Okay, so I have my lovely new HV10 . . . the best camera I have ever used!! I'm currently editing in iMovie HD, are there any BIG advantages to moving over to FCE or FC Pro?

Does iMovie offer native HDV editing? I thought it transcoded to the apple intermediate codec upon capture. (could be wrong there though).

If you're happy with what iMovie is doing for you it's probably OK (never used it myself)

iMovie does convert it to the Apple Intermediate Codec (as does FCE). Currently only FCP supports it natively. I use FCE and I'd have to say that one of the best things about it (compared to iMovie) is non-destructive editing. You will have noticed that when you chop up a bit of source footage in iMovie, it really chops it up. In FCE/FCP, it justs uses in/out points as references, and your original piece of footage stays intact.

The FCE/FCP interfaces are pretty much the same, the only real difference being the pro features provided by FCP (like native HDV and nice integration with other tools like Motion, Shake etc...)

When I started with FCE I found it quite difficult to do the little, simple things I could do with iMovie. Now that I'm used to the interface and controls I wouldn't even think about iMovie.

Hi

Imovie is also non-destuctive.

You might think tha it cops it up but it does not.
You can always get the clip back, it puts the "leftover" from the clip in the internal imovie trash
It is not the native clip it touches, it is always a reference to the original clip.

The original clip is always intact

Vegas is the same way isn't it?

I know it never touches my raw footage... just "edits" over it...

I even took the edited footage and sent it back to the camera and played it on my HDTV after being edited... it was pretty amazing...

Vegas is non-destructive.

Thanks everyone . . . that’s very interesting indeed. So I have to go for FCP by the sounds of it.

Will an archive of FCP edited footage be smaller than iMovie edited footage. In other words, is Apple Intermediate video larger than the original HDV?

I believe they're relatively close in size. I tried a few captures to the AIC via FCP and I could see some small difference when played back full screen on my ACD 23" but that could also be due to FCP not being able to generate as good of a preview using that codec and that was before I got an MXO.

Getting the Matrox MXO into my workflow has made me realize the regular full screen preview in FCP isn't the most reliable method to make judgements on HDV (or transcoded HDV) video quality.

In other words, is Apple Intermediate video larger than the original HDV?


YES !

I think it is about 3 times larger, but that is only "in the computer".

When you edit with AIC it is big, but once you are done and want to get the edited stuff back to tape, it converts the file back to HDV

YES !

I think it is about 3 times larger, but that is only "in the computer".

When you edit with AIC it is big, but once you are done and want to get the edited stuff back to tape, it converts the file back to HDV

Oh, I see . . . and is there much loss of quality in this method?

No, there is no loss at all.

Well I'm a firm believer in going "native" whenever it's possible but another thing you should consider is the color correction options FCP gives you. HDV (especially out of a 1 chip cam) can really benefit from color/level tweaks. The built-in 3 way (and now Colorista - big fan here) can work wonders on maximizing the look/quality of your footage.

I also believe that with the next major upgrade to FCP and OS X, which hopefully will debut at NAB, the FCP feature set will distance itself from FCE and iMovie.

I started using FCP back at vers 1 (before iMovie existed I believe) and have never looked back. Getting the full UB version of Final Cut Studio for a mere $199 is only the latest icing on the cake for SW which IMHO has always provided the most "bang for one's buck" over the years.