[Chriswhill]

I have an FCP Decklink HD system which I love. Lately I used it to edit an HDCAM feature, offline AND ONLINE for Sony pictures this year. I also use Avid at another studio I edit at.

My feeling from dealing with other editors and engineers at facilities is that, first, many of the older guys still don’t really know the Avid that well, so asking them to learn a whole new system freightens them. These aren’t people who teach themselves software, the Avid techs send trainers who sit with them for weeks to drill the basics in.

Technically speaking, FCP is far superior in almost every way to Avid.
The basics:
Even using hot keys, you have to press twice the buttons to do the same task in Avid you do with one in FCP, making editors arguably less productive.
FCP can black and code a tape, Avid can’t.
FCP with decklink hardware has built in serial deck control, the Meridians I’ve used all rely on that cheap keyspan USB to serial adapter, which is constantly loosing comunication with the deck.
FCP creates standard quicktime files which can be taken to any other station and worked on, AVID creates proprietary files which appear as jumbled crap in their folders, useless, unless “exported out of the AVID”, which can be very time consuming for lots of clips.
You are very limited in terms of how many filters you can put on a clip unless you nest them, I’ve had Avid comps 9 layers deep, and the AVID has to render each effect individually, so YOU ACTUALLY WATCH IN SHOCK AS THIS SUPER DUPER AVID RENDERS THE SAME BLOODY CLIP 9 TIMES, OVER AND OVER!!!!
(These are but a few of my gripes with Avid, which I edit with daily by the way)

It’s kind of unbelievable how awful the Avid really is. It’s based on code written in the ’80s. For it’s time, it was a true break thru. But at this point, I think facilities prefer it because they know it, and they trust the Avid techs to show up on a moments’ notice to fix these mysterious machines that none of them really understand.

One very valid reason is that there is a larger talent pool of high end, qualified editors who use Avid than FCP. Some might take offense to that, but think of it. If you’re a post supervisor at NBC looking for a high end editor, one easy way to narrow your list of applicants is to only interview people who have a history in broadcast with the Avid. As these days, everyone who has a bootleg copy of FCP on their Imac says they’re an editor.

Another reason I think some facilities are reluctant to switch, especially the larger ones, is that they see the end of their business model in FCP. Here in LA, the post houses are all dying a slow death, unless they’ve seriously diversified.

It’s two different ethics. Avid is safe, they hold your hand and even tell you which version of MAC OS you have to use. Meanwhile Apple says, go luck dude! Our software is super solid, and even when it does break, we trust you’ll figure it out!

[Chriswhill]

I have the basic Decklink HD card, and I have played out HD 23.98 and 29.97 to standard def digibeta many times with no problem.

I work in uncompressed 8 bit HD and DVCPRO HD.

[Chriswhill]

Nice!

I will definitely check that out. Avid is great for offline work, but it’s clear the heavy lifting is being done in FCP. 🙂

Chris

[Chriswhill]

I would wait at this point. We are so close to NAB now. I’m going on the 17th, and I have to believe that there will be new drivers, price drops, a reintroduction of a problem-free multibridge, and perhaps a new card.