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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Looking to buy a laptop that would be used for video and photo editing, and I know there are at least a few here that have experience doing this. Is a Macbook Air the way to go, or can I get a decent PC? Also in your opinion what is the best and/or easiest software to use?
Edited by CiscoKid 2/6/2014 3:56 PM
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Posts: 1636
| You can use virtually any laptop for photo and video editing. The cheapest, new 'PC' you can find will out perform a $1,000 MAC after a couple quick and inexpensive upgrades. I would recommend 8GB of memory. This would allow you to do more for a longer period of time and edit both photos and video at the same time with no lagging issues as long as you have a good processor (Intel i3, i5, i7). Since it always happens, let me start the debate and bring out the computer chair experts... PC > MAC 
Edited by Reelwise 2/6/2014 5:09 PM
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | I have the MacBook Air and it's Incredible … you will LOVE it.
One problem is that the Hummingbird Software does not run on it if you are a H-Bird owner. Frustrating! |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI |
That could be true, if you delete that turd of an OS (windoze) and install something that actually works !
Reelwise - 2/6/2014 4:16 PM
Since it always happens, let me start the debate and bring out the computer chair experts... PC > MAC :) |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | jonnysled - 2/6/2014 4:36 PM
I have the MacBook Air and it's Incredible … you will LOVE it.
One problem is that the Hummingbird Software does not run on it if you are a H-Bird owner. Frustrating!
Ugh! I will still have a desktop so I can always run it on there. |
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Posts: 121
Location: Plymouth IA | Mac or PC will work. curently I use HP workstation series tower and HP laptop for edit. I used to run a Mac tower . Switched to HP and have been happy. I run adobe CS on the tower & Sony Vegas on the laptop. Am about to finnish a 8 seat Avid install 7 hp towers in a studio & 1 Macbook pro mounted in a jeep. So the mac pc thing is just a choice of what you like. |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I use a Dell XPS 17", SSD and 2nd 5400 RPM HD for storage, 3rd generation I7 processor, video card with 2 gig memory, 16 gig of ram running Adobe Premier Pro. Sweet platform. Sold my Mac laptop because of the rest of the editing and content placement I need to do for work, easier by far with a PC for our CMS.
A good and inexpensive editing program is Cyberlink power Director 12, which will load JVC video and several others that other video editing software will not. If you are going to publish to web AVS4You also is a good choice, about the same price for everything in the suite.
Still have my iMac dual core with FC Pro if I need that platform for any particular editing project, and a carrying backpack for it, nice rig. GREAT gamer for the grandkids, too.
At home, a Dell Alienware does the job.
Enjoy, the content creation part of my job is by far the most enjoyable.
Get an I7 quad core processor. You will not be sorry. |
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Location: Quebec, Canada | I guess it all depends on how serious you are about this and what kind of material you plan on working with.
I bought a GoPro Hero 3+ with a HP Pavilion i5 2.3GHz for quite cheap ($475, $125 off) during Christmas times at Best Buy. Downloaded the free and easy to use GoPro Studio video editing software and I am very impressed with how user friendly it is to do something quite impressive for someone as noob as me in this domain. There are tons of tutorials on youtube on how to work this software.
If you're interessed, send me a PM and I'll give you a link to the 1st video I've done without much experience but is still, quite good IMO.
