Mac advice needed: newbie to macs
 

someone on here answered my question a while back about getting my new pc, i just got the mac i needed from my dad, but im wondering what updated programs i can put on it, as well as final cut studio. i dont know that much about macs, as i rarly use them.

Mac OS X 10.0.4 , powermac G4, 80gb hard drive. memory: 250mb. processor: 2x power pc G4. i can get more info if need be.

what i want to update is imovie, quicktime and poss the os if i can, but if i cant put final cut studio to run on it, i want to at least have the imovie as a backup. im hoping the specs for the mac i got will run the final cut studio ok.

i did get myself a new laptop as well with win 7, 320gb hard drive and just now need to sort the mac. any advice would be very helpful.

The latest versions of DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro probably won't install on the older G4 technology, but older versions surely will. I had a G3 and G4, and the versions I have were native to G4. There were even a few hacks to get them to sort-of work on the G3 iMac.

Is there any specific reason to use Mac? With a new Windows 7 system available, I'd think Premiere CS3 or CS4 would be better than an aging version of FCP on an aging Mac G4 system. If nothing else, the Win7 machine will be far, far faster speeds on encoding and authoring.

What are you trying to do, again?

well i wanted to learn how to use final cut studio 3, like the professional video editors do and use the programs to restore video and audio, create better menus, and use all the other features it has to create a pro like look for my sets, which im using to pratice my skills.

I need to learn how to do storyboards/menus, using 3d, motions e.t.c basically everything the professional video editors use to make a film.

im using the files i got for my pr sets to pratice and as a showcase of my video editing skills and my creative skills with various techniques they use.

i do have cyberlink video suite on my win 7 machine, but i dont know what else to get or use. personally i dont want to pay extra cash for the others, but wouldnt mind getting the latest premier cs4 or cs5, the creative suite 5 production premiere sounds like it has everything i need to do.

Well, I'd argue that Final Cut Pro isn't any more or less professional than Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas Video, Grass Valley Edius, or Avid. It's just another NLE. Don't listen to some Mac elitist idiot's idea that only Final Cut is professional -- that's hogwash. Vegas, Premiere, Edius and Avid have just as many workstations out there.

If anything, Mac is pretty limited to what it can do -- mostly editing from cameras (DV, HDV, XDCAM, etc). It's pretty lousy for streaming format creation (H.264, Flash), and it has many limitations when it comes to converting/restoring older analog sources.

I can understand wanting to learn it, sure. The older versions of FCP, and knowledge of current versions of Adobe Premiere CS3/CS4/CS5 on Windows, will get you want you want to know, in terms of the editing workflow.

3D images, etc -- not done in FCP anyway, it's done in the related programs like Boris Red and others. When using Adobe wares, you often use After Effects. I don't do a ton of effects creation, so I can't rattle off all the software like I can with NLE, authoring, encoding, etc.

I know how to use FCP pretty well, although it's been a couple of years since I used it. I far, far prefer Adobe Premiere CS3.

Like you, I just wanted to learn more Mac video some years ago. I did some projects on it, using Matrox cards, to FCP to DVD Studio Pro for authoring. Everything was Mac, no Windows or Linux work. Used G3, G4, skipped G5, and used Intel Core 2 processor systems.

fcp doesnt import mpeg2


Final Cut Studio 3 Only works on Intel Based Systems. G4 is not intel based so you have to get FCS 2 if you want it to work.

FCP, Adobe, Sony are all the same pretty much. but you cant import mpeg2 into fcp which sucks. i had an older camera that was hd recorded to mpeg fiels and i was trying to import the mpegs but wouldn't work at all.

Avid is the top of the industry for Professional movies. A real pain in the *** to use too if you dont know it. I found fcp pretty easy to use but the limitations are annoying.

thanks for the advice ls, i downloaded adobe premiere cs4 and after effects cs4, but seem to be having a prob with getting them to work with the right serial. after effects worked ok at first then my laptop broke down from a program i installed and it looks brilliant for the ideas i want to use it for.

are you using the master collection? pc or mac?

pc and yes it is the master collection for photoshop cs4 and after effects.