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My MacBook Pro was a ?1600 machine about 18 months ago. I doubt the latest ones are THAT much more capable. Having to constantly go off for a cup of tea while rendering is not really the best way to go.

By all means get a demo in an Apple store, but in real life your conversion and rendering times will still probably be high without a quad core Mac desktop or a similar PC.

Final Cut Express isn't even a very good editing package - the controls are tiny, fiddly, obscure and over-sensitive. And remember, I actually LIKE Macs

The Toybox wrote:

Having to constantly go off for a cup of tea while rendering is not
> really the best way to go.


Depends what your workflow is though. My original stills workflow involved me setting all the tweaks, setting the batch going, and leaving it running overnight. Didn't matter to me wether it took two hours or twelve, it was all done and waiting for me when I got in the next morning. But that suited my way of working at the time.

Shaving off an hour is more important to someone doing it all day every day than it is to someone doing it once a month. I'm just saying the cost/benefit ratio needs to be taken into account, too.

Stills workflow is very different to video workflow though. In video editing you're always spotting nice little changes to make right up until the final version. Trouble is with Final Cut, that can mean rendering the whole scene several times. For example, you might decide after your final edit to brighten the picture a few percent, or change the colour balance - which on a slow machine can mean another hour-long render. Then if you decide to add a company logo all the way through, that's another hour-long render. You'll never think of everything in advance, and there's only so many cups of tea you can go off and drink

Yep, I understand, all I'm saying is the individual has to work out wether the time they're saving is worth the extra price they're paying.

Would getting Roxio Toast software help on the converting issue?

You don't need to be loaded these days for a high end setup, you could build an 8 Core Xeon desktop for less than a grand.

"You don't need to be loaded these days for a high end setup, you could build an 8 Core Xeon desktop for less than a grand".

Yes exactly - and unfortunately you can't "build" such a Mac, you have to buy one, about 4k I think.

Oh God, this is all way too confusing. I'm not even sure what some of the different file types are!
I'm still not any the wiser. Thank you all so much for all of the advice. I am guessing that maybe a MBP might do for me, I have a full time job so this would only be a second job/interest really. I could leave the video rendering overnight with no issue.
I didn't realise there was a potential problem with some files not being recognised on a Mac from a PC and Vice Versa.
My goal is really to produce content for a website I am creating that I might also be able to sell to TV companies (although I have no idea how to go about that)!
Hmmm, it seems I still have a lot of thinking to do!!
Thanks again people, I really appreciate your time Take care.
Matt.