what is online/offline edit.

S

shadow_dog_dx

Active member
hello this may be a stupid question but i want to know what an offline and online edit are. i have absolutely no idea what the differences are.
also whats the difference between a online suite and an offline suite.
thanks for the help
 
"Offline" is an old linear (tape-based) edit term, which still applies today in some applications. "Offline" tape editing used to refer to editing 3/4" U-matic or even 1/2" VHS dubs of your camera masters with burned-in "window" SMPTE timecode in a simple, inexpensive "cuts-only" edit bay. These "window-burn" dubs were made from camera masters through a SMPTE reader which then created characters to be displayed as video (like a CG does), layed over your picture so that you could literally see the timecode and make a manual edit decision list (EDL) for later use in a more expensive "online" edit bay. "Offline" edit bays usually went for about $35 to $50 an hour. The better-equipped "offline" bays had a papertape printer (used as a data storage medium), so that you could just feed that paper tape (that had the EDL encoded into it using a pattern of holes in the paper) into an "online" computerized edit system. It was amazing how archaic this process was, and this was as late as the early to mid- 1980s.

Back then, an "online" bay was the expensive one (about $400-$600 an hour) which had a lot more gear to create a finished, broadcast-quality product: an SEG (special effects generator) or switcher (for A-B dissolves, wipes, etc.), DVE (digital video effects), CG (character generator), etc. In the old days, all of these components were in seperate black boxes that cost tens of thousands of dollars each. So, you would take that EDL that you created by looking at the SMPTE characters visually from your finished "offline" edit master (or if your "offline" bay had a paper tape printer, you would just bring the paper tape to the "online" bay), and manually type in the timecode list (or feed the paper tape into the system) into a computerized (tape-based) "online" edit controller system like a CMX. Early CMX edit controllers used paper tape, and later CMX systems used 8" floppy disks for data input/output of the EDL.

Today, one example of "offline" editing would be to edit XDCAM proxy footage (low-resolution copies of your original "good" footage) in, say, a cheap laptop, and then send the finished "proxy" edit to an editor somewhere else (on an Avid or FCP or whatever), and they would then be able to automatically assemble the "laptop edit" using the "good" video from the XDCAM masters.

For most of us, however, there is no "online" and offline" anymore. Thanks to low cost, full-resolution, desktop NLEs, and now, nearly ubiquitous Firewire infrastructure among modern cameras, decks, and PCs/Macs (thank god, the days of analog "capture cards" are gone), we now have the benefits of what used to cost over $100,000 for the mere cost of a capable PC or Mac, and a copy of Premiere, Vegas, FCP, or Avid Express.
 
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