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Final Cut Express HD

AtHomeBoy_2000

AtHomeBoy_2000

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 3, 2005
879
0
I was curious what everyone impessions of Final Cut Express HD were. I do video for wedding occasionally (friends and family) and i was hoping to use iMove to edit, but I need 2 video tracks to edit the wedding (making sure the video and audio are synced up properly) and I use up to 4 Audio tracks. So, it appears iMovie wont cut it for my needs. but what do you think of Final Cut Express HD? I dont need all the spif things that come with the Pro version. i just need multiple video and audio tracks and the abily to export to iDVD.

PS: In iDVD movies does the little Apple logo show up on the DVD or is it just while you are working on the menus in iDVD?
 
AtHomeBoy_2000 said:
I was curious what everyone impessions of Final Cut Express HD were. I do video for wedding occasionally (friends and family) and i was hoping to use iMove to edit, but I need 2 video tracks to edit the wedding (making sure the video and audio are synced up properly) and I use up to 4 Audio tracks. So, it appears iMovie wont cut it for my needs. but what do you think of Final Cut Express HD? I dont need all the spif things that come with the Pro version. i just need multiple video and audio tracks and the abily to export to iDVD.
Click to expand...

I've never used FCE HD (or FCP), but it sounds like just what you need.

PS: In iDVD movies does the little Apple logo show up on the DVD or is it just while you are working on the menus in iDVD?
Click to expand...
There is an option in the Preferences to turn that off.


Lethal
 
Yep, you sound like the exact target for FCE--prosumer or high-end hobbyist.

I think you'll get 99 audio and video tracks. FCE HD now also includes LiveType and Soundtrack. These additions really make it an awesome deal.

If you google a bit you can find some Mac resellers selling FCE 1.0 for $49. Then you just buy the upgrade for $99. So you get all this for $149!
 
I use Final Cut Express HD for all my video projects and it works wonderfully. I picked up Motion 2, as well, and its integration is slick.

If you need a step up from iMovie HD, Final Cut Express HD is where it's at. Add SoundTrack (bleh) and LiveType (w00t) and you're set for nearly any project you could ever cook up.
 
ChrisBrightwell said:
There is no watermark, but it *does* have fewer features than FCP. That much is to be expected.
Click to expand...


I think what you meant to say was:

NO the education or academic version of Apple software is not handicapped in any way. They are full versions. The only difference is the packaging and the word Academic in all the loading screens of the apps.

Also NO watermarks, ever, never seen that in anything but DEMOs of crappy shareware or high end stuff.

Final Cut EXPRESS is less featured than Final Cut, but a good recommendation is to go Academic Final Cut Pro since its only like $400.

FCE is missing a few "key" things to high end people, missing alot of color correcting and chromo black burst etc etc broadcast stuff, like import of uncompressed broadcast video, and capturing stuff. Nothing entirely too important, but in time you might want the stuff in FCP thats not in FCE.

The reason Academic is cheaper than normal is because YOU CANT use it for commercial things. You cant be say a freelance DV guy and sell videos you shoot and edit with FCP Academic, thats "illegal". Plus you cant even SELL the software 6months (maybe 1 year?) after you are no longer a student. So if you want to get rid of it on eBay you have to prove you are still a student to sell it, again "legally".

FEATURE CHART:
http://www.apple.com/finalcut/index.html
 
leftbanke7 said:
Final Cut Express did everything I ever needed it to do...except batch capture. That little device is almost worth the full cost of the Pro Suite alone.
Click to expand...

Speaking of Batch Capture...
Can anyone explain to me Final Cut's Capture Settings? I saw that iMovie imports in DV which is REALLY space consumming (a 7-8 minute file was over 1.5GB). I was hoping to buy Final Cut Express HD but if it only imports in DV, that's going to eat up a TON of hard drive space. I have used Avid Xpress DV for years and i know they use Motion JPEG. What does Final Cut use?

Edit: i should note when I was importing into iMovie it was a .mov file. I dont know how iMove reacts to importing from a tape, i assume it also uses DV.
 
Import as DV is not what you think it means:

When you import something, you are actually capturing it from your camcorder to your PC, through a firewire cable right?

Its copying the data from your mini-DV tape to the HD, in its native format of DV. Which is 1GB every 5 minutes. Batch capture is useful because you can set all the tiny in and out points for clips of your 60 minutes tape and capture only what you need and not 12GB of video.

If you mean can FCP import your , for example .mov and .avi and .mpg files and use them in the timeline? Then yes. As long as you have the codec in quicktime, FCP can "play" anything, sometimes you have to render though.

FCP will export anthing compressor, and quicktime can do.

Maybe you might need to clarify where you are "importing" this video from. FCP will import whatever you have as its native format. YOu dont capture vid from a mini-dv tape and convert it to MPEG4, it stays .mov as DV footage.
 
Sdashiki said:
Import as DV is not what you think it means:
Its copying the data from your mini-DV tape to the HD, in its native format of DV. Which is 1GB every 5 minutes.
Maybe you might need to clarify where you are "importing" this video from. FCP will import whatever you have as its native format. YOu dont capture vid from a mini-dv tape and convert it to MPEG4, it stays .mov as DV footage.
Click to expand...

So basically, if I am importing through a MiniDV deck a 70 minutes video will take up about 14GB of space on the hard drive?
I guess I am just used to Avid importing in MJPEG and conserving some space.
 
Well I know you can change the capture settings, but I dont think you can switch to anything but that offlineJPEG thing, im not on my computer so I cant pull up the preferences in FCP, but yeah you can save space with some type of change to your capture presets.

And yeah digital video is huge, and when the time comes to do HD, its much much worse. If you think 1Gb for 5 minutes is bad, try like 20GB (a guess) for uncompressed full frame 1080p.
 
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