FCP or Premier Pro or Edius ??

Film Division

Film Division

Active member
Hi,

I am going to be making short films, documentaries and corporate videos. Normally at 720/25PN (I guess) with varying frame rates and PAL format.

I have a X64 Windows PC with 2GB RAM.

I have traditionally used Adobe Premier, but haven't used it for a while or the new version. I used to have a Sony VX1000, I used to create skating videos and training videos for an old employer.

I'm at a crossroads and about to start the journey, HD and all.

I need to master a NLE suite, do I choose Final Cut Pro, stick with Premier Pro or Edius?

Your opinions are gratefuly appreciated.
 
Film Division said:
Why can't I run FCP on my PC?
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Because it's not written for PC, just Mac.

Here are the Requirements:

Macintosh computer with 867MHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, or Intel Core Duo processor; HD features require 1GHz or faster single or dual processors (authoring HD DVDs requires a PowerPC G5 or Intel Core Duo processor)

512MB of RAM; HD features require 1GB of RAM or more (2GB recommended)

Display with 1024-by-768 or higher resolution

AGP or PCI-E Quartz Extreme graphics card

Mac OS X 10.4.4 or later

QuickTime 7.0.4 or later

4GB of disk space required to install all applications

Additional 42GB required to install all optional templates, loops, content, and tutorials (may be installed on separate disks)

DVD drive for installation
 
Edius is your best solution RIGHT NOW for MXF editing. Now a few months down the road, it could be a different situation. Are you wanting to do Video Editing only? I am using Premiere Pro because I use other Adobe products like After Effects, Photoshop, and Encore. They all work together very nicely. If I were ONLY doing video editing then right now I would get Edius.
 
I'm an FCP user at work, but at home I stick to PC.

I am hopin that Adobe get a patch or an upgrade to deal with MXF editing in Premiere. But we'll have to wait and see. It would be nice if they have NTSC and PAL compatibility sorted at the same time.

Majormorgan
 
I really don't like Premier's interface. I've also had a lot of problems with crashing on multiple computers with previous versions, but not so much with this one. It's scarred my feelings on it. I love After Effects and Photoshop though.
 
Premiere has given me a lot of headaches too in the past. So far so good with Pro 2.0 though. It appears to be the most stable version yet.

Avid was a bunch of headaches for me. While I was waiting for my HVX200 to come in the mail, I was almost 100% positive that I was going to get Avid xPress Pro. Then my camera came in, and I tried Avid out. Yikes! What a disaster of a time I had. Also, there is no demo version so I was unable to properly try it out. Avid really let me down.

A good way to see what you like is to download the demo versions and try them out yourself. Both Edius and Premiere can be downloaded from their respective websites. (Avid take note).

If you are deifnetly going to be using AfterEffects, then I would recommend Premiere. I can't say enough about their new Adobe Dynamic Link between all of their new programs. It has saved me so much render time, and has really changed up my workflow. I can't say enough about it. And when you are working with HD sized clips, saving on render time REALLY adds up.
 
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colinmday said:
I love FCP. I would avoid Premier at all costs. On the PC side, I would go with Avid.
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MacIntosh is the largest single manufacturer of computers and the most popular software programs, e.g. Final Cut, are proprietary to Macs only not Windows-based systems. Who is the biggest supplier of Macintosh software? Microsoft.

PCs are only 32 bit but more flexable. Macintosh has alienated some of the software companies who now have stopped making their software for Macs or produce the software for PCs first, then do Macintosh later.

Both computer platforms have merit. Nothing pushes video along like a 64 bit Macintosh but a PC Workstation can hold it's own and Premiere is an excellent app that I would choose for a low budget production over AVID. It's less buggy and is completely integrated with the other Adobe production apps.

Both platforms are in the process of changing, what with Macintosh going Intel and PCs going to 64 bit "Vista" early next year, I wonder what advantage there will be to owning a Mac and using Final Cut Pro on an Intel System when, a year from now, PCs will also be 64 bit and a quad core Intel PC sytem will be doing battle for market share against quad core Intel Macs.

Doesn't matter now for me, though. I've blown my wad on camera gear and I'm up to my neck in PC software. I ain't changing.

If you're just buying a computer now, especially if you're a student, go Mac! They are reasonably priced and will work flawlessly with DVCPRO HD in Final Cut. Don't spend too much, though, because you don't know what is over the horizon for computers!

Sorry about the blog.
 
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MrPolarBare said:
Avid was a bunch of headaches for me. While I was waiting for my HVX200 to come in the mail, I was almost 100% positive that I was going to get Avid xPress Pro. Then my camera came in, and I tried Avid out. Yikes! What a disaster of a time I had. Also, there is no demo version so I was unable to properly try it out. Avid really let me down.
(Avid take note).
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Avid wouldn't even INSTALL on my computer! and I paid cash money for it. I took a couple classes and I work sometimes in places that have Avid systems. It's not a bad skill to have, Avid editing, but what a pain in the ass.

My computer is virtually double the minimum requirements for Avid PRO HD.

Next weekend I'm adding a bigger boot drive to my system and we'll see if Avid works then.
 
Choice : Edius

Choice : Edius

I would definitely recomend Edius.I work with it for a few years and it's stable and very fast. By now it's the only PC based software that works with MXF and all possible codecs DVC PRO HD, XDCAM, uncompressed SD,DVCAM, and many many more. New 4.0 version which would be presented at NAB is a hit.
Andrew
 
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