Editing Platform

[ryan06]

What is the most widely used editing platform, PC or MAC. I need statistics on what is more of an industry standard. Obviously, Avid, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Final Cut can be run on a MAC.

Basically, I just need to know a round about percentage of PC's used for Post-Production and MAC's (any kind of MAC) used for post. Also, if MAC's are preferred over PC's.

Thank you

[Barry_Green]

Depends on what you call the "industry". If you're talking about Hollywood feature films, it's overwhelmingly massively Avid. If you're talking about one-man-band production companies, it's probably evenly divided between FCP and everything else. So what companies do you want included in your study?

[JonathanLB]

I would say FCP for indie filmmakers, and for broadcast, I've talked to a lot of broadcast professionals, a few I met at a conference, and they ditched Avid for FCP. One was an Avid editor for 10 years, hates it, and moved to FCP, he said that's very common, that FCP is taking over broadcast for the most part.

From what I understand or care about, Avid is only used in major feature films now. That won't be true for much longer the way things are going, Avid will just die a miserable slow death as it deserves to. Most people I know use FCP, very few editors wouldn't be able to do that, I mean when you look at low budget filmmaking that's the standard for 90% of people.

[milksac]

Avid will just die a miserable slow death as it deserves to.

There you go Ryan - an unbiased in depth view.

Jonathan's ramblings aside, If you scour the internet long enough you will come up with all sorts of data regarding the user base percentages of various NLE's. The problem is that it's impossible to validate the data. The Avid marketing departments want you to believe that 95% of the users are editing on their system. The Apple marketing departments want you to believe that they dominate 95% of the market as well. And the of course there are passionate users that will randomly generate a percentage base for their favorite editing system. Who are you going to believe? Like I said, I don't think you can validate the data.

FWIW, I use both FCP and Avid.

["JM"]

This might sound a bit out of context, but would anyone know if the ultra light and cheap version of FCP called FInal Cut Express (4) can grab DVCPRO HD files, coming out of a P2 cards and/or focus 100 type of hard drive ?

I was thinking using this so-called prosumer software to cut dailies until being financed or able to afford the whole bundle... And would this be possible on a macbook pro G4 ? Thanks for ANY light on that. And to participate a little to the debat, i would highly recommend FCP on Mac and Canopus Edius on PC, but what do i know, i'm just an ultra-low budge photographer, but with a brain new bag, though... i luv' my HVX200 and would just like to be able to download my first 24p/60fps footage !

[adkimery]

ryan06,
As others have mentioned getting any sort of hard numbers is going to be nearly impossible especially when you use a super vague term like "industry" (which encompasses everything from $200 million dollar Hollywood films to $100 wedding videos). I'd say it's still a very safe bet though to assume that the majority of what you see on TV and in movie theaters was cut on Avid. As far as computer platforms goes that runs the gambit as well. Again, though, I think a safe assumption is that most stuff b'cast and in theaters was cut on a Mac.

JM, AFAIK FCE only works w/DV and HDV (HDV transcoded into AIC).


-A

["JM"]

ryan06,
JM, AFAIK FCE only works w/DV and HDV (HDV transcoded into AIC).
-A

Gha.. what does that mean ? FCE won't take DVCPRO HD - bummer. Oh, and what's AIC ? And i guess there is no way to download P2 cards into iMovie08 either, right ? Anyway, thanks for your help. And i thought i had found an alternative solution to all my problems, ah, ah

[adkimery]

Gha.. what does that mean ? FCE won't take DVCPRO HD - bummer. Oh, and what's AIC ? And i guess there is no way to download P2 cards into iMovie08 either, right ? Anyway, thanks for your help. And i thought i had found an alternative solution to all my problems, ah, ah

Correct, as far as I know (AFAIK) Final Cut Express only works w/DV and HDV (and the HDV has to be transcoded into the Apple Intermediate Codec aka AIC). iMovie is the same way.


-A

["JM"]

So this means it's actually possible to use FCEX (or even just iMovie08) via apple transcodec to work with DVCPRO HD, or DVCPRO HD and HDV are two completely different animals ? In any case, how does it work ? Should i get another software, or is it integrated (in both FCE and iMov) and just an extra step when capturing ?

