[Mark Job]

Hey John:
As it has already been pointed out, I’ve been doing my homework (As you have acknowledged) since about March now 🙂 I don’t want to rush into another NLE purchase too quickly. I did so with Avid for reasons I already explained earlier in this thread.

Regarding the big render issue. I seriously question wether this would be so big for me ? Perhaps I would feel it more on an industrial video, where one needs lower thirds and title overlay much more. You already mentioned sports as another contract where you might get bit if you’re against a deadline. I work on a power laptop PC plugged into a docking station, so I’m used to waiting to render stuff out in Avid before it can be exported to DVD or to Squeeze for encoding.

Like you said, I really need to do my homework here. Frankly, who wouldn’t be willing to trade off a little time in rendering for what looks like a great set of color corecting and audio post finishing tools ! 🙂 I don’t know of any other DVD authoring package which allows DD AC3 5.1 from inside the authoring app. Avid’s application to create DVD titles is a total abortion in my opinion. Yes, it gets the job done, but that’s about all you can say. I don’t think you can get the professional quality resuts with Avid DVD unless you build custom splash screens in Photoshop and encode your audio to AC3 5.1 in a third party app and then import those assets. There’s alot of screwing around and it’s a very klunky workflow if you need AC3 5.1.

It makes sense if you throw a huge honking Mac Pro with eight cores and 4 + Gigs of Ram and a screaming nVidia GPU, and a big Raid 0 array at FCP, then you will get a much different level of performance than with an iMAC.

[Mark Job]

@ David:
Several things have changed. One, you already mentioned. Now I run on Avid MC.

2. Apple has upgraded their top model of iMAC, and I wanted to know if any FCP users were cutting on an iMAC without problems. I wantede to know what FCP editors thought about using the strongest model. One FCP user responded that he was cutting on an iMAC and it worked well for him.

3. I never asked about rendering times or amount of rendering required in FCP, and this was the subject of some controversey on the Avid user forum (Avid website) for a while. When somebody trashes something as bad as it got trashed, then I get suspicious and want to revisit my initial inquireries and do a little more research. The FCP editors here have been very kind to update me and give me a little more specific information on a subject I did not ask about before.

What’s the matter David ? Did I do something wrong ? I haven’t been here since March, and now I’m back. Did I break some forum rule or something ? You make it sound like I shouldn’t be here. 🙁

[Mark Job]

If I understood you correctly, Walter, you’re using FCP with a MAC Pro and a hardware video accelerator card (Kona 3), and you don’t have to render to playback and trim and drop effects onto your timeline ?

[Mark Job]

@ Shane:
Well, this would tend to put to rest the suggestion which some have made claiming FCP is not good enough to do Network TV post with. I’m really glad to hear this 🙂

Mark

[Mark Job]

@ Mark:
Thank you. I understand what you mean about getting advice on how good or bad FCP really is. Don’t forget many users on the Avid forum also have FCP now. We do industrial-kiosk and narative work. (Much less now in this present economy) We also do allot of delivery on WMV and now in Flash as well as DVD. I find media composer excellent as a cutting machine, but next to useless as a finishing machine ! It would seem Adobe CS3 & 4 and FCP have a total solution for cutting and finishing. Our delivery on DVD is not in AC3. It would be nice to be able to cut in Avid MC, then export a QT Ref or a QT Movie and import into FC Studio and author a nice Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 audio SD DVD or a BlueRay DVD. The grand majority of our stuff is shot on HDV. We also produce a web Tv show called Please Stand By, which is now being shot in 1080i HDV with our Canon XL H1. (Episode One was shot in AVI 720p 30 on a tiny TX1 Power Shot camera)
I think I need to go try out FCP on a demo machine to see how I like it. If it’s drag and drop, then I’m sure will at least like that !

[Mark Job]

So Shane, do you use your FCP for professional work, or is it just a compliment to your main Avid application ?

[Mark Job]

Hi Arnie:
I’ll tell you what – I really like the iMAC design, but only the new top model. I am a hard core PC person who has worked all my professional career (so far) on desktops and PC power laptops. I have never even used a MAC once ! There seems to be so many advantages from first glance of design, flexibility and total integration of multiple applications talking to each other, that I have been considering a move to MAC and FCP. I have been reading all the threads on the Avid website (Their user forums)about how bad FCP is and how terribly long the rendering times are, etc, etc. Many Avid users also have FCP now.

Perhaps the single greatest aspect of FCP which intriques me is its interface. I built my post production company on a fast drag & drop DPS realtime editing system. I was as fast as a gedi on the old DPS timeline ! Over two years back we were hit with a bad storm, which caused a slow brown out, then power out (The surge protectors didn’t porotect my system). My system was totally fried right in the middle of a major project for my biggest industrial video client ! I then went out and purchased Avid Xpress Pro 5.6.0 at the time. Using the new editing interface of Avid was like hitting a brick wall ! – Talk about a non-intuitive interface ! Holy smokes was it ever hard for me to not try and use my Avid like a drag & drop interface ! I’m not saying Avid isn’t a great application, because it is ! I upgraded to Media Composer and it was much better, but I really miss using a drag & drop interface.

You wrote, “let FCP render on bathroom/lunch breaks or overnight.” Now what you wrote here kind of scares me away. I don’t have time to wait all night for stuff. I was looking at an all dressed Mac Pro, but then again, we’re starting to put out some real dollars. I’m not saying this isn’t a worth while investment either. This is especially true if it will make us some bigger bucks later.

[Mark Job]

Thank you for your input Steven 🙂

Mark

[Mark Job]

Hi Shane:
Yes. I already did go over and check it out. This is one very impressive little box. I too, don’t deal with uncompressed HD. As I wrote in my earlier post, this is a very reasonable price point and definitely a more flexible solution. I need the RS-422 big time to batch cap alot of BetaCam SP tapes ond VITC TC striped S-VHS masters and output those to SD DVD.

[Mark Job]

Hi Shane:
Thanks for the heads up on the street price of the AJA box 🙂 Ouch ! I will also look at the Kona boards as well. Still, the AJA Io HD is way cheaper than an Avid Adrenaline, which only works on select configurations. The AJA certainly contains more options than the over priced Avid Mojo. HD is already a big one up over Mojo.

Mark