I am thinking of getting a final cut pro but have some questions?

[David Bogie]

>
1. Is avid faster at rendering then final cut pro with the mojo or is it slower?
< What's an Avid? Depends on the machine you're using, the effects you've applied and the format you are using. >
2. The final Cut Pro top of the line suite costs now only $1,299. Avid is selling their power pack for 3,495.
< Okay, that's a no brainer. >
3. What is better, PC or Mac. I currently have a PC but I would be willing to Move to the Mac if it is better for editing.
< Asking this question of Macintosh users is a waste of bandwidth. >
4. Dose Avid DV express pro have 5.1 sound.
< Dunno, you'd have to post that question in a Avid forum. Are you sure you need 5.1? Will your clients pay for it? Do you have the sound creation moxie to use 5.1 well? >
Avid Just bought out pinnacle and 6.1 has to many bugs in its software to upgrade yet.
< Then don't buy the upgrade. >
I am thinking to move to a company that has some staying power.
< Apple? HAven't you been listening to the tech know-it-alls for the last 20 years? Apple is going under any day now. They cannot possibly survive. >
I am also looking for a system that will allow me to be creative and also to work fast.
< That's a function of knowing how to use your tools and being good at what you do. It has NOTHING to do do with the stuff you buy. Nothing. To believe software will make you a better editor is silly. >
Plus I would like to get the best deal price wise that I can.
< Yes, wouldn't we all? That's a function of how much effort you are willing to put into your research. You plot your needs against your budget and your dreams and then figure out how you're oging to pay for it and how much the money will cost you. Those are all decisions you and your accountant must make over coffee or vodka. > Maybe going avid or final cut pro or PC or MAC is like apples and organges. But which one is the best one for the money and the speed?< Get the biggest and baddest Macintosh you can afford and buy the FCP Suite. Your total investment will be anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 depending buying used or new, storage, RAM, extra software, and some new toys. bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: "For crying out loud, read the freakin' manual."

[Jerry Hofmann]

Simply put, from what I saw at NAB this year, there’s not an Avid editor whose not contemplating a switch to FCP… Way more than half of the pro editing stations in the world are running on Mac. There’s a reason… it’s more reliable, easier to use, better supported, more intuitive, and MUCH more cost effective running the Studio… This is a no brainer. It’s Value. Plain and simple. You simply get more for your dollar with Apple and it’s applications. end of story.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D

[Fx Bear]

High five Jerry! I don’t regret having FCP, in fact I can’t wait for FCP Studio to come out sometime next month.

[Chris Poisson]

“That’s a function of knowing how to use your tools and being good at what you do. It has NOTHING to do do with the stuff you buy. Nothing. To believe software will make you a better editor is silly.”

It’s rare indeed I find a comment from you which I would contest. While this is inherently true, depending on your needs, but software and hardware make a huge impact on what you are able to accomplish for your clients. That’s exactly the premise upon which all the manufacturers market their products, same reasoning you would buy one bicycle over another.

Will it make you a better editor? No, only practice and commitment can do that. Could it impact how long it would take you to get there? Absolutely.

[David H dennis]

I don’t know the answer to your rendering speed question. I can say that if you’re not doing a project that requires the melding together of multiply sized videos (i.e. DV size and 1024×768), rendering speed isn’t that much of a factor anymore. It’s certainly not like it used to be, where rendering a project guaranteed three hour breaks!

Avid’s bundle appears to be $2,495, not the higher price you quoted. It looks like you confused the “$3890 value” with the price. That being said, that’s still about double what the FCP bundle costs. The Avid bundle has 3D animation, which Apple’s doesn’t. But Apple’s bundle has sound editing and motion graphics, and they happen to be easy to learn and figure out, an area where Avid’s very weak, at least in my experience.

When I checked out Avid a year or two ago, it had a vertical cliff face learning curve. Final Cut Pro is far easier to learn, and with the new multicam support there’s not a lot it can’t do that Avid can. From what I gather the main exception is project organization features, which is still an Avid strong point.

Apple hardware is probably a bit slower per dollar than PC hardware. But that’s not the whole story. To start with, if you don’t know how to secure your PC, you will find it will become much slower than your Mac very quickly, and you will have to go to the expense of having costly people repair it. The real world is filled with even fast PCs that have received so much virii and spyware that they are essentially unusable. Within a week of buying your PC, you’re likely to see this horrible path start on your computer.