Please someone tells me if i'd rather just forget about the whole cheaper alternative, and get myself FCP. I still haven't decided whether i'll be shooting my feature doc in 720p or 1080i, but it's going to be all 24P or PA, if i can ever understand what difference it makes and what NLE i should get... Thanks for your help, guys : )

[adkimery]

So this means it's actually possible to use FCEX (or even just iMovie08) via apple transcodec to work with DVCPRO HD, or DVCPRO HD and HDV are two completely different animals ? In any case, how does it work ? Should i get another software, or is it integrated (in both FCE and iMov) and just an extra step when capturing ?

Please someone tells me if i'd rather just forget about the whole cheaper alternative, and get myself FCP. I still haven't decided whether i'll be shooting my feature doc in 720p or 1080i, but it's going to be all 24P or PA, if i can ever understand what difference it makes and what NLE i should get... Thanks for your help, guys : )

DVCPro HD and HDV are two completely different animals, and you should just get FCP.


-A

[milksac]

Please someone tells me if i'd rather just forget about the whole cheaper alternative, and get myself FCP.

I don't think FCE has the ability to batch capture - I don't think it handles timecode. I'm not positive about this point, but it's worth having a look at. Since you were planning on cutting dalies, your ability to translate your edit list to FCP might be severely crippled. My point is you might save a little cash now with FCE, but you'll end up paying for it later because you need to start from scratch again when you upgrade to FCP.

For the record I don't use FCE so I'm unclear if it handles timecode or can export an EDL. Maybe someone that knows FCE will chime in and shed some light on FCE's short falls.

[JonathanLB]

Why would you use Avid on a Mac? That makes little sense to me, the Avid machines I've seen are all on PCs. Anyway if you want to edit, though, it still is a much, much better idea to have a Mac. Not only are Macs optimized for video editing but one simple fact makes owning a PC stupid -- no Final Cut Pro. If you can run 2 of the 3 big editing systems on a PC, and ALL three on a Mac, it's a no brainer (Premiere, Avid, and Final Cut; nobody professional uses anything else, and even then I don't think many people use Premiere even though it's still way better than Avid and quite a nice program).

Avid has a marketing staff? I had no idea. They don't seem to have a support staff. They don't seem to have a staff to update their product. They don't seem to do much of anything for that matter. Their editing system is garbage and has been out of date since about 1998.

[milksac]

…it's a no brainer (Premiere, Avid, and Final Cut; nobody professional uses anything else…

Are you saying the artists that use Autodesk or Quantel applications are not professionals?

["JM"]

Will do - thanks ! but i might come back at ya if experiencing problems to download from P2 cards and external drive : ) ANY suggestion and/or recommendation on that would be truly appreciated... Fact is that i am totally new in this biz and made the HUGE mistake to read Barry's book 2 months ago, thus all at once because it was so good, while i'm just starting to get my feet wet with the HVX... meaning i pretty much forgot everything i read !

[Butcher]

Why would you use Avid on a Mac? That makes little sense to me, the Avid machines I've seen are all on PCs. Anyway if you want to edit, though, it still is a much, much better idea to have a Mac. Not only are Macs optimized for video editing but one simple fact makes owning a PC stupid -- no Final Cut Pro. If you can run 2 of the 3 big editing systems on a PC, and ALL three on a Mac, it's a no brainer (Premiere, Avid, and Final Cut; nobody professional uses anything else, and even then I don't think many people use Premiere even though it's still way better than Avid and quite a nice program).

Avid has a marketing staff? I had no idea. They don't seem to have a support staff. They don't seem to have a staff to update their product. They don't seem to do much of anything for that matter. Their editing system is garbage and has been out of date since about 1998.

Why the animosity towards Avid? Did it steal your girlfriend or something?

Oh yeah, and pretty much everything you've posted is dead wrong.

Use the system that gets your job done. I use a PC. I know others that use Macs. In the end, we all meet deadlines and get paid, and on air nobody can tell what system was used.

Michael.