Dankology Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 I've used Vegas in various forms since about 2006, I think, but I'm seriously thinking of moving over to an Apple based system for my video editing needs. I'll be buying secondhand/reconditioned but I've no idea what I should be looking at. We've got a fairly ancient iMac here but I was thinking of going with something less all-in-one. Currently using three GH2 cameras running hacked firmware so while only HD the bitrates can get a little fierce. What am I looking for here in terms of spec and outlay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 The codecs should become insignificant - as if you are editing on a Mac, you should transcode to prores first or create proxies. Once you are in Prores, most macs, even those that are 5 or so years old will handle with a breeze (assuming you aren’t going crazy with colour corrections and the like) I guess what is recommended all comes down to budget… 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dankology Posted October 30, 2022 Author Share Posted October 30, 2022 I was looking at Mac Minis around £500: https://www.hoxtonmacs.co.uk/products/mac-mini-core-i5-3-0ghz-late-2018 Am I in the right ballpark there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dankology Posted October 30, 2022 Author Share Posted October 30, 2022 I really don't understand Macs at all... Am I better looking at an i3 from 2018 or an i7 from 2012?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 Could you stretch to a 1 hour ago, EBS_freak said: The codecs should become insignificant - as if you are editing on a Mac, you should transcode to prores first or create proxies. I never do. Is this a Vegas thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dankology Posted October 30, 2022 Author Share Posted October 30, 2022 13 minutes ago, wateroftyne said: Could you stretch to a ...very mysterious! The budget can be fairly elastic but I am a stickler for not overspending on features or capacity I won't necessarily need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 Just now, Dankology said: ...very mysterious! The budget can be fairly elastic but I am a stickler for not overspending on features or capacity I won't necessarily need. ...I was about to say an M1 MacBook Air, but thinking about it it's probably overkill for what you need. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 23 minutes ago, wateroftyne said: Could you stretch to a I never do. Is this a Vegas thing? No. It’s depends upon what format your camera spits out and at what resolution. Sony footage for example is pants for editing without transcoding. Again, it depends what you are trying to do. If you are colour grading, you will lower cpu demand by being in a more friendly codec. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 1 minute ago, EBS_freak said: No. It’s depends upon what format your camera spits out and at what resolution. Sony footage for example is pants for editing without transcoding. Again, it depends what you are trying to do. If you are colour grading, you will lower cpu demand by being in a more friendly codec. He’s using GH2s so wouldn’t have thought he’d have any problems..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 (edited) I dont know as I've never used GH2s, I'm in Canon, Sony and Blackmagic world. Canon and Blackmagic (braw in resolve, prores in FCPX) are both quite lightweight (although the new Canon format (from R5 for example) is not so much). Sony footage is a pig to edit straight out the camera due to it's codec. I only mention is because it could be an issue unless you transcode up front. I've got a 2.8 i5 Macbook with 8GB which will do simple editing no problem... although it really needs 16GB. All the other video work I do (all the colouring, BM fusion etc) I do on my iMac - but that's not worth discussion as that's a beast with 128GB RAM. I would say try and stretch to the Apple Silicon if you can. For video, they run cooler, pound for pound are much quicker. Of course, Intel Macs will start to be on the decline with support. I'm not talking Apple here... but if you are keen on plugins, I can see it not being too long until you see solely Apple Silicon offerings as it becomes too much of a pain in the derrière to support two codesets and you'll begin to find plugins that are not compatible with older versions of video editing software. And... Macs have a very long shelf life. My macbook is 2014 and is fine for lightweight editing... but it is beginning to show it's age now that more advanced features are coming out. It's defo running a lot hotter and with fans on the newer versions of Final Cut Pro without doing too much* for example (and I reiterate, I am stuck using more demanding later versions of softwares as theres some plugins that I want to use that will only run on the latest releases of video editors) * my too much may be different to yours... Edited October 30, 2022 by EBS_freak 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 @Dankology- can you upload some footage from your hacked GH2 at the bitrate you want to be used. Will see what real world editing experience is like on my macbook to get an idea if you like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dankology Posted October 30, 2022 Author Share Posted October 30, 2022 7 minutes ago, EBS_freak said: @Dankology- can you upload some footage from your hacked GH2 at the bitrate you want to be used. Will see what real world editing experience is like on my macbook to get an idea if you like? That's a very kind offer - I'll try and find a couple of representative clips for you over the next couple of days. Many thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakester Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 I've just gone from a 2012 MBP i7 w 16GB to a new 14" MBP M1 Pro and it's night and day. What would take the 2012 3 - 4 hours to render is done in minutes, if not seconds. I went for the 14" over the newer 13" M2 as it performed better in testing, but if it's only for occasional stuff you could get away with the new/a refurb Air, which is pretty much on a part with the 2022 13" MBP performance wise. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 14 minutes ago, Jakester said: I've just gone from a 2012 MBP i7 w 16GB to a new 14" MBP M1 Pro and it's night and day. What would take the 2012 3 - 4 hours to render is done in minutes, if not seconds. I went for the 14" over the newer 13" M2 as it performed better in testing, but if it's only for occasional stuff you could get away with the new/a refurb Air, which is pretty much on a part with the 2022 13" MBP performance wise. Indeed - the move to Apple Silicon would be the best move at the moment - if the budget stretches. Also, the Pro and Ultra variations of the Apple silicon has dedicated ProRes support, so when working in ProRes, you get major speed advances. (it's quite annoying that whilst my Intel based iMac is still faster at processing, it's cost me a good couple of grand extra outlay... but I don't feel the enhanced performance is 2k worth!