Avid better on PC or Mac??

M

malmsteen

Active member
Hi,

I'm getting a new computer systmem, and most likely I'm getting a Mac since I use FCP most of the time.

However, I'd like to start learning Avid intensively so that I can get a job as an Avid editor.
Is Avid on Mac the same thing as Avid on PC?
If not, which system is better for Avid Xpress Pro?

Should I still get a Mac or should I upgrade my PC for Avid?

Please help!
 
Xpress Pro is sold as a dual-platform product. However, the PC version is substantially newer than the Mac version. They're supposed to update the Mac version later this year to bring it into parity; I believe the PC version is 5.2 and the current Mac version is 4.8.
 
Barry is correct. Mac parity is scheduled for Q2 this year. Right now the differences are HD and a handful of other features.

Michael
 
What I would do is, you say you use FCP most of the time, dont you have a mac? If you dont have anything, get a mac, get FCP and use that continually. And if you want to learn the Avid Stuff then go get you a copy of Free DV and play with it till you learn its UI mostly. Then you can get a job as an avid editor! Save money!
 
I use Mac at school, and I have a crappy PC at home. I tried to set it up so that I can use a little bit of Avid. It's Athlon 1700, 1G memory, quadro FX500 video. Since I'm more used to FCP and my friend is selling me Final cut studio cheap, I wanted to get a Mac.
I guess my choice is now, to get a Mac and wait for new version of Avid until the end of the year, and in the meantime use Free DV as sket mentioned.
Thanks guys!
 
malmsteen, just an FYI, I'm going to be selling my Mac G4 Ti powerbook along with a 160 GB hard drive. It has FCP 3.0 (academic) and MS Office. PM me if you're interested.
 
What is an editing board?
All I know is that in order to use Avid properly, you need Avid certified PC/Mac with certified Video card such as quadro FX, and MOJO hardware accelerator.
I don't think you even need the MOJO though...but might be slow without it.
 
Definately runs better on a PC

Definately runs better on a PC

I've got a several PC's and a Mac and I have Avid installed on both the PC and the Mac and I can tell you that Avid runs considerably better on the PC than on the Mac. For me Avid run on the Mac freezes a lot and just doesn't work nearly as well. I am running Avid on a Dual G4, but a friend of mine has Avid on his dual G5 and it doesn't run as smoothly on his G5 as it does on my PC. Plus I have 2 friends that work in big post production houses here in LA and from what I hear from them...everybody that uses Avid in the professional world runs it on PC's. FCP runs good on a Mac, but Avid not as good...at least from my experience.
 
This is a shotgun reply to Betoskubs and Malmsteen.

At home I run avid on an athlon 2600 with 2 gigs of ram and a 7.2k hard drive. It is by no stretch of the imagination Avid certified (My video card is a radeon 9500 pro, with a broken fan.) With SD It runs without a hiccup, I'm not usually running thousands of clips in a timeline, but for day to day stuff I haven't had a problem. If you want to learn Avid and FCP. I would give avid a try on your PC, download the demo and do some stress tests, you might be pleasantly surprised to discover, you don't even need to upgrade to learn the Avid interface. In fact, all you might need to learn the avid interface is Avid FreeDV. If thats the case then you get FCP and Avid experience, with no extra expense.

I think by editing board you're refering to something like a canopus editing card, or a number of other hardware solutions that used to be necessary to video edit. I think I remember Discreet Edit used to be a real stickler about which card you used. Essentially it was just a hardware frame buffer with some hardware accelerated transitions and effects. An internal equivalent of Mojo. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to buy Mojo for avid, but I've never used it, and never had a problem without it. A reasonably fast PC should be able to handle most Avid tasks pretty well, especially if you're just going to be working with DVX SD footage.
 
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I just got into Avid recently and the Academic Pro Version on the Mac. If you have to eidt with it soon, get the windows version because it is newer, but I am a Mac guy. If you can wait, the Mac version should be just as good as the Windows Version.

I prefer Final Cut Pro, but am starting to get the Avid hook.
 
I have been Avid editing for over 10 years... before there even was a PC choice. I use the Avid now on both Mac and PC regularly. Without going into all the details... the PC version totally kicks the a$$ out of the Macs. Period.
 
Take_1 said:
I have been Avid editing for over 10 years... before there even was a PC choice. I use the Avid now on both Mac and PC regularly. Without going into all the details... the PC version totally kicks the a$$ out of the Macs. Period.
Click to expand...
just wanted to second Take_1's appraisal. media composer on a pc is much, much more stable than the mac counterpart. and if you haven't already noticed, the pc version is always Avid's top priority for updates, new features, troubleshooting, etc.
 
cygnet74 said:
just wanted to second Take_1's appraisal. media composer on a pc is much, much more stable than the mac counterpart. and if you haven't already noticed, the pc version is always Avid's top priority for updates, new features, troubleshooting, etc.
Click to expand...

AVID does favor the PC people. Which is turning me off.
 
That's all supposed to change with the Universal Binary. Avid has proclaimed their dedication to Mac as a platform, and once the code is complete for the Intel switch (Mid of this year) then the development cycle of both PC and Mac will come into sync.

Of course the proof is in the pudding (I can't believe I just used that phrase), but I believe Avid when they say it. You do have to grant them that Apple hasn't been the easiest platform to develop for recently.
 
malmsteen said:
Hi,

I'm getting a new computer systmem, and most likely I'm getting a Mac since I use FCP most of the time.

However, I'd like to start learning Avid intensively so that I can get a job as an Avid editor.
Is Avid on Mac the same thing as Avid on PC?
If not, which system is better for Avid Xpress Pro?

Should I still get a Mac or should I upgrade my PC for Avid?

Please help!
Click to expand...

Well, that depends. Are you more proficient using a PC or a Mac? What are you more comfortable with using?
 
krestofre said:
That's all supposed to change with the Universal Binary. Avid has proclaimed their dedication to Mac as a platform, and once the code is complete for the Intel switch (Mid of this year) then the development cycle of both PC and Mac will come into sync.

Of course the proof is in the pudding (I can't believe I just used that phrase), but I believe Avid when they say it. You do have to grant them that Apple hasn't been the easiest platform to develop for recently.
Click to expand...

That's very true, as Steve Jobs stated that not even the Software companies knew when the Macs were going to the Intel chips, so that probably threw off all of Avids timelines. But I am really getting into Avid over Final Cut, I just hope they make the whole studio available, and lower the price a little.
 
KingsReign said:
I just hope they make the whole studio available, and lower the price a little.
Click to expand...

Probably won't happen. Some of the component for Studio don't have Mac counterparts, and since they're just bundled 3rd party Apps, Avid can't say "Hey, code a Mac version." This doesn't bother me because I've never thought the Studio bundle was all that worth it. I do, however, believe that Avid on Mac has a long future and shortly after NAB it will be even with the PC side.
 
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