This has probably been discussed before but I went into CompUSA and they had this HUGE 23 in HD flat screen monitor for apple computers, I could see using that thing for dvd's, tv, everything along with a new computer. My question is, are apple computers worth the price? The one I'd want is $2600 plus $2,000 for the monitor. Anyone use the music download service apple has? 99 cents per song, I've heard its what napster should've been legally, only better.

 

I love Macs, cept I can't use any of my software on them.

Coolness factor is high but as a main PC, I couldn't use it. If I buy a laptop though, it'll likely be an iBook cuz I only need it for word processing and internet surfing.

 

Ive been in the tech world for almost 15 years, ive worked with every computer from Trash 80's to Amiga's, and Apple makes a HELL of a product. but like Herc said, cant get software for them.

If you want the computer to be a big multimedia god, then buy Mac. if you want to do ANYTHING else, get a PC. Macs will always triumph over PC when it comes to any type of audio/video. However PC will always have the market share and are most widely used. Mac's are a great thing to have, but only if you have a PC too

 

Macs are good for audio/video, graphical design, programming, etc.

PC's are only good for games, managing a check book, surfing the web,... hmmm... that's about it...

 

gateway has a good price on a 42" plasma tv with a media center pc... the tv alone is $3000 but with the comp its $4000



melo-

 

Don't get the Apple... for god sake... You are wasting your money by spending your money on that LCD monitor. I agree that it looks real nice... but it's NOT worth the money. you can get TWO 19' LCD for less!!!

As far as saying that Apple is good for Audio/Video? BULL $HIT!!! PC is just as good nowadays, for way less money. With the latest P875/P865 chipsets, you even get better performance in almost all cases... You think the G4 can do photoshop filtering faster? I beg to differ.


Please dont' get me wrong, I like the idea of the G4 and OS X. The G4 processor is what so called the RISC instead of CISC (x86 family). OS X is actually UNIX based, which I like a lot.

But hack, you can get Linux for free, at the same time, Mac had some serious issues with the stability of OS X initially Keep in mind that OS X only need to run on very limited amount of hardware because it's written for MACs only

As far as iTune goes. You can't just download the file and use it however you want it. No... You are limited to how many people you can share, and babababa....

Turst me, I am an Apple fan since the 90s. But for what it's worth. Don't even consider buying a mac AT ALL!!!!!!!

Unless you like to burn your money with Zippo. Get an P4 2.8C with P875/P865 chipset board, 2 stick of 400Mhz 512MB DDR RAM, that computer will blow the Apple away, trust me...

 

NO! NO! TRUST ME!!! I am telling you, get the mac, With the 23" cinema display and a titanium laptop, The sound sticks and a sub you'll not only be seeing DVDs, you'll be making your own. The Apple iTunes store is hyperdope, customer support is usually excellent and as far as SW goes: my 6 macs can all run any windowz software. That is a fact.

 

I heard the quality of the iTunes music is not as good as MP3. True?

 

get a pc if you wanna do any thing other than make movies

 

you can get a pc to do anything a mac can do nowadays. Only better. While you guys sit on old video and sound architecture 6 months from now. I will be installing my new ati video card and soun blaster sound card. While editing dvd's, downloading free music and playing games on my 42 inch plasma screen that i paid 2500 bucs for. You can also use that mac screen on a pc with an adapter. For the price of the mac w/screen, i can build a pc with better parts, thats upgradeable for about 1000 less and thats with a plasma.

 

i agree!

 

PeeCees RULE, Maaaaaaaan! <--Click**

 

Don't forget to invest in your Norton Utilities then, lol.

 

already done that! and have no problem doing that either

 

Man, I can't believe those MAC people... too much big macs?

I will agree that the MACs looks sweet, I will even admit that I like the design, and have considered buying an iMac just to put it in my living room for the looks of it.

