The Top Professional Video Editing Systems: Final Cut, Avid and Edius
What Professionals in the Industry Are Using to Edit Their Video
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is the first choice of many independent film makes, and is taught in film schools across the country over any other editing software. The program allows you virtually unlimited audio and video tracks and endless possibilities for layering and transitioning in between them. In general, Final Cut Pro is a very user-friendly program with keyboard short cuts, as well as menu bar shortcuts so theoretically you will never forget how to do an effect or make a transition. Final Cut Pro is designed to work side by side with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects, which can allow you to add even more spice to your projects. Final Cut Pro has also released an HD version of their program allowing you to edit your projects in High Definition. Final Cut pro Studio also comes with Soundtrack for making your own royalty free music, Live type for making professional looking graphics, and Shake and Motion. Final Cut Pro is typically used by creative professionals working in advertising, television, and film.
Avid
Avid has long since been an industry standard as far as non-linear editing systems go. When people in the industry think non-linear editing they think Avid. As Final Cut pro has gotten better and better throughout the years Avid has started to be used less and less. While Avid can offer you many of the same features as Final Cut Pro as far as the video editing is concerned, it is a lot less user friendly program overall. While Final Cut Pro has controls on the screen to help you out if your forget shortcuts Avid requires a good amount of learning out of the gate in order to operate it. If you forget a short cut in Avid the manual is your only resource for retrieving it. Today Avid tends t be used in more technical video editing fields like television news.
Edius
The new kid on the block, Edius is starting to get recognition as a professional non-linear editing program. With Final Cut pro and Avid you are going to get every bell and whistle known to man, Edius has some of those same bells and whistles, but has one thing that makes it different…it edits in real time. With other editing programs you have to spend time to render effects, and then discover that they don't look the way you planned, so you have to do it again and re-render. Edius makes that whole process a little easier by rendering on the fly. Since it's quick, Edius has started to pop into television news stations across the country, with the recent release of their HD version it will start showing up a little more. The program itself is pretty easy to use and is set up similarly to Final Cut Pro with short cuts directly on the desktop so you don't have to keep them in your head. If you're looking for something quick, easy, and fast then Edius may be a good choice for you.
Published by Ann Mapleridge
Ann is tech geek, craft beer lover, and avid traveler. View profile
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- Software Review: Avid XPress Pro 5.8
- The right editing system for you is determined by what you want to do with it
- Avid is found in television newsrooms across the country
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10 Comments
Post a CommentI am not sure why avid is the best or FCp is the best
when I drop some file in it it need to render and render and render
for Edius I can edit like everything realtime
and Full HD up to multiple track realtime
Can anyone tell me why the pro prefer stuff that need to render
Bottom line is if you want to edit like a professional, use Avid. If you're amature, use Final Cut or Edius. second choice. Avid is the industry standard for film. 90% of the film industry uses Avid. Movies like Avatar and Iron Man 2 used Avid. I've cut on all three listed above and by far Avid outdoes all of them as far as having outstanding video effects and being able to easily navigate on the timeline. Trimming on the timeline is a lot easier and more sensible. Also the audio mixer and audio tools are better. Avid has way more control over audio and video effects.
EDIUS is hands down the best editor out there. If you like waiting around, buy Apple FCP. If you like tons of bells and whistles, but Adobe Premiere, but don't expect realtime operations in HD - cause it won't deliver. Grass Valley EDIUS can be run either stand-alone (software only on a laptop or desktop) and it also offers the ability to be "paired" w/ hardware. Grass Valley makes an entire family of hardware boardsets that allow direct connections via HDMI, SDI, HD-SDI, Firewire, Composote, S-Video and YRB Component. They have been building hardware for at least 10 years - and the design quality and build quality is second-to-none. EDIUS is a professional solution - which is priced at a level that anyone can afford.
Ive used many editing programs before both adobe premier and final are both my favs. adobe has been around longer but it does tend to crash here and there, even on the best of machines. while final cut is the better program above any and all else. I have never been editing in hd cause adobe couldnt handle some formats while final cut is more adaptable to more cameras. another point is that the mac pro is a serious beast, both to your wallet and rendering time. so all in all, final cut is the best.
just want to announce you that adobe premier pro deserve to be the third
I love Vegas Pro. It's just awesome great. Has a lot of effect that are customizeable.
I gotta try out Edius and FinalCut, though. It seems they got a good name out there.
Adobe CS SUCKS. Me myself, i was AP fan for more then a year.
Maybe it has a great design, its easy to use, but try to edit more then 30minute movie, with all transitions, different video files(not only captured from DV, but also ripped from DVD) - you will see how it will "handle" everything...
come on be real..
ADOBE CS3
i think ABOBE CS3 deserves the best methion, man this is the thing....with its dynamic link its like magic...hate it or like it............its is proffesinally good.
To me, Edius is the best NLE out there, it blows up all. Final cut is really a piece of crap, and so slow. You forget to mention vegas pro 8. altough it may seems efficient, I found it not very user friendly and slow. Moreover, we can cleary see sony proprietary crap inside.