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AVCHD in MC 6 rather disappointing
I’m an Edius editor, but I downloaded the Media Composer 6 trial to see what’s the big deal with Avid, why is it that it’s the most used NLE in the industry. So far I find it really confusing and un-intuitive, but that could be that it’s very different to the rest. However, there are a couple of things that tell me that it’s not targeted at all at event videographers. One thing is that I find it absurd that you have to go to Avid’s website to download a plugin to open AVCHD footage through AMA. Given the large amount of AVCHD cameras these days, many of which are professional, that should be included in the product. But that’s not a big problem since once downloaded, it’s there. However, reading the PDF for the plugin itself, a couple of things gave me the impression that this NLE is definitely not targetted towards event videographers.
One of them is “Waveforms will be turned off in the timeline by default when working with AVCHD media.” Waveforms are the first tool I use to synchronize between two camera angles, and also additional audio tracks recorded with a digital recorder. Surely I could still sync using only my hearing, but it would take much longer. Currently I edit with Grass Valley Edius 6, which gives me waveforms like any other editor, such as Vegas and Premiere.
Then there is this: “Avid does not support MultiCamera editing with AMA clips.”
So I’m guessing that to properly edit AVCHD footage in Avid I would have to use the import dialog to convert to a native format and edit that instead. That would be a huge waste of time, since even on a fast machine it would take several hours to convert several hours of footage, not to mention that it would increase the space on the hard drive quite a lot.
Edius gives me excellent multicamera, without needing to convert to any format, and displays waveforms just fine, and it has excellent real time, even after adding several effects. Before Edius I used Vegas, which also opens AVCHD footage and displays waveforms and allows multicamera.
So it seems to me that Avid is more targeted towards movie and documentary makers, am I right in that conclusion?
Sebastian R. Alvarez
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2 Replies
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AMA is in Avid as of now is only really useable for previewing, but bringing your clips in via AMA and transcoding is alot faster than importing them from scratch.
Waveforms ca be turned on, and i believe they always default to off, no matter the media, i think tis up to you to save your timeline setting with the waveforms checked.
I dont know alot of people that do event stuff, but its certainly tailored to any type of media editing and multicam works great once yuour files are in mxf.
if your looking for a realtime edior, tha can do agillion tracks and fx in real time, then avid isnt for you. But if you want something tried and tested and a stable platform then you cant go wrong with avid.
Neil Goodman: Editor of New Media Production – NBC/Universal
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Not all tools are created equal. You have options for tools that you can use that fit what you need to do. Avid doesn’t do what you need to do…but you have Edius, that does. So you are set…you have the tool you need. If Avid doesn’t do what you need…then don’t use it. Simple.
[Sebastian Alvarez] “I downloaded the Media Composer 6 trial to see what’s the big deal with Avid, why is it that it’s the most used NLE in the industry”
WHICH industry? It isn’t the most widely used NLE out there. Not by a long shot. I think FCP is. It boasts 2 million registered users. Avid isn’t even close to that. But then FCP is used in a wide range of “industries.” And there are many many video industries: Network TV, Feature Film, Feature Doc, TV docs, Corporate Video, Event video, Wedding video, internet video, news, ENG, EPK…etc etc etc. And I can say, having worked in the Event business, I have never seen Avid used there. Media 100…yup, that’s what I used. Then FCP, Premiere, Vegas and Edius. Avid was never in that field from what I could tell.
[Sebastian Alvarez] “Edius gives me excellent multicamera, without needing to convert to any format, and displays waveforms just fine, and it has excellent real time, even after adding several effects”
Cool. Sounds like you have what you need. Don’t fall for marketting hype and get Avid just because you hear that it is the “standard.” It is in some areas, and not others. And you already have the perfect tool for the job.
[Sebastian Alvarez] “So it seems to me that Avid is more targeted towards movie and documentary makers, am I right in that conclusion?”
Feature film, narrative TV, reality shows, documentary series, independent film…then Newscutter for news editing…stuff like that, yes.
Shane
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