-
FCP vs. Edius
Our company currently uses FCP but is possibly changing and using Edius in the next couple months when it goes to HD and was looking to see if anyone has used both systems and could let me know what you think of Edius and any major adantages/disadvantages you see with either system.
Thanks very much -
6 Replies
-
God…will this turn into another HUGE thread like the one about Premiere?
Why are they considering Edius for HD work? FCP does HD, rather well. Obviously your company thinks Edius has something FCP doesn’t. Do you know what that might be?
Shane
Littlefrog PostGETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD now for sale!
http://www.lfhd.net -
Yep, I use Edius turnkey systems to edit HD … they use proprietary hardware and cost a fortune, FCP is much cheaper and a AJA IO HD provides similar functionality and is much cheaper!
That said, they are rock solid and provide excellent realtime performance, although goodness knows I would ditch them in an instant if it wasn’t for the carrot and stick lure of full integration with our K2 servers.
Major disadvantages for me is the lack of any effective compositing tools, not all effects can be effectively keyframed, can’t view source clip waveforms, nor effectively monitor and select multi-track audio from source clips, abysmal performance if you have the Audio Mixer window open (it basically kills the real time)
-
Honestly I don’t know anyone who uses Edius. Everyone I know and have worked with uses FCP or Avid. I think it would help us more if you told us what features in Edius are making your company consider that NLE vs. FCP. The real differences I see are the ability to work with different codecs than FCP, but this is normal for all NLE’s. Everyone works with varying codecs, especially when you compare a Windows based system to a Mac based system. Mac’s will always be based around Quicktime and variants of that.
Grass Valley is obviously a well known brand in the broadcast industry so it’s a solid name behind the product. The one thing I do recall however is Grass Valley coming out with a version of Media 100 that had their name on it and it offered additional features over and above what Media 100 offered at that time. It was a flop of a product because Grass Valley was / is known for live switchers and other broadcast related hardware, not editing software / hardware.
The one big drawback I would see is having to switch from Mac to Windows. How does that affect any other software that your company owns? You would have to purchase Windows versions of everything. Is this an issue for your company or do they already own Windows versions of everything?
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
Thanks everyone for the replies.
Here is some more information, hopefully it helps…I think the big lure of Edius is the K2 and the possibility of going tapeless in the building.
As for the Mac vs PC in the building, presesntly it is a mixture- In the graphics department where everything has alreasy been upgraded they invested in a split between Macs running Motion and/or AE, as well as a few machines running Flame 2.0. Plus the upgrades for the 3D artists(I’m not sure of their software? I want to say it’s Maya and something else)
Editing wise, it’s a combination. Some use newsedits attached to a profile for very simply pieces to full fledged features and a other producers who cut more higher end features work on a series of FCPs attached to an XSAN.Hopefully that helps…any more in info or opinions would be great.
Thanks again -
[Catherine Cinqui] “I think the big lure of Edius is the K2 and the possibility of going tapeless in the building.”
FCP is capable if doing a very large scale server based environment. That’s part of what Final Cut Server was announced to great fanfare with in April 2006 at NAB. Now it’s not out yet so who knows how that works in practice yet.
But if you are looking for a massive central storage network with many systems running off that server, that is entirely possible with FCP. You’ll just need an experience VAR who has performed an installation like that to work with you on it.
I have found Final Cut Pro to be the most flexible editing system in everything I’ve researched just in terms of the software scalability and price. You are only limited by what you surround the software with. That is, you can edit DV to DVCPro HD with software alone and a laptop all the way to 4:4:4 HD and 2K with the correct hardware.
I honestly don’t know the cost of the Edius K2 vs. a comparable FCP system so I’m not sure how the costs compare.
[Catherine Cinqui] “Editing wise, it’s a combination. Some use newsedits attached to a profile for very simply pieces to full fledged features and a other producers who cut more higher end features work on a series of FCPs attached to an XSAN.”
Well definitely, no matter which way you guys go, you definitely want to try and have the same product in all the rooms. Just makes it easier for everyone involved.
For sure, if you guys have not actually run a K2 system yet, before sure to find a reseller who will bring in a demo system and leave it with you for at least a week. Sounds like you guys will be buying multiple systems and it’s worth your company’s time to see and operate that system first hand and in your facility. That’s really the only way to know if the product performs as expected and will fit your workflow.
If it meets your needs better than FCP, then you go with Edius. But without that first-hand test, there’s really no way to know for sure. Definitely don’t buy the marketing hype from either Apple or Grass Valley. Get your hands on it and play with it.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
https://www.studiodaily.com/studiomonthly/reviews/f/nles/7023.html
https://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6433941.html
Edius is true RT with OHCI Fire Wire only. The hadrware just gives it a boost. Edius is very popular in Japan and Asia but they are just now starting to make a dent in the US market thanks to Grass Valley. Edius is not a high end compositng program. You can do alpha masks, PIP and transitions though but AE is your best bet for high end compositing and Special Effects. Edius just has so much RT Power to edit news clips real fast even on a laptop.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up