From: Rob Danielson (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Aug 14 2007 - 13:18:40 PDT
At 1:39 PM -0400 8/14/07, Sam Wells wrote:
>>Not to knock buying used, but the first thing I'd do is see if I
>>can find a new, affordable laptop with one of these recommended
>>graphics/video cards (from avid's requirements page):
>
>At that point, why not consider a MacBookPro & Final Cut ?
>
>-Sam
>
Hi Sam,
One should be able to save quite a bit on the software and PC
hardware and still be able to use Avid Xpress pro on a Mac if one
decides to go that direction as well in the future. Because Xpress
Pro uses a dongle, one can install the software wherever one wants,
like on a friend's Mac or PC while on production away from home or at
work, etc. There doesn't seem to be huge differences between Xpress
Pro and FCP.
If one invests in FCP, one is pretty much locked into Mac options
until making another big investment. Going with software that will do
the job one needs to do and on either platform makes sense--
especially for someone making their first investments.
Apple's Ed program was very successful in getting many film/video
makers to learn FCP. It does take about 3-5 sessions to memorize the
different shortcut keys, etc. The greater difference is WinXP vs. OS
X which the Avid option accommodates. Premiere CS will run on a Mac
with Bootcamp/WinXP but that does require adequate familiarity with
two OS's.
As a very high percentage of students enroll in college with PC's and
most have loans to the teeth, using Avid allows everyone to economize
and focus on the important part: learning to edit. Those who would
rather not learn anything but Mac are happy too. Rob Danielson
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