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MacBook or HP Pavilion?
- Thread starter classof2011
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If you're considering Sony, then drop HP. Now you're talking about two different quality groups.
I am starting to get into video editing and photoshop, and I can say that with 2GB of RAM, the MB is just perfect.
The only bad part is screen size, but for this you can get an external display.
You can also try thinking about what software you want to buy. I'm not sure how much editing you do, but you might consider getting Final Cut Express. Don't get me wrong, iMovie is great, but if you want something more professional looking, FCE is a must.
If you want to get more, and say, get Final Cut Studio 2, then the MBP would be what you want.
And, as I said, 2GB of RAM is also a must if you want things running smoothly.
The only bad part is screen size, but for this you can get an external display.
You can also try thinking about what software you want to buy. I'm not sure how much editing you do, but you might consider getting Final Cut Express. Don't get me wrong, iMovie is great, but if you want something more professional looking, FCE is a must.
If you want to get more, and say, get Final Cut Studio 2, then the MBP would be what you want.
And, as I said, 2GB of RAM is also a must if you want things running smoothly.
You are really comparing apples to oranges in this... You basically have three different notebooks from three different lines. If I were you, I would restart my search focusing on one product group, not three. You want video editing, so eliminate ultra-portables and convertibles. You want portability, so eliminate 17" desktop replacement models. That still leaves you with a ton of laptops including the Macbook, MBP, hp zd6500, Sony VAIO's, etc.
What else can you expect from a MACS ONLY forum? It's obvious people would defend and promote Macs.
And Macs ARE much better in editing than windows pc's
Now hold on a sec, give the ol' HP a break
Actually on second thought, Macbook ! LOL
Now I will conceed to you that I for one think HP's make great laptops. Anyone who disagrees has their reasons. But just make sure that their reasons are from current experiences, and not experiences like 4 years ago, because companies and qualities change. Remember there was a time that getting a dell was cool? Yeah, a reeeeaaaaalllll long time ago.
Anyway, HP is good at making a laptop for the price. You can argue all you want, but HP in the end will beat apple on price (apples to apples or whatever). But please, if you end up buying a HP at the end of the day, please for the love of all things mac, don't buy an AMD chip in a cheap laptop from HP. Intel is the way to go. And before I have people out there ready to argue, think this, apple uses Intel for a reason, cause ol' Stevie would love to use the cheaper AMD chip and make a bigger profit margin, if he could. But AMD consistently is behind the curve, when it comes to entry level laptops and performance and battery life. You will hate your HP if you get an AMD chip, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.
It took me a long time to make that decision, but after a while you'll start to realize that apple doesn't play games, they give you hardware that works, software that works, and a computer that doesn't dissapoint in a year, forcing you to buy a new one.
Actually on second thought, Macbook ! LOL
Now I will conceed to you that I for one think HP's make great laptops. Anyone who disagrees has their reasons. But just make sure that their reasons are from current experiences, and not experiences like 4 years ago, because companies and qualities change. Remember there was a time that getting a dell was cool? Yeah, a reeeeaaaaalllll long time ago.
Anyway, HP is good at making a laptop for the price. You can argue all you want, but HP in the end will beat apple on price (apples to apples or whatever). But please, if you end up buying a HP at the end of the day, please for the love of all things mac, don't buy an AMD chip in a cheap laptop from HP. Intel is the way to go. And before I have people out there ready to argue, think this, apple uses Intel for a reason, cause ol' Stevie would love to use the cheaper AMD chip and make a bigger profit margin, if he could. But AMD consistently is behind the curve, when it comes to entry level laptops and performance and battery life. You will hate your HP if you get an AMD chip, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.
It took me a long time to make that decision, but after a while you'll start to realize that apple doesn't play games, they give you hardware that works, software that works, and a computer that doesn't dissapoint in a year, forcing you to buy a new one.
I think the choice should not just be Mac or PC. It should also not just be about HP or Sony, etc. In the end, it's all about the software. There's some good software choice on the PC-side. Have you worked with any? Do you like one in particular? And while the choice is somewhat less on the Mac side, Final Cut Express is a solid choice. Adobe is getting back on the Mac bandwagon with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. And you've got your Avid Xpress. These two packages will get you cross platform compatibility, when you need it. Personally, I like Final Cut, and even iMovie. I believe Final Cut Pro is not officially supported on a Macbook by Apple, but for most NLE needs, Final Cut Express is really powerful enough.
