Avid / Pinnacle discussions from 2002

[Richard Alvarez]

"Are they worth it?"

Worth is a subjective judgement. It was for me. Might not be for you.

I own a turnkey Avid Xpress DV system. Very powerfull. Very scary. VERY STEEP learning curve if you are coming from Premiere.

Are you editing short spots with lots of compositing? Maybe the longest thing you do is a music video?

Probably want to stay away from Avid Xpress DV.

Are you interested in completing a feature film or long form documentary. Maybe shot in film, offlined in DV and conformed back in film? Are you working on projects that you want to transfer to an avid house for special effects? Are you interested in learning the avid interface so you can move up to the bigger systems?

AVID is your number one choice.

But as I said, it is a steep learning curve. And an expensive one. You can walk into any Barnes and Noble or Borders Bookstore, and find a shelf of self-help and how-to books on Premiere and Final Cut Pro. Try to find ONE on Avid. Not gonna happen.

Seriously, if you are short form, graphics intensive oriented, and have training in Adobe Graphics products or Apple, then stay with Premiere or Final Cut Pro.

Avid and Premiere approach editing from two different paradigms. Premiere comes from a "Computer File, Graphic manipulation paradigm" which tends to be very flexible.

Avid comes from a paradigm where everything you do, has to have a real-world application to cutting real negative stock. So this influences their work-flow approach. They pour their money into media management, making it easier to manipulate HUGE ammounts of media, (Typical for a feature film) or systems that are connected (More than one system working on a project at once) They leave the compositing and effects work to third party vendors like Boris (Great products) and Pro Tools, (also owned by Avid).

At the moment, AVID is tackling FINAL CUT PRO head to head on the Mac. They pushed 3.5 out the door a little too early in my opinion. The PC version has some serious bugs that are being worked out as I type. Expect 3.5x out sometime soon. Then it will be safe to jump on.

You will find it different from Premier and Vegas.

If you want to jump in the dep end, then choose Avid.

Visit the AVID.COM forum, and read the posts there. Do the same for FCP, VV and PREMIERE. They all have issues. The first thing to do is determine what your specific needs are. Short or Long.

[Derrick Begin]

Alrighty...

I am trying, working on, outputting in native Quicktime from Avid Xpress DV 3.5, and not having good results.

My settings are all screwed up because I tried so many ways of exporting. I don't know anymore.

I had no problem exporting from Premiere, however, I am not using that anymore. To compare gives me a headache of likes and dislikes...

I need to move this along and export to Quicktime so that my composer can start working on the music.

Please help....

Thank you for taking time to scrawl out some text.

Cheers!

Derrick

[Richard Alvarez]

Not sure exactly what your problem is. Might be you should be using Quick Time Ref files. Might be you should upgrade to 3.53 (The fix for 3.5 issues)

If you really want some excellent free avid advice, check the avid forum. www.avid.com

Be sure to give all your system specs, and a complete description of the problem, lots of good people there to help. I know, they've helped me.

[Derrick Begin]

Bill,

Thanks for the input. Yes, Avid's community has been very helpful. I think I solved this using the Sorensen codec. I'll no later when I have time to try it out.

I hope it works...

The Quicktime output has been very choppy, like every other frame is dropped.

Thanks...

[Adi Head]

these past two weeks i have been researching and learning about how to build a pc for editing, which will best fit my needs and avid xpress dv3.5 editing software.

i've narrowed it down to 2 options:

one based on a Dual AMD Athlon MP2000 + 1.67 GHz processor and Tyan Tiger MP Dual Atholon MP motherboard

the other based on an Intel Pentium4 2.53 GHz 533 MHz FSB motherboard and Asus P4B533 845E motherboard

the rest of the specs don't differ all that much between the two. it's either an AMD based machine or a Pentium 4 based machine.

what are the differences between these two options:

1) which is more powerful?
2) which is less expensive?
3) which will require more fans and therefore will make a noisier working enviorment?
4) which is known to work better with video editing / DV / xpressDV3.5?

any comments or suggestions you may think of are most welcome.

thanks.

[Marc Betz]

From what I've heard, Althalons run xpress dv fine, but they are not qualified by avid.

I would go with the other evil empire Wintel.

