Slot position

[Marcus Warren]

Michael, since you asked…

Notable features of Final Cut Pro that a buyer might consider when comparing FCP to
Media 100:

-Hundreds of dollars cheaper purchase price
-Much cheaper upgrade pricing
-Several top notch programs and applications included in the cheaper bundle that cover a wide range of uses
-Massive third-party support
-Extensive information about the product on the company web site
-Nested sequences
-Black and White matte keying on the timeline
-Easy rotation and scaling of clips and images without leaving the timeline
-Drag and drop effects
-Not tied to an A/B track workflow
-Better built-in chromakeyer (FCP vs Media 100 as opposed to what can be done in Motion and RED)
-If I remember correctly “track mapping” is much more easily accomplished in FCP than Media 100
-Better variety and more widely supported built-in codecs (the ProRes family vs Media 100 HD)
-More support from Boris for FCP than Boris gives to Media 100. Correct me if I am wrong but Boris’ AAF Transfer and Job Slate are available for FCP but not Media 100. You could argue the pros and cons of having Final Effects Complete, for example, available for FCP but technically not Media 100 (since Media 100 is equiped with RED) but the truth is, if FCP users want to, they can buy Boris Continuum Complete AND Final Effects Complete AND AAF Transfer AND Job Slate AND/OR BCC Units plus RED.

There are other considerations that don’t come to mind because it has been a while since I have done extensive editing on FCP.

Of course many of you are running Media 100 and FCP on the same machine so you are, rather ironically I add, able to take advantage of FCP Suite features (like Color and ProRes), but I am sure that many are like me. We just have Media 100 installed.

Interestingly, Media 100 builds much of its appeal on “blazingly-fast, high quality editing…” as mentioned on the Media 100 web site, but nowhere that I have seen on the web site is this claim actually supported (backed-up with explanations or examples of why working in Media 100 is “blazingly-fast”). Yes, I know many of you feel that working in M100 is faster than working in FCP, but don’t you find it odd that the blazingly fast claim is not expounded in the company’s own literature? Even if in theory M100 is faster than FCP, in practice an editor might be faster in FCP because there is so much more tutorial information for FCP. That means it could be easier to learn FCP and go “deeper” into the features of the program much more quickly. Keep in mind that M100 predates FCP by several years, so you would expect there to be so much more tutorial info and how-to books. Heck, are there any how-to books?

Now I like Media 100, and RED in particular. At this point I have several more years experience with FCP and freely admit that I am still learning Media 100 so I expect my appreciation for Media 100 to grow (provided the upgrade price does not continue to scare me off, and yes, Nick G., I know that Media 100 is used by professionals and thereby commands a professional upgrade price, but no matter what the over-all demographics of FCP users, I am sure that there are many more professionals using FCP than Media 100 and they are able to upgrade for significantly less).

Boris is doing a fine job developing M100 and I am very please that the company took up the gauntlet to keep this program going and improving. I am really expecting something great(er)with the release of Media 100 v. 15 (er, Media 100 Suite 2.0). Coincidentally, my enthusiasm for RED 4.3 continues to grow even as we await the release of RED 5.

Michael, all of this to say Media 100 is a nice editing environment, but so is FCP. Slighting FCP is not necessary, especially if you have not used it(I don’t know if you have or not). Just continue to use and learn M100 and hope the BFICs (Boris Folks in Charge) will lower the upgrade price.

[Michael Slowe]

Thanks Marcus for your wide ranging reply to my query. I was not aware that I had’slighted’ FCP, it was just that I often wondered what all the fuss was about. Actually, not one of your plus points over Media 100 are of any interest to me but I appreciate that they might be to others and I manage to work in ProRes by importing media in that codec using Sony EX Transfer without any problem. Obviously now Media 100 will remain way behind FCP in sales numbers but not necessarily on merit.

Michael Slowe

[Nick Griffin]

[Marcus Warren] ” -Not tied to an A/B track workflow”

Huh?? Media 100 added 99 video tracks in version 10. Personally I find the A/B environment preferable, using it 99% of the time for most things besides adding graphics.

[Marcus Warren] ” -Easy rotation and scaling of clips and images without leaving the timeline”

I will give you this one. It’s the one thing that makes FCP the faster choice when this type of manipulation is needed.

Now how ’bout we start a new thread on the merits of various religions and/or political beliefs?

[Marcus Warren]

Nah. No new thread needed. At least when we are done here, we will still be friends. BTW I certainly did not mean to imply that Media 100 only had the A/B track workflow, only that there are things you do with the A/B tracks that you can’t do (or can’t easily do)in the composite tracks and vice versa, whereas (if I remember correctly) there are no such limitations in FCP; all the tracks behave the same. And yes 99 video tracks are great, and let’s not forget that Boris RED features an unlimited number of tracks. So let’s see, unlimited + 99 = er, unlimted!

As I mentioned, I am so glad that Boris stepped forward to embrace Media 100 and I expect its feature set and user base to grow.

Cheers to all.

[Walter Soyka]

I am not an M100 user, but I am a long-time CompressHD user.

Slot placement is usually intended to optimize how much bandwidth goes to which cards. A graphics card does benefit from all the bandwidth available in a 16x slot (like in slot 1), whereas a RAID card couldn’t (so it goes in a 4x slot like slot 3 or 4).

The CompressHD is a 1x card, so I’d be inclined to put it in slot 3 or 4 (both of which are 4x slots) so as not to waste a high-bandwidth slot on a card that can’t use it.

Also, it doesn’t seem to run very hot, so placing it near other hot-running cards shouldn’t create any problems.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
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