What I like about the Mac is that it's giving me quite few software/hardware problems to deal with. And the ones that I have to deal with, I usually can figure it out by myself or on these boards. A while back I was also using a PC, and I've had so many software/hardware problems plaguing me, it was just too frustrating. I simply couldn't get my job done. Well, that's just my experience.
Think about the cost of the laptop + NLE software + RAM (+ maybe an external HD). Extra warranty from Apple can be bought within the first year, so you can just put that off for a while, if you think you'll need that.
What I like about the Mac is that it's giving me quite few software/hardware problems to deal with. And the ones that I have to deal with, I usually can figure it out by myself or on these boards. A while back I was also using a PC, and I've had so many software/hardware problems plaguing me, it was just too frustrating. I simply couldn't get my job done. Well, that's just my experience.
Think about the cost of the laptop + NLE software + RAM (+ maybe an external HD). Extra warranty from Apple can be bought within the first year, so you can just put that off for a while, if you think you'll need that.
I agree with docc COMPLETELY, yet I forgot to say accordingly in my original reply. I struggled betweeen Mac and PC for months until I borrowed my friend's PowerBook for a few weeks and realized how infinitely more convenienent, capable, and reliable OS X is compared to Windows. Actually, there is no comparison. This reason is enough in my mind, regardless of the other concerns, to validate Mac as the only choice. The HP laptop I'm typing on until I get my Mac, along with all other PCs (no matter how enticing), simply do not have the superior OS. Please, get the MacBook.
As a side note, I've used MBs and MBPs of friends, and my HP Pavilion get hotter than both of 'em.
Not that I didn't do the same thing before I bought my iMac, but you're leaning heavily on comparing just the features of different laptops and not the operating system. I was the same way, but this is only half the story. When it comes down to it, how well your computer works is what really matters. I have a current state of the art Core 2 Duo PC with Windows XP SP2 on it, and a 2 year old iMac with a G5. Sure the Windows pc blows it away just in specs compared to an iMac but guess what? The iMac works better and I still prefer the 2 year old computer over my current Windows box in the other room. No maintence and the thing still runs as well as it did when I got it. If that doesn't say it right there I don't know what will.
Seriously though. Video editing? That's pretty much a Mac off the bat if your serious about doing that. Hollywood's almost all Mac for editing. My friend just got a middle of the line Macbook (and was also considering HP and Sony laptops) and had a $150 video program for his PC and the free iMovie and iDVD that comes with the Macbook BLOWS it away. He's so impressed with it!
Seriously though. Video editing? That's pretty much a Mac off the bat if your serious about doing that. Hollywood's almost all Mac for editing. My friend just got a middle of the line Macbook (and was also considering HP and Sony laptops) and had a $150 video program for his PC and the free iMovie and iDVD that comes with the Macbook BLOWS it away. He's so impressed with it!
MacBook. 2GB RAM, a 160GB HD, and Superdrive. Definitely.
Not only will I be getting something that can dual-boot to Vista [if I somehow miss Movie Maker and DVD Maker], but my first trip to the Apple Store would be a nice one. I saw 2 in France but we didn't have enough time to stop and go inside .
I've eliminated the HP's but if I couldn't get a MacBook, I'd spend an extra $100 on the VAIO because of it's large specs.
I do not think I would need something as major as Final Cut, as it seems like it would be complicated to work. If I'm mistaken, please tell me otherwise .
So I guess I have my answer. Thanks guys!
Not only will I be getting something that can dual-boot to Vista [if I somehow miss Movie Maker and DVD Maker], but my first trip to the Apple Store would be a nice one. I saw 2 in France but we didn't have enough time to stop and go inside
.I've eliminated the HP's but if I couldn't get a MacBook, I'd spend an extra $100 on the VAIO because of it's large specs.
I do not think I would need something as major as Final Cut, as it seems like it would be complicated to work. If I'm mistaken, please tell me otherwise
.So I guess I have my answer. Thanks guys!
heh ironically i'd say get the HP dv2500t cause if you upgrade and get...
