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Media 100 or FCP
Greetings fellow cowheads!
Forgive please this is the continuation of my post from the FCP Forum. I only post it here because I would like to know what Media 100 editors think as well. Thanks for your time!
I should give you some background on myself. I am a professional Editor/DVD Author with 3 years experience under my belt. The production company I am employed by works primarily in critical high end to middle end broadcast commercials, and corporate video. In short we work on whatever pays the bills. It could be shooting for the web one day and crewing a documentary the next. We are known in our market by a very good reputation. Production company’s call and refer customers to us when they’re stuck because we are skilled, knowledgeable and critical minded.
When I first started editing in college it was on Software Media 100. My school soon jumped to Final Cut Pro. (It was much cheaper and the new trend in the industry at the time.) I have always viewed myself as an editor. I am not a Final Cut Pro editor. I am an editor. It doesn’t matter which editing software; I will learn, find the strengths and weaknesses of a program and edit with it.
Now I am at a crossroads so to speak. I currently use FCS1 and I have been happily editing on Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 for the past 2 years. I have not updated to newer versions because I was in the middle of large projects and due to posts on the cow about bugs, and issues. (Thanks to everyone who posted about this!)
Now I am at a point where I would like to update some programs. I will be buying Adobe Aftereffects CS3. I currently own Photoshop CS2, and Illustrator CS2. I have been happy with Final Cut Pro 95% of the time. I realize it isn’t perfect but there is no such thing as a perfect program.
I have read extensively about the problems and issues involved with buying FCS2. Sure the open timeline is great however there are bugs in just about all of the programs. These issues range from longer render times (Motion 3) to anti-alias issues (Motion 3) and many others that I won’t list. Any search on cow reveals some issues run into by users.
This question is for the FCS2 users out there. What is your consensus on the new upgrade? Is it worth it? My 3D motion graphics are created in Adobe Aftereffects because it works. I use motion 2.0 for quick and dirty effects, and Aftereffects for true 3D. I also author in DVDSP, and I am happy with Compressor. I use AJA KONA 3.3 to output for broadcast.
Is it worth me updating if there are specific bugs with programs that negate the advantage of updating to them? A $499 upgrade for two edit suites that will work most of the time isn’t my idea of a great investment. I know there are some updates for FCS2 available on the apple website. Have these updates drastically fixed things? And why should I buy this update if I don’t need Color, and DVDSP hasn’t been updated at all?
I am working on two identical:
4 x 2.5 Ghz PowerPCG5
4 GB DDR2 SDRAMChipset Model: GeForce 7800GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCI
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: nVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0092
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 2152.2
Displays:
Cinema HD:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 2560 x 1600
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Display:
Status: No display connectedThe way I see it I have three choices:
1. Update both edit suites to FCS2. Use Aftereffects CS3 for 3D and high end graphics.
2. Update one suite to Media 100 Producer or HD and one to FCS2. Use Aftereffects CS3 for 3D and high end graphics.
3. Update both edit suites to Media 100 producer or HD. Use Aftereffects CS3 for 3D and high end graphics.
Does anyone have specific thoughts or recent experiences with updating or jumping from FCP to Media 100? I realize this is alot to ask and I appreciate your time if you’ve read this far into my post. Any recommendations, thoughts, or brainstorming is not only welcomed but encouraged. What do you think of the new Software Media 100? Thanks in advance for your time and insight!
-Nicholas Bierzonski
Editor/DVD Author/Java Boy
http://www.finalfocusvideo.com-Nicholas Bierzonski
Editor/DVD Author/Java Boy
http://www.finalfocusvideo.com -
13 Replies
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[LandofNid] “What do you think of the new Software Media 100? Thanks in advance for your time and insight! “
I think you probably are more interested in feedback about Media 100 by posting here? I just came back from IBC where Boris showed the new Media 100 Version 12 software, and it looks very promising. Not sure how much you know about the current Media 100 systems, but they are a different beast from the “old” Media 100 i systems. First, they run on the Aja boards, so if you have a Kona 3 you can get the Media 100 software to use your Kona board for video I/O. The old performance limitations of V8 due to the Vincent boards have been removed, so you get extensive realtime effects on the systems.