Edited by Drakl 2/9/2014 9:19 AM
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Posts: 7
| Depends what type of footage you want to edit and how far you want to take the editing process. Things can stay pretty simple or get ridiculous very quick. I use Adobe Premier Pro CS4 on a desktop PC. The software has many requirements for the computer on which it is to run. The software is also not intuitive at all and takes time to learn. I just bought a lap top to use with that software and existing projects so I can work on them when traveling for business. Transferring the projects to the lap top is proving no easy task. I guess it all depends on what you are using and where you want to take it. |
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| Which version of Premier are you using? I didn't have much trouble running CS4 on my new lap top, but transferring projects from my desk top to my new lap top so i can work on them while traveling is proving to be problematic. Any advise? |
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Posts: 7
| that question was for sworrall by the way |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Premier Pro 6 CC. Allows for expanded sharing of settings, etc to any edit bay. I have never tried to transfer a project from one machine to another, are you copying it from the main Adobe folder to a drive, or using intranet? It may work more seamlessly if you use remote desktop. |
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Posts: 121
Location: Plymouth IA | If you have all your video on a external usb drive that is fast you can move from desktop to laptop fine. Do it quite often for PBS local projects. |
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Posts: 12
| If you are doing a lot of HD, you'll want all SSD (solid state hard drive, NO spinning disk). I would say 8GB mem is too little, I'd go with 12-16. i5 or i7 processor and if you are really going to do a lot with video, I'd go with a dedicated video card too. |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | TK - Lots of options out there, you can get a windows machine to run as powerful as a Mac for half the price. Windows machines are catching up to the Mac as far as performance and reliability. If you're going to use the laptop for other things and are comfortable on windows stick with it. I work on a Mac for video editing but the industry is changing rapidly, many hardcore Mac people changing to PC. If I was going to buy for myself it would probably be a windows machine. I do some of my editing on a mid-2010 MacBook Pro that's been capable of handling anything I've thrown at it though it's not anything special compared to my Mac Pro with Quad Core, 64GB memory and (2) 4TB raided HD's. The specs on the MacBook are: Duo Core 2.66 8 GB memory 500 GB HD NIVIDIA GeoForce 256 MB This little laptop runs Adobe CS 6 without any problem. I could honestly do most of my work on the MacBook but the screen size would drive me crazy after working on a pair of 27" monitors all day. If you go windows the Movie Maker software is capable of doing simple but effective editing. If you go Mac the iMovie is in the same class. If you want something more powerful there are many options, the industry was stuck on Final Cut (don't know why) apparently they ruined their software most people I know have moved to the Adobe CS which is what I've been working on for 10 years.
Edited by Will Schultz 2/13/2014 1:19 PM
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | 8 Gig of ram is OK for most folk's use, but I have 16 in my laptop and my Alienware desktop; it's not expensive or difficult to upgrade if you need to and most experts will tell you to go with at least 8, but 16 is better, and maxing out the machine is best.
Two drive bays are nice. One can be a smaller capacity SSD.
I know upgrading from an i5 dual to an i7 quad 3rd generation processor using an otherwise identical build was like night and day editing HD video.
Keith's HP laptop is running an AMD Phenom 6 core and 16 gigs of ram, and it's OK. He can render video and upload images at the same time with no issues. That machine (or an HP of similar build) is still sold on sites like Tiger Direct refurbed for about $450 or so. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | I love Macs for video editing, but any laptop will do so long as you download a good video editing software, OR, as I've used many times in the past, if you have Windows Movie Maker installed (free install and safe), that software is pretty bare bones but it does the job and does it pretty well, although there are some limitations. I find there are creative ways around limitations, though  |
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Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Thank you all for your feedback. Keep them coming though.
Main reason I am thinking Mac is I have terrible luck with PC’s, and am sick of the problems. I have always heard, right or wrong, that Mac’s were more reliable. Plus if I go Mac my choices are limited (good in this case) to which one compared to PC I have to try and find out what brand is the most reliable. I am liking what I am hearing though in that the PC’s are becoming more reliable.
I’ll be the first to admit that I know nothing about computers other than we do not mix. ?
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Posts: 35
| I would go with a PC, they have come a long way. You'll save hundreds of $ compared to a Mac and if you and it will do everything a Mac can. Make sure you get at least 8 GB ram, 1+ TB hard drive, good graphics card, 3rd or 4th gen core i7 processor. If you buy a well known brand (Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, etc.) with the above specs it will do absolutely everything you need for amateur video editing.
Most, if not all, PC brands offer models that specialize in multimedia and gaming. Get one of these models! This will ensure you get a good graphics card so the PC won't bog down when working with HD video. |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | TK - Sitting here watching olympics I did some quick research. This Toshiba looks like a great deal. 17" screen, I would add dual 500 G hard drives, office, anti virus and it includes PS elements and Premier elements for photo and video editing. You could get into it for 1600-ish. A comparable Mac Book Pro would be well over 3K. http://www.toshiba.com/us/computers/laptops/qosmio/X70/X70-ABT3G22
Edited by Will Schultz 2/14/2014 8:40 PM
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Laptops for Video Editing