PC vs. Mac- Video Editing

[TXFlyer26]

Hi everybody,

New drone pilot here and very new video editor, but I am decent with a Windows PC. I’m trying to find out if it’s a night & day the difference in regards to the “User Friendliness” of a MAC when editing video versus a PC?
I have read all the posts on the numerous different Windows video editing software and even gave Davinci Resolve a try, but it’s too overwhelmed for me.

Would I benefit getting a Mac, or do u guys think I’d be just as confused?

Thanks for your guys help!

 

[Mackel]

I use a mac... even the generic program for editing is so easy to use.

 

[melmartin]

Quite agree... iMovie is easy, handles 4K video, automated YouTube uploads. Recently upgraded to Final Cut X and much of what I learned in iMovie was transferable...

 

[bushie]

Never use an Apple product. The company compleatly lack business ethics. There are plenty of good editing packages for Windows.

 

[melmartin]

Wow. Just wow.

 

[rfc]

Hi everybody,

New drone pilot here and very new video editor, but I am decent with a Windows PC. I’m trying to find out if it’s a night & day the difference in regards to the “User Friendliness” of a MAC when editing video versus a PC?
I have read all the posts on the numerous different Windows video editing software and even gave Davinci Resolve a try, but it’s too overwhelmed for me.

Would I benefit getting a Mac, or do u guys think I’d be just as confused?

Thanks for your guys help!

Putting together a very credible video with iMovie, even without any video editing experience is dead simple. Oh. it's free too.

 

[genesimmons]

i use "movavi" its pretty good and easy to use to cut and paste, i use a mac air and allthough its nice and thin and portable its not the best for editing video, its not a powerhouse, the whole mac vs pc debate has been going on for years, i myself find mac over priced but mac osx is far superior to windows, i find windows 10 to be clumsy and awful layout but then again i am used to osx, dont get me worong i was a windows lover till i tried osx and ill never go back, i dont know about apple as a company they could be the worst but they make a quality product, i dont use an iphone but they are tough like bull haha

 

[Budmancan]

I've been flying for about 18 months and use FCPX for editing on a Mac. The difference between iMovie and FCPX is huge (effects, color correction and balancing, and distribution) but you have a very steep learning curve when you upgrade. Take a look at larryjordan.com and you will find tons of discussion and course materials to get you started. One thing to bear in mind is video editing involves huge amounts of data. Interestingly, performance is more a function of storage media than the computer itself. If you are going to get active in this you will need to also invest in an external RAID array which start around $400US.

 

[FASTFJR]

I've been flying for about 18 months and use FCPX for editing on a Mac. The difference between iMovie and FCPX is huge (effects, color correction and balancing, and distribution) but you have a very steep learning curve when you upgrade. Take a look at larryjordan.com and you will find tons of discussion and course materials to get you started. One thing to bear in mind is video editing involves huge amounts of data. Interestingly, performance is more a function of storage media than the computer itself. If you are going to get active in this you will need to also invest in an external RAID array which start around $400US.

LOL, Unless the guy is a pro he doesn't need a RAID. Their are plenty of fine 4-6TB single drive HD's you can get for less than that

 

[FASTFJR]

Hi everybody,

New drone pilot here and very new video editor, but I am decent with a Windows PC. I’m trying to find out if it’s a night & day the difference in regards to the “User Friendliness” of a MAC when editing video versus a PC?
I have read all the posts on the numerous different Windows video editing software and even gave Davinci Resolve a try, but it’s too overwhelmed for me.

Would I benefit getting a Mac, or do u guys think I’d be just as confused?

Thanks for your guys help!

I use both platforms, have been for years. Apple wins hands down when it comes to graphics / video. iMovie is very easy to use and give you great results. FCPX is the next step up, then you have Adobe Premier which is great but has a steeper learning curve.

A nicely equipped iMac 21.5 will run you $1500, bump up to a 27 inch with 5K it will be $2500-$3000

At home I use a 2 year old 15 inch MBP, it handles 4K without any problems. At work I'm using a $6500 new iMac Pro. The speed is just unreal!

 

[droneworx]

Hi everybody,

New drone pilot here and very new video editor, but I am decent with a Windows PC. I’m trying to find out if it’s a night & day the difference in regards to the “User Friendliness” of a MAC when editing video versus a PC?
I have read all the posts on the numerous different Windows video editing software and even gave Davinci Resolve a try, but it’s too overwhelmed for me.

Would I benefit getting a Mac, or do u guys think I’d be just as confused?

Thanks for your guys help!

I was in the EXACT same situation as you. About 6 years ago, I was a deadset PC guy. Hated Mac, hated Apple, wanted nothing to do with them. I was working on my first "real" video with my phantom 2 and my GoPro. I first tried Windows Movie Maker, failed miserably. then I tried about 5 or 6 different programs, they bombed out, failed, would lose settings, audio/video wouldn't sync, I was totally going nuts. I finally had got a video I thought looked good after working on it for 3 weeks, it took 8 hours to render, than failed to export. Then I lost my mind and gave up.