The main new features of V12 are support for various video resolutions (24fps up to 60fps in 720p and 1080p and i) with cross-conversion capabilities, and clip-based integration with Boris Red (which really is a great tool for compositing in the Media 100 timeline).If you are familiar with the Media 100 i interface you will feel at home in the new Aja-based Media 100 system. The beauty of the very logical and intuitive interface has been carried over to the new systems, and all the new features like multiple realtime video tracks with full realtime alpha support have been integrated nicely. If you want to get a Media 100 software you definitely should get the version that uses your Aja hardware. While the Media 100 Producer is software only and does support FireWire I/O, the Media 100 guys also sell a software-only package for owners of the Kona boards. You will get an extremely stable and fast editing system with some great compositing features in V12, and of course a good connection to AE with the ability to move your timelines with all clips intact from Media 100 to AE for free.
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I believe you can also have Media100 and FCS2 on the same system, booting the relevant Kona drivers from different partions.
https://www.media100.com/news/duel_boot.asp
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Yes I am very interested in the new Media 100 particularly because I own AJA Kona 3.3. I won’t need automatic duck to export my timelines directly to AFX and it’s a very intuitive design. To my understanding editors designed it.
I’m thinking about setting up a demo with Media 100 so I can see first hand it’s capabilties. About a month ago I downloaded a demo of Media 100 Producer, and I was in hog’s heaven. When I first started editing professionally Media 100 was our main editing tool. We jumped to Final Cut Pro about two years ago. The problem is finding good editors. We have plenty of work but not enough help. I will keep thinking this over and reading more posts. Thanks!
-Nicholas Bierzonski
Editor/DVD Author/Java Boy
http://www.finalfocusvideo.com -
I agree that this dual boot system looks great. I’m still plugging away in v8 and never had a problem. Still, as I look to the HD future and upgrading my edit system, it would convince me to stick with M100 solely if they added Apple Pro Res 422 and XDCam support. Any word on this happening?
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[Nickel] “Still, as I look to the HD future and upgrading my edit system, it would convince me to stick with M100 solely if they added Apple Pro Res 422 and XDCam support. Any word on this happening? “
ProRes works natively in V11.6.3 and higher (both for acquire and playback, like any other supported format). I
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For me, I only know Media 100. So I bought Media 100HDe with the AJA Oem and then also bought FCP studio. I created a dual boot system. This allowed me to edit under tight deadlines on M100 while I learned the FCP interface. Now often I decide if I’ll edit a specific project om M100 or FCP, depending on the show.
I have to admit, I’m more of a producer/director/editor, so I’m not reall an editior with alot of time to tinker. This system has helped me a great deal. It worf flawlessly!!!
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I’ve heard that Boris Red doesn’t work properly. Is that true?
-Nicholas Bierzonski
Editor/DVD Author/Java Boy
http://www.finalfocusvideo.com -
[LandofNid] “I’ve heard that Boris Red doesn’t work properly. Is that true?
“Um, that
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I had heard from another media 100 editor who said “If I i thought Motion was bad…Boris Red is even worse…it doesn’t work…and he didn’t know how anybody used it.”
Now this was about 2 years ago. I take it that isn’t true now?
-Nicholas Bierzonski
Editor/DVD Author/Java Boy
http://www.finalfocusvideo.com -
[LandofNid] “Boris Red is even worse…it doesn’t work…and he didn’t know how anybody used it.””
Not really sure what he is/was speaking about. There are many people who use Red with Avid, FCP, Media 100 and other editing systems as well as the standalone version. Maybe he does not know how to use it? This would not mean that something is broken…
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