Editing on a PC

[Rob Lathan]

OK so I'm sure this has been asked before, but I couldn't find a thread about it.

Let's say someone has a PC. And this someone probably won't get a Mac for a while. What's the best, cheapest, easiest software to edit on the PC? Adobe Premier? Avid? Etch-a-sketch?

Please help this someone out. And please don't say "it depends". Just give this someone a direction. He (or she) is an idiot with this kind of stuff.

Thanks,

(someone)

 

[Whines]

If I were you, I'd post a message in the Digital Video Forum of the IRC.

 

[Rob Lathan]

Oh yeah, thanks Will....





Wait! I already did that!

 

[MonkeyNuts]

Rob,

I haven't used it yet, but I'm in the same boat, and my research - independent as my post received zero responses below - pointed me in the direction of Studio DV.

Apparently very simple to use and with a lot of great features. It's drag and drop, by all accounts. CNET has a good review of it.

At any rate, Studio DV's my buy this weekend.

Hope it helps,
Carl

 

[Nick Mougis]

Lathan,

get a mac.

if not, I like Avid xpress DV. It may not be the easiest... but I certainly feel its the best DV thing out there for Windows machines.

nick

 

[Rob Webber]

Lathan.

Use Adobe Premiere Pro. Download a "tryout" version from Adobe. You can use it for 30 days.

Find a Serial # and activate it after that. I may have one at home I could show you as an example. Unscrupulous types can also find these serial numbers scattered willy-nilly over LimeWire and such. This is of course, illegal if not also immoral. But you never have trouble with the law do you?


Regards,

Rob Webber

 

[Nick Mougis]

also rob, read this:

http://www.improvresourcecenter.com/mb/showthread.php?p=243228#post243228

 

[Rob Lathan]

This is all great. Thanks Carl, Nick and Rob.

Yeah, maybe it's best for me not to test the law again - even though it's in my blood. Let's face it, I'm an outlaw - especially when it comes to computers and such.

I still haven't decided which way to go - stick with my PC and get Adobe or Studio DV or Avid. Or get a Mac. But at least I have options now. One more question, if I got a Mac could I get by on say a Power Mac G4 Tower with 400 MHz? Does that have enough memory and/or compatilibitly to do Final Cut Pro?

Still clueless but still an outlaw,

Rob

 

[Rob Webber]

FULL DISCLOSURE

I just got a mac, and prefer FC Pro.
I was just helping Lathan if he had to stick with the PC and not spend any money.

Rob

 

[Nick Mougis]

hey lathan,

i've cut with Final Cut 3 on an ibook g3...

while it will probably be slow, and you would definately need a memory upgrade, you'd be able to cut with that g4... basic stuff would be okay, but complex stuff would take a lot of time...

also, if you wanted to use final cut 4, the mac would need a dvd drive (to install the program). i'd recommend staying with FCP3 on that machine.

anyway, what is your windows machine like?


nick

 

[Rob Lathan]

Here's the description of my PC:

It's pretty cute. It's silvery. It's got a keyboard and it plays music.

Naw, here's the real description:

Gateway Pentium 4
2.27 GHz
512 MB of RAM
DVD drive
and more

I bought it about a year and a half ago. Could I get any money for it selling it on eBay or on the IRC? If so I'd be glad to sell it and buy a Mac.

Also the reason I asked about the using the G4 for FC Pro is b/c it is for sale:

http://www.improvresourcecenter.com/mb/showthread.php?t=21512

So what should I do with my life? If you're too busy to answer no worries.

And many thanks,

Latham

 

[Nick Mougis]

hmmm.... 400 bucks is good... but you might want to upgrade the ram and keep your PC, and run avid.

i think its a tossup.

anyone else care to give an opinion?

 

[Ute Giddeon]

If you're in it for the long run, Rob, and want to shop out your services and be an editor-for-hire, forget the other programs and learn Avid or FCP. Or both.

Avid Xpress DV, which is the Avid product you'd be looking at, is less versatile than FCP. It can only edit DV footage. FCP is scalable, and will edit in any format that your equipment supports.

DV-only is not such a big loss, since unless you plan on buying a beta deck or some other very expensive equipment, you'll be editing exclusivley in DV for the forseeable future.

An advantage of Avid is that once you learn the Xpress interface, you know all Avid interfaces. And many non-avid programs will let you select an Avid keymap.

Then there's Premiere Pro. If you're not interested in being an editor-for-hire, look at this option. It's a thousand times better than the previous Premiere, and was re-coded from the ground up. Is it an FCP killer? No. But that may have mostly to do with its credibility, not actual functionality. Is anyone here using it? Does it rock or suck?

Rob, my advice would be to decide on which program you want to use and then decide what machine to use. That said, a PC will be most cost-effective and will render faster than a mac. Traditionally, AMD Athlons held the content-creation speed record; but now, the Pentium 4 EE is the top contender. A top-of-the-line single P4 EE outperforms a top-of-the line dual G5. Plus, if you're into warez, you'll want to go the PC route.

 

[Rob Lathan]

Thanks Ute. I actually don't plan to be an editor-for-hire. I bascially just want to shoot comedy shorts and do basic editing to them. So for now I'll probably stick with the PC I have and (legally) download Adobe Premier or Avid (in case any Feds read this post).

At the very least I've learned that I need to learn a lot more about this stuff.

 

[tentacle]

You can never have too much advice...

I've been editing 5+ years on a home PC (even back before that whole "firewire" thing). I began on Adobe Premiere 4.0. I'm right now running Premiere Pro (a.k.a. Premiere 7).

Despite what people say about other DV software (Studio, Vegas Video, what have you) I'd only recommend you choose from Final Cut Pro, Avid Xpress DV, and Adobe Premiere.

I don't own a Mac, so I can't attest to Final Cut Pro, but from everything I heard, it is outstanding.

Avid Xpress DV is the prosumer version of the Avid line. If you ever plan to edit a movie in a professional environment (e.g. 10 years from now your dreams have come true and you're making a feature length film shot on real film) you must know Avid. Xpress, Symphony, Media Composer... they all use the Avid workflow.

I use Adobe Premiere, still, because I've used it for way too long. I've never had the time to sit down and relearn my workflow for Avid. And I've tried. But every project I've done has ended up a time crunch, so I just fell back to the software I'm fastest in.

I suspect Avid isn't _much_ more complicated than Premiere if you approach is not knowing anything to begin with, but it is a royal pain to start over from scratch.

So, basically, if you're running a PC and plan to _ever_ do editing in a professional environment, you really want to bite the bullet and learn Avid. Otherwise, I'm really happy with Premiere, and it integrates well with the other Adobe products I use.