avid vs final cut…pc vs apple

[Shannon Brame]

You don’t need options/bang for your buck, you need to get the work done FAST. Are you working in DV, HD, film? FCP can handle all of it and its stable as can be. I use both but prefer FCP for just about everything.

For its price FCP is the best option I have used. With a good card and decent computer you won’t have to upgrade very often. Which is the actual bang for your buck!!!

[Carl Amoscato]

Search these forums, because this question comes up about once a week, and you’ll get a lot of opinions in favor of any solution you’d like to use.

What it boils down to is this:

1) Do YOU want to use a PC or a Mac? Whatever you answered, buy that.

2) What editing program do YOU like? You say you’re using Discreet now. Do you like it? Are you fast on it? Then buy it.

Every editing program and computer OS has advantages and disadvantages. There’s no way to determine exactly what you need for a particular workflow, because everyone has personal preferences based on their situation.

You’re going to be stuck with whatever decision you make, so make it yourself.

good luck,
Carl

[Earle Nichol]

Hey Jay
Being that you now edit on EDIT* there are a few things that you will miss going to an AVID and a few things you will love. Slomo on the timeline is a few more clicks in AVID. But AVID’s media management is second to none…epecially if you’re diging alot of footage. Subclipping as you dig is a nice option too in AVID(not sure if FCP has this) Learnig curve is minimal if you’ve been editing on EDIT* Multiple timelines is not a problem… I cut and paste versions all the time for clients. As far as stability I’ve been working on the same AVID Xpress for 5 years and if we have 1 crash a week it’s a suprise to us. And if I do crash AVID brings everything back within a couple of edits or usaually right where I left it. Oh thats a view from a AVID cutter but don’t close your mind to anything, FCP was pretty spanky at NAB but like Shannon says “what are you gonna do with it?”

Pearl

[Charley King]

I am a firm believer of dance with who brung ya to the dance. My Avid is on a MAC, Macs don’t like me. I have reached a point that my Mac doesn’t crash as often as it did, but anyone who says Macs don’t crash is living in a fantasy world. I am comfortable editing on my Mac, but I am a PC guy so would prefer it on a PC. I also have Vegas Video on a PC, I like it for some projects. I just got Premiere Pro in the Adobe Video Collection Professional, I needed After Effects, so got the whole package. I am not yet comportable with Premiere, but can see some things it does well.
The point I am making is Mac, or PC, it is your choice, pick which you are more comfortable with and go that direction.

Charlie

[Jon Zanone]

Ask a carpenter how many hammers he has in his tool box. I’ll bet you’ll get the same answer you got here – “I’ve got a bunch of hammers in there – what do you want me to do?”

Part of the art of the edit (oopps, wrong forum 🙂 is to select the correct tools.

Jon

[Dom Silverio]

The hammer analogy is an oversimplification of the issue. Ask Jeff Gordon what car he drives is a bit more apt.

[Dom Silverio]

FAST and FCP are in 2 different planets. Heck the trim tool is laggy as hell.

For long form, Avid is king. Media management, Trim Tools, mature workflow, low res offline support, 24p/23.976 support better and more seamless than any other, renders extremely fast, plugin support -including RT with After FX plugins via Elastic Gasket, cross platform, etc.

[Shannon Brame]

[MPE] “FAST and FCP are in 2 different planets. Heck the trim tool is laggy as hell.
“

I have to say we have a different experience. I am fast on both machines. All I can say is that you either did not set your FCP up with enough power. Low price tag on the software does not mean you can give it a sub standard machine and expect it to work as well as your High powered, we shot the wad on this breakout box AVID.

You have to learn how to use it just like you did in AVID. FCP is great if it has unlimited drive and storeage space like an AVID. I know this from experience.

But its all in good fun and happy working. Avid/FCP people are worse than MAC/pc people.

[Jeremy Tohtz]

Demo both products.

Make the decision for yourself based on what fits the bill and your budget. Don’t ever listen to anybody who says FCP sucks cuz it crashed five times last week or Avid is buggy. The fact of the matter is that if configured properly both systems work really well and are very good solutions. I would suggest you find a good reseller in your area that sells both systems and demo them. A good reseller is a very valuable resource. Espically if you run into any tech problems.

One thing to note, Avid has a family of products, many different systems running on many different computers and configs. I often hear people complain about how “their Avid” can’t do this and FCP can when you talk to them you find out they are unhappy about a Media Composer version 7 running on a Mac9600.

Demo the latest version of each application. Get the best computer you can afford, FCP & Avid’s performance is tied to the cpu’s they are running on.

My 2 cents

[Dom Silverio]

Several DP G4s and DP G5s. All with SCSI RAID or Huge Systems drive. I find it laggy [DV25, unc 8 bit or unc 10 bit]