FCP or Avid?

J

jibadajaba

Member
I'm trying to decide between Avid and FPC. What are the pros and cons? For me I can see that a good PC is going to be cheaper than a power G5 Mac. I'd be able to buy a good PC with Avid faster than I could a new Mac with FCP. However, if cutting that corner is going to cost me in the long run then I don't want to do it. Any thoughts?
 
I have had to use avid and fcp side by side and to me Avid is just a pain, it supposed to more advanced but if someone offered me a 10,000$ FCP or Avid Editing Suite I wouldnt hesitate to use FCP. But no one can make this descision for you, its all up too you and your personal preference.
 
What are you going to be editing on it? If SD, you can easily use either. If HVX DVCPRO-HD, or HDV, I'd say Mac Mac Mac all the way. The Mac implementation of DVCPRO-HD and HDV just flies compared to any PC in the same price bracket.

Bigger question is -- are you trying to get a job as a freelance editor, or are you editing your own stuff? If as a freelancer either will be a good choice, but Avid does hold an edge in installed base IINM. If for your own stuff then that doesn't really matter and you can go either way.
 
FCP, of course.

FCP, of course.

First of all, it's FCP forum, so I'd say FCP.
Secondly, I really don't understand you saying you could get Avid cheaper
than you could get FCP editing suite. How could you?
If you were going for a professional editing suite, it'd cost WHOLE LOT MORE
with Avid than you would on FCP system. Avid is a hardware-based
editing machine, which means that you must get the hardware system unless
you want to edit with Avid Express Pro. FCP performs better if you have better
computer.
As a result, I'd recommend you to get a FCP editing suite if you want to be able
to work on the timeline that you can copy and paste. Sorry FCP users, but I think
this is the biggest advantage that FCP offers over Avid system.
 
Barry,
I'm going to be editing stock from the ag-dvx100b. I will be using whatever platform I decide on for making personal independent films. I'm not aiming at freelance. It seems like your leaning the FCP way though in general. If FCP is the better platform, then I'd rather just hold out for a little longer and get that.

Janghos,
Correct me if I'm wrong (and seriously please do) but from what I've been looking at it looks like for a power G5 mac, I'm looking at a min of 2,000 and for FCP if I get Final cut studio it looks like that runs about 1,300. Grand total of at least 3,300.

Avid express pro on the other hand goes for 1,695 and I can get an Avid capable PC for 1,000. Grand total of 2695.

Those are my figures. But if I'm off on something or missing something let me know. Not a huge difference, but for me it would mean waiting vs buy now. But, if the two platforms are equal in essence then I see no reason to wait. However, if FCP is the better platform then maybe I should just be patient.

I appreciate all the responses. I'd rather be educated and make an informed decision, than an off the cuff decision based on a pricetag.


Tim
 
jibadajaba said:
Barry,
I'm going to be editing stock from the ag-dvx100b. I will be using whatever platform I decide on for making personal independent films. I'm not aiming at freelance. It seems like your leaning the FCP way though in general. If FCP is the better platform, then I'd rather just hold out for a little longer and get that.

Janghos,
Correct me if I'm wrong (and seriously please do) but from what I've been looking at it looks like for a power G5 mac, I'm looking at a min of 2,000 and for FCP if I get Final cut studio it looks like that runs about 1,300. Grand total of at least 3,300.

Avid express pro on the other hand goes for 1,695 and I can get an Avid capable PC for 1,000. Grand total of 2695.

Those are my figures. But if I'm off on something or missing something let me know. Not a huge difference, but for me it would mean waiting vs buy now. But, if the two platforms are equal in essence then I see no reason to wait. However, if FCP is the better platform then maybe I should just be patient.

I appreciate all the responses. I'd rather be educated and make an informed decision, than an off the cuff decision based on a pricetag.


Tim
Click to expand...

what are your specifications for this Avid capable PC?
 
