Video Editing - What's Your Weapon?

[rosschapman]

So what with the growing popularity of Apple's Final Cut Pro (Cold Mountain, UK Top of the Pops etc.), what's your choice of video edit suite?

And with Media 100 being shelved - in your opinion; what's the future going to hold with digital video editing - how does Avid compete with FCPHD?

Well I use Final Cut Pro HD with DVD Studio Pro 3.

I hope to get After Affects and Combustion soon. May even play about with Motion when I have the time.

Having never used Avid, I can't comment, but which platform would you suggest is the best for video - PC or MAC? There's hardly any difference nowadays - but what's your opinion?

[Christina]

Avid for Mac....it's so nice......yet the learning curve versus Final Cut is steep. I found that learning Final Cut was extremely easier. The tools are nice and gets the job done. Starting from Premiere 4 or so years ago.....which was crappy to begin with...then going to Avid....I find that using Final Cut is where it's at for me. Yet Avid is still the big kid on the block ;) I love after effects.....yet haven't had the chance to sample Combustion but I love the Discreet product lines....I'm interested in learning Inferno, Flame, and their other tools.

[sonicgroup]

I don't have a Mac ( :( ), so I use Adobe Premiere on Windows. It works reasonably well, and the interface is somewhat familiar coming from a background in Illustrator/Photoshop.

[Christina]

Premiere spit out the worst quality I've ever seen!! Of course I'm only speeking of version 6? and below.........some argue that the newest versions have gotten better....but once you go Avid/Final Cut..you never go back!!! They have Avid for PC...but I prefer it on Mac platform...Video and Audio work best on mac :)

[sonicgroup]

I've used 6.5, and a friend has Pro. I've never had a problem with quality, but then again, I always export in QuickTime format using the Sorenson 3 codec, so I get great quality because of that. I think it depends more on your codec than the editor.

[Christina]

Well...when I had to export 5+ minutes worth of footage.....it always came out like crap in Premiere no matter what......so I do all my editing/compositing in After Effects..and then polish it in Final Cut ;)

[rosschapman]

ahh, I so wish I had After Effects. Unfortunately can't afford it really, so I'm going with Motion - which appears to be good enough for what I want to do with it - learn the basics.

Any of you know much about Motion - the reviews look good from what I've read.

[Christina]

I love after effects.......I haven't had the chance to see Motion in action yet. I'd love to learn Combustion and the other Discreet post production products..