Ok – time for a break from our regularly scheduled MINI blogging to bring you a technology update that is taking place behind the scenes here at MotoringFun.com :). If you have been following MotoringFun.com for any amount of time, you know that one of the things I enjoy is taking in-car video footage from track weekends. Not only does it provide some cool entertainment on the site, but it allows me to look back at each weekend and see how I did.

Shooting video, in general, is fun and I enjoy creating custom DVDs slideshows, etc. What’s not so fun is dealing with tape. Importing video tape into a computer, editting it and then encoding it to the proper format takes forever and can be very frustrating. Well the price point on the new HiDef cameras that shoot video on flash memory cards finally dropped to where I could afford one and I figured that this would be a great time to upgrade the MotoringFun.com video camera to make the editting process a little easier.

Well, what I didn’t realize was that my 5 year old Dell, running a 3.0Ghz HT Pentium 4 processor could not even “play” the video files out of the camera, much less edit them (and yes I tried various software packages that support the file formats). The system got through about 3 frames or so of footage before it just choked and raised the white flag in surrender. Bummer.

So I started investigating and researching what it would cost for a machine that could crunch some serious HiDef footage and last me at least 5 years. Dell had some special anniversary pricing going on, which made some lower end machines attractive. However, after many hours of consulting with our good friend, db (whiteroofradio.com), a new option came to light….. buy a Mac! At first I was hesitant. I know Windows. I know Linux, but Macs are totally foreign to me. Well, I kept an open mind and did some more research. At first, the Macs looked overpriced. However, when I compared apples to apples on equally equipped Dells, the Mac was actually much cheaper! Granted, I was now looking at an 8 core 2.8Ghz Mac Pro, but still – compared to equally equipped Dell, the Mac Pro was almost half the cost! On top of that, Amazon.com’s rebates on the Macs help save a chunk of change.

So I bit the bullet and am now a Mac owner! Yes, I feel like a computer freshman. Some things are pretty easy to pick up, some things take a moment. A HUGE thanks to db for helping me out with the transition. He has been a major help, answering all of my silly questions. It wasn’t that long ago that he was a Winblows user and so he knows what it’s like :). I am hoping to take some footage at MINI Takes The States – Miami and have some cool stuff to post. So far I am liking this Mac stuff :).

Well thanks for bearing with me through this non-MINI post. Hopefully in a few days/weeks, everything you see here on this site will be done on a Mac :).

Happy Motoring!