- the dedicated graphics card
- 160 gig HD update
- 12 cell battery
- 2 gigs of memory
you'd still be under or around the price of the Black Book...oh and you'd have to deal with using Vista which i can tell ya, it's definitely not easy. other than that i do not really see a need to buy either a Mac or HP/Dell/Sony because any of them should serve you fine for your skills. now, if you just want to try OSX then your choices are obviously picked for you but if you don't really care about operating systems then a Mac might not always be the best choice.
- the dedicated graphics card
- 160 gig HD update
- 12 cell battery
- 2 gigs of memory
you'd still be under or around the price of the Black Book...oh and you'd have to deal with using Vista which i can tell ya, it's definitely not easy. other than that i do not really see a need to buy either a Mac or HP/Dell/Sony because any of them should serve you fine for your skills. now, if you just want to try OSX then your choices are obviously picked for you but if you don't really care about operating systems then a Mac might not always be the best choice.
Final Cut Express is pretty easy, actually, but nothing beats iMovie for ease of use, that's for sure. You do have a DV or HDV camera, right? At the moment, the Mac doesn't really do editing of footage from DVD and HDD video camera's--and certainly no AVCHD. I hope this changes in the near future, but I just want to warn you.
Haha, I think it means college students, not high school
Of course if it does affect high school students, I am definitely doing that!
Describing Final Cut Express as easy is quite an overstatement. It is not difficult, but you do need patience and a lot of practice to use it to its maximum, if not, you'll end making the same things you made with iMovie.
FCE is very similar to Final Cut Pro, in fact, I even dare say that for many people they are practically the same.
So you're saying, what? You say that Final Cut Express is not difficult, but it's wrong for me to say it's pretty easy? Because it is pretty easy. It doesn't take too much time to work out how the basic functions of a proper NLE works. Yes, it is also very powerful when you want it to. And that's when the cool part comes in. You figure out the basics, do the same things like you would in iMovie, and when you've mastered it, you can do some more. The more time you spend in Final Cut, the more you'll learn and be able to do with it. But it is pretty easy to master the basics of Final Cut, so I don't see how it's an overstatement to describe Final Cut Express as pretty easy. But you probably meant that Final Cut Express is a very powerful package and when you spend the money, you should spend time to dig a little deeper. Fair enough, but it all starts with grasping the basics first, though.
EDIT:
I also understand that easy is quite relative, of course, and when you don't have any time to read the manual, or the patience, things that are relatively easy to learn can be considered a hassle, and thus difficult. But when you do have the time to read, and when you're a little eager, you'll see that you'll be flying through Final Cut in no time, and soon be hungry for more.
That was my point. Getting the basics is easy if you at least read the "Getting Started" manual, but once you want to lear more techniques to improve your video you need to read the other manual, which is 1,200 pages long!
But yes, what I meant was that for you to use FCE to its full potential, you need to practice, practice and practice.
um, biased opinions man, look were you posted the question!!!
Of corse if you come to a MAC fanboy site everybody is oing to say get a MAc, if want to run OSX, then yes get a MAC, if you can afford the extar 500-1000 $ premium, then go for it, macs "just work" although for business, the PC is the standard, more programs are available, and HP makes great l;aptops , that would be a better value, especial;ly if you delete vISTA and install XP it will FLY. Of course you could go through the minor hassle of dual booting OSX/XP/VISTA etc..
IT's a matter of how much discretionary money do you have?
With MAc you pay a preium for getting basically everything you need installed with no trial/nagware bs, if you know what you are doing it would (with my budget) just get the HP, you can do everyhing all though with different software, If you need video editing then Mac tends to be better out of the box, but you can get a much more powerful machine for less money if you go with the PC. No an easy choice, just remember where you posted your question.
