Mac Video Editor Mulls Windows Migration

by Carey Dissmore

Quick note: This post (and this entire blog) is targeted at an audience of post-production pros. Within that, this post is targeted more at Mac users considering their options than those already on Windows. For me, this decision has been building behind the scenes for awhile, but I’m starting to get more serious about it. Also, please note that everything in the post below is my present opinion and outlook. There are factors I may not have considered and I have much to learn about the road ahead. If I’m wrong about something, break it to me gently, and I’ll update the post.

Current state of affairs in Mac post land: I don’t know about you, but I’ve grown weary of Apple’s lack of attention to the needs of production professionals (on the hardware side…the software side is still an open question-sort of-but let’s not open an FCP-X debate in a post about hardware). It should come as news to no one that video post-production has ever-increasing demands in computing power, and the greatest performance gains have been seen in recent years by modern software that leverages more CPU cores/threads, GPU, more RAM, fast bulk video storage, and even faster, separate, storage caching techniques. Of course, having software that can take full advantage of that hardware grunt is the other required component. I will, however, concede that while we have reached the point where basic video editing is now possible on lower-performing hardware, a full-on, high-performance, high-productivity soup-to-nuts post production system is the goal here.

Where I think Apple is going: Despite Tim Cook’s carrot-dangling (which probably references Intel Haswell), I am not convinced whatsoever that Apple is going to be building machines that support multiple GPUs, storage, etc. in a high performance configuration. I think they have a different vision. I believe Apple is on a trend toward increasing miniaturization and modularization of computing hardware. This is a mass market approach, and perhaps what is right for Apple. The mass market has reached a point where more mainstream, modest hardware satisfies their needs. Apple knows this, and is leveraging Thunderbolt to get a lot of that stuff outside the box, where it is an optional accessory only for those that need it. That is a fine strategy and opens up exciting possibilities for me and other video professionals. I envision a number of exciting configuration options for specific production purposes, especially mobile ones, where the priority is portability over peak performance. read more...