HVX Editing - AVID vs. FCP

M

Melchior

Member
Hi everyone.

I just shot a short film on the HVX and Arri-SR3 (which is not really relevant here). So now I am looking for reasons to choose one editing system over another.

The reason is that my current computer (PC) is old and it's time to buy a new one. My preferance is to buy a PC with AVID, because I love PC's and how they are easily customizable, and I already know AVID fairly well.

However, I was also looking into Mac's and FCP. Mostly I was looking into the Macs because they're the industry standard. I don't know much about FCP, but I know Macs fairly well, as I learned how to use AVID on them.

Editing this short film of mine takes priority over everything, so I want to know what are the plusses and minuses of editing the P2 card footage from the HVX on either system. That's because I will spend a lot of time with this footage and I don't want to hinder the workflow, I will also be needing to do a fair bit of color correcting on the HVX footage. (the film footage will have a supervised transfer later when the edit is complete).
 
I also have both: Avid Xpress Pro HD w/Mojo on a fairly full-boat editing desk, and FCP on my Mac Book Pro.

Both will edit P2 footage quite well.

Avod however, keeps you very constrained in monitoring and exporting HD data on Avid (currently only in SD). To do a full HD production monitor on Avid, and to be able to export HD footage from Avid, you have to pretty much upgrade to Adrenalin (~$20k). Otherwise it's limiting you to in/out SD, and editing HD.

FCP is much better as far as options to monitor HD footage in HD via many third party cards like Aja. And it allows for input/export of HD footage seamlessly. It also currently supports more of the formats that the HVX can shoot than Avid, although that will likely change soon.

If I were getting into the game from scratch right now, and did not plan to work in a large team environment (Avid kicks FCPs butt for multi-user & management), I would invest in FCP. Its become ubiquitous in Indie filmmaking. Avid still rules Hollywood big-budget and Broadcast.

My 2 cents
 
They both have their own pros and cons. FCP has to put QT wrappers on footage which takes up more space and makes media management a bit more of a pain but Avid can't do frame extractions from P2 so you won't be able to edit 1080p 24p on a 24p timeline (not a huge detail but a bit annoying).
 
The P2 workflow in Final Cut is a real joy since 5.1.2 came out offering support for PAL users. The real time performance is really good on my mac book pro laptop. Whilst AVID is the business in Hollywood FCP is the tried and true indie filmmakers friend. Supports all formats, great editing tools and brilliant interface this is the system to beat.
And remeber people tend to use Avid as everyone else uses it. I'm sure if all those people had tried FCP they would realise that FCP is just about good enough to be industry standard if they worked on their media manager.
 
FCP rocks my world !
Avid i've always found a real pain in the arse !
Also the standard Avid express/pro is so terribly crippled compared the Nitris family it's just silly.
FCP lets you go all the way.......today lol
 
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We work with avid - there is no import - just copy the files in - very easy once you know how and doesnt duplicate storage

You can export HD no prob - you can monitor live with a good vid capture card.

we love avid
 
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