Mac Video Card Advice

Hello. A year or so ago I purchased a used Powerbook G4 to "try out" a Mac and see how I like it. Everything works great on the computer except I can't stream any video (no Youtube). Apparently the video card is too outdated and it can't be upgraded.

I've decided I want to go full-time Mac. But I don't want to make the same mistake twice. Can anyone advise of the type of video card I need to be looking for in a used model? In addition to streaming, I work a lot in video editing (previously Vegas but will be making the jump to Premiere). Thanks!

A powerbook G4 is pretty old. Any new mac should be able to stream videos. You can always ask whoever you buy it from. If you are buying a used mac, you should be able to look up information about it. I'm not sure it really was the video card. It might have been an old operating system or lack of Flash (either that it wasn't installed or wasn't compatible), because I've used macs for a while and have never been aware of any issues with streaming. Regardless, generally speaking this should not be a problem. Basically any computer less than 5 years old should be able to play youtube, and macs are no exception. If you're buying something more than 5 years old be careful, and about more than just streaming videos. (I'm surprised the G4 doesn't work. But maybe it's just slightly too old. I'm pretty sure I've seen at least some G4s that can use youtube.)

If you are doing video editing (that's what I do as well), then you'll need a powerful mac. Of course the newer computers will be fine, but be careful buying the older ones because video software is demanding, takes a lot of RAM (2GB minimum! 4-6 preferred), and if you have a slow processor it will take a long time to render. More importantly, if you're working in HD, you really need one of the newest macs out there-- I have a year-old macbook pro, and using HD on it is not fun. Any of the newer desktops would be fine, though, because they're pretty powerful at this point.

Note that there's a major problem with macbook pros, that they overheat really easily. If you're looking to do lots of work with the computer, use a desktop. (I like the portability, but it is a tradeoff.) And macbooks won't do what you need with video editing. Their graphics cards aren't strong enough (final cut pro won't even install, at least when I checked last).

If you're going to use a mac, you should use final cut pro. I was surprised to hear that you're using premiere, and I just checked, and apparently now adobe is supporting OSX again. They weren't, for years (since before the "CS" products), except for a few programs like photoshop. I used to use premiere on a mac, then they stopped making updates, and I switched to FCP. Using FCP is better because it will be more compatible with the system, and it does what Premiere can do (and maybe a little more, honestly). And that way you won't get stuck when premiere stops being made for macs again (adobe is an odd company in that way).

And specifically for the video card, this will be MUCH more important for the video editing than using youtube-- any computer should be able to use youtube, but that's not true for video editing (especially HD!).

Wow, what a reply. Thanks Daniel.

I actually don't currently use Premiere as my main editor. I use Sony Vegas mostly though I occasionally use Premiere. The reason I was planning on making the jump to Premiere is because of it's ability to be used on macs & pcs and while I'm shopping for a Mac, I have a pc at work and I'd like to be home to work on a project at both locations. I also want to get more involved with motion graphics and really only know about them in After Effects. I'm not opposed to Final Cut Pro, I just want the portability across different OS'. (If there is one, I haven't even looked into that honestly.)

Great advice on the HD. Thanks for your help!

I use FCP and After Effects. After Effects has consistently been supported on Macs (even though it's adobe) because it is so popular and there isn't a real substitute for it. Motion is kinda fun to play with, but it's more for doing graphics (shapes, colors, text) than doing anything very serious with visual effects; After Effects can handle both and doesn't have the "hand holding" feeling that Motion gives, at least from the couple times that I tried it out.
The only disadvantage to using AE with FCP is that you can't directly import a project from one to the other; you'll need to render out from one and bring the file into the other program. That can be annoying, but I'm used to it. Premiere and AE do integrate (somewhat) like that, so it can be convenient. If you're confident that Premiere will be supported by Adobe for a while then it's fine. I like the interface, more or less, and it's honestly the same program as FCP (early on one of the designers moved from one, Premiere I think, to create the other). The only difference is that FCP has, in my opinion, better motion graphics controls and some better filters (basic keying that's much better than premiere's, for example). But if you'll be using After Effects anyway you won't need those. It is nice to have some basics available in FCP, but it won't be a problem if you can replace those by using AE.


And as much as I enjoy using OSX, I will mention that if you specifically want a cheap editing machine, then you might want to consider getting a PC. Macs are expensive (as everyone knows). A friend of mine bought a desktop PC for about $800 2 years ago with 1TB storage, 6gb ram, a quad core processor, etc. I still like my Mac, but it was great watching how ridiculously fast that computer rendered compared to my Macbook pro (an older one at that time). Getting a cheap PC is definitely the way to go if you're just looking for power, unless you can afford one of the great high end Macs (if you look on apple.com you'll find you can spend something like $32000 if you get all of the crazy RAM upgrades, solid state drives, etc.).
And he was running Premiere/AE on that computer, by the way. If you're on a PC, I'd suggest going for Premiere. If you'll be going back and forth (productively, on the same projects) then that's probably a good idea too. It's VERY easy to learn to use both if you know one, so don't worry about that aspect, though.