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Advice
Ok I’m going to pose this question to both you guys and the Final Cut guys and see which answer is more convincing…
I am about to begin work on a large scale editing project (feature length) and I cant decide which editing software to use. I own a Dell Inspiron 9200 laptop with premiere pro and a Mac G4 desktop with final cut 3. Which of these two systems would you use and why? Any advice is apreciated. -
5 Replies
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Premiere Pro is by itself a great software that works prefectly on a properly set up P4 desktop pc equipped with a good video card, such as a Matrox or AXIO. Since the issue is not only stability but real-time performance as well, my experience tells that a “naked” laptop is usually rather hard to meet those needs. On the other hand, as long as Mac G4 editing stations are famous for doing uniquelly well in the above two sections, I think the answer to your question is probable.
Themis
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You mentioned FCP v3.0, I would recommend upgrading to the latest version (v.5) if you can swing it, although depending on your G4’s speed, maybe that’s not a good idea (I don’t have the tech requirements in front of me). Premiere Pro 1.5 and FCP 3 are on much the same playing field as far as features, stability, etc. IMO except for a couple of key areas where PPro falls a little short. Mainly media managment (even FCP 3 could use and got improvements there) and timecode/edl managment. You don’t mention if you intend to finish on the system you start on, but if you do, then this may not be a big issue. I have found that PPro is just too hard to get good information out of regarding clips and timecodes (compared to FCP) especially for long format stuff. And getting good edls for finishing out of PPro is sometimes challenging in my experience. Also the project window in PPro falls woefully short if you have tons of clips and bins- it’s enough to drive a person to drink! Not allowing multiple bins to be open at the same time is ridiculous. And, in my experience, PPro tends to get slugish sooner in long timelines/multiple nested timelines than FCP, but they both slow down a bit with longer form timelines/projects and this could very well be attributed to differences in machines.
I don’t mean to slam PPro here, I use it a lot and it’s great. It’s just that FCP has had many more revisions and refinements made to it and for certain types of projects, those little things add up, especially if you’re cutting a feature IMO. It’s really a user preference thing more than anything else and if you’re more comfortable on PPro and a PC, then maybe that’s the best path for you. PPro is certainly capable of doing the job, I’m sure. But if it were me, I’d go with FCP (even if it’s v3.0) because of the reasons I listed above.
I agree with the other post too that, in general, a desktop machine might be more friendly to work on in the long haul than even a well equiped laptop.
My 2 cents.
PS: I have also experienced the occasional corrupted project file with PPro although it usually has been able to ‘recover’ itself and then uses the recovered copy going forward. For the record, on hundreds of FCP projects of all lengths, I have never had a corrupted project file (I’m sure now, I will!) but I have always made backups as I go along just in case. I make a point of backing up PPro project files more often as this is a very upsetting experience to go through, especially if you’ve invested tens or hundreds of hours on the project!!
-Troy.
Editor
Flying Spot, Seattle -
[themis] “works prefectly on a properly set up P4 desktop pc equipped with a good video card, such as a Matrox or AXIO.”
Could you tell me where I can find one of them thar Axio cards you keep mentioning, People keep trying to hose me over $25K for a intergrated system.
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You OWN both type systems and the software ? why don’t YOU load some footage into both systems and see what YOU like to edit with. What difference does it make what everyone else thinks here ? when its YOU that will be working on the project. when I go buy a new car I test drive them and don’t ask the dealer what he likes best
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Come on. You can’t get a feel for a system unless you cut a major peice of work on it. Asking advice is a great way of getting an idea of the pro and cons.
There is a great thread on Discreet Edit forum from *editors trying to find a program as “elegant” as the long deceased Edit.
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