AMD64 X2 3400+ Geforce 7300 w/256MB / 2 GB CL2 DDR
(latency is very important for perfomance don't know what mac uses) 250GB HD - DVD BURNER - 7.1 HD sound realteak)
this has been great for me and i run a lots of programs at once, cost about $500 XP flies, Vista is fast but not worth the performance hit just for the "prettiness" And I dualboot into Ubuntu Linux (Xubuntu_ with XFCE not GNOME - when i boot into this it is EXTREMLY FAST and detects all my hardware perfectly. Ubuntu runs fine on every HP i have ever tred using it on. Might want to consider that option of Linux w/ crossover office so you can still run Windows APps, or VMWARE can run multiple OS's at the same time even, MAC is very expensive IMO for people who don't like having to learn about tech stuff and just want it to work perfectly out of box and come with basic apps - no "nag ware' Personally the UWI WINXP-VISTA (xp that 'looks' like vista ) i downloaded from the pirate bay - (Don't think MS will be hurting too much , if i HAD to pay i would jkust use linux tends to be much faster and great for IT/Server stuff, although linux lacks some videoedting , there are specific distro's for video editing , checkout distrowatch.com for that .. yes a MAC is better if you can pay almost twice as much for similar hardware... so is it worh it to run OSX ? Thats the question, if you are a pro video editor i would say yes. Althhough even Windows when installed properly onm good hardware is very stable these days , vista IMO is not an upgrade but an "upsell"
YMMV
- use the right OS / SW for the job , they all have their place, Windows seems good for business people, MAC for artists /designers /editors , Linux for networking / and Ubuntu is actaully easier to install and auto detects al l your hardware 99.9% of the time, ,no need to have disks ready, which is also true of MAC, but it's free and getting better VERY QUICKLY. Personally I would LOVE a mac to boot XP//OSX/Linux bbut i am an IT guy and really need to use all sytems. like i said they all have their strengths and eaknesses there is no absolute "best" Stay away from DELL
from my experience they really cut corners, use cheap parts, crap tech support (have to talk to India ) no offence to indians - just hard to understand and I feel like the company is just being cheap when they outsource tech support to india .
JEff
Of corse if you come to a MAC fanboy site everybody is oing to say get a MAc, if want to run OSX, then yes get a MAC, if you can afford the extar 500-1000 $ premium, then go for it, macs "just work" although for business, the PC is the standard, more programs are available, and HP makes great l;aptops , that would be a better value, especial;ly if you delete vISTA and install XP it will FLY. Of course you could go through the minor hassle of dual booting OSX/XP/VISTA etc..
IT's a matter of how much discretionary money do you have?
With MAc you pay a preium for getting basically everything you need installed with no trial/nagware bs, if you know what you are doing it would (with my budget) just get the HP, you can do everyhing all though with different software, If you need video editing then Mac tends to be better out of the box, but you can get a much more powerful machine for less money if you go with the PC. No an easy choice, just remember where you posted your question.
AMD64 X2 3400+ Geforce 7300 w/256MB / 2 GB CL2 DDR
(latency is very important for perfomance don't know what mac uses) 250GB HD - DVD BURNER - 7.1 HD sound realteak)
this has been great for me and i run a lots of programs at once, cost about $500 XP flies, Vista is fast but not worth the performance hit just for the "prettiness" And I dualboot into Ubuntu Linux (Xubuntu_ with XFCE not GNOME - when i boot into this it is EXTREMLY FAST and detects all my hardware perfectly. Ubuntu runs fine on every HP i have ever tred using it on. Might want to consider that option of Linux w/ crossover office so you can still run Windows APps, or VMWARE can run multiple OS's at the same time even, MAC is very expensive IMO for people who don't like having to learn about tech stuff and just want it to work perfectly out of box and come with basic apps - no "nag ware' Personally the UWI WINXP-VISTA (xp that 'looks' like vista ) i downloaded from the pirate bay - (Don't think MS will be hurting too much , if i HAD to pay i would jkust use linux tends to be much faster and great for IT/Server stuff, although linux lacks some videoedting , there are specific distro's for video editing , checkout distrowatch.com for that .. yes a MAC is better if you can pay almost twice as much for similar hardware... so is it worh it to run OSX ? Thats the question, if you are a pro video editor i would say yes. Althhough even Windows when installed properly onm good hardware is very stable these days , vista IMO is not an upgrade but an "upsell"
YMMV
- use the right OS / SW for the job , they all have their place, Windows seems good for business people, MAC for artists /designers /editors , Linux for networking / and Ubuntu is actaully easier to install and auto detects al l your hardware 99.9% of the time, ,no need to have disks ready, which is also true of MAC, but it's free and getting better VERY QUICKLY. Personally I would LOVE a mac to boot XP//OSX/Linux bbut i am an IT guy and really need to use all sytems. like i said they all have their strengths and eaknesses there is no absolute "best" Stay away from DELL
from my experience they really cut corners, use cheap parts, crap tech support (have to talk to India ) no offence to indians - just hard to understand and I feel like the company is just being cheap when they outsource tech support to india .
