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From Avid to FCP, any advice?
Hey folks,
I’m looking for some advice about making a move from Avid Symphony to Final Cut and I have a few questions. I would have gone to NAB myself and asked but there was too much work :-).
1. Does FCP for SD edits work in a 720×486 environment or does it operate like Xpress and only do 720×480?
2. I have a digibeta deck, with the right I/O (Kona 2 or Decklink), will I be able to stay in a truly digatal format?
3. Assuming there are other promo folks out there, what issues have you had to deal with when making the move from Avid to FCP? What about the benefits? When making large stringouts, do you have any timeline issues (like slipping a frame here or there, etc).
4. Most networks I’ve dealt with are hesitant to move away from Avid, which I understand. Avid got us to this point. How have you dealt with execs in convincing them that FCP won’t bite their fingers off, so to speak.
5. Is 1:1 quality truly equitable to 1:1 in an Avid format?From the looks of FCPHD 5 (especially the multi-cam features) I’m really eager to go for it. Any advice or tips for a FCP novice are welcome.
Thanks!
J -
16 Replies
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When I made the switch the only problem I had was going back to AVID. The damn thing is CLUNKY. I have the decklink card at home and at the office, and Have no trouble getting a digibeta deck to work. The 10bit uncompressed is less compressed that 1:1. I would see if you can get one FCP rig then import an Avid Edl (I hear this is possible) although I haven’t done it myself.
I have not had a problem with the timeline at any length. I only had improved edit experiences. Imagine not having to select segment mode, or trim mode, its always on. Just pick up a piece of video and move it around…its really cool. As far as the 720X486480 I can tell you that as long as you have the right card and the full non express version of FCP you can edit in 486. I’d be happy to discuss the change with you in more detail as this seems like a ranting and unorganized post from me.
Cheers
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Thanks! I do a lot of predating and I heard that trimming in FCP took a little time to adjust to.
Everything I see on FCP just looks so smooth compared to Avid. I waited for NAB to go by to see what Avid would offer in response to Final Cut, and it looked like more of the same old business model. If you want true uncompressed sdi video quality from Avid, you have to spend ninety thousand dollars, or buy used, which is still more expensive than FCP.
I think what sold me on FCP was the live switching mode for multicam editing. It looks to ridiculously easy and well thought out, how can I NOT get it?
j
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1. 720X486
2. Yes SDI with audio embeded all the way including monitor if you have SDI monitor (analogue o/p is available on most of the cards)
3 cannot realy comment as i do not do promo’s anymore but from my experience of doing promo’s on other systems i would be more than happy doing them on FCP5 infact i would prefer it as Motion is great for Promo work and i would guess that if you have to post the sound then soundtrack pro would also be great. Playouts for me have been rock solid but i always make a quicktime uncompressed movie and play that out.
4 I have had execs keen to see it almost a selling point ! However thats such a local issue but if you sell it to them in an innovative lets try this out and have fun with it in ‘High Def’ kinda thing they should go for it.
5 No it is better quality as far as the cards are concerned FCP4.5 has quality issues as far as only 8bit render and poor DVE scaling (do DVE stuff in Motion) However FCP5 is supposed to be much improved in that regards.
I would say doing Promo’s would be FCP Studio’s strength although i think you could miss the Symphony Color Corrector.
Certainly could not feel happy about paying $90k on the new Symphony Nitris unless there was real good reason
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I capture from Digibeta every day through an AJA Io, uncompressed. It just works.
I had one of the Symphony editors (of which I am one as well…I just prefer Final Cut now) comment to me last week how good a piece of video looked. We were double teaming a bigger project we and edited half in the Avid and half in FCP. I dumped my segments to Digibeta. He then captured them into the Symphony to assemble our clips onto a common timeline for output. We edited with the same source material. His was captured 1 to 1 and I captured my clips 8-bit, uncompressed. He thought the stuff I edited looked much better than the clips on his Avid. Both were captured via SDI. I had to agree.
I finished my segments way faster than he did his. The comment above about modes being “always on” is so true. It’s so easy to quickly make changes to the timeline. Fast, fast,fast!
I totally agree that it’s almost painful to go back into one of the Symphony rooms and edit anymore. Way too “clunky” I think was the comment.
OK, I’m biased, I’ll admit, but I don’t think that image quality is between the two systems is an issue at all anymore.
My 2 -
Thanks again!
Does FCP not offer 10 bit uncompressed? Is that based only on the I/O card?
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FCP4.5 is 10bit cuts only in the timeline effects get rendered 8bit (although the cards are 10bit).
However FCP5 is full 10bit and has much improved quality of effects.
Quality should outperform Symphony i dont think it is an issue.
Check out blackmagic website for info about quality.
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Yes trimming in FCP is still not as nice as it is in Avid. This is about the only thing left in Avid that I prefer.
Who knows if they’ve made any changes in FCP 5, it could be there already.
Final Cut Pro does “think different” to a lot of Avid ways. But once you get used to them you will begin to understand
how well the whole interface is thought out. And how bizarre the Avid interface is.Make the switch. You’ll love it.
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Don’t know if I’m the only one. But trimming video with audio is a piece of cake compared to AVIDs.
It works for 3,4,5,6 times on an edit – and the 7th time it will play audio from somewhere out of the source clip. Not the audio you’re trimming: Something from in-between.
Makes me bite in my keyboard quite often.
Second big thing is staying in sync with your tracks. I’m still convinced (4 years FCP now) that AVID is waaay better in this respect.
These essential everyday – tasks require so many workarounds, clicks a.s.o. that I can edit way faster and more precise on an AVID than I can on FCP.
But I’ve worked on AVIDs for more than 10 years and am in year #4 on FCP.
So maybe I’m too old.Greetings
Uwe -
You sure about this Nick? As I understood it there was only an 8 bit limitation when using transfer modes other than “Normal”, with any other fx rendered in 10 bit.
Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
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Ten Final Cut Plug-ins for just $10 each -
The ONLY item that keeps me using Avid is the fact that I can lasso a transition on the timeline and trim while seeing the A and B side from layered video tracks. If Final Cut Pro had this functionality I’d have been gone from Avid many years ago. In my opinion FCP is more of a mouse driven program and Avid is more keyboard driven.
I do think FCP is a great program.
Rastus
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