Alternatives to Adobe CC

[Dan Burnap]

As a user of Premiere pro and suites for about 5 years editing AVCHD weddings, I found CS6 a mature product which works well. Dynamic link is crucial part of my workflow which removes the need to render out 90 or 100 full HD masters for encoding into a variety of different format including DVD and Blu-ray.

I was begrudgingly probably going to go the CC route until I found out about Encore and no more dynamic link.

As CS6 works well for me I will probably keep using that until something substantially better comes along. But what?

Do you think Adobe will back track? Will other companies respond with a new product? What alternatives are on the horizon or already here?

[Noa Put]

If cs6 works for you now it will in the next years, you"ll only be missing out on updates and new features, it only will become a issue if you buy a new camera that uses a codec your version might not support, that was my reason when I had cs3 and bought a avchd camera.
About companies responding with a new product, why would that be, a new product to replace what? You have the well known major players and they will just continue improving what they have, who knows some might follow adobe's approach in the future.

[Marty Hudzik]

Originally Posted by Dan Burnap

As a user of Premiere pro and suites for about 5 years editing AVCHD weddings, I found CS6 a mature product which works well. Dynamic link is crucial part of my workflow which removes the need to render out 90 or 100 full HD masters for encoding into a variety of different format including DVD and Blu-ray.

I was begrudgingly probably going to go the CC route until I found out about Encore and no more dynamic link.

As CS6 works well for me I will probably keep using that until something substantially better comes along. But what?

Do you think Adobe will back track? Will other companies respond with a new product? What alternatives are on the horizon or already here?

I have to say that if you could find another software suite, or 5-6 pieces of individual software that meets your needs, you are likely better of sticking with CS6 anyway. It is pretty rich and features, stable and all products are tightly woven together as you already know.

IF.....I say if you can find this "other" product, it is likely going to be a less mature offering with missing features and possibly issues. The program will be more individualized and not integrate well. Sure, every piece of software has some uniqueness.....maybe some cool effects or shortcuts or plugins that we wish Adobe had.....

But in the long run, when I thought about switching to Avid, Vegas or other editors, compositors or authoring software, I figured I couldn't really find something better than CS6.

I guess what I am saying is that even a year old copy of CS6 suite is likely more feature rich than most new software packages that I could try to piece together. And I (and you) already own it.

So....other than the natural migration to a newer feature of Adobe CC, I think switching to another software package just because you don't like the CC package it hasty. You have CS6.....use it.

Unless a 3rd party editor actually brings something to the table that is better than CS6.....why change? Cause Adobe left us behind?

Just my 2cents! :)

[Bruce Watson]

Originally Posted by Marty Hudzik

I have to say that if you could find another software suite, or 5-6 pieces of individual software that meets your needs, you are likely better of sticking with CS6 anyway.

That's my plan. Adobe's demand that I subsidize the development and maintenance of a whole bunch of software that I don't need and don't want doesn't mean jack to me. Just because they demand it doesn't mean I'm going to pay it; I'm not going to pay this new Adobe Tax.

I'm sticking with my copy of CS6 Production Premium for the next few years. Unless Adobe offers me the chance to upgrade what I need, including Encore. CC is a great opportunity for the competition. I'll be watching for deals to coax me to switch. I doubt I'll be dissappointed.

[Al Bergstein]

Is Toast capable of handling the DVD production needs? It's been disappointing to see a company like Adobe, which markets to professionals, abandon a tool that many professionals need, and likely will while the Baby Boomers are still alive (G). It really shakes my confidence in buying into their ecosystem moving forward. Apple on the other hand, finally seem to be making noises like they are wanting to get back to their professional users, which the firing of the FCP 7.0 team and subsequent abandoning without warning of their most professional product. At least FCP X does support Blu Ray and DVDs which even FCP didn't.

So for a couple of hundred bucks you might want to pick up FCP X just to try out it's DVD capablities. I always liked the effects that iMovie had built in, and on occasion would fire it up to use the airplane map to show where I went on a trip. A nice cheap animation that Adobe can't even find the ability to come close to in their products.

Also, just to be clear,Sony's Vegas Pro has a DVD making tool with it, though I think that they haven't done anything but bug fixes in 1000 years. It is "supported" and still sold as part of their suite. But I'm certainly not advocating you move from Premiere to Vegas. I've been there and that product is barely stable. When I downloaded the latest version, it wouldn't even open on the same machine that is running the previous version (and Pr)! It's a pity really, if Sony invested in some serious regression testing, they would have a product that could compete with Pr. It's fast, very easy to use, and has a lot of great features. But trying to keep it from crashing was just too much work.

So let us know if Toast is an option, or what else you find. I'm going to stick with the current versions of CS 6 for the next year, on my production machines, and see if the firestorm around Adobe makes them rethink this strategy.

