Thursday, January 31, 2008

Video Editing Battle

When trying to edit your video clips - downloaded, tv-tape-computer transferred, camcorder recorded - whatever it is, what software do you folks generally use? As of right now, the two biggest ones out there are Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid Xpress.

I personally have never used Avid Xpress, I have slight used Final Cut Pro previously. But Avid Xpress apparently is sure putting up a good competition with Final Cut Pro today.

Final Cut unfortunately is only available for the Mac, but there Avid Xpress is available for both Mac and PCs. The main question being asked if what is the difference between the two? The answer would be none, according to the information I have found online.

The author of the article Avid versus Final Cut: 2006, Patrick Inhofer, says that "they both get the job done on-budget, and on-time, but when it comes to how we approach our projects or how we interact with the software itself, there are some meaningful differences."

Check it out.

Priyom.

1 comment:

Mark E. Johnson said...

Avid has a much larger installed user base on the television side, given that it has existed longer than Final Cut. Gannett has standardized on Avid because they already have it installed in lots of television studios, which creates a built-in tech support network. As noted, it's also cross platform.

But most newspapers have Macs for the photo and design departments. (Not all, but most.) And the processors in the latest Macs are faster than those in PCs for many uses, including video editing.

If your newsroom is used to the Apple systems, then Final Cut is the way to go. And while both appear to cost the same, Avid charges for maintenance upgrades, I believe, so the long term cost may be higher.