Myfriend,

The main specs on the PC are Pentium 4 3.6 Ghz, 80GB 7200rpm 8mb HD, 1GB ddr, Quadro FX 500 128mb frame-buffer agp vid card. IEEE-1394 FireWire pci. I’ve already got winxp that I can throw on it. If I'm missing something let me know and I'll check the PC to see if it has it or to see if there's something pertinent that I missed and it doesn't have. Well got to run, its late. Thanks for the follow up Myfriend.
 
jibadajba,

You're going to want more than 1GB RAM for editing - 2GB would be better. Is that Pentium a dual processor or dual-core? Having an extra processor makes a world of difference. Also, is it SATA or plain old ATA for the hard drive? SATA is faster.
Is that a brand-name PC? Are you comfortable with trouble-shooting if not?
The G5s all come with dual-core processors, SATA HDs and Apple-approved parts. Doesn't mean they don't fail, just means it's easier to isolate problems because all the parts are the same.
Also, if you look at what you get with Final Cut Studio, it's a much better deal than Avid - Motion, Soundtrack Pro and DVD Studio Pro along with Final Cut.
I haven't used Avid, but I come from an actual film-shooting and cutting backgound and FCP is just amazing to work with.
 
jibadajaba said:
Myfriend,

The main specs on the PC are Pentium 4 3.6 Ghz, 80GB 7200rpm 8mb HD, 1GB ddr, Quadro FX 500 128mb frame-buffer agp vid card. IEEE-1394 FireWire pci. I’ve already got winxp that I can throw on it. If I'm missing something let me know and I'll check the PC to see if it has it or to see if there's something pertinent that I missed and it doesn't have. Well got to run, its late. Thanks for the follow up Myfriend.
Click to expand...

thats pretty bare minium for HD editing, the Mac could edit the HD comfortably with 2gb of DDR2 Ram, but your right above the bar for editing 1080
 
I edit 25i SD footage on a P4 2.4ghz, 1 gig ram, no problems what so ever... using Avid Xpress Pro HD 5.2...

If your editing SD footage, you don't even need Express pro, you can get Avid Xpress DV for $500, less then 1/2 the cost of FCP... Avid has some pretty sweet automatic colour correction and stabilization tools...


that being said I just bought a mac mini to play with Final Cut and see what everone is fussing over...
 
jibadajaba said:
Barry,
I'm going to be editing stock from the ag-dvx100b. I will be using whatever platform I decide on for making personal independent films. I'm not aiming at freelance. It seems like your leaning the FCP way though in general. If FCP is the better platform, then I'd rather just hold out for a little longer and get that.
Click to expand...
Frankly, for that purpose I'd say ditch both of 'em. Get Vegas instead. If you're editing 24p on a DVX, Vegas is way better and half the price. And you can run Vegas very well (very very well) on a $500 Dell; no need to get a $2,000 Mac or a $3,000 Avid-certified PC!

If you're editing DVX100B footage, Vegas is my hands-down favorite editor, way far and above FCP or Avid.

FCP rocks for the HVX, but Vegas is all you need for the DVX and it is the best-integrated DVX editor, IMHO.

Avid express pro on the other hand goes for 1,695 and I can get an Avid capable PC for 1,000. Grand total of 2695.
Click to expand...
Don't do it. You have to use an Avid-certified system or else they won't even talk to you. I had the unfortunate experience of running it on WinXP Media Center edition, and now it doesn't work anymore (for no discernible reason) and Avid just says "sorry, Media Center is not supported". So I'm stuck. Eventually I'll get another laptop or desktop and I'll specify XP Pro, but for now my Avid just doesn't work.

So if you want to go Avid, you'd better make darn sure you comply with absolutely every one of their requirements, or you will get no technical support at all.
 
Wow,

Thanks for the info. I think, I'll research vegas. Especially if it will do what I need for less money. I've got the feeling you guys saved me some $. I probably could have learned the hard way, but I'd rather save the money=) All of the posts were extremely helpful.
 
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