[Woody Sanford]

I've been an adobe guy for a long time and this whole CC thing has had me looking into alternatives as well. I like what I'm seeing with Edius and might give it a go in the next year.

[Brian Drysdale]

There has been increasing interest in Lightworks as an option by some Premiere users. True it's an annual subscription for the Pro version but it's pretty cheap and if you don't renew you still have the free version. The most appropriate NLE depends on the type of productions you work on.

[Noa Put]

I think there is not any NLE out there that can match adobe in terms of integration with other specialized software like after effects, photoshop and so on, once you switch to another nle that will be the first thing you miss. I stopped using Premiere after CS3 and just to give an example I miss the encore/photoshop integration for custommaking my dvd menu's. I use tmpgenc authoringworks now which is a rock steady program but doesn't even come close to customisation to encore. But for building dvd and blu-ray menu's it has never crashed on me or delivered a non playable dvd, it just works and that was what I couldn"t say about encore which often was unstable.

[Brian Drysdale]

You might be limited in finding a replacement for Photoshop, if you don't need the latest version you may get away with an older version. I suspect it may be still photographers rather than editors who need the very latest version.

There's a number of other VFX programs you can buy instead of After Effects, although you'd have to check their specs etc to see if they meet your needs. How well they integrate with your NLE is another matter, I know Lightworks has an Assistant Application option in its effects, but that mightn,'t have the same workflow for plug in effects as other NLEs.

[John Richard]

And sadly, for some crrrraaazzy reason, Adobe has dropped Encore from CC. So now the only way to use it to deliver on DVD/BR is to output a DVD/BR compatible file from CC and then go back to CS6 Encore and author ... no more Dynamic Link ability either.

Hoping Adobe will re-think this weird decision pretty quickly.

[Woody Sanford]

I used to rely on AE for stabilizing footage and color correction/grading but last year I started with Resolve lite and soon stopped using AE and Color Finesse almost completely, other than for some title effects and rotoscoping.

At first I was a bit put off with a different workflow but ironed one out and I timed it. I was actually faster re-wrapping FS-100 footage or even transcoding to cineform before editing in PP with round tripping to Resolve than replacing footage in a PP project with a AE composition to color grade when I added up the render times. Not to mention i am so much faster and have much more to work with in Resolve vs Color Finesse.

I'm sure someone who does more VFX work is more dependent on AE and the integration of the adobe system but Resolve broke me out of it and PP is just what I use to cut in. I'm also sure as h.265 or some other new codec comes to be in the near future it may change things but even having to transcode or re-wrap to make Resolve happy didn't slow me down in the end, if I have to transcode all the time it won't be a big deal. So for me a cutting app with a bit more compositing capability would actually simplify things for me as I would just round trip to one other software.

So its not just about the money for me (Which I agree sucks) I used to be an AE junkie but to me it really doesn't fit into system I "need". The CC is a complex system and is making a mountain out of a mole hill as to what we really need or what guys like me need anyway. I feel PP has been held back a bit to make us dependent on AE more. I don't need all of AE, so I'm looking for something that eliminates "Integration" altogether for me and has what I need in my cutting app. I don't mind round tripping to resolve for grading and just about any NLE now has what I need for minor/primary color correction. Adobe is just making things to complicated to keep us dependent on a system now.

[Greg Clark]

This might be the time to join the professionals with Avid or possibly EdIus. If Adobe sticks with their ridiculous subscription with a lack of Encore I will be moving.

[Andy Wilkinson]

I must admit I had a good read around about Avid MC 7 in the last few days and there are some very nice features.

When I switched from FCS 2 to CS 5.5 I thought it was a long term thing...but there you go. Adobe marketing have made me look at alternatives that I would have happily ignored before their recent subscription only policy.

I'll probably stick with CS6 for a while. After that, who knows. What comes around goes around!

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Greg Clark

This might be the time to join the professionals with Avid or possibly EdIus. If Adobe sticks with their ridiculous subscription with a lack of Encore I will be moving.

I think adobe doesn't care what you or others think or do, just like apple did with fcp7 they make a decision based on what they think what will be the easiest/cheapest to develop and maintain their products and what will deliver the largest profit in the long run. They might take a hit now but they can take it, when this storm settles they"ll be making lots of money again and you"ll be either forced to use their cc line of products because you can't maintain your business without it or you will be using many different replacements. They will serve you as well but it's the transition period that is a pain, especially if you like me have to go to a forum to ask how to do the simplest editing tasks when you move from one nle to another.

[Dan Asseff]

Andy

The same thing happened to me but it was with Avid Liquid. Avid bought Pinnacle and I thought it was a God send to find out that they were dropping Liquid. They had an offer for Media Composer for $500 so I jumped on it. I tried and tried to get my head around it but couldn't. I saw the special for PP5 got it and loved it. I started editing immediately. So I hope I don't have to learn something new again.

Dan