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Just picked up Avid Media Composer for under $1k...

MovieCutter

MovieCutter

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 3, 2005
3,342
2
Washington, DC
Well I groveled to Avid after not taking them up on their offer of Avid Media Composer (normally $2500+) for under a grand. One of the support execs took pity on me and sent me a promo code to pick it up post-expiration date. Just an FYI for those of you who missed out...could be worth writing Avid's customer support. Greg was pretty awesome about it.
 
MovieCutter said:
Well I groveled to Avid after not taking them up on their offer of Avid Media Composer (normally $2500+) for under a grand. One of the support execs took pity on me and sent me a promo code to pick it up post-expiration date. Just an FYI for those of you who missed out...could be worth writing Avid's customer support. Greg was pretty awesome about it.
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VideoGuys.com are still selling Avid MC5 for $995 to FCP owners.


Lethal
 
Well, good luck with that. I had a love/hate relationship with Media Composer and I finally dumped her. I got spoiled by the simplicity of Final Cut and found the learning curve differences to be too frustrating. Things that I could do in a second would take a minute or so of futzing around in MC. That being said, the ability to do practically everything from the keyboard was very cool and fast and I could see how many pros would love the speed of it. Now that Final Cut has been sent off to finishing school, I might try Media Composer again. I really want to like this program, but I have to forget most of everything I learned in Final Cut so that I don't get as frustrated. I thought about Premiere because it's quite like FCP... but in my limited experience, I discovered too many bugs. I cut a short film (10 minutes) on Premiere and found it to be simple to use. However, it jacked up all my audio and I wound up recutting in Final Cut instead of trying to figure out wtf happened.
 
I'm not sure that Apple really cares, but they should find a way to track the numbers of users that are abandoning ship for other editing applications. They might be in for a shock! Of course, those numbers might be offset by the amount of new users who are inspired to get into video for the first time via FCX.

Another number that might be interesting is the amount of new users who don't stay with video after the first foray into the editing experience. I'm sure those numbers are going to drop off in the next 3-6 months as people realize that the idea of editing video is not the same thing as actually doing it. I think that Apple is trying to capitalize on all the new DSLR/iPhone type filmmaker wannabes and they see that as a new industry to tap into.
 
THX1139 said:
I really want to like this program, but I have to forget most of everything I learned in Final Cut so that I don't get as frustrated.
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That's the biggest hurdle I see for people trying to go learn one app when they started out on the other. You really need to approach the new app like you've never edited before and learn how that app works as opposed to trying to force the new app to act like the old app.

I learned Avid first, then Premiere (not Premiere Pro, the old Premiere), and finally FCP. Now that Lightworks is free I want to learn it as well for the heck of it.


Lethal
 
LethalWolfe said:
That's the biggest hurdle I see for people trying to go learn one app when they started out on the other. You really need to approach the new app like you've never edited before and learn how that app works as opposed to trying to force the new app to act like the old app.

I learned Avid first, then Premiere (not Premiere Pro, the old Premiere), and finally FCP. Now that Lightworks is free I want to learn it as well for the heck of it.


Lethal
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+1
I first edited with Ulead Media Studio and quickly got Adobe Premiere (4 or 5). At school they had Avid and I quickly began to learn it. After that I had to use Premiere for three months (Premiere Pro something) and I loathed it, as I was not open enough).
I then edited some pieces with FCP, but the trimming somehow put me off, as it took me a while to understand on Avid and was somehow ingrained in my brain.
Currently I am working with Avid and like how much I can do with the keyboard (which is till not enough in my eyes).
 
Either way, it's an industry standard NLE that isn't going anywhere that I need to get acquainted with anyway. I'm glad Avid is extending the deal again and hope that I can be as well versed in Avid MC as I was in FCP given that there's a future for MC as far as I can tell.
 
I picked up an Editor's Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro. Quite useful for anyone switching.
 
Adobe Premiere is an awesome software. I remember editing back in 1999 on my beige G3, back then it was doing things FCP7 still can't like having different kind of video formats in the same timeline and background rendering... I am talking 12 years ago.

The reason I went to FCP was because Premiere was not on the Mac anymore, have to say that once I figured out FCP it was so fast and it was very reliable on my Pismo.

Today I am considering putting my hands on Premiere again, I do not see a clear future for FCP X. What ever Apple wants to do with it, Avid and Adobe will be evolving too and so far they respect their costumers. Apple is more into the iPad and iPhones.
 
the vj said:
Adobe Premiere is an awesome software. I remember editing back in 1999 on my beige G3, back then it was doing things FCP7 still can't like having different kind of video formats in the same timeline and background rendering... I am talking 12 years ago.

The reason I went to FCP was because Premiere was not on the Mac anymore, have to say that once I figured out FCP it was so fast and it was very reliable on my Pismo.

Today I am considering putting my hands on Premiere again, I do not see a clear future for FCP X. What ever Apple wants to do with it, Avid and Adobe will be evolving too and so far they respect their costumers. Apple is more into the iPad and iPhones.
Click to expand...

This is exactly why I switched to Avid/Adobe. I can't see them abandoning their user base like Apple has for consumer/iOS customers. I need a roadmap and a reliable product. Can't get that with Apple as far as Final Cut is concerned thought they convinced me I could for the last 10 years.
 
I'm not sure that Apple really cares, but they should find a way to track the numbers of users that are abandoning ship for other editing applications. They might be in for a shock! Of course, those numbers might be offset by the amount of new users who are inspired to get into video for the first time via FCX.
Click to expand...

Yes, consumers using the FCP X is going to vastly out number the pro users.

Apple is more into the iPad and iPhones.
Click to expand...

Because thats the direction consumers are going, mobile devices. I can look at the statistics for my youtube videos and the majority of my viewers are watching using mobile devices. It would be natural to assume any company, even Apple, will go where the money is.
 
THX1139 said:
I'm not sure that Apple really cares, but they should find a way to track the numbers of users that are abandoning ship for other editing applications. They might be in for a shock! Of course, those numbers might be offset by the amount of new users who are inspired to get into video for the first time via FCX.
Click to expand...

The thing is, $299 + whatever fixes are needed isn't chump change, either, so I'm not sure Apple is going to pick up too many impulse buys, either. FCE was sold for a lot less.
 
weckart said:
The thing is, $299 + whatever fixes are needed isn't chump change, either, so I'm not sure Apple is going to pick up too many impulse buys, either. FCE was sold for a lot less.
Click to expand...

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. It's twenty
times the price of iMovie.
 
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