Final cut in a PC-majority studio

[Mark Raudonis]

John,

I gotta ask, “How badly do you want to do this?”

The problems you’re going to run in to is that all of your PC brethren will point fingers at the Mac as their source of incompatibility. Mac deals in Quicktime. PC’s only like Windows Media files. Sure, there are programs to convert them from one to the other like “flip for mac”, but you’ve got to know what you’re doing.

Specifically, what do you want to know?

mark

[Levon H]

i use QT files on a PC from a mac in after effects no problem, just make sure both computers have current versions of QT7. but i guess it deppends what are the programs you run on the PCs.

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[Paul Nevison]

also consider that all your editors will have to learn new software, that in itself could result in a pretty major productivity hit. i’m of the opinion that if it aint broke dont fix it!

if everyone is comfortable in the PC world then stay there….premiere pro from all accounts seems like a pretty good solution for the PC if your ethically opposed to purchasing from the avid death star.

You could make it work undoubtedly, but is it worth the bump in the road…thats for you to decide

[Tom Matthies]

It can be done and isn’t all that difficult. I’m running two FCP systems and a G4 running DVDSP in an otherwise all PC environment. The FCP systems share the editing duties with a pair of aging Avid Symphonys and all of our graphics are produced on 5 PC workstations. We regularly export from FCP to graphics and then reimport finished clips into both the Avids and FCP with little difficulty. Just watch out for little got ‘chas like exporting DV50 material for use on a PC. We usually just export graphics using the animation codec. Both systems handle it well and it’s high quality to boot. All the systems are tied together through a Dell server and play well together. Each editing system has it’s own local drives for storage.
Here the editors are divided into Avid and FCP camps with little overlap. I’m the only one here that can really use either system interchangeably. The Avid guys are a little intimidated by the FCP system. There is a steep “perceived” learning curve to get into FCP, but I feel that anyone with a good understanding of Avid’s systems or non-linear editing systems in general can slip into FCP without too much trouble.And vice versa as well.
It takes a bit on relearning and some cooperation between everyone, but it can work just fine. Just try to find a way to transition into the change gradually. Don’t push the crew off of the diving board in the deep end of the pool and hope that everyone can swim.
Tom

[Hernan Torres]

Totally Agree with Tom

Hernan Torres

[Stephen Eckelberry]

I came to FCP (1.0 no less!) from premiere. It was quite similar at the time. Now it’s more like Avid. If you get the CD for Avid editors, it programs all the FCP short keys to be like an Avid keyboard. I have used the Avid PC usb keyboard on a g5 FCP and it works fine, except for some confusion with the control key.

I edit FCP, and the graphic designer I work with uses AE on windows. We have had great success using the sheer codec to interchange files. It claims to be lossless, and certainly I can’t tell the difference between files going back and forth.

Stephen Eckelberry

[Josh Weiss]

I work in an environment using almost entirely PCs and rendering out of after effects, however I edit on FCP. There are no snags whatsoever. People who say PCs can only handle WMVs are being ignorant. You can render AVI, MOV, WMV, MPG and pretty much anything else you can from a mac. If you are using an AJA card they have a codec for PC users that matches apple’s uncompressed 8 or 10 bit settings, so just render to that if that is your setup and you are editing SD. Its extremely simple. I go from mac to pc without learning any new software (other than knowing final cut of course).

[John David hutton]

Thanks, everyone! Good info to have. 🙂

– MythProd
(John David Hutton)

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