But tell me, what do you get from the MAC that you simply cant' get off the PC? I can build a PC that does DVD-editing, multi-track audio recording, MIDI sequenceing just as good as the mac for less.

Dont' talk about stability with me, cuz it's not like I don't use mac at all. I got friends who's in the music industry who used to be die hard mac fan but now a PC lover. One of the girls that I am seeing still uses mac on a daily basis. She's MUST HAVE THE LATEST MAC!!!... She will likely to be the first one to get the top of line G5... I am cool with that, if that's what she wants.

But even she admit that, My PC is just as good when it comes down to photoshop and stuff if not better. She stick with MAC because of the design, and the fact that her company still uses mac mianly.

So, forget about price performance ratio. I will let that one go. I admit that the design is damn good looking. But... what do you get out of it? After paying thousands of $$$$s for it?

Brand roaylty?

 

my co worker has to have the latest and greatest mac also and he admits that they crash just as much as a pc (eccluding windows me and 95)

 

Quote:" can build a PC that does DVD-editing, multi-track audio recording, MIDI sequenceing just as good as the mac for less."

Not all of us are PC Techs. The Macintosh platform is absolutely 100% plug and play right out of the box. Fastest Desktop PC (G5), Only 17" Laptop, A 12" laptop that burns DVDs (HAHA), Plug and play wireless interconectivity, Blue tooth, Firewire, the list goes on and on... True you might pay less for your PC, but just the same, I believe that you get what you pay for....

 

That plasma blows. There's a reason it's only $3000.

 

ill give my opinion for you guys. i know this thread is pretty old but i just got my tl so im new to this thread. My parent own an authorize apple dealer so I have been selling these computers for years now and i am also a pc tech as well. the person saying you cant software, that is wrong, dont listen to him. PC's are great for one thing that i have learned over the years, that is games, they just have more games and there is no arguing around that. My mac is great for everything else. If you plan on making movies or dvds get the Mac. I dont carr what any of you say, there is nothing that compares to iDVD or iMovie on the PC side. if thats not enough for you you can get Final Cut Pro, which is now the number 1 pro editing software on the market, which Matrix, Episode 2, and much much more was made on. How about OS X, the most beautiful operating system that is also has built on unix. well actually i could go on and on but its not worth it. its just i felt i should put the right info on this thread becasue this is my job everyday. Private message me if wanna talk to someone who knows everything about macs and pc's and can give you a good comparison.

iJon

 

Well, if you have PC skills, want to save lots of cash, its called a Mac emulator on your homebuilt PC. If you don't care to fiddle around, have some cash and are looking to do video editing, the Mac's aren't bad. Its all about preferences.

I did video editing in college and so did my roommate, both on Macs and PC's and we agreed that we liked the video editing software on the Mac's but preferred the PC's for everything else. I came up with a compromise... use an emulator. It wasn't as slow as you'd think, if done correctly its quite fast. Never had any problems and I had the best of both worlds.

I think Apple should stick to high end PC's and market them as such. They're already such a niche market, they can't compete at the lower prices, so why not move upscale?

Thats my take on it.

 

I agree that FinalCut Pro rocks, I never said it sucked...

But that's not to say that Premiere and After Effects are not on par with it.

For Professional Video/Audio editing, it used to be Avid/Digidesign ProTools. Those were it, the industry standard pretty much. But let's face it, that's almost a decade ago. Now, things are different. You want real-time transitions? Matrox got it. Emagic (now own by apple) could run ProTool TDM effects with Logic Audio 4. Then you have Steinberg with their Neuado. Those industry have changed, and leaning toward PC more than ever.

We can argue about UI, feeling, and all those subjective things forever... and UI is important, but how much better is the UI on Apple? Still with their one bottom mouse?

BTW, check out www.creamware.com They have some serious pro audio cards, who's got more recent drivers? How many studio owner I have seen in the recent years moving from MAC to PC for the past few year? None went from PC to MAC even after they tried out the MAC.

