is simply more stable. That has always been true and if you’re a Windows users who claims other wise after working on a Mac it is because the Mac smelled the Windows stench and didn’t want to become infected. I have been running Mac OS X for over six months now. I have had to do a forced reboot ONCE. The advantage of a stable OS is that you don’t break the creative flow. Once you start editing you go on for a long time because you have a flow of creativity (or so we hope) coming from you. If you disrupt that flow for longer than 20 seconds it is gone and you have to start the flow all over again. Last time I checked it took a lot longer than 20 seconds to crash and reboot Windows.

Windows uses language more than anything else to communicate it’s interface. Mac uses symbols. Neither one is better than the other, in theory, but there is a distinction. It turns out that right-brained people (creative people) tend to feel more comfortable with the symbols. This goes along with the stable system in that it encourages the creative flow. Using Windows left-brain people tend to be more concerned with that they need to do in reference to how to operate the computer rather than focusing on what they want to do. Reference: http://www.mymac.com/collins/7.3.02.shtml

You will find that your Mac AMV creators are, on the whole, a much more educated, successful, polite, serious about their work, and savvy creator than your average PC AMV creator. This is because Mac users tend to be from demographics of higher education and higher household income. Over 52% of Mac users are online, making Mac users account for 8.2% of the Internet population even those Macs only account for 4-5% of the computer population. Over 70% of those Mac users who are online have college degrees and since these people are more Internet savvy they are 53% more likely to create a web page (let alone create media content for the web). The average Mac/Internet user has been online for at least five years (I’m working on my ninth year personally) and they are a much more “serious” surfer in that they don’t spend any real time with online horoscopes, games, or the like. This may not push you to do AMVs on the Mac but it certain should keep you from being instantly offended by Mac users since they will probably be a better web neighbor than your PC comrades. Reference: http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news20 ... onday.html

Hardware Advantages

Apple computers have had the needed hardware for AMV creation longer than PCs. That hardware I refer to is CD-RW drives, DVD-R drives, and high speed ports such as FireWire. While this is a mute point when comparing new machines today, it means that an older Mac can do AMV creation more easily than an older PC. Any Mac desktop dating from 1999 on and any Mac laptop dating from 2000 on can easily expand to whatever modern equipment they may need for AMV creation if they don’t already have everything they need already. Reference: http://www.apple-history.com

Software Advantages

iMovie rules. Yes, I know it isn’t the most sophisticated DV editor out there and it has a lot of limitation. But name one stable Windows app that can do DV editing and basic effects, titles, and transitions, is designed by a major player in the computer industry, and is legally free. Add to all that the fact that iMovie is designed for the average user who has a digital camera and no editing experience. There is simply no better tool for an AMV beginner.

The Mac is not a superior media machine. It is a superior media machine for people who tend more toward media. Apple targets two groups right now: the emerging digital media professionals and the home user who has started to use the digital toys which are out now such as DVD players, digital cell phones, PDAs, and digital cameras. If you’re not one of those people then it is very likely that Windows will more than meet your needs. But PCs are not taking aim at the new “digital hub” like Apple is so if the digital hub is your thing then you simply can’t beat a Mac.

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kthulhu
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Post by kthulhu » Tue Aug 06, 2002 8:27 pm

Red Wolf wrote: Yeah, and Xerox invented the first mouse, Ethernet networking, and the first GUI operating system.
Yeah,but could Joe Schmo buy and use the Alto?Or any real personal computer? Also,I think the mouse was first developed by Stanford. Anyhow,my point is that there was a potentially viable multimedia computer available at the same the the Mac and PCs were in their toddler years.

I also forgot to mention the Amiga's (and later the Atari ST's) AV capabilities.With additional hardware,the Amiga could compose music and handle digital video.
I'm out...

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