avid xpress vs FCP hd

[michellelord]

I'm looking into buying a powerbook and can't decide between avid and fcp.

At work i use Avid media composer, and would love to have avid at home,
but....

At the moment im leaning towards FCP production suite simply coz its cheaper than Avid. in the suite you get dvd studio, motion and FCP HD for AU$1600 appox compared with xpress pro AU$2134 approx.

or do i go for avid xpress dv which would only be AU$800

so im in a bit of a dilemma, what do you guys think?



cheers
mish

[mattosborne]

I guess you have to think what your purpose is, will you be making dvds, motion graphics, as well as editing then go with the production suite, if it's just plain editing then go with Avid, IF of course you prefer avid over FCP, which is highly debateable and also a matter of personal opinion, i haven't used avid, but i LOVE FCP.

I would also consider why you are buying a powerbook over a powermac. The only plausible reason would be if you NEED portability, beacause otherwise you can either buy a G4 1.5GHz or a G5 dual processor for the same amount of cash. If you go the powerbook route then you a basically sacrificing a hell of a lot of speed, expansion capabilities, and general performance for the sake of having a computer to carry around with you, and if you're going to be editing predominantly at home then the powerbook is a very illogical choice.

You should head over to 2-pop.com and do some research for some great insights into this debate.

Anyway i just realised i will probably see you tonight so we can probably further this discussion then.

Matt

[michellelord]

cheers matt,

i think that FCP will win the debate tonite at least!

looking forward to tonite.

[Daz]

You guys are right - what editing system you use does depend entirely on what you use it for. I'm working mostly in broadcast TV docos, where FCP is beginning to make inroads, but where Avid is still the best tool for the job. Because I deal with very large amounts of rushes - hundreds of tapes, literally thousands of clips - and often have to manage several cutting rooms on a shared network, I find that the FCP method of handling rushes simply does not stack up to the Avid Bins and the Unity media server.

I would always advise people starting out to learn Avid, because the skill of using that system will always stand you in good stead. Mind you, I am working in London, so I couldn't say whether this advice translates well to Aussie!

[Daz]

By the way, one neat trick with Avid Xpress is working from home.

I use Avid Adrenaline at work. The digitising is all done for me and when it's finished I copy the media from the LANshare server to a LaCie firewire drive. It's also a useful way of backing up media. At the end of a day's work, I simply copy the project from my work Avid to my laptop.

I can then have a couple of days out of the office. When I return it's simply a matter of copying the project back from the laptop onto the work Avid. Sweet!

One caveat: this only works when the kids go to Grandma's for a few days...