Avid / Pinnacle discussions from 2005

[Alan Buckler]

Hi there!

I was wondering if anybody out there uses AVID (any form) to edit their wedding videos with?
I'm about to buy a new system to run Avid Xpress DV, which i plan to edit many wedding videos with. Once I've edited them, i then plan on outputting the finished film onto DVD for clients to view on their domestic players.

If anybody has any advice about using Avid for this purpose i'd be very grateful to hear your advice.
Also, if anybody has any tips or general advice to give me based on my situation, again i'd be extremely grateful.

Finally, if anybody considered getting Avid but chose not to, then please tell me why you decided against it, and what editing software you chose to use instead?
What is the preferred editor of choice for the fellow wedding videographers out there? Why did you decide on that one?

Thanks for reading and (hopefully) replying, i am very grateful.
Regards,
Alan

[Richard Alvarez]

Alan,

I answered your DVD question in another post. As I stated, I cut on Avid Xpress Pro. But I don't do weddings. I cut documentaries, shorts and films. I tend towards long form editing. For this Avid excells.

I think you'll find a lot of the event photographers are cutting on Vegas and Premiere. Both of these programs will do an excellent job, and are a little less expensive than Avid. Avid MIGHT be overkill for you.

I won't address the merits of each NLE, they all can 'cut weddings'. Some have stronger suits in some areas than others. Bottom line advice we pretty much give everyone who asks 'which one is best' is to download and try each version. Avid has "Avid XpressDV FREE" which you can download off their site for free and try it out. Vegas and Premiere I'm pretty sure have demo versions available.

The user interface on each of these is very different. People claim each one is 'more intuitive' than the other. People also claim it was difficult to unlearn one and move to another. BUt that's a personality trait, not a NLE function.

So you can try before you buy! Good luck.

[Maurizio Panella]

I can edit a wedding in the best accurate way in two days.I have an Ibm Intellistation Z-Pro dual xeon 3.06 with Pinnacle Liquid Edition and FilmFX plug-in.With this software I can edit a dvd directly from timeline with chapters,really simple and easy.

Ciao from Italy.
Maurizio.

[Jason Bowers]

Hi Alan,
I use premiere pro with photoshop and after effects. All I really do is Wedding videography and I find that this system really suits my needs. Avid is really for professional documentaries,films, and such. You could probably save a whole lot of money by going either Adobe or Sony, both have tons of third party plugins available. Also the learning curve is very easy on both NLE systems. If you plan on doing stuff for your television station then you have to go either AVid or Final Cut. So look at your target audience and budget and decide.

[Peter Jefferson]

If your wanting to deliver broadcast, i would suggest avid, if yoru wanting to deliver domestic (as you are) id suggest something different.

Purely software based, i would recommend Vegas 6, as its media management system is totally kick ass. This is good for retaining stock footage/title sets etc etc
Vegas also has the most powerful audio tools which will be essential to anything you produce

Pinnacle also works well, but if uve never used it, its learning curve and tedious workflow might piss u off

Premiere is also good, not my personal taste as i cant stand the boggy menu system but its got some good Hardware "realtime" support

and edius, well its good, but ill put that in the pinnacle bin, being that when u can get it to work, it works really well.. but gettin to that point can aggravate you.

if youve never edited before, Vegas is the way to go, but in the end, the only way to really find out what works is to download teh demos and see what works for you

cheers
p

[Courtney Lana]

I've use Avid, Premiere, Vegas (a little) and Pinnacle. Premiere I've used the most though. I prefer that one over the rest just because of my time with it. I know where stuff is at.

But looking to get one with no experience with any, Avid is going to require some time to get to know. I've heard that the learning curve with it is much steaper than the others meantioned. I didn't think it was hard, but it is a different system.

The good thing about Premiere is that things are laid out similar to Photoshop and After Effects. That's a plus if you use Photoshop and After Effects, which I do. So things kinda go hand in hand.

Vegas I loved, but I chose to stay with Premiere. Vegas had an easy to manuever layout.

I've got issues with Pinnacle. It goes back to support for one of their products the DC1000/2000, in which they just dropped off the face of the earth. For that I'm afraid to touch something else that they release. Makes me wonder when the day will come that they'll drop Liquid off and go with something else. I've used Liquid some, but I didn't really care for it personally.

The good thing about all these systems - minus Pinnacle - is that you can buy books from your local book store on them to train with. Avid didn't used to have books. Used to be you had to go for training, and that's probably still true with some of their higher end products, but there's plenty of books on Xpress Pro. Tons for Premiere and Vegas too.

You have to set up some criteria that you want your system to do - price, performance, features, etc. Maybe Avid requires you to upgrade your computer, where Premiere doesn't. Maybe Vegas doesn't support your camera, where Avid does. Maybe Premiere doesn't have a plug in that you want, where Vegas does......and so on and so on.