But that hardly matters in this case, because the higher cost you’re paying for your Mac hardware is more than made up by the difference in software cost between Apple’s Final Cut suite and Avid’s offering.

That nice fellow who gave all those amusing answers said that the tools don’t make the editor. And of course he’s right, in a narrow sense, since if you don’t have the talent for this, you won’t do it well. But he’s wrong too, because if you start with Avid, you’re going to be tackling an exceptionally difficult learning curve as well as trying to learn editing. If you start with Apple, you’re starting with an operating system that’s far more trouble-free, editing software that’s much easier to learn and use and so on.

I would unreservedly recommend Apple products and Final Cut Pro for editing over Avid (and any other vendor, for that matter).

Good luck!

D

[Tae]

[wild man goose] “3. What is better, PC or Mac. I currently have a PC but I would be willing to Move to the Mac if it is better for editing. “

Anything anyone tells you on this should be disgarded save this next statement, “Both will get the job done.”

Zealots exist on both sides of the fence. If you are comfortable with PC, stay there. If not, go to a friend’s house. See if the Mac makes sense to YOU. Don’t let anyone tell you one is “better” than the other. Any “definitive” answer will 100% self serving.

-T

[Jerry Hofmann]

True, I’ve been making a living with Mac’s for years (ran Avids on them too). Also true my clients’ PC’s are riddled with viruses. After his hard drive was wiped twice in a single year, my best client switched to a mac. He’s estactic… Since 1989 when I bought my first Mac, I’ve NEVER had anything remotely like a virus attack me.

My 4 1/2 year old dual 533 G4 could be sold on ebay today for well over 500 bucks. Show me a 4 1/2 year old PC that sold for about $2,000 that you could say this about… you can’t. 4 1/2 year old PC’s are doorstops. I run Mail, Word, FCP, DVD SP 3, and Motion all at the same time all of the time nearly. Oh yeah, I also run Safari, and check/download email on a minute by minute basis… always connected to the Internet. Always. Guess what? My identity is STILL intact.

I don’t sell Macs, so don’t quite see how this is self serving, other than I want to truly help those who switch. Why? I dunno, maybe it’s because FCP and Apple changed my entire lifestyle for the better. I get to be home, I work at home, I don’t have to support an expensive Avid anymore in an office that was pretty expensive too… there are other reasons I promote Macs, but none are helping me personally, I’m just passing it forward.

Make no mistake, Mac users are more fanatic about their systems than anybody, and there must be a vaild REASON… they aren’t just spending more, they feel they get more. Have you ever known a group of folks that spend more because they WANT to? I’ve not had that sort of life experience. Everything about the contruction, design, OS (especially the OS) is way superior to anything windows anywhere near the same price. I’ve not seen a system crash in over two years now on release software… anyone who disagrees is certainly welcome to comment, but there’s a reason we all truly love our Apple setups. They just plain work, and it doesn’t take an IT degree to keep them that way either.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D

[Uwe Klimmeck]

A little point: I make my living from editing, compositing and stuff as well. Smaller jobs.
And it’s all payed. No debts – nothing. Couldn’t afford this with AVIDs.
The machines and software just works day for day for day.
I’m an AVID convert as well and people like Jerry or bogiesan will help you a lot in the beginning as they helped me.
There are bugs, things that don’t work as promised – but you can manage all of these flaws yourself (and with the help from forums) and you don’t need to become a system administrator.
Take a deep breath and go for it. You will not regret it.

Greetings
Uwe

[Tom Matthies]

“Once you’ve had a Mac, you’ll never go back”
🙂
tom

[Dennis Lisonbee]

A few years ago FCP was playing a catch-up game with Avid. After this NAB the tables have turned and Avid is now playing the catch-up game. Why Apple is historically the R&D king of computer technology and they put their R&D money where their mouth is. That is why they passed AVID and that is why AVID is having a lot of high level meetings this week.

Sooo, if you are making money at your craft, then the cost of a new Apple system is simply pocket change.

Dennis Lisonbee

PS FCP and AVID were side by side at NAB. AVID did not have to clean their carpets this year while Apple had to replace their carpets every night because of the high traffic wore them out.