video editing program recommendation

[Firefishvideo]

Hi Steve,
My use of this camera is for training shots underwater of GUE Fundamentals type issues, and some tech dives. If I really need sophisticated effects, I can use Sandra's Canon 5d mark2 with the lens that is most optimal.
I have a Sony PD170 I used to shoot a lot of topside video with, and edit with Vegas Video....but the version of Vegas ( 5) is not going to handle the 1080p.

I just put the trial of Adobe Premeire on Sandra's Imac, and it edits and runs the 1080p great...unfortunately, premiere works in a very non-intuitive manner, compared to Vegas...I will just have to learn it I guess.

Did you download the FREE trial of vegas 10 yet? If you already know vegas, then 10 would get you in the fast lane immediatly, and It is designed to drag and drop those codecs right into the timelime.
I wish I could afford the software/hardware sharksdeilght is getting and using. ...but since I learned in the vegas style of editing , the others seem a bit clunky to me anyway. You Definately have some more power with After Effects, but If you had to - you could use it with vegas as well.....just not as efficiently as with CS5.

 

[danvolker]

Did you download the FREE trial of vegas 10 yet? If you already know vegas, then 10 would get you in the fast lane immediatly, and It is designed to drag and drop those codecs right into the timelime.
I wish I could afford the software/hardware sharksdeilght is getting and using. ...but since I learned in the vegas style of editing , the others seem a bit clunky to me anyway. You Definately have some more power with After Effects, but If you had to - you could use it with vegas as well.....just not as efficiently as with CS5.

Since I got my wife the IMAC 27 , the 64 bit operating system of the mac blows away the 32 bit performance of my PC....I would be interested to hear if you or other can do well with vegas for 1080p editing..particularly the previews and instant stuff Vegas does well with in 480p editing...And, there is the concern about Vegas freezing up and getting non-responsive in a 1080p editing progect, as the memory needs would likely far outweigh the amount allowed with 32 bits....

 

[ronscuba]

I am a big Vegas fan, but I am on a PC. Most people would recommend using Final Cut Pro or Express if you are on a MAC.

 

[danvolker]

I am a big Vegas fan, but I am on a PC. Most people would recommend using Final Cut Pro or Express if you are on a MAC.

I heard that right away...but FCP is only 32 bit, meaning it will be horribly slow compared to the 64 bit Adobe Premiere.
I would love to compare, but can not find a trial download of FCP....For close to $1000, it needs to be 64 bit....they are still selling a dinosaur, even if the interface is nice.

 

[sharksdelight]

Dan,
I'm sorry but you couldn't be more wrong about Premier Pro, that is, unless you have big bucks. The new Adobe CS5 suite is 64 bit which couples its Mercury engine with NVIDIA's CUDA in order to access any amount of ram and as many cores as you can afford in your computer. However, unless you have the ram and one of NVIDIA's graphic cards, you will not see a difference in speed. CS5 and Premier Pro will run just fine on any computer without the NVIDIA card but without the speed increase. You must have one of the new and higher end cards like the FX4800 card or a newly released 4000 card which will outperform the 4800 and is about $600 less. NVIDIA gave me the 4800 card to test and I just received the 4000 card which I haven't yet installed or tested. Here is a complete summary article I wrote a few months ago regarding using CS5 which I hope you will find helpful.
Behind the Scenes of Adobe CS5
Steve

PS All Mac owners who are using Final Cut Pro (not FC Express) are all praying for a 64bit version. I know I am. I know many professional shooters and editors who use Final Cut Pro but have never met a real professional who relies upon Premier Pro. For the PC professionals, most are using AVID or Edius

 

[ronscuba]

I believe most professionals are not editing the native video files. I believe they are converting them to uncompressed video files to have more fine tuned control over changes to color, lighting, contrast, etc..

For us hobbyists, a side benefit of editing with the converted files is the editing and rendering process is much faster and does not necessarily need a superfast computer. I'm still on my 4+ yr old PC running Vegas 8 editing uncompressed files converted from AVCHD with $100 Cineform S/W. I know many are converting using free online S/W. It's time for me to upgrade my whole system but I am in no rush.

Maybe wait for the 64bit version of FCP and get something cheap and easy in the time being to hold you over ? Just another option for you to consider.

