Is Applecare Professional Video Support worth it?

[Joe Barbour]

Hi,

I've finished shooting a large (> 100 hr) project in JVC HDV 720p24 and now we're moving to post. My editor has 30 years experience in editing and is incredibly well-versed in Avid Media Composer, but has never used Final Cut. Because Avid doesn't support the format - and isn't likely to soon - we're getting a tricked out Mac Pro and FC Studio.

We are newbies. I hope not to bother you fine folks with naive questions. So I'm considering getting the Applecare Professional Video Support, which is $799 for a year (post should only last 6 months) for the editor.

Do any of you have experience with the service contract? Was it useful? How often do they give bad information? Was it worth the money?

Thanks,
Joe

[Chuck Spaulding]

Originally Posted by Joe Barbour

Hi,

I've finished shooting a large (> 100 hr) project in JVC HDV 720p24 and now we're moving to post. My editor has 30 years experience in editing and is incredibly well-versed in Avid Media Composer, but has never used Final Cut. Because Avid doesn't support the format - and isn't likely to soon - we're getting a tricked out Mac Pro and FC Studio.

We are newbies. I hope not to bother you fine folks with naive questions. So I'm considering getting the Applecare Professional Video Support, which is $799 for a year (post should only last 6 months) for the editor.

Do any of you have experience with the service contract? Was it useful? How often do they give bad information? Was it worth the money?

Thanks,
Joe

Don't worry about bothering these fine folks, that's my job.

After 20 years of editing I too am making the transition to FCP [as you may have noticed by all of the questions I've been asking]. I know that others will differ from this, but the little I've interacted with Apple support (phone and in person) I have not been that impressed. If I asked long enough eventually I would get to someone who was knowledgeable but not necessarily that helpful. I realize that's why you pay the support contract to get to "that" person immediately, but I'm sure the first thing your editor will need to do is just find out where all the buttons are. He/she will quickly catch on to the methodology that FCP was devloped with and be able to proficiently navigate the system.

I joined Lynda.com and watched the tutorials for all of the FCP suite applications and there certainly is a method to the madness that once you get the hang of it you can figure out many of your problems within FCP. After simply watching the tutorials I was able to start editing without too much difficulty. I know that's going to come back to bite me in the butt...

If you have an editor who's been editing for that long I'm not sure whether you'll get that much value from Apple support. On the other hand its fairly cheap insurance. I would recomend however that your editor check out Lynda.com, or other training sites, maybe that would be a more cost effective way to make the transition.

Now I'm going to start another thread -- "which video card?"...

[Nathan VanHoose]

If you purchased the year long contract, it may be worth it. Never, I mean never, buy per incident support. I did and what the tech failed to mention is that per incident support isn't really per incident support. They trouble shot my problem for a week without solving it. Then when I called back, they informed me that per incident support only gets you one week of assistance. If they can't resolve the issue within a week, YOU HAVE TO PAY AGAIN!!! I ended up fixing the problem myself on this very forum. I would wait for a problem to crop up, if DV info can't help you out, then pay Apple.

[Waldemar Winkler]

I second lynda.com.

[Joe Barbour]

Thanks for your help.

Lynda looks really good. I subscribed.

-Joe