Now, the newest Plextor DVD burn just came out, does it support MAC? not officially. So, you dont' want 8X DVD burning? Huh....

I agree that the APPLE got the look factor, WAS the leader and industry standard for the last decade even til today. However the PC industry both in hardware and software have caught up with APPLE, and we all know that's the truth.

 

Please don't get me wrong guys, I know the pill might be hard to swallow. I for one was and still is a die hard MAC fan. I use different kinds of OS on different platform on a daily basis. Including Linux, Windows, Unix, and some MAC, both OS X and OS 9. I use the MAC the least I admit, but I don't see it offereing anything better than windows. If you say the UI on windows sucks, that's because you are not use to it. Just like I am not used to the mac UI...

From technology stand point of view, MAC got pro and cons. The MAC OS is tightly linked to a relatively complex BIOS, for example. While complex it gives you stuff like firewall disk mode. Should your MAC fail, if you can get it pretty must POST, you can run it firewire disk mode, and make it as a huge fireware storage device to recover your files in an emergency.

MAC is a RISC machine where as x86 is CISC... Which is another thing that I like about MAC, but still I see no real benefit from it.

Not to mention that if your PC is screwed up, there are a ton of people out there to help, but with MAC, not really...

Folks I don't get paid to bash Apple, I don't work for Microsoft/Intel either. I just want to point out some facts. I only hate Apple for not moving foward as the rest of the industry did...

 

I know some of you guys know rondog from acl.com He has a top of the line G4 and the thing crashes daily, and apple care has yet to help him, something he paid a few hundred for. Meanwhile my PC on XP Pro never crashes and he comes over to use it when his mac is down.

 

the latestest emulators for windows only goes up to os 8.6. you cannot run OS X under the windows platform, unless you run darwin. about the mac screwing up, what a dumb comment. there are 70 apple stores in major citiies, not to mention all the resellers like my parents. and there also sites like this. i see many of you are asking questions about your tl on this site, same with the macs, i am a member with macrumors with a 20,000 user base and we all help each other all the time. and with your friends g4 crashing, its probably a problem between the chair and they keyboard. when i walk into service i see stacks of compaqs, dell, home built pcs with hardware problems, virises, windows crashing and all of that. im proably gonna stop arguing because this is an acura forum and i hate it when people get off topic at the mac site i visit. even though im 17 im mac im an apple product specialist and certified in every field and i just wanted to give my opinion and just wanted to let the guy if he wanted to talk about macs with someone who sells both pcs and macs everyday he could IM me. I just feel with OS X, the G5, and ibm's roadmap for the future they got something good going on. Well I am gonna stop because I feel I should get some respect on this site before i start dishing out arguments like this. I know how you guys feel, no one likes the Newbs.

iJon

 

You guys need to get out more

 

my neighbors g4 crashes more than my pc with xp (wich for me is mabe 3 times a year) his is a byweekly ordeal

 

so 1 g4 accounts for all. there is 2 things that can be going wrong here. he can be running OS 9, if he is then i dont doubt you one bit. If he is running OS X he has a hardware problem, or he isnt up to date on his software, or he has a bunch of crappy shareware on there. I have worked with so many Macs with OS X to learn that if a mac crashes once a day then it is a hardware problem or a problem between the keyboard and chair.. OS X shouldnt even crash once a week, or a month. Once a month is extremly rare. i ahd a customer come in who was having kernel panics almost every time he turned it on. I diagnosed it, had to replace the logic board and he couldbt be happier. I am just giving my fair opinion because i have used both for so long. i am not beiing biased, but giving a fair opinion since i use both extensivly. same reason why i trust you guys with my tl questions since i know nothing about cars. im gonna stick to the car threads because that is why i joined, to learn more. ill stick to macrumors to talk to macs. i just wanted to let the thread starter if he wanted some information from a person in the business to email me.

iJon

 

iJON...you may be right...but MAC skills get you NOWHERE. I'm sorry but it's true. And your site about mac forum - you guys are all enthusiasts. I mean, who sits outside waiting for tickets to an Apple show, like it's some concert?!

