What do you have under your hood(figuratively speaking)

[Recce]

I am happy to announce that I have officially made the switch to mac. I purchased an eMac with superdrive yesterday. 800mhz, 60gb hard drive, 256mb of ram runnin go Mac os 10.2(jaguar). I am currently waiting on a 512mb ram chip that I ve ordered and I am looking into external hard drives, maybe a 120 gb. Later this week, I am getting a copy of Final Cut Pro 3. Very exciting time for me.  

I have a question though. Someone recommended I do this, now that I have both a PC and Mac, but Im not sure if its possible. Since my PC will most likely feel left out from now on, is it possible to network the two, allowing me to store footage on my PCs hard drive as well as the mac. And, if so, how do I go about doing this.

[Cecil]

welcome.

i ask all my mac related questions here --> www.appleinsider.com

[ReelHotGames]

Networked and running off 1 monitor/keyboard/mouse through a switcher:

Main System: AMD 1.8ghz, 512DDR RAM, 100+60Gig 7200RPMHD, 42xCD-RW, Pinnacle DV500plus, Adobe Premiere 6.0 and 6.5, Adobe After Effects Pro Bundle 5.5, Poser 4.0, Macromedia Studio MX, Digital Juice Editor's Toolkit + Jumpbacks

Workhorse: AMD 1.5ghz, 512 SDRAM, DVD-R/ROM, 16xDVD, 80+60Gig 7200RPMHD, Sonic DVD authoring, Sorenson Squeze 3

My basic set up os that I can be editing on the Main system and rendering/processing/compressing on the second workhorse system. It's a very calming setup, prior to having the workhorse, I'd have to let the main machine render/process etc overnight most of the time and if there were snags, it'd be 8 wasted hours of nothing.

My sites are next set on some better DVD authoring software, and the Poser 5 upgrade. And of course a nice big 21 flat panel monitor or some such nonsense!

[aclockworkjj]

is it possible to network the two, allowing me to store footage on my PCs hard drive as well as the mac. And, if so, how do I go about doing this.

I don't know the legistics of it, but I know you can network the two.  At my work I have a PC and Mac....to tranfer the files I just put them on a network type drive and I believe it converts the stuff for me (if needed)...I am not quite sure how, but I know you can do it...

[Xixax]

Michael, what DVD authoring software are you currently using, and what are you considering upgrading to?

I'm about to buy Sonic's ReelDVD I think. Lots of good features for a midline price.

[ReelHotGames]

I currently have Sonic MyDVD, and my upgrade thoughts are DVDit Pro if I go higher end, or ReelDVD, which I am leaning toward, as it is mor ein my price range.

[Cecil]

Mmmmm... Well, tell me how 10.2 is if you get it...

it rocks.

[Xixax]

I made my first DVD with the bundled "DVDit LE" last night. That program sucks. It crashed several times during authoring of something very basic.

I am sure some of it was my fault (my dvd didn't have any audio first time through) but the program still crashed a few times with "unknown error" message.

I will be changing to reelDVD very soon, I think. My only hope is that it's better written than the other Sonic software I currently have.

[aclockworkjj]

Can anyone recommend a good DVD/CD internal Burner Drive?  Ideally, I want to play/view as well as Burn both DVD's and CD's....all with one drive, and not a separate external drive.  PC based....just wondering what a good one is that won't cost me a ton of shillings....

[Xixax]

I just bought the new panasonic (311 I think it was). It was about $185 mail order.

I've used it once, and so far, I can say "it works". The DVD's I burned in it work in every player I've tested them in, and for the price you can't beat it.

[aclockworkjj]

SHIT....$185.....not bad at all...the ones I was looking at were at least $250.....it burns and plays regular CD's too right?

[Xixax]

SHIT....$185.....not bad at all...the ones I was looking at were at least $250.....it burns and plays regular CD's too right?

Correct.

Check out http://www.pricewatch.com. I just picked the cheapest online retailer.

[aclockworkjj]

Thank you sir!

[BonBon85]

I'm going to be buying a new computer in a few months, so I've been debating: Mac or PC. I run a PC now and have all my programs for it. They're a lot cheaper and I already know how to use them. It's just that I always hear that for video and animation it's best to go with a mac. What do you guys think? Should I spend more money and have to buy all new programs or stick with a PC?

[Jeremy Blackman]

It's just that I always hear that for video and animation it's best to go with a mac.

My answer to "Mac or PC" will probably always be Mac, but if you're really on the fence, get a Mac for dependability. Do you really want to take a risk with your masterpiece? Anyway, if you want to do animation, get that program the animators used for Waking Life (and then tell me how you got it).