A buddy of mine after I rejected it several times, forced me to borrow his old 2012 Mac mini with iMovie on it. I **** you not, I finished the video, edited it, rendered it, and exported it in about 20 minutes. it was so easy, flawless, perfect, and rendered and looked fantastic. I used his mini a few more times, and finally bit the bullet and in 2014 I bought a 2014 Mac mini (i5, 8GB of RAM) and used iMovie on it, and to this day, 6 years later, I still use this Mini regularly to render 4K video, and it still renders quickly, looks great, and works perfectly. Since then I have moved onto a 2017 Mac Pro 15" with FCPX, but that Mini is still there and I still use it to do some rendering. It slows down a little with FCPX, but with iMovie, you could render 4K videos all day long and be perfectly happy for a long time.

 

[4wd]

.......... I first tried Windows Movie Maker, failed miserably. then I tried about 5 or 6 different programs, they bombed out, failed, would lose settings, audio/video wouldn't sync, I was totally going nuts. I finally had got a video I thought looked good after working on it for 3 weeks, it took 8 hours to

Well that's hardly a typical experience
Moviemaker is about 20 years old?
I used it in about 2003 I think.
It seems that people spending 2 or 3 times more for a Mac are desperate to justify the expense to themselves.

 

[melmartin]

LOL, Unless the guy is a pro he doesn't need a RAID. Their are plenty of fine 4-6TB single drive HD's you can get for less than that

I use an external USB drive with my MacBook Pro and it works just fine... less than 80 bucks...

 

[droneworx]

Well that's hardly a typical experience
Moviemaker is about 20 years old?
I used it in about 2003 I think.
It seems that people spending 2 or 3 times more for a Mac are desperate to justify the expense to themselves.

moviemaker comes with Windows 10, so 20 years old or not, its available with a current OS. iMovie is also about 20 years old, and yet is kept up to date and works great on 4K. Also, hardly typical or not, anyone who does anything with graphics uses Mac by a wide margin because having moved from one OS to another, I can see the vastly superior interface and ease of use of the Mac OS over windows when it comes to graphics. After living with Windows since 3.1 and NT 3.51 days and just over the past few years moving to Mac, I have never looked back once or ever found any reason to say "well that was better on PC", not a single thing. So the extra expense, while I do agree Apple tends to overprice their items, its hardly "desperation" to justify the cost. Usually PC people are just in a camp to hate anything Apple, and rarely give them a chance, because they know they will be surprised, such as I did.

 

[FASTFJR]

It seems that people spending 2 or 3 times more for a Mac are desperate to justify the expense to themselves.

Not really, I work in the printing a graphics field and I work with both windows based computers and Apple products. Yes, Apple products are more expensive. However they will out last a similar windows machine by 2 to 3 times. I have 5-6 iMacs......7 years old running 24/7 without any issues, their PC counter parts doing similar work have been replaced twice. I'll gladly pay more for a product that I know works will AND has excellent customer service when you need it

 

[JManges]

My daughter has a Mac and by far the Mac is easiest for me. I just give her the video files and she does all the work.

 

[Mackel]

My daughter has a Mac and by far the Mac is easiest for me. I just give her the video files and she does all the work.

Well that makes it easy...

 

[Mackel]

Well that's hardly a typical experience
Moviemaker is about 20 years old?
I used it in about 2003 I think.
It seems that people spending 2 or 3 times more for a Mac are desperate to justify the expense to themselves.

Not exactly. I am still die hard PC guy... worked on them all my life. Still on them for work... the owner even asked if I wanted to budget to change all to MAC, ummm no thanks...
BUT, when it came to photo editing, video editing, my Mac spanks it.

 

[Mavflyer]

Not really, I work in the printing a graphics field and I work with both windows based computers and Apple products. Yes, Apple products are more expensive. However they will out last a similar windows machine by 2 to 3 times. I have 5-6 iMacs......7 years old running 24/7 without any issues, their PC counter parts doing similar work have been replaced twice. I'll gladly pay more for a product that I know works will AND has excellent customer service when you need it

You do realize they use the same parts? Apple doesn't put magic parts in their machines. They use the same parts as everyone else and put it in a fancy case. Are you claiming the shell they place the components in somehow maximizes the life of the product?

 

[Mackel]

You do realize they use the same parts? Apple doesn't put magic parts in their machines. They use the same parts as everyone else and put it in a fancy case. Are you claiming the shell they place the components in somehow maximizes the life of the product?

So this year they released information about how they slow down the iphone through updates...
guess what, your computer is the same... Although, the Mac is easier to manage, PC's are known for windows updates that do the same and it is a lot harder to regulate through the registry.