Why shouldn't I buy Edition?

[Carl Slawinski]

I'm narrowing down my options on a NLE and feel that Edition seems like my best bang for the buck based upon my criteria.

1. FCP 4 is $1000 plus another another $500 for DVD authoring. I don't own a MAC and after doing some browsing, I don't see one that I would consider buying that costs under $3000. Therefore FCP is not an option.

2. Some of you made have read my thoughts on Sonic Foundry's financial stability and therefore I can't give serious thought to Vegas at this time.

3. I've never cared for the "ergonomics" and multiple tool bars on Adobe products. Plus, I've heard many problems about Premiere.

4. If money weren't an object, I probably would be jumping all over the AVID Xpress Pro that was announced at NAB. Unfortunately money is an object when it comes to $1700 software packages when I am an uproven novice at editing. If I could get in the door for 1/2 of that price it be a lot more tempting.

5. Edition is $700, but I have places that I can buy it for $400. The next version (5) is a $20 upgrade so that won't break my bank. I've seen a demo of it and it looks real usuable. It's very "windows-ey" which I like. I'm not the big fan of all the pull down menus for everything. Also, my current PC meets specs (minus the dedicated HD to add) and I have the ATI 8500DV video card which appears to be a very good card to use with Edition.


This is a bit long winded, but I'm back to the original question. Can anyone give me some legitimate reasons/concerns as to why Edition wouldn't be a good choice in the current climate?

Thanks

Carl

[Riley G. Matthews, Jr]

I use Edition Dv 4.5 with no problems or grips... Edition DV 5.0 will really rock the NLE market...

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage.asp?Product_ID=561&Langue_ID=7

[Alex Taylor]

I haven't heard of Edition before.. is there a website?

[Zac Stein]

I would look at Sonic Foundry's vegas video 4.0 it really has taken the NLE world by storm and is simply brilliant to use.

Zac

[Christopher Go]

Hey Carl, are you a student? You could get Avid Xpress Pro for considerably cheaper, about a third of the price of the full version package or around $500 max.

[Richard Alvarez]

Carl
AvidXpress3.5 is under a grand right now, less for student pack. You can upgrade later to Pro, (But the systems specs are demanding). Avid XpressFREE is due out in a month... so you can't beat that price. I'ts a very strippred down version of Avid, but the interface is the same, so you can learn the avid workflow.

You say you are a novice... what are you editing on now?

[Don Bloom]

Hi Carl,
Well from 1 midwesterner to another, here goes. I've used Avid Xpress DV, personally I didn't like the interface and since I'm never going to be looking for work as a Avid editor, I took it off my "list", I tried the Adobe product and frankly didn't exactly care for the interface there either, of course I don't care for it on most Adobe products, I have Edition 4.5 loaded up and have been using it somewhat, I like the power it has. There is so much you can do with it, effects are a snap, (most anyway), the background rendering is fantastic. Very nice interface, I really like it, BUT, I can not keep reinstalling everytime time I go to log a tape into it. For some reason, it does not want to work or play with MY system. I have been all over the various forums to no avail. Everyone says it should work fine and it does except for bringing in new video. So I had to do something as I was getting way behind in editing, so, financials aside, I went to Vegas4 and will use that until I can get the Edition running smoothly.
Again, the little I've been able to use it, I liked it, but for me, right now, I need something that works on my machine everytime I go to it. I don't know if it's the SW or HW but I am trying to figure it out.

[Carl Slawinski]

Addressing the previous questions.

I'm not a student so academic versions aren't an option.

The website for Edition is:

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage.asp?Product_ID=561&Langue_ID=7

As stated earlier, Vegas is not an option at this time.

I'm am interested as to see what AVID XpressFREE is going to be like. My guess is that is going to be very limited and maybe cuts only.

And finally, I've never editing anything. I have a public access show that I am putting together at the moment and I am hoping to start shooting a documentary that I have been planning in about 3 months. I'm really putting the PA show together for some practice. I also want to do a few 30-60 second commercial spoofs to be used on the show.

Thanks

[Rick Spilman]

One comment about Vegas Video. It is an extremely nice editor. Whatever happens to SoFo, Vegas still is a great editor. I'd say the risks of SoFo going away are about the same as Pinnacle dropping Edition. They don't have a wonderful history of customer support.

That being said, Edition may be fine software. All I can say is that I am very happy with Vegas.

