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Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

> What are they doing that is so performance critical?

Anything related to multimedia processing.

Whether it's video encoding or live audio processing or rendering or whatever.

M1 might be more than fast enough for emails and web development, but multimedia is a whole different beast.

People forget that the "Pro" refers to media professionals, not development professionals. Remember the Touch Bar? It was designed for artists and editors for things like color selection and scrubbing and sound control, not for programmers.

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And why on earth would you do that on a laptop to start with?

I'm sure apple not having decent desktops for a decade leaves a mark. I guess I'm surprised people put up with it.

Why wouldn't you want do to that on a laptop? Especially one with a bunch of hardware accelerated codec support and very decent HDR display.

For the same reason literally everybody else uses laptops -- so you can take your work on the go.

You don't think sound producers visit different studios each week?

You don't think video editors have to get work done while they travel?

You don't think multimedia professionals work both at the office and home like the rest of us?

Why wouldn't you do it on a laptop if you can?

Work on a laptop if you must. But don't encode/render etc. on a laptop.

I use my laptop for encoding video all the time.

What's your justification for saying I shouldn't, precisely?

What's next -- I shouldn't use it to compile software either?

If you are buying a new laptop every generation just for it to be bearable just buy a proper machine that can encode it for you.

Bonus points for being able to do it while your laptop is in your bag.

In the United States, internet connectivity is insufficient for uncompressed video footage.

Does people really process uncompressed videos on their laptops?

Yes

Well you might work on projects where the extra performance makes working in the viewport faster. It’s not hard to find graphics workflows where extra resources aren’t useful.

Why would someone need to buy an additional powerful computer if they can do it on directly on their laptop, which needs to be powerful anyway?

> You don't think video editors have to get work done while they travel?

MKBHD used to ship an iMac Pro around before Apple Silicon. :)

I have been moving twice a year (June-September) with an iMac for the last six years and I think it’s been an overcomplication mistake, specially in March 2020.

I thought desktops are more future proof

Because the laptop can also be a desktop when hooked up to a big screen and accessories. But a desktop wont ever be a laptop.

I'm not saying to ditch the laptop, just do the processing on a machine made for it.

And of course use the desktop as your main device when you are at your home/office wherever the desktop is.

I did that for years, moving to a single MBP that can do everything is surprisingly nice

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