Posted by leekazimir on 10/07/06 06:09

Original poster here. I want to thank everyone who has so far posted
in these threads, it's already given me a lot to research and think
about. I see the debate's getting a little heated at times, but that's
cool with me since I'm learning from all sides.

I should have mentioned in the original post that I already own a
decent PC (3.0 ghz Pentium 3, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive) that I could,
should I decide to stick with PC, spend the money upgrading. I'd add 2
or 3 gigs or RAM, a few hard drives, maybe a new video card and
definitely a new HD display. Then I could go with the software you
guys have mentioned, such as Vegas 7, Ulead, Premiere Pro, maybe a
combination of the three.

I guess I showed a bias in my original post because I expected everyone
one to push me toward Mac, which many have done. Over the years it's
been drilled in my head that Final Cut is so much better than all PC
editing programs. (One guy went so far as to say "Final Cut pisses all
over" the competition.) However this seems to be changing, or at least
to have its detractors, so I am confused.

(1) So, on a basic level, my question to those who recommend Final Cut
Studio is, can you tell me what I will be able to do with that software
that I won't be able to do with Vegas/Premiere/Ulead, etc?

(2) Second question would be, what do you mean by "edit HDV natively"?
I guess I have the option of using an "intermediate codec" but I don't
really know what that means or what I'd be trading off. Is it true
that "native HDV" needs 40 gigs per hour? I've heard conflicting
reports on this. I don't want to trade off any quality in my doc, so
I'd rather get the extra storage space to be able to do the job right.

(3) What's good/not good about Canopus Edius?

I have a lot to think about, especially as I'm hearing bad things from
some of you about FC's rendering times, which really surprises me. I
have never owned a Mac system, so on some level it might slow me down
to change platforms. I am familiar and comfortable with Windows and
have liked programs such as Adobe Premiere, After Effects, and Audition
for video/audio editing. I haven't encountered much I wanted to do
with them that I couldn't, but then I've never attempted to edit
anyhing on the scale of what I'm about to do.

So any further guidance you fellows can offer is very much appreciated.
Obviously I won't be making any decisions without doing a lot more
research, but I've always found these groups to be the best places for
starting to research these things.

And as for some of my basic questions, I won't be offended at any
invitations to RTFM, so long as you can direct me to where the FM is.

Lee


Smarty wrote:
> Mr. Tapeguy,
>
> I should emphasize that my Ulead suggestion is really for the amateur user,
> and FCP is in a whole other league in terms of sophistication. I think a
> full length feature demands a more sophisticated solution than Ulead Video
> Studio 10 Plus, and apologize if I may have over-simplified the comparison.
> Vegas 7 is a nice compromise in terms of price / performance and
> functionality.
>
> I do find it both surprising and disturbing that the FCP workflow goes so
> slowly compared to Ulead, and this is my major criticism, especially
> considering the cost difference. I especially like the Vegas and Ulead PC
> solutions because I can easily bring mpeg content in and out, and use a lot
> of really nice PC-based tools to work with intermediate products. The
> insistence of Apple on creating and using closed and proprietary standards
> personally bothers me, unless there are compelling offsets in price,
> quality, performance, or other tangible benefits. IMHO, these do not exist,
> and certainly not to justify a 3X or greater price disadvantage.
>
> Smarty
>
> "l e o" <someone@somewhere.net> wrote in message
> news:LIEVg.2631$0q2.1175@newsfe07.lga...
> > Smarty wrote:
> >> Mr Tapeguy,
> >>
> >> Ulead's $89 program lacks many features which FCP 5.1 provides, and more
> >> advanced users can upgrade or buy Ulead's professional product for $300
> >> or so which maintains the same speed but adds more features for advanced
> >> editing.
> >>
> >> Despite being very limited compared to FCP in features, it does basic
> >> editing and other things quite adequately, and contains many filters,
> >> transitions, titling tools, overlay and alpha / greenscreen features as
> >> well as pretty sophisticated audio tools, all considered. It makes really
> >> excellent DVDs and HD DVDs (as well as all sorts of other mpeg2, mpeg4,
> >> VCD, SVCD, ipod and other formats). Its' full screen preview and playback
> >> just blows away FCP and Vegas, as does its' rendering speed. For a
> >> beginner or someone on a limited budget, it just doesn't get any better
> >> today. iMovieHD and a modest iMac would be a reasonably comparable Mac
> >> alternative, but has the rendering speed penalty as well as way too much
> >> Quicktime emphasis for my taste. Simple MPEG2 file handling is terrible
> >> on this platform.
> >>
> >> My dual G5 came with Tiger, was delivered / installed with Final Cut
> >> Studio Pro HD 5 from a clean install and has been upgraded with all
> >> updates to both OSX and FCP HD Studio. It is just a slow machine,
> >> producing high quality results with far too much expense and time
> >> consumption. Having used FCP older versions on older hardware with
> >> earlier (non Tiger) releases, this is indeed a much faster system than
> >> those were......but it is still glacial compared to Ulead.
> >>
> >> Smarty
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "Mr. Tapeguy" <mr.tapeguy@pro-tape.com> wrote in message
> >> news:1160148271.346034.28030@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> >>> Smarty wrote:
> >>>> I just have to throw my 2 cents in here, since I have been doing HDV
> >>>> editing
> >>>> since the day it was available..... I now have 4 systems in place, and
> >>>> have
> >>>> made a lot of comparisons and observations.
> >>>
> >>> <snip>
> >>>
> >>> That is really interesting info Smarty. How does the Ulead compare in
> >>> features to the more expensive packages?
> >>>
> >>> By the way, you probably won't be using this as your primary solution
> >>> but if you haven't upgraded to Tiger you should do so as well as
> >>> crossgrade to FCP 5.x before the end of the year. It's cheap and will
> >>> enhance performance dramatically.
> >>>
> >>> Craig
> >>>
> >>> http://www.pro-tape.com
> >
> >
> > Despite your push for Ulead Video, I really like using Vegas 7 for HDV
> > editing. I think Vegas is the minimum system to do a feature length
> > documentary. It works seamlessly with Sonic Foundry for sound editing.
> > Don't forget multi-tracks. I don't think Ulead Video has it but I haven't
> > really use it too intensively.
> >
> > Premiere Pro 2 is fine too and it works well with Photoshop/Illustrator
> > files.
> >
> > Final Cut Pro is mainly for Mac users; sorry I don't see it's virtue
> > except easy to find editors for serious works and lots of third party
> > plugins. If you go with Mac, you really need to spend over $2500 for Mac
> > Pro just to have the PCIe slots!!!!!!! You will find that expansion slot
> > very useful - many [expensive] products from Blackmagic that will make HDV
> > editing a better experience. But what a premium, a Dual 2 Core system can
> > be gotten for $1000 with enough money left to invest on RAID hard drives
> > and 4 GB memory etc.

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