I don't think FCP is the answer but I am starting to believe that MAC is the answer. Not for the asthetics of the MAC itself but for the asthetics of what it puts out. The output just seems to be of better quality when compared side by side to PC's. Name the program and compare the same thing on a MAC and on a PC. I bet you will think the MAC output is better.

I own 2 PC's, but I would give them both up for 1 MAC G4 or G5 anyday.

Lamont

C'mon! you CAN'T be serious about that comment of comparing output! That's absurd.
I have both, run many of the same apps on both, and can't even begin to comprehend where that sort of comment comes from.
Mac's have their place. No doubt. If nothing else, it keeps Bill Gates from owning the world. But....
Running FCP and Vegas side by side, especially a LOT lately as I'm doing a project destined for publishing with FCP, FCP does have some nice features. But on a dual 1 gig mac, which is one of the faster machines, it's embarrassingly slow for simple tasks.
Photoshop, Quark, Pagemaker, Premiere, Boris tools, output is output. Period. Mac looks better on a CRT or LCD screen, yes. It's a gamma issue. But that's got nothing to do with what ends up on a television monitor, DVD, CD, or paper. If you counted all the work done in the entertainment biz in the past 10 years, Mac wins the comparison hands down. If you make that same comparison for the past 2 years, Mac loses by a nose. If you make the comparison over the last year, Mac is losing ground fast. And in 3 years, no one in the biz will be honestly standing on the Mac platform as a serious competitor for anything. It's become a religion more than a platform, people defending their positions just like the PC guys used to have to do years back.
Regardless, having 2 laptop G4's, a dual 1 gig, and a standard G4 in addition to some odd 15+ PC's in our studio, the comment of 'mac output being better' is simply silly.
BTW, OS 10.6.2 is ridiculously crappy. Even the Mac guys are excited for Panther, due out this fall.

The G5 looks very nice and should find a lot of acceptance but the fact that Apple felt compelled to lie about its performance again shows the disdain they hold for their users.

Of course the fact that it looks nice also shows that Apple is still obsessed by form over function. Oh and NINE fans isn't it.

Apple has ALWAYS lied about performace using skewed "performance" tests which may explain why they NEVER had more than 6% of the market and that was long ago and that was due mainly to dumping their systems in schools and having a cult like following that simply didn't know any better.

Of course the Bozo award for the past century goes hands down to IBM for totally, completely and inexcusably blowing off the PC. First going to some unknown geeky wannabe con artist named Bill Gates that conned Big Blue into licensing a operating system he didn't even have (DOS) and then for having the PC maket locked up and letting it slip out of their hand whiich allowed another slick character named Michael Dell and some washed up coudn't cut it cattle rancher Ted Weise (Gateway) to get a foothold. Pathetic!

In order to utilize the powerful new G5 64bit cpu - don't the software developers need to recode/compile their apps?

Funny thing, I was just over at the Adobe site looking for the release date for Adobe Encore DVD- Only saw news on the PC version? (mac ver not yet scheduled?)

I am thinking adobe is switching its focus over to the PC market - All those backbone apps like photoshop, illustrator ect that have kept the mac going in creative/media markets for years, might not be getting much of a 'face-lift' (optimized G5 coding) any time soon.

I dunno... Macs are great machines.. lets try to make sure this thread doesn't explode Macs-Suxs NO!pcs-do! contests!! :)

I love vegas and cannot see moving onto anything else.
I also like staying in the PC arena as thats where the lion share of the market is .. which of course means thats where most of the $$ is going to go towards development of better software/hardware.

Related Story:
The NINTENDO 64! wooo hooo.. went out and bought me one of those when it came out.. such a powerful machine! .. turned out of course to be GARBAGE! since Golden Eye was the only game worth 2cents that ever came out on that system (well, Army Men was kinda of cool too) ... something to think about =)

I'm a long time Mac user and current PC owner.

The G5 is really nice, but we haven't seen it in action as of yet. My guess is that it will kick ass. OSX is still rather young and contrary to what a previous poster said, I do think Macs will become more prevelant in all areas in the years to come.

Now, when it comes right down to it you need to ask yourself one question. Am I an editor? Or do I have a studio/production company that edits for clients. What I mean by that is...if you are an "editor" than you can and are willing to edit with just about anything that is put in front of you. Right now everyone wants Avid or Final Cut Pro editors. Not as many real world Vegas projects happening. So by this I would say buy a Mac because it runs both Avid and Final Cut Pro.

Now on the other hand if you have a studio/production company and you "edit for clients", than you are pretty much free to choose whichever platform and editing software/hardware solution that you like. PC's will run Avid but not Final Cut Pro. PC's are cheaper if you build them yourself. Vegas is a professional program in my opinion and costs much less than Avid or Final Cut Pro. So from the economic standpoint a PC makes more sense. But you still can't run Final Cut Pro. Now Adobe Premiere Pro looks like it may end up to be the go to program for PC's, but that's yet to be seen.

Bottom Line: I would choose a Mac (G5 Only) with the capabilities to run either Avid or Final Cut Pro if I could afford to buy it. But I can't, so I'm very happy with what I have which is a PC running Vegas (or Avid or Premiere Pro if I ever decide to get them).

Rumor Mill: Discreet coming out with combustion 3 for PC and not mac.
Also, heard Avid is also considering going PC only.

Really looks to me like Apple is closing the door on 3rd party developers - while at the same time some 3rd parties might be looking for the door.

Looks like a big gamble for Apple..

I make indie films. Started recently. Had the foresight to buy the most important (affordable) invention for indie filmmakers in 10 years, the Panasonic DVX100, which will shoot 24p progressive. Point is, I use Vegas 4 because its programmers had the foresight to add 24p functionality for that specific camera (and because it's so easy to use and has a self-contained audio edit suite that no one can match in an NLE). As a result I can enter finished 24p DVDs in film festivals, with Dolby stereo sound (DVD Architect), and people's mouths fall open. I don't edit for clients, and if a distributor picks up one of my projects, let HIM pay for the further mastering, transfer, etc. Still can't believe a home PC, Vegas and a camcorder (and a Sennheiser boom mike) can put my work in Sundance or Cannes.

Difference in output? I have a PC system with Vegas 4, and my business partner has a Mac system with FCP 3. We recently shot a dance performance that was Two Acts. I edited act 1, he edited act 2. They were both shot with multiple cameras (including 2 panasonic DVX-100s). I got his final render on minidv to make some dubs for the client and the footage is the same as the output on my vegas 4 system... I dont understand what you are getting at here; side by side there is no difference; its all 1's and 0's (as long as you shoot, capture, edit, print to tape in the digital world).

Brian

www.influx-media.com

Probably the only reason to go with a MAC today would be DVDstudio Pro. Still a great program.

JTH

"Of course the Bozo award for the past century goes hands down to IBM"

And thank God for that.... believe me, you wouldn't like to see the world of desktop PC's in the hands of big blue - it would be like Microsoft, but less responsive to non-enterprise customers and slower to adopt newer technologies (like digital media). IBM's focus has always been, and always will be on the enterprise - that's why they scoffed at Bill Gates in the first place (they didn't want to play in the consumer space). Make no mistake, MS is no better or worse than any other large corporation, they aren't evil - just first. Wait until someone at Redhat finds a way to make Linux easy to use (profitable), they'll get big, "stifle competition" and engage in industry standard practices, then people will call them evil too. ;?)

BTW Billyboy, I'm glad you're feeling at least a little better - I hope you make a speedier recovery from here.

Peace,

Shawn