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FCP vs. Avid
I don’t know how to make this short but basically we’re thinking of switching from Avid to FCP. Here is what we have Avid XPress 6.0 with Particle Illusion and Boris Red3. We also have four Ultra 160/LVD Avid hard drives for storage. All together this system cost us over 32,000 problem is it looks like a G5 with FCP with Motion and Shake can do everything but MUCH BETTER with HD capacity and for cheaper! My problem is that the G5 doesn’t have a breakout box for RCA, S-Video, BNC and XLR connections for some of our decks. We also have a Sony DSR-40 DVCAM deck that you can control from the Avid for digitizing(RS-422 cable I think?), I don’t see anywhere on the Apple site support for this. Help would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Chris -
23 Replies
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For general comparisons of FCP vs. AVID, then do a Search on this forum for AVID and you’ll find tons of responses.
[Chris] “My problem is that the G5 doesn’t have a breakout box for RCA, S-Video, BNC and XLR connections for some of our decks”
Look at the AJA Io. There are three versions. The full Io features all analog and Digital I/O for the Mac along with RS-422 control. The Io LA is just Analog I/O and the Io LD is just Digital I/O.
For full on HD, look at the AJA Kona 2. It’s works perfectly in conjuction with the Io series and offers full 10bit SD and HD on the same card for around $2,000.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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For your RCA, S-Video, BNC and XLR connections you could check out some of the DeckLink card and BlackMagic….They have cards that does the trick…
for your DSR-40…it has a firewire in/out port, so that how you control the deck with FCP…
The only thing I’m not too sure is your drives… we use firewire drives, but you might need to invest in a SCSI card to be able to use your drives.
hope it helps!
ps. I used Avid for 5 years…didn’t want to believe that FCP could be better….guess what … I sold my avid, my PC and now, we have 3 FCP editing suite and I live for Macs!
markyyy
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I check the DeckLink Extreme card…for under a $1000 you get analog in/out + SDI + RS-422 Deck control…
DeckLink Extreme
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[markyyy] “I check the DeckLink Extreme card…for under a $1000 you get analog in/out + SDI + RS-422 Deck control… “
The only thing when considering an internal card is whether or not you plan to add HD later. I don’t like having two capture cards internal to the machine, so going with a standard def only card now and then adding an HD card later could result in either not enough slots, or two cards that don’t play well together.
So if you’re going to go with a capture card and you know HD is in your future, I think it’s best to look at one that does SD and HD on the same card.
The beauty of an external device like the Io is that it’s external, so there’s nothing to install and you can move it to whichever machine needs to use it at that time.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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For RS-422 control does FCP support it. EX: In Avid you click on digitize and it reads the timecode off the tape for current and future digitizing in case you lose something. Once you set have all your clips set up you punch batch digitize and it will digitize all the clips from that tape. How are Motion2 and Shake? It always seems that the final product of these two programs along with After Affects always looks more polished than Red but the workflow/plugin factor of Red is a plus. Thing I like about Red is that you can access it directly as a plug in and preview as you work without having to export then reimport to see if the effect worked to your liking. Of course if the effect isn’t what you wanted then you have to reexport and try again with AE. Correct me if I’m wrong about Shake and Motion….
Thanks,
Chris -
Chris,
Why is it a question of switching? First of all this is an entirely subjective issue that no one can decide except for you or your editor. I fly on both and can tell you – in my opinion and style of working – that your Avid blows the doors off FCP IF you want a fast cutting system. Others will certainly disagree. The FCP combo is better for effects.
If you have Avid’s (Pinnacle Genie card) RT hardware 3D DVE, you won’t find that on FCP with any combo of products. It doesn’t look great, but many people can’t do without it. To compare products, though, your Xpress is comparable to FCP + AJA Io. The Avid will have some level of RT effects (full quality) which the FCP system doesn’t.
Your Avid isn’t worth much on the open market, so why not simply ADD a G5/FCP system for the effects and see how you like it. Then after you’ve compared the two for a while, make your decision. Your Avid will still make money for you as an SD online system and SD/HD offline system until it falls apart. There is NO REASON to change anything at this time.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Looked at the AJA breakout box and it doesn’t have XLR for audio…..still curious about the graphics aspect as I had posted earlier.
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As far as 422 control – any pro i/o system you get will have it. Yes, FCP will support it. Motion is great for playing around with ideas. I don’t have Motion 2 yet. But Motion 1.0 never made it to production at our facility. We still use AE quite heavily. I’m not sure how that would change, but I’m always open to looking at better mousetraps. I never really caught onto the Boris interfaces much. I like AE too much, probably. Shake is very slick. If you’re doing that kind of work and need very fast feedback, it may do well for you. I wouldn’t, however, keep AE out of your toolbox. It’s too handy and there are way too many plug-ins for it. It’s like the swiss army knife for content creation. And it works pretty damn well, IMO.
HandyGeek
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Check out the Aja site a little bit. You’ll find that Kona and Io most definitely have XLR audio input and output.
https://aja.com/index.html
TC -
“Looked at the AJA breakout box and it doesn’t have XLR for audio”
I don’t know what you looked at, but my AJA IO has XLR audio ins and outs.
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