They will help you at CS if you drive a p4

[Jason Wood]

The Athlons run fine with XDV, but as Marc said they're not supported by Avid. I'm running dual MPs with the a Tyan mobo and 2 gigs of RAM. I haven't had any problems. It runs fast and stable.

I am told XDV only runs around 25 to 50% faster with two chips. WHere you'll really see the difference is in After Effects as it takes full advantage of the second CPU.

On the other side...the benchmarks for the 2.53 GH P4 with the 533 frontside bus look really good too.

I actually almost built one of these systems but decide to go with AMD instead. At that time, if I remember correctly, the AMD system cost around $300 more than it would have cost to build the pentium box.

HTH,
Jason

[Richard Alvarez]

adi,

See my comments about the duals on the other thread,

bill

[Gary Bettan]

We just got word from Avid on a very exciting new program. If you own Premiere (or Final Cut Pro) you can save big bucks on Xpress DV!!

$300 trade up allowance on XDV Base ($1499 - 300 = $1199)

$400 on the Powerpack ($2199 - $400 = $1799)

You will have to provide proof of ownership. The exact details of the program will be posted on our (and Avid's) website over the next day or two. This is a very limited time promotion, just in time for the holidays. If you're a Premiere or FCP editor who has been thinking about upgrading to XDV, the time is now!!

Gary
Videoguys.com

[Gary Bettan]

We just got word from Avid on a very exciting new program. If you own Premiere or Final Cut Pro you can save big bucks on Xpress DV!!

$300 trade up allowance on XDV Base ($1499 - 300 = $1199)

$400 on the Powerpack ($2199 - $400 = $1799)

You will have to provide proof of ownership. The exact details of the program will be posted on our (and Avid's) website over the next day or two. This is a very limited time promotion, just in time for the holidays. If you're a Premiere or FCP editor who has been thinking about upgrading to XDV, the time is now!!

Gary
Videoguys.com

[Marc Betz]

Download: $419.97
I have used both and like vegas better

What do I know????

[katelins]

Avid is pushing fairly hard, sounds like a good thing I think. I have a student version so it cost the same as VV. Do you know if Avid is planning on supporting 24P editing natively, perhaps as a kind of plug-in?

[Frank Granovski]

I was thinking the same thing (Vegas). I'm pretty much sold on that and can't wait to start buying new computer parts...then the Vegas software. Although I've heard nothing but good about Avid, I'm afraid I'm just a poor guy so Avid is out. I was thinking Storm a while back, for it's PAL/NTSC conversion software (extra $), but Vegas has this feature built in.

[Richard Alvarez]

Avid's powerpack already allows you to edit in 24 f for matchback. (Which is why it is so great for actually editing FILM) NO NLE currently edits in 24p. (No, not even FCP) Though they are talking about doing it. Basically, the new Panny camera shoots and converts a pulldown in camera... so everyone winds up editing in 29.97 anyway. (That's why you can see the image on a regualr monitor, and play the tapes in a regular player) Since there are no consumer 24p decks for playback, it is unclear at this point how the inustry will respond... so people are playing a 'wait and see who goes first game'.

Some people don't understand that AVID comes from a film-editing paradigm. The other NLE's come from a computer graphics paradigm. THis creates a different work-flow that often makes avid seem more difficult to master for those coming from a CG background.

I think the purchase of home computer NLE's is pushing AVID into the CG paradigm, even as FCP strives to be more "Avid-like". (Consider who invented the NLE interface).

In five years, my guess will be that there will be very little difference between NLE platforms. In short, about as much difference as there is between Microsoft WORD and WORDPERFECT.

[Adi Head]

i'm tempted to set up my system with Dual AMD Athlon MP2000 1.67 GHz processors and a Tyan Tiger MP motherboard.

BUT i know that AMD isn't in any of AVID's suggestested systems and therefore won't support it. or i've heard they will but for a $50/hour fee.

so my other option is INTEL pentium4 2.53 GHz 533 MHz FSB processor and either an Asus P4B533 845E motherboard or an INTEL Maryville motherboard.

if i give up the AMD setup to stay supported by avid, am i giving up much? or will the intel setup work fine with no major differences from a dual amd processor's capabilities?

or, do you think that i should go dual amd processors and rely on avid's forum or forums such as this one when i get stuck and risk that i won't need too many $50 hours with avid's support people.

would be happy to read your thoughts on this, especially from those who have experience with xpress dv3.5 on similar running systems.

thanks