JEff
Actually, most major Hollywood Studios use Avid systems on PC. However, most indie filmmakers now are using Final Cut Studio because it's much cheaper ($1500 vs $10000).
Anyways, you should be deciding more on your purchase about what software you want to use. If you've used a PC editor before like Vegas or Premiere and you're satisfied with that and don't want to spend time learning something new, then you might want to stick with PC.
However, if you've never really used editing software before than you're better off with a Mac. iMovie and iDVD are perfect for beginners, and you can move up to Final Cut if you start to feel limited. IMO Final Cut is the best NLE that is currently available (even better than Avid) and you can only get it for Mac.
Sorry my posts won't be as long as everyone elses but once I got my MacBook about four months ago I can't see myself ever voulantarily switching back to windows. I'm going to have to recommend the MacBook.
I have a 6 month old HP DV6000 that was surprisingly quick at video processing, of course it's dual core. The processor first will make all the difference, then the software.
That being said, I do prefer to use my MacBook Pro simply because of the software that I recently installed on it and well, no viruses while surfing the net.
I find myself constantly using two laptops at the same time however, my old reliable 17" HP ZD8000 and my MBP. I still get along with several of my laptops.
That being said, I do prefer to use my MacBook Pro simply because of the software that I recently installed on it and well, no viruses while surfing the net.
I find myself constantly using two laptops at the same time however, my old reliable 17" HP ZD8000 and my MBP. I still get along with several of my laptops.
I had a HP Pavilion dv6045nr for about a year when the webcam as well as the wireless stopped working. I sent it in for repair twice and they were never fixed. Finally, I e-mailed the HP CEO and they sent out a replacement valued at $2300 (My dv6045nr was only $1100) and I shipped my dv6045nr back in. Shortly after I received the new laptop, I bought a MacBook Pro online from Apple. I am very impressed with the MacBook Pro and Mac OS X and I do not see myself going back to XP or Vista anytime soon. I would definitely recommend the MacBook over a HP Pavilion.
Okay, then here's hard data based on my own experience.
Where I work, we switched PC vendors this summer from Dell to HP. The reason for this is because we purchard hundreds of new PCS every year, and we were experiencing a roughly 33% failure rate from Dell (that's right, one of every three got sent back for swap out under warranty). The higher-ups were hoping that by switching vendors, our IT and procurement departments would have their hands less-full dealing with equipment failures all the time.
Our initial HP purchase was: 190 dc7700 small-form-factor desktops, and a dozen nx9420 notebooks. MISTAKE.
Our out-of-the-box failure rate for these were 50%. Half of what we got is on its way to HP right now for exchange by mail. LCD displays aren't powering up or recognizing a signal from the desktops. Desktops aren't passing POST. Many are frequently bluescreening just sitting there, doing nothing, and re-installs of the operating system aren't helping. And one machine was shipped and delivered to us even after someone drove a forklight through the box and left a hole going straight through. Try explaining THAT one to tech support.
Our summer has been a total mess as our workload increased testing and returning faulty HP equipment, and people like me (whose job was not originally to deploy and configure equipment) have been pulled in to roll up our sleeves and help when we're supposed to be doing other things. Sadly, we're now stuck in a 3-year preferred vendor contract with them, so this is only a sign of things to come for us.
And don't get me started on the Matrox Axio workstation we purchased which has an HP server at its core. That one IS related to my job, and it's been largely inoperative for the three months since we've bought it due to faulty motherboards, bad factory-installed memory, and a myriad of other hardware issues. Most of the work we're supposed to be doing on the Matrox, I've been doing (albeit a bit more slowly) on my MBP instead.
Apple most certainly is NOT the best equipment make our there, and no doubt they have issues of their own. I've spent a couple of afternoons ferrying a couple of iMacs to and from the Apple store from time to time. But they're certainly not approaching the level of badness that HP has achieved, and at the very least, Apple is responsive in fixing their problems.
I could never, in good conscience, recommend HP. If you want to get a PC, get a Dell. They're not great either, but they aren't rock bottom.