 

[Travis Matteson]

From Adobe

"The term ‘Mercury playback engine’ refers to a whole set of performance improvements in Premiere Pro CS5, including the port to a 64-bit application, the multi-threaded nature of the application, and the use of CUDA on the GPU to accelerate some things. Anyone using Premiere Pro CS5 is getting all but one of these advantages; people with certified CUDA cards are getting one additional advantage."

To further expand on this you can use non certified cards with a simple .ini rewrite.
A partial list of cards you can do this with:
GeForce GT 240
GeForce GTS 240
GeForce GTX 260
GeForce GTX 275
GeForce GTX 285m
GeForce GTX 295
GeForce GTX 470
GeForce GTX 480

Regardless of what graphics card you have you still gain a big advantage with 64b/multicore support and the non hardware accelerated mercury playback engine over FCP. Both are great NLEs either way you choose you will not lose. Word.


sidenote
I'm not sure why it has been mentioned several times that "professionals" don't use PP. That's a ridiculous thing to say but why does it even matter? A good editor is going to use whatever tools he can get his hands on. You can pretty much do the same thing on Avid,PP,FCP,Vegas,Edius. Some will be better in certain areas then others. There is no perfect solution and there will always be something better around the corner. I use Avid,PP,FCP,Vegas depending on what I'm working on. I work with a lot of DSLR material so I find myself going back to PP because of the ease of use and integration with the rest of the Adobe suite. Now before CS5 I would not be saying that. I'm sure a FCP update will be released next year that will catch it back up with the rest of the gang or even set the new standard. Once you learn one NLE it's really not that hard to switch to another unless you have a learning disability. It's best to try out as many as you can and see what clicks with you.

 

[ronscuba]

Kinda human nature to want the latest and greatest and use what the pro's use. It's a sickness. Just ask any golfer.

I try to fight the urge. I've managed to not upgrade my PC, but caved in with a new smartphone. Sometimes resistance is futile and I get assimilated.

 

[danvolker]

Dan,
I'm sorry but you couldn't be more wrong about Premier Pro, that is, unless you have big bucks. The new Adobe CS5 suite is 64 bit which couples its Mercury engine with NVIDIA's CUDA in order to access any amount of ram and as many cores as you can afford in your computer. However, unless you have the ram and one of NVIDIA's graphic cards, you will not see a difference in speed. CS5 and Premier Pro will run just fine on any computer without the NVIDIA card but without the speed increase. You must have one of the new and higher end cards like the FX4800 card or a newly released 4000 card which will outperform the 4800 and is about $600 less. NVIDIA gave me the 4800 card to test and I just received the 4000 card which I haven't yet installed or tested. Here is a complete summary article I wrote a few months ago regarding using CS5 which I hope you will find helpful.
Behind the Scenes of Adobe CS5
Steve

PS All Mac owners who are using Final Cut Pro (not FC Express) are all praying for a 64bit version. I know I am. I know many professional shooters and editors who use Final Cut Pro but have never met a real professional who relies upon Premier Pro. For the PC professionals, most are using AVID or Edius

Thanks Steve,
After reading your article, I am no longer feeling like the IMAC 27 is such a bargain for video. I may just leave this for my wife's U/W photography ( LR and Photoshop) and switch from my old 32 bit dell 710 to a new 64 bit pc with 16 megs and well less than half the price of the amped up IMAC. Then I could use the new Vegas 10 ( easy for me as I learned on Vegas 2, 3 and 5).

 

[PerroneFord]

Hi Dan, it's been a very long time. Nice to see you are doing UW video, and still involved with diving.

I have been using Vegas for a long time. I left with Version 9 and moved to Avid.

I just want to be clear about something. FCP, when used with ProRes, will be MORE than adequate for working with 1080p. Countless feature films have been edited that way. Vegas has offered a 64 bit version since Version 8. And while it works well, there are some things that are missing that you may want, because while the program may be 64 bit, not all the underlying parts are.

Premiere CS5 is a fine program. Vegas is nice too. And so is Avid. I've found Avid to be a LOT less troublesome than Vegas for big projects, but Vegas is much simpler.

FC Express, FCP, Avid, Premiere, and Vegas 10 will all do the job ultimately. They just all require slightly different workflows to do that job.