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Switch from Avid Adrenaline to final cut pro
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man, where to begin. It would be a much shorter list to list the things that did work properly.
Can’t mix resolutions with small unity… gotta do a mixdown. Can’t export quicktime rewferences for DVDs without doing a video mixdown. This is a big deal. An hour long show mixed down to 1:1 eats up needles disc space. Adds time to the day too, as does the ultra slow atuto save, the random crashes in a day, and still having to use AE as a DVE because this one is as aliased as it was in 1995 when it came out. It’s Xpress Pro with animatte at a price point that is rape. I have had $10k Premiere systems more reliable than Adrenaline. I would not say this if it were not true.
Unless somone in tewks is just really really bad at their gig, I gotta think the powers that be at Avid have lots of stock in Apple and this is part of the plan. At the rate it’s going, Adrenaline really wouldn’t be ready for a version one release to the public for another year or two. By then, they will be on version 4.2.8 or whatever they decide the number should be to fix a bug they sold to their hard-working customers.
As things stand right now, I could never bring myself to purchase another Avid product. They are just too reckless and we are trying to make a living here.
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Grin,
[grinner] “Can’t mix resolutions with small unity… gotta do a mixdown”
This really sounds like you have a problem-child machine. I’ve just come from giving Adrenaline training in a Unity environment and we were able to mix resolutions on the timeline.
[grinner] “Can’t export quicktime references for DVDs without doing a video mixdown.”
Yes, I saw that problem with my copy of MC Soft on DNxHD. Ref outputs were total crap. Had to export self-contained uncompressed QT in HD. Sheesh!
[grinner] “the random crashes in a day”
That seems to be the machine. Some I’ve found are real stable and others not. General problem is losing communication to the DNA BOB.
[grinner] “and still having to use AE as a DVE”
That’s a subjective issue. Are you using HQ? The quality is better, but you lose RT and the rendering is slow. This problem has to do with OpenGL and the old code. Unfortunately FCP and Premiere Pro are just as bad, even with external hardware, such as Axio.
[grinner] “I have had $10k Premiere systems more reliable”
That hasn’t been my experience, though. I find PPro very crash-prone, especially with AMD processors.
Do these problems occur when the machine is running local and not connected to Unity?
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Ted,
As you can see from Grinner’s posts, you and he are applying the machine in totally different ways. His application is more as a finishing tool. In all reality, you might have the same issues if you were doing that type of work and the same thing for him. The other part of this is that you are on a software-only system. Xpress Pro and Media Composer (software version) are better “feeling” applications because they are not hindered by the Adrenaline hardware. This, too, will account for some of the perceived differences.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
mine isn’t on Unity. Still buggy tho. I stay in HQ mode. Other adrenalines I freelance on are no more stable than mine is. One of em loses the ability to click any button with the mouse every so often and ya gotta close the sequence bin and reopen it to get to work again. The one I freelance on that is on the unity will NOT mix resolutions on the timeline with success. It’ll play for a while but trying to edit a session like this is a nightmare, with audio pops galore to a point you jusyt have to reboot. It’s DV411 there or nuthin, really. Kind of disolves the reason to buy a high end box.
From what I have seen, the demos Avid sets up work and real life stacking of things that come in the door often does not. Brings me back to it’s not ready to be released as a v1 software yet.I was starting a native HDV project not long ago. I discovered that adrenaline will not play 1080i HDV in HQ mode at all. wtf? If this is a joke, it’s not funny. So, now looking at nasty half quality hooha with the client asking why he shot HDV in the first place, I continue on. Was hoping to utilize the 1080i stuff in a 720 project after that and be able to move the 1080i stuff around without losing anything. Couldnt do that either. hmmm back to the 1080i project. Adrenaline can’t play it out but it’ll export as a file. ok now this IS funny. I’m gonna edit a project in half mode then spit it out blindly and like Christmas, be pleased with it when I finally get to se it. as a finished product? dude, I visualize a group of ties in tewks discussing this and agreeing that it’s a fine workflow. They obviously need an editor or two in the house to voice in from time to time.
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I worked on an Avid Adrenaline for several years, then switched (with a new job) to FCP. My initial experience on Final Cut was frustration, but that came from needing to unlearn years of Avid training. Once I caught on (and there’s an excellent book for people going from Avid > FCP) I learned to love FCP.