Any of those three will get the job done perfectly. After it's all said and done and you're viewing your final cut on DVD on your big screen TV, you won't know which editing system was used. They all do the same thing. The tools are just laid out alittle bit differently.

Court

[Gary Bettan]

DMN Review - New version of highly scalable editing software nails it!

(6/15/05) Avid Xpress Pro HD ($1695 software only, $295 for students) is a new version of Avid’s lowest-cost line of editing software. Adding to its mile-high feature set are improvements such as DVCProHD support, along with real time HD multicamera editing. You get a lot for your money with this package, but there’s one important thing missing from its extensive list of features that Avid says we’ll seeing by the end of this year—native HDV editing—although it will be provided free to all Avid Xpress Pro HD customers. Let’s take a close-up look.

For our testing, we used the basic software-only version of Avid Xpress Pro HD, which doesn’t include the Avid Mojo hardware box, a $1695 option that’s also available bundled with Avid Xpress Pro software for a total of $2595 after rebate. Of course, when equipping yourself for this task of multistream editing, and especially anything having to do with high definition, you’d be much better off with a really fast machine with a RAID -0 array moving data around quickly. But in our testing, even without those fast disks or the Mojo hardware, the performance of the software was still sprightly and useful. The scalability of this software serves as a great performance enhancer—the beauty of this software-driven system Avid has developed lies in that fact that better the host computer and drives, the better your performance will be.

follow this link for full review http://www.digitalproducer.com/artic...jsp?id=33029-0

As always, we've got some great deals going on Avid Xpress Pro HD ;-)

Gary
Videoguys.com

[Art Guglielmo]

Avid bought Pinnacle, so expect Liquid to "Dissappear"

I used premiere for years, and now use Final Cut. Avid is a bit expensive, and has a higher learning curve, in that the interface is a bit older, and some things arn't as "conventional" as all the other NLE's. Most of the other programs, you can bounce back and forth with minimal fuss, but if you go to the Avid, things are slightly different.

On the Avid side, many people are AVID editors, swear by it, and will touch nothing else. AVID is the only name in professional movie editing (Final Cut making some in roads now), but for starting a new wedding business, AVID is probably not the best chioce.

[Alan Buckler]

Hi there everybody.

I just received my new copy of Avid Xpress DV 4.6 yesterday, and now that i've installed & registered it, i'm having trouble actually getting it to work!

I have used Avid before at college for 3 years, so i have a basic-to-good understanding of how to capture/edit/digital-cut with it, but i've never had to set-up and configure my own system so i need some help.

Can anybody out there give me any guide or help for what i need to do in order to start capturing?
I'm trying to capture from my Panasonic AG-DVC60 Camcorder, via firewire cable, into my new workstation's firewire port.

I have been able to capture before from it with "Cyberlink PowerDirector", which was able to control the camera just fine. Avid however is unable to recognise the camera at the moment, so i haven't been able to begin to edit yet.

I'd really appreciate any help that anyone can give me, i'm struggling at the moment!
Many thanks for reading this post, i hope you can help.
Regards,
Alan

[Richard Alvarez]

Alan,

Under 'configure deck settings' you can choose 'generic dv device' as a start, if you can't find your specific cam.

[Gary Bettan]

Introducing the Avid Xpress DV 4 AV $499.95!

This complete package lets you capture & edit all your videos — even that old VHS/8mm footage from years ago — and share them with your family & friends on tape, DVD or via the web - the choice is yours!! Now you can get all the tools you need to produce high-quality movies at an affordable price!

Avid Xpress DV is the perfect way to explore the exciting world of digital video and make an investment in your future with a product that has minimal requirements and cross-platform compatibility sure to run on your current WindowsXP or Mac OS X machine! Avid Xpress DV is also completely upgradeable & compatible with every level of Avid’s Academy Award® winning broadcast technology!

The ADS PYRO A/V Link media converter gives you the freedom to use footage from any video source with Avid Xpress DV. Just connect the A/V Link to your PC or Mac’s FireWire port and begin capturing high-quality audio and video. You may also use the A/V Link to output your final masterpiece to any camcorder or VCR for a tape to share with your friends or family.

For more info check out our XDV4AV page http://www.videoguys.com/XDV4AV.html

Gary

[Peter Jefferson]

How much extra for a Mojo unit with this bundle?

[Gary Bettan]

Mojo does not work with Xpress DV, it requires Xpress Pro or Pro HD.

We are offering a very good deal on an XPress Pro/ProHD & Mojo bundle. It comes to $1995 after $400 mail in rebate. you can find more info here http://www.videoguys.com/XpressProHD.html

Gary

[Cody Dulock]

im trying to compress some footage to put on the web and i want to deinterlace it, but i have no clue how to do that. any help would be great!

[Richard Alvarez]

what are you using to compress it?