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 29 minutes ago, Jakester said: you could get away with the new/a refurb Air, which is pretty much on a part with the 2022 13" MBP performance wise. Yeah, those M1 Airs are outrageous. Had I not needed the 16” screen, I’m sure I’d have been happy with one of those. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakester Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 4 hours ago, wateroftyne said: Yeah, those M1 Airs are outrageous. Had I not needed the 16” screen, I’m sure I’d have been happy with one of those. Yep, I use a second screen for editing so less crucial for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SubsonicSimpleton Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 21 hours ago, Dankology said: I was looking at Mac Minis around £500: https://www.hoxtonmacs.co.uk/products/mac-mini-core-i5-3-0ghz-late-2018 Am I in the right ballpark there? Stretch your budget and buy a new mac mini with Apple silicon - Apple are very disciplined at transitioning to a new type of hardware, intel machines will still work, but software support will drop off a cliff when Apple release the first version of MacOS that only runs on the new processors - past is prologue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_transition_to_Intel_processors 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 I have never edited video in anger, but my son borrowed my M1 13" MBP (16G RAM) to edit a 4 camera 4K shoot. Obviously it did not all happen in 10 seconds, but he was massively impressed coming from an i9 Windows laptop with lots of RAM which was just dropping things all the time and being generally unhelpful. For him it was the smoothness of the operation. There was no fuss from the machine at all. A 2nd hand M1 16G Mac Mini can be 650 on ebay if you hang around a bit. Unless budget is an issue (and when is it not?) then I would not consider anything older than an M1. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekomatic Posted November 2, 2022 Share Posted November 2, 2022 On 30/10/2022 at 19:42, Dankology said: I really don't understand Macs at all... Am I better looking at an i3 from 2018 or an i7 from 2012?? I know nothing about video editing but the big difference is a 2018 model will run the latest Mac OS (Ventura, just released) and hopefully one or two more versions after that, whereas the 2012 one is stuck on Catalina which is largely out of support now. In fact it looks like the 2018 m3 is faster than the 2012 i7, at least on benchmarks. You can look this stuff up in mind-boggling detail at everymac.com. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dankology Posted November 24, 2022 Author Share Posted November 24, 2022 I took the plunge and bought a Mac Mini M1 with 16Gb of RAM on Ebay for a great price. After the pantomime of initial setup (security codes appearing momentarily on the kids' iPads), I now find that my monitor crops the screen, my interface is not supported due to some sort of security update and my hard drive isn't recognised at all. I'd prepared myself for the pain of learning new software and workflow but that plus having to shell out for a full set of peripherals may be a bit too much for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted November 24, 2022 Share Posted November 24, 2022 20 minutes ago, Dankology said: I took the plunge and bought a Mac Mini M1 with 16Gb of RAM on Ebay for a great price. After the pantomime of initial setup (security codes appearing momentarily on the kids' iPads), I now find that my monitor crops the screen, my interface is not supported due to some sort of security update and my hard drive isn't recognised at all. I'd prepared myself for the pain of learning new software and workflow but that plus having to shell out for a full set of peripherals may be a bit too much for me. how old are your monitor & peripherals…?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dankology Posted November 24, 2022 Author Share Posted November 24, 2022 The monitor is maybe 10 years old and the interface is an Emu 0404 - both play nicely with all my Windows machines. The hard drive issue is, or course, related to the formating. Bit galling to have to replace the working screen and interface due to issues that could be addressed in software. But I guess that's the modern way - between the stuff that can't be repaired and the stuff that has obsolescence needlessly baked-in, you're ever tied to buying something new. [gazes approvingly at the TE amp across the room] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted November 24, 2022 Share Posted November 24, 2022 2 hours ago, Dankology said: I took the plunge and bought a Mac Mini M1 with 16Gb of RAM on Ebay for a great price. After the pantomime of initial setup (security codes appearing momentarily on the kids' iPads), I now find that my monitor crops the screen, my interface is not supported due to some sort of security update and my hard drive isn't recognised at all. I'd prepared myself for the pain of learning new software and workflow but that plus having to shell out for a full set of peripherals may be a bit too much for me. Whats the format of your HD? Whats your monitor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakester Posted November 24, 2022 Share Posted November 24, 2022 3 hours ago, Dankology said: I took the plunge and bought a Mac Mini M1 with 16Gb of RAM on Ebay for a great price. After the pantomime of initial setup (security codes appearing momentarily on the kids' iPads), I now find that my monitor crops the screen, my interface is not supported due to some sort of security update and my hard drive isn't recognised at all. I'd prepared myself for the pain of learning new software and workflow but that plus having to shell out for a full set of peripherals may be a bit too much for me. Wow - the interface was released in 2004! I'm amazed it still works with your Windows PCs at that age. If your HDD is NFTS it won't work with Mac unless you use TP software such as NTFS for Mac. I wouldn't have thought a 10 y/o monitor would work with HDMI in any event. I daresay it's an issue with the HDMI to VGA conversion. I've successfully used a Thunderbolt to VGA adaptor in the past, though with a new Mac Mini you may also need a Thunderbolt 3/4 to 2 adaptor as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted November 24, 2022 Share Posted November 24, 2022 38 minutes ago, Jakester said: I wouldn't have thought a 10 y/o monitor would work with HDMI in any event. Why? HDMI is almost 20 years old. However, the EMU interface is down to them not making drivers for it, you cant use 32 bit drivers on a 64 bit system on the mac. The hard drive you can just convert on the PC to something other than NTFS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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