PC or Mac? (Avid Xpress DV is only NT...)

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Editing DV Films : One Thread

I am a former computer programmer with extensive experience developing and using PCs and Macs, and both have their advantages and disadvantages.

I use Avid Film Composer at work and I'm now looking to set up a home DV editing system. I've been going back and forth between getting a dual G4-533mhz or dual PIII-1ghz. Other professional editors I know all tell me that even though Final Cut Pro is very good for home use, it is no where near as good as even the lightest version of Avid - Avid Xpress DV (the only one under $10,000). Avid Xpress DV is only available for Windows NT, however, and there is no planned Mac version. (Programmers at Avid say that their new developments are first being done under NT, despite that Apple is finally going to have its first real operating sytem soon.)

My question is, what are the disadvantages of editing on PC? The exact same hardware exists on both platforms (PCI and AGP are both Intel creations), and equivalent systems are about the same price. Although I have to buy a firewire card, I'm told the add-on PC cards (e.g. Raptor) are better inputs than the built-in Mac ports because they capture straight DV rather than QuickTime. Is there any disadvantage to building a PC editing system?

-- Mark Moran (mark@forsythia.net), February 20, 2001


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