The decision of which system to buy is not an easy one. Your main choice will be based on the type of equipment with which you shoot. All systems these days support DV, and most variations of HDV, but only certain systems support pro formats like Sony XDCam and Panasonic P2. There are also new formats arriving all the time. AVCHD is a codec that is increasingly being used in HD camcorders, but very few systems currently support it.
Your most important problem may even be how to mix various formats on the timeline and produce a unified result - and some programs are better than others. Or do you think that making the DVD at the same time as making the video would save more time than doing them as two separate processes? Then you may consider Avid Liquid or Canopus Edius to be the better choice.
So the best solution does depend on your own needs. Here are some typical questions:
What inputs and outputs do you need?
Do you need component (YUV) or SDI for broadcast quality? Avid Media Composer and a Mojo, Avid Liquid Pro or Canopus Edius SP for HDV will give you component, together with the ability to capture into uncompressed on the right system. A Matrox Axio LE, some of the Black Magic or AJA cards or an SDI Mojo will give you SDI, (though not all give HD SDI - you will need either the Axio LE or an HD AJA card if you are working with that type of source).
Are you filming on HD?
HD editing is here and already well established. There are many variations - HDV being the cheapest, although formats like Sony XDCam and Panasonic P2 are also becoming popular. We even have new camcorders like the Sony HDRSR1. which records in a new format - AVCHD - onto either a hard drive or disc built into the camera (rather than tape). Support for these different formats varies from program to program.
Most programs properly support both variations of HDV (1080i and 720p) these days, some support P2 and XDCam natively, and some will do so if they have extra hardware added.
Editing with HD is different to editing with DV. With the right system you can still achieve lots of high quality realtime effects and get decent performance from your computer. You cannot normally view your edits via the FireWire feed back to the camera (as you could with DV footage) so one of the factors that has influenced a lot of people is the ability to see your editing at full quality through HD component outputs on the capture card. This is now an option with all editing programs and can cost as little as £149 + VAT for a Black Magic Decklink card (which will work with either Premiere or Final Cut Pro).
Realtime Effects
Realtime effects are very useful and can make your editing much easier because they give you freedom to experiment and see the changes without wasting time rendering. They are not the be-all and end-all, as there are many cool effects you may want to achieve that can only be done by rendering.
Adobe Premiere Pro, Canopus Edius, Sony Vegas and Avid Media Composer can all output DV realtime effects through FireWire without special hardware. Avid Liquid will only output realtime effects through analogue connections if you use the ‘Pro’ box, and even then not through FireWire. With nearly all the programs you can add extra hardware to do more realtime effects, and that may be a deciding factor on which system you choose. For example an Edius NX for HDV system can do more realtime effects at full quality on HDV footage than any of the other system.
Integration with other programs
More and more software companies have developed interesting ways of making programs talk to each other - like, for example, adding chapter markers to your timeline in the editing program and carrying these over to your DVD writing application. Adobe is the king of integration with their new Production Studio, although Avid does a great job with the Avid Toolkit.
DVD Writing
All the programs do a good job of encoding video for DVD, although you can achieve better quality still using a standalone application like Canopus ProCoder.
Avid Liquid probably has the best DVD writing built into the program, however, this does not offer the same flexibility as making DVDs with Adobe Encore or Sonic DVDit. If you decide to use Encore for DVD writing then it makes sense to use Premiere Pro for editing as you can add chapter markers in Premiere which then appear in Encore when you load the video (and in any case, the two programs are currently packaged together).
Mac or PC?
At DVC we have been specialising in PCs for years. We did sell Macs around the time that Final Cut Pro 2 appeared, but decided to concentrate on PCs until now. Now a large number of products that we sell work on both system and so we decided now was to the time to start considering Macs again.
We have been asked on many occasions which system is better, a Mac or a PC. The truth is both are good in their own ways. There is a lot of rubbish talked over this subject from both camps which really does not help at all. Talk to a dedicated Mac user and he won't have a good word to say about a PC, and vice versa. All this does not help when you want to make an unbiased choice as to which system to buy.
Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere (along with the whole Production Studio) and many of our available plug-ins work on both systems. Canopus Edius, Avid Liquid and Sony Vegas are PC only and Apple Final Cut Studio is Mac only. So there's no one better choice - if you really like Sony Vegas, for example, you need a PC. If you really like Final Cut Studio then an Apple computer is your choice.
If you are tempted by Macs but would be quite content with a PC, don’t buy a Mac. We have had several customers who have thought that if they buy a Mac and hate it then they can always install Windows and use it as a PC. Well, this is true but if something goes wrong with a PC its easily fixed by us at DVC. PCs are designed to be taken apart and rebuilt. This also means they are easy to upgrade. Macs are designed to be solid and work well, but don’t be tempted to upgrade core components (the processor, for example). The only easy way to upgrade a Mac is to buy a new one.
If you use PCs a lot then stick with them. Macs have a reputation for being easy to use, and Final Cut Pro is a very good editing program. But you will still have to re learn lots of basic stuff and will suddenly find that you miss half a dozen utilities and programs you use on a PC all the time. You don’t miss this stuff until it's not there.
If you like Macs then stick with them - you will probably hate a PC, even if it has Vista installed which has an interface which is just as pretty as the Mac OS.
If you are thinking of buying Avid or Premiere then a PC is probably a best choice as there are more ways of souping them up on a PC than a Mac - Premiere has Black Magic, AJA and especially Matrox cards to improve performance whereas the only really way of improving your realtime or rendering performance on a Mac is to buy a better Mac.
Finally if you are after the latest technology then a PC is probably the best bet - Macs cannot currently play Blu-ray (although they can make them thanks to Adobe Encore CS3) and there are issues with downloading Movies from places like 4OD and Lovefilm (which are perfectly legitimate places to download films and TV programs, not pirates sites!) because the handling of viewing rights managements is well and truly established on PCs and not Macs.
Laptop or desktop?
These days the right kind of laptop can be just as powerful as a desktop system. You can also plug in external drive systems via the new Express card interface (which will run as fast as hard drives on a desktop) so which should you choose?
A laptop is obviously more portable - you can even take it on location with you. A desktop will be a pain to carry around! However, a desktop will be more configurable and can have extra cards added which will give you full HD output. They are also simpler and generally cheaper to fix when they go wrong. Damage a FireWire port on a laptop and it will cost £200 - £300 to repair. Damage one on a PC and you can replace if for about £30.
So our advice is get a desktop system unless you need one that you can move around - or just get a laptop because you like editing on a comfy chair in the living room rather than in the office!
How much money have you got?
Unfortunately in the real world very few people have unlimited resources, so your system will always be defined by your budget. We have built editing computers costing from £1,000 - £15,000, but as computer prices change so quickly, call us with your requirements on 01273 707200 and we will attempt to fit those requirements to your budget. At DVC we find out what you need and then advise you on the best system to suit you, we don’t try to sell you the most expensive box unless you actually need the features it offers.