Now I'm not saying Mac's suck. I think they are superior in their video editing, which is rooted back to the processor and not the card. I'm just saying that unless you have skills that can REALLY exploit what the Mac offers, there is no use. You can do everyday video editing on either platform, but you aint making no Matrix or Star wars.

 

so if want to work for espn video editing i need to know pc, no. if i want to work for most major newspapers i need to know quark and indesign on a mac. if i am serious about music editing i need to be on a mac. no one who is serious about music editing is on a pc. we could go on and on about this all day. explain your theory a little more and i will mine too. mac skills get you lots of places, lots of higher end jobs. but lets have an educated argument if we are gonna have one, be more specific.

iJon

 

I do think that Apple dominates the PC [b/]totally[/b]. PERIOD. I have used PCs for over 5 years, built them, hacked them, tweaked them, you get my point. No matter what kind of PC you will have, if you want to do REAL pro work, you will use a mac. I recently bought a powerbook G4 17" with full options, it costed about 4 grand with tax, out the door, it is worth every dollar I paid; thats what I can conlude.



I am the owner of a newly found design firm, what me and my co-workers can comment are that MACs are the only way to go for pro level work, period. All the pros uses MACs, whether it be pixar studio, disney studio, columbia, artisan, etc... all the pros use MACs.

PCs just blow for pro level work. Final cut pro 4 will destroy the PC's best video editing software, adobe premiere 6.5, I have used both for quite a long time for many tasks, and I just got to give it up for MACs.

I once was a PC lover, stubborn I can admit, but once you open yourself upto the MAC world, you will realise. Reply if you have anything else to say I might be able to answer.

 

thank you, someone who knows what im talking about.

iJon

 

iJON, I'm not saying that Macs arent better. I admit that they are better at high end AV stuff. But its way too specialized in what a Mac can offer. You say AV, but is that it? You gotta remember, there are a LOT more programs made for PC that we have no idea about, or we may never use. I work with high end DoD statistical analysts using programs that dont have a Mac version.

 

and i know this, i was just arguing your statement that with mac skills cant get you anywhere, that can be swung in both directions. the kid who downloads porn and is kazaa certified will get nowhere in life. I just find it funny when i can use Final Cut Pro, InDesign, photoshop, quark, unix and much much more that i cant amount to anything. Hell with my skills I will more than likely take over my parents business then i can buy my 17 year old son his own TL . But i do understand there is many of those applications that are pc only and used in very few jobs but very important. just like yours. But with apple's move to unix more and more apps like that are coming to Mac OS X. with OS X apple is turning more and more heads and is in a much better situation than with OS 9 back in the day. you would be surprised how many customers come into to see me and are so happy getting away from microsoft and having a computer that is so much fun and powerful at the same time. i just had to say something back when you said mac skills get you no where because i thought that was hilarious. any skill can get you anywhere.

iJon

 

either way, in my honest humble opinion, You, the user, get what you need. If you need to do surf the web, do basic stuff, maybe some basic A/V stuff, PC would be fine.

On the other hand, if you decide to get serious with pro end level work, you willl defininitely switch to MAC. I guarantee it, your co-workers will laugh at you. I will even laugh at you if you say you do pro stuff with PC. it just takes too long period and there isn't that much software that can help you.

For example, I think someone brought up pro DVD authoring on PC. Pro DVD authoring is OWNED on Mac with DVD studio pro 2. I have made many many many DVDs for several clients with PC before, but once I found out about MACs ability, wow... i was blown away.

Like I said, it just depends on what you want to do. Basic consumer needs are met with PCs. High end consumer/pro needs are met with Macs. End of story. period.

