GH1 and Final Cut Pro - I Need Help.

[RieniO]

Doesn't compressor use exactly the same codec as Quicktime? I think it does... Apple has only one h264 codec and they use it for both Quicktime and Compressor. Correct me if I'm wrong. Also honestly I looked at compressor once and had no clue how to use it and purchased Telestream Episode, in another forum most agreed that Episode is better than Compressor.

 

[RieniO]

Having just come back to FCP after skipping a version to try Premiere, I can't tell you what the differences are between versions 6 & 7.

How would you rate FCP 7 to Premiere? I worked with Premiere in the past, on the Apple, and moved to Final Cut Express when Adobe stopped supporting Premiere on the Apple during a year or two.

 

[tflak]

How would you rate FCP 7 to Premiere? I worked with Premiere in the past, on the Apple, and moved to Final Cut Express when Adobe stopped supporting Premiere on the Apple during a year or two.

I gave up native editing of AVCHD in Premiere to endure transcoding to ProRes in FCP. And I'm happy to be using FCP again. Enough said?

I'll elaborate anyway. I found there are just too many rough edges in Premiere that interfere with a smooth workflow. I wanted to like Premiere. In fact, I have a real soft spot for it since I first started using it all the way back in version 1.0. Plus there are many features I genuinely like.

The biggest complaint I had with Premiere was when it would intermittently freeze when playing back the timeline. It could be playing back fine, even multiple times in the same segment, and then for no reason on the next play the picture would freeze while the audio kept playing. Sometimes it would recover after 15-30 seconds or so, but other times it required a force quit or it just crashed the system. And don't get me started on all the quirks involved with dynamic linking and AE.

It's a real pleasure to use FCP again and enjoy an uninterrupted creative workflow. Every piece of software has its problems, but I think the fact that I was willing to give up native editing of AVCHD in Premiere and endure the transcode to ProRes in FCP says something about just how fed up I was.

I really hope Adobe gets their act together and delivers on the promise of Premiere and the whole theoretical seamless workflow between their applications because it's my experience that it's currently more marketing hype than reality.

 

[pailes]

Doesn't compressor use exactly the same codec as Quicktime? I think it does... Apple has only one h264 codec and they use it for both Quicktime and Compressor.

That's most probably the case. But compressor allows for much more tweaking than the simple Quicktime export does. It's a very good tool.

Also honestly I looked at compressor once and had no clue how to use it and purchased Telestream Episode, in another forum most agreed that Episode is better than Compressor.

Huh? Using Compressor is so simple. Just drag in your footage, drag a preset on the clips and start encoding. Why spend 500 bucks for another tool if it's all build right into FCS?

If it's only about H.264 encoding, use the free x264 encoder, it will achieve better results than the Apple H.264 encoder.

 

[Martti Ekstrand]

Doesn't compressor use exactly the same codec as Quicktime? I think it does... Apple has only one h264 codec and they use it for both Quicktime and Compressor. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are wrong - Compressor does h264 encoding a great deal better than the Quicktime encoder part. You have to differ between the codec in the QT library and the encoding process in different applications. This misunderstanding is what's given Compressor a bad rep in some circles. It has some decidedly stupid interface quirks but once you've set up a good preset it's a really quick way to get out your edit from FCP to the web. Episode have some really good pro features for a production company doing a lot of daily encoding to various formats in batches but for just getting out a GH1 edit to Vimeo/YouTube it's a serious overkill if you already have FCP Studio as it includes Compressor - unless you really dig deep into Episode and tweak the encoding there's not a big difference in quality. Especially after the file gets mangled by those sites auto-encoding to flash video. It's also worth noting that Episode costs $495 and the whole FCPS $995...