There are people with way more experience than myself, but I figure I'll at least give you something to read. Anyway, if you want to do it right from the very start, go with the mac g4, g5 with Final Cut. I can't remember the exact computer we used, it wasn't a mac, but we just used it with Adobe 6.0 and it worked fine.

But I have seen a mac with final cut in action and it is instantaneous. No rendering, freakin' fast results. Very, very nice. I would save for that and just be patient if I were you. I have a decent IBM with Premier 6.5 and after seeing/using the mac/final cut, I hate my computer.

In fact, there are some pretty good deals in the toolshed here and all over the net.

What do you want to spend? That's really the big question, along with what editing software you want. Have you considered Avid?

I've got a PowerMac running FCP and a Dell running Premier.

well im looking to spend anywhere from 3-4,000 $ give or take. Im going to save all summer for it. I start film school in september so i would like to have my new workcenter up and working by then. Right now im running a Dell 8300 with Power Director 3 which im not getting ver good results form. My computer seems to make all my footage look really crappy. and Power Director would be a pertty good program if it would capture the footage all the time. SomeTimes it works sometimes not so much. Ive been hearing good things about the Sony Vio or something like that. What do you guys think?

$3-4000? I'm pretty sure you can get a used setup, possibly new, with a mac with final cut for that king of money. I have seen deals on this site's toolshed within that range. If I had that $$ I would be very reassured.

I did the same thing as you last summer. I started saving money to buy a camera and i took classes at Rockport College (The INternational Film and Television Workshops). I fell in love with film. I didn't know how to edit but when i was there i sat in with an editor who used Avid (its the industry standard by the way, you'll get more work with avid then with final cut in the future). When i got back I baught:
-A 3CCD Panasonic GS70 mini dv camera - $900
-A dell dimension 4600 desktop with 2.4 ghz Pentium 4, 80 gig hard drive, cdrw and a dvd-r/rw drives, GeFroce FX 5200 8X AGP graphics card, 1 gig of ram - $2400
-and Avid Xpress DV Student pack from www.journeyed.com - $400

I taught myself Avid and now know it very well. This fall I will be attending Emerson College majoring in Film. Please feel free to ask me all the questions you want. -Dean mrx347?bellatlantic.net

Thanks! Well im still not sure weather i should get The Sony VAIO PC with Adobe Premiere 6 or Power Mac 1.6GHz G5 17" Studio Display with Final Cut Pro HD

Alot of People have been telling me about Apples and that for film work Mac is the way to go. But i know PC format pretty well. Im not sure it that will hold me back or not. Anybody hear about the VAIO?

do not get the vaio with premiere. Premiere is not the way to go. If ur deciding on those two, then id say go with the mac, definately.

Wow, reading this post has put me back on the fence on this whole PC vs Mac dilemna. I was thinking the same thing! Considering a HyperThreading p4 around 2.6/2.8 ghz 800 Front Side Bus, 1ghz RAM, running Vegas (especially granted its 24p frame conversion process) versus a G5 running Final Cut Pro. I suppose the 24p conversion on Vegas isn't too big of a deal granted I'm using an AGDVX100, but it'd be nice if there is a Mac compatible product that offers something similar in the "filmy effect" department for adding those extra touches.

I guess my question too then is what are the pro's/con's of both the PC and Mac? I was leaning towards building a PC for compatibility and expandibility reasons, but what I am ultimately more concerned with is which system would yield the best results. Any wise words of advice?

The two industry standards for editing are Avid and Final Cut. They're very very similar programs. I edit on a PC on Avid. I hate macs. Mac supports both avid and final cut. Pc only supports avid. BUT if you'r a future editor, when you get out there, you'll find more work on Avid that pays more. Supposedly macs are better with graphics but Pentium 4 with HT and a good graphics card are amazing as well.

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BUT if you'r a future editor, when you get out there, you'll find more work on Avid that pays more.

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I'm not so sure of that: as production costs drop, a lot of places that would have bought Avid five years ago seem to be buying Final Cut now... and, unlike Avid, Apple don't have a high-end market to protect, so they can add extra features to Final Cut that Avid can't add without cutting into their market for $20k+ systems. Plus, frankly, the Avid interface is antiquated and idiosyncratic to someone who knows how to use a computer with a mouse.

I really think Avid may have some hard times ahead.

I can't comment on that as I am only in high school. A few of the professors at Emerson had told me that there are more students finding jobs (before they graduate from the under-grad program) editing commercials etc. on avid for about $1100-1300 a week then final cut ($800-1000).

I"m with bosljeff on this one with the Mac (and I've always been a PC guy)...especially if you have 3-4g's to blow....and what with the fact that dual processor G5's just dropped in price. Maxing out on memory and ram, I'm still under 3grand. (minus the monitors don'tchaknow) and you can get a simplified version of FCP cheepcheep until you can get an educational discount for the full version...

Or there's always the internet.