Cross-Platform NLE to use with AVCHD footage

A

AndersonSoundRecording

Member
Hi all

I am a soundguy who has morphed into offering video - most of my work is live-concert music stuff, and video has emerged as a logical outgrowth of my operation, even if it is just a value-added feature.

In any case, I have officially outgrown iMovie :tongue: and don't care for what it does to my footage. There is a noticeable loss of quality even just on the import of AVCHD files.

Ideally, I'd like a cross-platform editor, but if it were PC-only I could live with that. I currently own two Panasonic cams and will be adding a third, so something that works well with AVCHD without going through some other transcoding software is what I am looking for.

I am very conversant with Pro Tools, so Avid is attractive, but I am a little leery given the financial situation of the company.

Any advice would be welcome - thanks.
 
Premiere Pro or Avid are cross-platform. They're the only two on the pro level. Between the two, PP is more user-friendly.
 
FCP X is one of the best multi camera editors available today.
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He specified "cross platform"

@ the OP

May be worth looking at Resolve 11 when it releases.

I am not sure how "cross platform" any of these NLEs actually are in practical terms.
They might have versions that run on both platforms but one will always discover that the platforms do have little "gotchas" when it comes down to editing the same project "cross platform".

I would need to have a really , really good reason to want to do it.

 
I'm liking Lightworks. The current software distribution is not as mature as premiere or Avid, but the development curve is rapid. It is a fully "pro" app with most of the expected features such a program should have. Great for AVCHD. The free version is fully implemented except for limiting exports to 720p MP4 or H.264 codecs so you can try it to see if you like it. The pro version is only $79/yr for two machine license or $279 to buy it outright.
Lightworks is as old as Avid, but was first developed for film editing/DI rather than video editing. I like the film editing paradigm which shows in media organization tools and a great set of timeline editing functions. It works with Boris FX programs and some Premiere/AE plugins, but I would say its weakest point at present is support for third party plugins. Active supportive user forum on the site.
Watch the video tutorials. Lightworks is a feature rich complex program with a bit of a learning curve. The public OSX beta release is coming in June. Full release versions for Windows and Linux available now.
Lightwoks just celebrated passing 1 million subscribers recently.
 
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