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Editing Software Questions

N

Noitome

New Member
To state my current position, I own a PC, and am just looking at the pros and cons between Premiere, Avid's systems, and Final Cut Pro.

I'll just state that I'm currently looking at either Avid or Premiere since I don't like the idea of shelling out money just to get the Mac in the first place. I don't have a thing against Macs or anything. I'd just rather get something for my current system instead of having to buy a new computer AND software to boot.

I've used Premiere before at my school to edit together a video project and found it pretty good for editing video projects. So I'm curious, I know Final Cut Pro has the ability to do a pull down and make a project be 24 fps instead of videos 29.97 or whatever. The Coens used this when editing Intolerable Cruelty to take the video version of their film and turn it back to 24 fps.

I've looked at Premiere's site and haven't been able to find my answer yet. Is Premiere capable of doing a similar pull down if I were to edit a film based project on it? Or would going for an Avid be my best bet?

My assumption is that Avid is the only PC based system that can do this, please correct me if I'm wrong on this. With that guess, I've checked out Avid's site and have found more than one working type of program. Film Composer, Media Composer, Xpress Pro, Xpress DV, which of these would be able to tackle both editing NTSC video projects as well as a 24 fps film project?

I apologize for the long post, but what I'm looking for is something that I can edit video projects on now and if I switched to using film later on, I wouldn't have to bother upgrading my software when it came to editing.

I'm leaning towards Avid more than anything, since I know it's capable of editing film, I just don't know which one to get. I'm not wanting to hear a "which one's better" argument either. I've stated specifications and am just wondering which program(s) fits those specifications.
 
To state my current position, I own a PC, and am just looking at the pros and cons between Premiere, Avid's systems, and Final Cut Pro.

I'll just state that I'm currently looking at either Avid or Premiere since I don't like the idea of shelling out money just to get the Mac in the first place. I don't have a thing against Macs or anything. I'd just rather get something for my current system instead of having to buy a new computer AND software to boot.

I've used Premiere before at my school to edit together a video project and found it pretty good for editing video projects. So I'm curious, I know Final Cut Pro has the ability to do a pull down and make a project be 24 fps instead of videos 29.97 or whatever. The Coens used this when editing Intolerable Cruelty to take the video version of their film and turn it back to 24 fps.

I've looked at Premiere's site and haven't been able to find my answer yet. Is Premiere capable of doing a similar pull down if I were to edit a film based project on it? Or would going for an Avid be my best bet?

My assumption is that Avid is the only PC based system that can do this, please correct me if I'm wrong on this. With that guess, I've checked out Avid's site and have found more than one working type of program. Film Composer, Media Composer, Xpress Pro, Xpress DV, which of these would be able to tackle both editing NTSC video projects as well as a 24 fps film project?

I apologize for the long post, but what I'm looking for is something that I can edit video projects on now and if I switched to using film later on, I wouldn't have to bother upgrading my software when it came to editing.

I'm leaning towards Avid more than anything, since I know it's capable of editing film, I just don't know which one to get. I'm not wanting to hear a "which one's better" argument either. I've stated specifications and am just wondering which program(s) fits those specifications.
 
Final Cut Pro is probably the best equipped for switching between NTSC and film (and pretty much every other format imaginable). Cinema Tools makes it even better for handling film.

I'd save the money and get a Mac. It will save you so much time, money, and aggravation in the long run.

_________________________
JSW Films | Films Abroad
 
For right now i use Adobe Premier 6 and Pro. Sometimes it can be a pain in the butt but it works out later. But like a lot of people am buying a mac and goin FCP4.
 
hands down, AVID...premiere cant compare, and AVID's color correction technology FAR surpasses FCP's...

dude, if you are staying on a PC, go with AVID...
I got AVID XPRESS 4.0, and it works awesome...takes a while to learn, but it'd be smart to learn it now...

_________________________
J.MICHAEL | COMING 2004
 
i agree with JW that FCP is a wise choice, however i also would agree that Avid is probably the best place to be since you are already on a pc, and particularly since it is the best software of the three to know of you want to get anywhere in the industry (arguments can be made that this fact is slowly changing). Having said that, regarding premiere, i'm pretty positive that neither premiere 6 nor pro is capable. After effects is, and the magic bullet plugin for it does a hell of a job from my understanding too, far surpassing after effects native process.