Putting all the technical issues (discussed above) aside, I think FCP is a faster and more intuitive interface. Some of this may come from the fact that I’m a Mac guy from way back, but I just found myself ENJOYING editing. The modal approach of Avid now seems unnecessarily crude and time consuming to me…
I guess what I’m saying is that “user friendliness” should be part of the equation when considering the two systems. Yes, they “do the same things,” but often in quite different ways. Since this is a tool we all use every day, it’s important that it feels comfortable in your hand…like a good hammer!
Ron
Photos, news, memories and musings on the great American Roadside experience
https://www.theamericanroadside.com -
I’ve been writing some in depth comparisons of certain Avid and FCP features on my blog. They might be helpful:
https://www.scottsimmons.tv/blog/the-avid-vs-fcp-articles/
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Thanks for setting me straight Oliver.
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Thanks, Oliver. It’s making a little more sense how FCP works, but there’s one thing I still haven’t figured out. Hopefully you can explain.
In FCP:
I have Beta SP footage and I run it through a capture card and into my system via component. I want to keep the footage as clean as possible so I bring it in uncompressed. I assume, then, that I need a timeline setting for uncompressed to play it back without rendering, right?
Next, my client brings me some DV footage that I can capture directly into the system via firewire. This would keep the video native at DV25–capturing to any higher resolution would be a waste of disk space, right? Does FCP allow me to cut the DV25 footage into the same timeline as my Beta SP footage and play it all back without rendering anything? The way I understand it, the Beta and DV footage would need to be converted to the same codec to play it all without renders–say the same uncompressed codec as the Beta footage. If so, wouldn’t doing this cause the DV25 footage to take up more disk space then necessary since it would be converting it to uncompressed (which wouldn’t cause a boost in quality–DV25 is DV25).
This has been how I’ve interpreted the whole Mixed Resolutions. In Avid I would bring the DV25 in DV25, the Beta in at 1:1, then cut away all day and never have to render until I start adding too many effects.That’s how I understand it, which is why I wrote what I wrote. If I’m way off base, please let me know. I don’t want to give people bad information!!
Michael
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Michael,
[promoboy] “I have Beta SP footage and I run it through a capture card and into my system via component. I want to keep the footage as clean as possible so I bring it in uncompressed. I assume, then, that I need a timeline setting for uncompressed to play it back without rendering, right? “
Yes, although DVCPRO50 is also pretty good.
[promoboy] “Next, my client brings me some DV footage that I can capture directly into the system via firewire. This would keep the video native at DV25–capturing to any higher resolution would be a waste of disk space, right? Does FCP allow me to cut the DV25 footage into the same timeline as my Beta SP footage and play it all back without rendering anything? “
This will play in RT sort of. It would have to be rendered to output to tape. I would bring it in uncompressed or DVCPRO50 as well. However, if you do place DV25 on an uncompressed timeline it is decompressed and the rendered file will be uncompressed media, thus also consuming space.
[promoboy] ” In Avid I would bring the DV25 in DV25, the Beta in at 1:1, then cut away all day and never have to render until I start adding too many effects.”
That’s true, but it cuts both ways. If you were working with animations, in FCP your animator could render as uncompressed and you would be able to bring that exact same file into the timeline without additional rendering. In Avid, even if the designer renders to an Avid codec, you still have to import, which creates a duplicate OMF or MXF file, also taking up more space as well as the additional import time. Another factor is that Avid codec media cannot be viewed outside of the Avid application. You cannot send an Avid file to a producer and have him open it up on his desktop in any native media player. With FCP, you can do that with Quicktime.
Both media architectures have their pros and cons.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Thanks for the clarification!
I agree that both systems have their pros and cons. I learned on Avid and have a distaste for Macs (don’t ask) which is one reason why I’ve steered clear of FCP. Despite that, I have been curious of how FCP handles media in the timeline. The fact that you can import files and immediately begin working is awesome. In Avid, if you’re importing a decent sized file and it wasn’t rendered in an Avid codec the wait can kill your productivity. On the other hand, if you delete the original file you haven’t lost the media in the Avid, which I like.
Six of one, half dozen of another.
Again, thanks for the clarification. One of these days I’m just going to bite the bullet and find some time to play on a FCP system. Like it or not, I’ll probably have to cut on it one day.Michael.
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