 

DVD Studio Pro 2, check it out @ www.apple.com

Multi-track audio recoeding and midi sequencing on PC is a joke. I do audio as well, I have the Korg Triton 76 Key Studio and LE... I have edited music and sound on PC, it is not as good as Mac.

Let me tell you, your friend is a moron.

Photoshop will run 5x faster with a G4 450, now I have a G4 1 GHz, will be purchasing couple G5's in a few weeks.

Photoshop will run faster on MAC period. Pro end stuff will run better and faster on Mac period, end of debate... all of you ignorant people need realize whos who and whats what, esp if you don't know what your'e talking about. Anyway, have a nice day. I just felt like talking about the MAC since I do buy them.

Who in the hell burns their own DVDs to sell? you burn one or two master copies and send it to the producer who then gets it professionally produced, like 5000 of them real quick with machines...............


-____-



Look bro, you got it all wrong. PC is for regular , REGULAR consumer "stuff" . It will stay that way period. Unless it is by some act of God and Hollywod decides to switch to PC, things will stay the way they are.


The apple G5 is the world's first 64 bit processor. Do you even know what that means? G5 = 1ghz frontside bus and suports 8 freaking gigabites of ram.

This is a totally new world. PCs do not even compare. If you want to see the specs for yourself, check it out.

http://www.apple.com/powermac/

MACs just blow away the PC, its not even on the same level. Think of it as the Acura TL vs the Honda civic.

I'm done.


"The personal-computer market is huge, after all. No one questions the viability of BMW, to take an example from another industry, or doubts its ability to influence car design, just because it has less than 3% of the car market. "

-Stephen H. Wildstrom, Businessweek re: apple

 

^ mabe when they produce a computer for the price of a PC they might become more popular! who wants to (average consumer) pay the price of the mac when they can buy a PC for acouple hundred bucks?

 

WOW...

Because you guys are paying for over priced crap, so you have to say MAC is for the PRO?

OMG... if you own a Triton workstation (good taste, but I like the sound on the Trinity better), you must have heard of GigaStudio. I believe that's PC only. You are saying that GigaStudio ain't the first one that did streaming from disc? MAC is better? Oh, really... I would love to see how far Emagic can go when they decided to ditch the PC market

What about Maya? Why did they port Maya to the NT platform and not MAC? Huh... So, 3D animation/modeling is not "PRO" stuff?

Look guys, I don't see the point of arguing here. If you think MAC is the only way for the "PRO", that's fine, I respect that. But I do beg to differ.

Now I understand that you guys are paying for over-priced stuff. Don't give me that "you get what you paid for" crap. Seriously, the design rocks, but ain't worth all that much. If you think you can't get anything done with a PC, I feel sorry for you. Now, special applications, sure are MAC only, as far as publishing goes. I had say it's MAC only still. But not Audio, and not Video.

BTW, my 8X DVD-/+RW can probably burn a better master at 1X than your 4X DVD-RW... Because the track is deeper and the laser is a bit more powerful.

After all, I don't know what I am arguing here, as if I open a can of worms. Why are you people so insecure about using MAC, and go so far just to say OH MAC RULES!!!. It does, at some aeras, but sucks at many other aspects...

 

You know...this isnt the first time I've seen this with mac users. This is worse than all of us acting like we'd die for the Honda name. Mac people are enthusiasts. They see Steve Jobs as some kind of God. Now I'm not saying you two (iJon and turbo) are, but I know there are people that jerk off to having a mac. No need to download porn...the man is enough

 

how is me saying that the mac crahses a dumb comment. I know windows crashes, you mac guys hold your pc so high up that you dont realize the flaws in your OS. It crashes just like windows face it. And the reason there are no viruses for you macs is because no one cares and they all use pc's. My friend is not an idiot and rendering a photoshop filter is not supposed to crash a system and make him loose hours of work.

 

you mac guys remind me of BMW guys, they swear that their cars are the best even though my TL has the best value for the dollar.