Post-Production : PC vs Mac by Matthew Hartman

Custom built Windows PC with Adobe Master Collection+plugins - Why because it's cheaper than a Mac and I'm a low budget indie filmmaker ;)

I use both and I like both I love the pc admin capabilities and its gotten a lot better at graphics. But for graphics or graphix keeping in kool. My Mac wins hands down its awsome!

I am confused by one thing, what does a mac do that a PC can't. I could understand that some people like the interface better thats fine but what do they do better than PC's.

A PC can do anything a Mac can, but mac is slightly faster/efficient than a PC. Linux is also better. There is less going on in the back end of the OS.

How is it more efficient/faster I have a custom rig that runs circles around the newest mac

For the most part, Macs tend to run graphics programs better than PCs, but that's without customization. If you just put the standard PC system up against the standard Mac system (latest versions of both), the Mac wins where graphics are concerned because that's what it was designed for. And I've seen the difference myself when switching from my PC at home to the Macs at school for my graphic design classes. The PCs are catching up, and with customization in PCs so widespread now, you don't really have to go specifically with Macs anymore

Mac OS utilizes the memory, graphics, and CPU better than windows can and ever will. Faster in graphic design, video rendering, 3D, and application like that. You may have a PC with spec's 5x faster than the latest Mac (as do i) but windows OS will always hold you back

I had a PC laptop in an office with macs and there were some compatibility issues, especially when sharing documents through drop box type apps. I switched to mac and never went back.

My hobby is playing video games, so I built my PC for that. It also had the interesting side effect of making it great for running software like the Adobe Master Collection, Pro Tools, etc, which I use in my professional endeavors.

Hi we build custom workstation for the Video, Audio industry. We build custom Macs, Win, Linux workstations and we are launching our own mohtherboard. It all depends on the software you use. ATM win/linux boxes win on overall speed. Follow us on FB at http://facebook.com/quocomputer

The Mac Pros in our offices have not been down a single day in almost 3 and a half years. No PC owner can make that statement.

All the 30 PC's where I work can say that they have. It all comes down to maintenance.

It has got to boil down to personal preference. I have both and started with a mac because my artsy friends encouraged it. My son is a PC techy genius and has had us set up with great PCs over the years and that is what I mostly use. My G4 is filled with 4000 pictures and small movie shorts I have done about travel and business. I find it a bit frustrating now to use because the reason people like PC's is you have unlimited options to dig around through which in all honesty requires more heady thinking. It is well known that Mac is for the biz of creating art. All the people networking here probably have a computer and should just use it til they out grow it.

I've been using PCs since they were born. I was a PC programmer for many years. Apple makes some great products but I won't use any of them. I hate the self-righteous attitude so many Apple users project.

mac OS is UNIX. UNIX command codes can access and change machine level programming in a faster and more logical manner than C and than monster C++. Also PC's were originally intended for the business world of managers and minions. mac design considered the user first and was built around that basic principle. Also, the mac can not be infected by nasty-ware unless the user has the mentality of a PC user... kidding on that last bit. Also, the bite out of the Apple logo is representative of Alan Turning being subjected to the homophobia of the British government and stanch go-go-go closeted gay business types of this world. Also, more hot chicks use macs and want to know the real men of this world who of course all use macs. Did you notice that every scientist during the recent Mars landing used macs? For uber-geeks I'm thinking they get laid more than PC users.

I think all mac users think "PC"'s are those crappy school ones that have 512 MB of ram and 100 GB hard drive, When I think PC I think of custom rigs that can run everything. So if you say Mac's are better then you cant say anything till you have used a "Good PC".

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/04/mac-os-x-report-virus-inf...

I personally feel like it comes down to budget and personal preference. I've worked on both platforms and enjoy each for varying reasons. I do have to say that people are right when talking about the OS. Apple's OS doesn't use up so much of your computer's power like Windows does. In terms of creativity, I think it's really what you make of it. I'm not any more creative on a Mac than I am on a PC. The UI seems to be much more appealing and less intimidating to new computer users, which is fine. At the end of the day it's about what gets the job done and how much you're willing to spend. I'm currently running a ASUS G74s ($1400) that has the computing power of a $2100 MacBook Pro - so it's really just based on the individual.

PC vs Mac... interesting question indeed. For my part, I think it is all changing very fast... Apple is turning more and more towards the consumer market developing products like iPod's, iPad's, iPhone's and stopping support on Final Cut Pro replacing it by a non very impressive Final Cut X. Slowly "dropping" the professional world for the consumer market it seems... In terms of performance, Unix is, it is true, more reliable than C or C++ however, I think it depends on how good you are at maintaining your PC and optimizing it for performance. I am running a custom made workstation : 2 x Intel Xeon X5680 @ 3.33 GHz(12 cores), (max for Mac is Two 3.06GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon (12 cores)) 96 GB RAM expendable to 192 GB, (max for Mac is 64 GB RAM) 11 TB Hard Drives @ 15 000rpm split into RAID 0 arrays Graphics card NVIDIA QUADRO FX5800 (4GB), Standard for Mac is ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB All the usual ports : USB 2, USB 3, SATA, Firewire 400, 800, ..... My PC cost me about £8 000 and I don't use anti-virus nor firewall and never had any problem with it. I work mostly with After Effects CS5 x64, Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator.... and renders are super fast even with 4k footage. If I'd bought a Mac, it would have cost me £9,182.99 with 1GB video RAM, only 64 GB RAM, only 2 Xeon processors @ 3.06 GHz and a maximum of 8 TB HD @ 7200 rpm not 15 000.... The only thing I don't have is the design of the tower, a bit less "cool". I tweaked my PC to run my software only and only keep the strict minimum features on windows (no fancy interface, no services I don't need, no statup items I don't need....) As far as I know, more and more production companies are going back to PC's... Don't get me wrong, I am not criticising Apple, just saying that it is a personal choice and what works for me might not work for others.

Charles we build custom Mac OS X systems and we have 4.2 OC'd liquid cool systems with Quadro 4/6000 we are also coming out with our own Motherboard ZZMX-QUO-AOS that will allow you to run any OS you choose. More details on http://facebook.com/quocomputer

I use a Windows PC because I can do everything I currently do on it including editing, music composition, and anything else I need to use a computer for. My thing is I like the fact I can customize everything in a PC from the inside, outside, and the way the OS works. I can also do this for a cheaper price then a Mac would cost for only half the features I have on my current system and they don't seem to have a big of selection of things compatible with that OS in terms of parts and software as Windows and Linux do.

I also don't really think these days it really matters what OS you choose to use because you can do whatever you want with them. It all depends on the hardware inside the computer for what you do as well as how you like to work. I say go with what is best for you and how you like to work and look at the kind of system and options you want to have.

Just the thing that get the job done.

Both work fine. I use Macs as a personal preference. But I have a PC render farm for my 3-D rendering.

Many distributors and networks want finished video in Pro-Res 4:2:2 or Pro-Res HQ. In which case only a Mac can encode it properly.

I use Both mac and PC. I use Mac for 80 percent of my editor jobs and PC for Digital Fusion compositing and Vegas Pro if needed. To be marketable, You need to have good working knowledge on both platforms. Having some Linux knowledge is just gravy.

there are a few ways to encode QT PRORES on PCs. For example: http://www.miraizon.com/products/codecsoverview.html http://www.fallenempiredigital.com/blog/2012/06/06/encoding-apple-prores... http://www.cinemartin.com/cinec/

There is also a ProRes converter app that only runs on PC called cliptoolz converter. The web site is www.cliptoolz.com

Thanks for the invitation, Omar. Great to meet you at Stage 32! :)