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  1. Hi
    I am not very technically minded however need help deciding on which imac for my video editing , which is just family HD videos all in AVCHD filles, i only cut/past, add music, titles,menu page,transitions.

    I have looked at loads of posts about this and have come up with the following.

    which one would be better for me? I would appreciate any advice.

    Apple imac 12,1, 10.8.5 Mountain lion
    Mid 2011 model
    27" IPS led backlit display 2560x1440
    2.7ghz intel core i5 quad processor
    16gb ddr3 1333mhz ram
    1tb 7200rpm hard drive
    AMD radeon HD 6770m 512mb graphics card
    £945 + VAT

    VS

    imac 21.5" NEW OS X Maverick
    2.9 ghz intel core i5 quad processor
    8gb ddr3 1600mhz ram
    1tb 5400 rpm hard drive
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 1Gb
    £1082 + VAT
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  2. Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Freedonia
    Search Comp PM
    EVERYTHING is harder and more expensive on a Mac than Windows. I say that as an IT professional who has worked with Mac, Windows and Linux/Unix. I have an iMac at home and I ONLY use it to surf the internet. All my video work is done on a Windows PC.

    The mid 2011 model is better despite the slightly slower CPU, in my opinion. You can upgrade Mountain Lion to Mavericks yourself for free. It's easy.
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  3. oh that's created another spin on things.

    I really thought the Mac would be better.
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  4. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Nova Scotia, Canada
    Search Comp PM
    I agree with jman ... there was a time when macs were the choice for media work but those days are long gone.

    The media software selection for windows is just way, way better than for macs. No comparison. Plus for that money you could get some pretty serious power in a windows box.

    I am not mac averse ... I actually usually use linux now, and apples are based on unix/linux ... but for video editing I'd take windows over macs. Hell, I think linux video editor choice in linux is better than mac.

    If you must have a mac I'd also agree the mid '11 model is better. Macs, being unix derived, perform way better with lots of free RAM. They use free memory for file caching.
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  5. Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    The 21.5" (new model) iMac can't be upgraded. Requires a total disassembly. Stay clear of that unit.

    The 2011 model 27" is very good (assuming you have a warranty for it). I owned one. Very fast, easily upgraded. The problem is editing AVCHD files. You'll need one of the free "re-wrapping" apps to move the H264 and audio into a more easily editable format. (AVCHD is a -delivery- format.) iMovie will take it from there. If you prefer a more capable app, Final Cut Pro (even the older v7 which should be available on eBay pretty cheap) is very good. FCP will prefer you convert your M4V or MP4 (with the H264 which, is, after all, quite compressed) to something like AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) or ProRes -if- you want to apply many effects as, otherwise, this will take time. MPEG Streamclip (free) will do the conversion to AIC which is much less compressed than H264 so rendering takes less time (almost nothing, actually). You lose almost nothing with this conversion although there are purists here who consider the perfect as the enemy of the good.

    Remember: Quicktime makes the difference. Linux doesn't have it. I've tried video editing on a number of Linux distros and it was a total waste of time.
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  6. Pretty much agree with rumplestilksin with one exception, don't bother with FCP 7 -- it's eol and (I believe) won't run on the newer OS' anyway. Also has a big learning curve which you may as well apply to the relatively reasonably priced FCPX.
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  7. Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    smrpix: Agreed - good call; While FCP7 will run on Mountain Lion (10.8.x), the newer version (10.1.x) is cheap and is supported on Mavericks w/o problems. Some older FCP7 plugins don't like 10.8.x and 10.9.x.
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