Oliver Peters
2
Apple Final Cut Pro X Coins
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Avid Coins
17
COW Coins
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DaVinci Coin
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Premiere Pro Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Marc,
I was talking about your computer displays and not the video monitor. Video monitors are another issue, since flat panels only have one native resolution. A flat panel that is right for HD will have to “blow up” the SD image to display it. General video will look tolerable, but images with text and detail won’t. CRTs are better for this but they are a fading (or dying) breed.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Several issues to be mindful of. Avid Xpress Pro and Avid Xpress DV will run cross-platform. I personally have had problems with Xpro on Tiger on my PB (worked fine with 10.3.8) but others report success. The main issue I’ve seen with Avid Xpress on PC laptops is that many of the newer audio cards – especially Realtek surround cards – seem to be incompatible with the Avid software. Premiere Pro on the other hand, seems to work just fine on these same machines.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
I work with the folks at Teranex (a client) and I’ll have to say that there is nothing better, though a lot comes close these days. Remember, that all K2 is doing is scaling. Teranex products additionally deal with noise reduction/enhancement, mixed pulldown cadence, video-over-film conditions, and so on.
At NAB they showed Flexview, which was designed for a major cable network and is now being released as a product. Like a function seen in many widescreen displays, it streches the edges more than the middle, giving you some very acceptible 4×3-to-16×9 upconversions.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[tmvc] “FCP can capture 4:4:4 using a blackmagic design card can’t it?”
The workflow for actual 4:4:4 editing is in its infancy with FCP and most others for that matters. Quite frankly, unless you are going out to film, you’ll see little benefit above 8-bit 4:2:2 HD. A lot of claims are made for 10-bit and 4:4:4, but in most cases, the signal path is truncated to 8-bits internally because of what happens with the disk-writing architecture or the OpenGL card in the system. This is why Autodesk’s Linux-based smoke HD system is considered an 8-bit box, even though portions exceed that. I believe “Sin City” which was referenced was conformed on Quantel products for a variety of reasons, the least of which was probably 4:4:4.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[FX Bear] “I’m staying at 10.3.8 until I know Tiger is safe and stable enough to install. Is it me or has Apple’s “latest and greatest” OS seem more like Windows?”
It appears that people’s results are pretty inconsistant. The vast majority of folks have had few issues and those that have had problems, don’t all seem to have the same issues impact their machines in the same way. I’ve upgraded a PB from 10.3.8 to 10.4 and so far only Avid Xpress Pro and AOL software has shown issues. I don’t have any of the Safari or Spotlight problems others indicate. So it really depends on the exact combination on your particular machine.
From what I’ve seen so far, this is one of the smoother OS changes in either Mac OS or Windows, so I would have to say that Apple has done an excellent job. BTW, there is already an update for Pro Apps, which I’m sure is a patch for 10.3.9 and 10.4 issues. I would presume that a 10.4.1 update will be out to fix things that have cropped up in the real world installations folks are experiencing. By and large Tiger is safe, but your mileage may vary!
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
I’ve built my share of suites and worked in many others. I would encourage you to use a desk design in which the bottom of the displays are at desk height. This means to recess the stands into the table. Essentially this puts the monitors at a similar height to the way a laptop is set up. Anything that causes you to look higher than horizontal or slightly downward will result in fatigue.
The second issue is display size. The vogue seems to be dual 23″, but I would opt for dual 20″. The reason is that dual 23″s really spread the L-R span quite far apart. Also text will be smaller on the 23″s than on the 20″s because the higher native resolution of 23″ flat panels.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Stefani,
[ I can’t put any 3D effect on the text, etc. ]
Title Tool is limited to basic styles. Use Photoshop or Boris Graffiti (plugin) for more options.
[Another problem is on nesting. … Can Avid treat nesting llike the way After Effects does precomp?]
Avid does not nest in this manner.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
A lot about Avid Xpress Pro HD is explained in my review of the product:
https://www.uemedia.net/CPC/postindustry/article_12339.shtml
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
I have had both good and bad experiences with each. It really gets down to the type of work you do, whether you prefer Mac or PC and whether you have a good source for support. With Avid you get a sole-source supplier and a good (in most areas) dealer network. This doesn’t exist with Apple when you combine Apple products with 3rd party hardware, unless you have a dealer to provide all the support. That doesn’t mean you’ll have a bad experience, simply that support falls more in your own hands when it is needed.
Adrenaline is a good product after some early shakiness, but the prevailing opinion is that the PC versions are more stable. There are, however, happy Adrenaline Mac customers. The Avid Media Composer Adrenalines are faster in most things than the Meridien predecessors, but not as rock solid. You can chalk that up to the Firewire connectivity of the Adrenaline chassis, versus an installed boardset. I know you said cost isn’t a factor, but you will have to evaluate long term ownership costs, such as Avid Assurance, upgrades, etc.
As far as FCP5, I don’t believe actual Media Management has changed. There’s too much rewriting involved, so for offline/online workflow, Avid is hard to beat. On the other hand, Apple claims to have rewritten things like image scaling, which should make the quality of DVE moves much better in FCP5 than previous versions.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Chris,
Why is it a question of switching? First of all this is an entirely subjective issue that no one can decide except for you or your editor. I fly on both and can tell you – in my opinion and style of working – that your Avid blows the doors off FCP IF you want a fast cutting system. Others will certainly disagree. The FCP combo is better for effects.
If you have Avid’s (Pinnacle Genie card) RT hardware 3D DVE, you won’t find that on FCP with any combo of products. It doesn’t look great, but many people can’t do without it. To compare products, though, your Xpress is comparable to FCP + AJA Io. The Avid will have some level of RT effects (full quality) which the FCP system doesn’t.
Your Avid isn’t worth much on the open market, so why not simply ADD a G5/FCP system for the effects and see how you like it. Then after you’ve compared the two for a while, make your decision. Your Avid will still make money for you as an SD online system and SD/HD offline system until it falls apart. There is NO REASON to change anything at this time.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com