I have been using TMPGEnc (running under Parallels) to encode for DVD after editing on the Mac with excellent results. Save yourself some money and buy Express and an mpeg2 encoder which supports Apple's codec. Apple's mpeg encoder (bundled with 'Pro') has been a problem for many and those who have it tend not to use it. With the cheaper Express version ($300 msrp/$170 street) you will loose some advanced video editing features and Apple's mpeg encoder - stuff I never use anyway. Express is less than 1/3 the price of Pro and with some careful shopping around you can find it for 1/10th the price. Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express HD have a near identical interface. Compared to Premiere, Final Cut is blazingly fast and has a superior interface. I've switched platforms from a PC using Adobe Premiere to Mac's OS X using Final Cut Express HD.

That being said, FCP is definitely the biggest bang for the buck out there.I've made a business using this software!įinal Cut Pro has been the standard by which all video editors are compared.

NEVER have to do this on any Avid I've worked on (and I've worked on plenty, both PC and Mac). needs to be restarted, and/or have prefs tossed, far too often. and who in god's green earth decided that the 'Center' function shouldn't have a 'smooth' keyframe mode accesible from the keyframe window, but instead, from the Browser window, and only when you have the wireframe view mode turned on? Stupid, stupid, stupid. the keyframing interface can be balky, frustrating and downright difficult to use when you're tired and it's late in the session.those little black diamonds just don't effing go where you want them Apple is a little slow to implement support for newer compressed formats of video (anyone remember version 5, HDV and the Apple Intermediate Codec?), expecially when compared to the format-agnostic leanings of, say, Vegas. Not so bad on my little local system, but a major pain in the patoot on the Xsan-based networked systems I work on.

It loses render files like nobody's business. I ABSOLUTELY HATE the grey-on-gray interface, with it's tiny window headers, puny type, and windows (especially the viewer window) which don't resize properly or consistently. While I wouldn't go so far as to say it's 'the standard by which all others are judged' (because, 8 years after I bought my first copy of FCP, I STILL compare it to Avid Media Composer.), FCP is a tremendously impressive, easy to use program that will allow any professional editor to shine, without getting in the way (for the most part).īut.you may be seeing some reservations, and you would be right.

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