Should I go with a Mac or a PC? (Premiere vs. Final Cut vs. Media Composer)

I'm teaming with a friend which owns two Ursa Mini 4.6Ks plus all the equipment we need to start filming our short films. I told him that I was going take care of post production. I really don't have a budget, I can pay whatever as long as it's going to be useful.

I need to take care of Sound, Music, Editing, Color Correction, Special Effects, etc. So my needs will be around using an editing software, Pro Tools, a color correction software, Maya, 3ds Max (this is actually a secondary need), and Photoshop.

So my two options are going with a Mac Pro (hopefully if they release a new one), or just going with a MacBook Pro and adding an external GPU or something like that. For my PC options I would just build a crazy PC with Titan XPs in SLI with some crazy Xeon processor or something.

I know if I go with Mac I should go with Final Cut Pro X I have never tried it, so I would like to hear some opinions about it. Or if I get a PC just going with the Adobe Suite going back to Premiere. I don't know which one could be better for me. I want to work on short films with impeccable quality. Plus I'll start doing some YouTube to get some views at first but I want to produce Studio quality content.

Anyway if I go with a Mac I think the best option for color correction would be Resolve. But where does it run better on mac or PC? And for music. Pro Tools works better on Mac or PC? I primarily use Waves plugins.

Some of the software I use is for PC only but I mean I can use it through Bootcamp which is amazing, and I can add an eGPU like the Titan XP or something just to get better performance for non mac optimized software like my Autodesk software or gaming.

So finally in general for Post Production what should I go with? Should I work with Final Cut, Premiere or Media Composer? What will it fit my needs for YouTube and my upcoming short films better?

Thank you so much for your help.

hardware

Final Cut

media composer

premiere

5 Comments

Go with the editing software you know how to use and get a computer that will run it best. If you don't know how to use any editing software, I'd say that spending thousands on equipment to cut with may be a bit premature. Over all, Macs run NLE software pretty good, but come with heavy apple tax. PC's runs software good too but you can't use FCX. I have an HP Zbook and I have no complaints running PP or Resolve.

December 26, 2016 at 2:37AM, Edited December 26, 2:38AM

Logan Fish

Video Journalist

298

In general most software runs pretty good on both platforms.

Like Logan said, use whatever you're comfortable with. However, Adobe CC is basically built to do editing, color correction, audio, and SFX work, all in one suite, and with dynamic linking.

In my experience though, Adobe software runs worse on Macs. I think it has something to do with the various permissions etc that exist within the Mac OS and how it handles cached Adobe files and such. Where I work we have a number of issues with Adobe CC on Mac that I don't have on my custom built PC at home with the same software.

PCs are going to be a lot cheaper in general, also. And you wouldn't have to buy an external GPU, etc.

December 28, 2016 at 12:40PM

codyswanson

662

From my own experience, I began on PC and now use Mac. I would recommend Adobe products as they are available either way and they cover everything from NLE to effects, to audio, etc. I wish they were less expensive, but I do feel they are worth the price.

January 31, 2017 at 6:22PM

Michael Arell

Director/Producer

"I want to produce Studio quality content."

No editing software or ninja computer will help you with that. They're both just tools. It's you and your friend's talent / skills that will determine the quality of the final pieces. Not how many lenses you have or how many 1080 TI's you cram into a case.

An Oscar nominated short this year was shot in 5.5k on RED and editing on a 2008 MacBook Pro. It's not how much horse power you can get its what you do with the horses you have.. so to speak.

Having said that.. Choose the editing software you're most familiar with. It sounds like that's Premiere? You'll get into editing quicker if you're familiar with it. Having to learn a new system will just slow you down. You'll spend half your post time figuring out how to use something new rather then getting on with editing.

And if you're choosing adobe and looking to build a power system then its PC all the way. (especially as there is no new Mac Pro till 2018 at the earliest. Messing with eGPUs just seems like massively over spending and faffing around for no real reason.

Hope that helps. Best of luck and keep us all updated!

May 2, 2017 at 5:25PM