Test Pilot One Eleven Productions
www.testpilot111.com
 
I have Pinnacle Studio 8 and its very easy to use and is very user friendly, but its very basic compares to like Adobe and it crashes WAY too much. But if your just doing small projects like me (we use the school apples for our real shorts) Pinnacle is a decent way to go I guess... not really though.

www.LostBoysMediaGroup.com
 
In my experiences there haven't been a lot of problems editing film on 29.97. The little half frame discrepancies usually balance out and the lab can easily stretch the audio to match. I'm not sure how well 24p extraction works with footage TK'd to NTSC anyway, although I've read it's not a big problem.

I would go with Avid if I were you.

Nota "Chop chop" Mono
 
If you want to edit 24fps material then you need avid xpress pro.

Its about $1,300

But you can get it for about $700 with student discount.
 
The Avid Xpress Pro looks pretty interesting. As does the price.
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That's what saving's for I guess. However does it comes with the tools that they advertised in the videos? They talked about using special effects and effects from After Effects. I'd assume you'd need to buy After Effects for those functions.
 
Xpress has effects as good as FCP does. they're just minor things. you'd probably end up using an effects program anyway since it would do it better than both.


Xpress doesn't do 24 frames though. The higher up Avid's do, Symphony i think is the highest.

FCP is better than DVXpress, but the regular Xpress (think it's called XL now) is better than FCP for doing all kinds of video. But XL isn't just a program, you have to get the break out boxes, sync boxes, and the Avid RAID set up.


AvidXpressPRO is good enough if you're just editing.

what do you need the 24 frames for? are you going to cut your negative? because you don't need to have 24 frame timeline. you can just have the lab burn keycode on the video. that way you have a rough estimate of where your cut is. since you have to cut the workprint anyway to make sure everything works out, you can figure out what exact frame you need to cut on during that step.


i hate premiere's retarded A/B video set up. and Avid's snapping/slug system too. it gets rather annoying. FCP reminds me more of Photoshop where you can just drag things around where you need them, and then use them when you want. but that's just the way i work.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>i hate premiere's retarded A/B video set up. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

just for the record, the retardation has had its brain cells reconfigured. It is gone in premiere pro, which shares an awful lot of design cues with FCP. Took em long enough.

Test Pilot One Eleven Productions
www.testpilot111.com
 
Symphony is better than Xpress Pro - for film you mean or in general? What is the top of the range Avid that if money was no object you could edit DV with Franco?

A friend of mine is working as a camera assistant or something on Harry Potter and says they use Xpress Pro on set sometimes for live edits.
 
xpress is now made for laptop use to compete against Final Cut. it used to be the lowest end Avid system to buy, but everyone stopped buying it. so they switched it to just software now, so people can carry it around.

All of Avid's programs are pretty much the same. They use the same graphic layout and controls. The difference between the systems is the render card they use, and the number and quality of connections the card can use from actual hardware (video decks).


Composer, Symphony and all the variations of that are for real intense editing and PRO editing. i don't know how serious you are about editing, but if you're set on Avid and it's just for your projects on DV then just get the cheapest version of Xpress because it's about the same as FinalCut with no additional hardware.

if you're thinking about starting your own business, like a small post house, then you could probably stand to invest in the higher Xpress levels, or the introductory Composer. that way you can grow as your business grows.

But FCP is catching up. the reason Avid has advantage with the professional market is becuase they make their own hardware, so they know what problems can come up with trying to get so many video decks and signals and computers working together. Apple only makes software for FCP, but more and more third parties are making professional quality hardware to help FCP deal with any problems. that why so many companies are switching.

personally, i would use FCP, because it's easier and faster to use than Avid's interface. but to be honest i haven't used premiere Pro, which i guess is a change from past premiere versions. and if you don't want to buy a mac, Avid will work fine.



edit: anyone, if any of this info has changed, feel free to correct it.
 
I find it a crying shame that FCP's quality far surpasses that of every Avid product except DS. It's simply sad. The fact that a Symphony is used anywhere as an off-line boc for a pretty FCP system is the biggest egg on Avid's face that I have seen... and I've seen quite a few eggs over the last 15 years.
I think starting out right now, you'd be doing yourself a huge diservice not to at least have one copy of FCP.
 

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