When it comes to working with digital video (DV), what are some of the advantages that Macintosh systems have over Windows-based PC systems?
Because Apple makes the components of a complete DV system, including the FireWire input technology, the video editing applications, the MPEG Encoder, the DVD authoring tools and the DVD-R drive, you can be assured that everything works together smoothly. Windows-based PC systems do not offer the plug-and-play ease of Apple s solution. The formats of choice for PC users, Microsoft s AVI and DirectShow, are not able to meet the demands of professional editing. In addition, all current DV editing applications for the PC require additional hardware. Competitive DV applications also require awkward export rendering and often don t address proper machine control and other issues. Over the coming years, these issues may be resolved as other vendors follow Apple s lead. For now, however, Apple is the only company to offer a complete, integrated solution for digital video production.