[Will Fastie]

I seriously considered Edition because it does appear to have a big bang for the buck, particularly the integrated effects capabilities. The only thing that concerned me from a feature perspective was the absence of DVD authoring. Given that Pinnacle's Studio 8 has pretty impressive (albeit buggy) DVD authoring built in, I questioned why at least DVD-5 authoring would not be included at the Edition price point.

Then I spent time on the Edition forums, reading and watching. I was not impressed. The number of participants was relatively small and the problems that were being discussed were similar to the kinds of things being discussed in the Studio 8 forums, many of which have to do with stability.

I am using Studio, not as my primary production tool but for another reason. I've been tracking Studio in the forums and elsewhere for 7 months. Studio has been through 3 betas and updates since the initial release. Yet the product remains buggy and, for many users, unstable.

Bottom line: I have come to believe that Pinnacle products have stability problems and that the support is poor. Therefore, it's much easier for me to take a chance on Vegas than on Edition.

Will

[Don Bloom]

Actually Will, ALL products have a stability issue in some way or another. What I mean is that I've used StudioDV AND Studio 7 for over 3 years and NEVER EVER had a problem, and yet when you read the forums it appears that the Pinnacle product will never run on any machine. By the same token, go to the Avid forums, there are plenty of things going on there. I think if you go to any software forum you'll find some people can't get it to work on their machine. I have a new hot machine and have a problem with Edition's logging, not the editing, that part is as stabil as can be, I just can't get it to let me digitize with out a problem, BUT, I've been working on it , some others on the various forums have been helping and I'm hoping to get it going. While it's true Vegas seems to have the fewest problems it still does seem to have some. Software is software and sometimes it just won't work correctly. IMHO Pinnacles problems arise from taking a professional product used in TV and movies and trying to make a smaller version work for those of us who can't afford a $100,000 editor.
Frankly I would love to design an NLE that is as easy to use as Studio7, has background rendering like Edition, the power of Avid Symphony, and the effects of Vegas4, and don't forget to throw in the goodies of Toaster2/3. Oh yeah, a great DVD authoring program and burning software, for shall we say about $99.00!

BTW, I happy as a clam with my Vegas4, it is powerful and uncluttered (for the most part) but I still want to get my Edition going properly. After all, I spent the money :}

[Will Fastie]

I've been in software all my professional life, so I do understand how hard it is to write perfect stuff, especially on a hardware platform as dynamic as the PC. That understanding gives me a sense of what degree of "badness" is tolerable.

Studio 8, in particular, is working for me up to a point and is stable. It's buggy, especially in DVD authoring and disc burning. Support is very weak. I think Pinnacle's response time on the horrible bugs in the released version was too slow. This is beyond my "badness" tolerance level and casts a shadow on Pinnacle, making me less confident about other products.

I bought Vegas just a few minutes ago. I own other Sonic Foundry products. All my experiences with the company to date have been pleasant and positive, a sharp contrast to my experiences with Pinnacle. My buying experience today was crisp and professional.

I hope I'm happy as a clam with Vegas, too. One thing I can't afford is mucking about with more than one NLE, though.

Will

[Rick Foxx]

I have two workstations, one running FCP 3, and the other running Edition 4.5. Without a doubt, the FCP workstation is much more stable. I honestly can't remember the last time it crashed or dropped a frame. My Edition workstation has only crashed a couple of times, but I have at least one capture problem every time I load a new project.

Both applications have features I love, and both have features I hate.

FCP Pros:
Extremely stable
Logical menu commands
Real time previews to computer monitor
Powerful effects included standard
FX Script for designing your own effects

FCP Cons:
No background rendering
Not DVD friendly without buying proprietary hardware
Limited audio controls

Edition Pros:
Background rendering!!!
Relatively stable
Excellent effects included standard
Good audio controls/mixer

Edition Cons:
Flaky batch capture of clips
No pull-down menus (This is a personal pet peave. I know others love this feature.)

Both Apple and Pinnacle have announced upgrades to FCP and Edition. Both upgrades look very promising, but Pinnacle is offering the upgrade from 4.5 to 5 for $20, while Apple is charging $400 for the upgrade from 3 to 4. Pound for pound, I am much more productive on my FCP workstation, but part of the reason is that I am still learning Edition. Both systems do the job they were made for.

Hope this helps,

Rick