So let me see if I understand...

[Joe Moore]

So, I also am a member of the "them" community, composing the post it would be great about pros and cons. I am in the same boat as Jeff. Speaking of, Jeff, did you ever decide on a software, and if so what has your experience been.

Thanks,

Joe

_______
"Them" Newbies Member 101

[Jeff Baergen]

Joe, I have not yet decided on what software to purchase. At this point, I am leaning towards the Matrox RTX Extreme w/the Adobe Video Collection standard version. A friend, who I will be working with some, already has Adobe software and I figure it would make it a great deal easier for file swapping to have the same software. Interestingly enough, he has not had many "glitches" that so many people associate w/Adobe software. What software are you leaning towards? I have gone back and forth about a 100 times about which one to buy. For awhile, I'd really lean towards Avid Xpress Pro... then I'd talk myself into Vegas + DVD... then back to Adobe... So, yeah, it's been a somewhat frustrating process for me. When the previous post talked about giving us a pros & cons list for newbies, I really was serious when I said I thought it was a great idea. It would help me out a ton. AND then we "thems" could stop bothering the "us's." Ha!

Jeff

[Yi Fong Yu]

it's free NLE and it works:

http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3

[Peter Jefferson]

id suggest u wait until V5 and DVD2 are released..

V5 will have compositing features normally found in tools such as cumbustion and particle illusion.

[Nick Jushchyshyn]

Dare I throw Media Studio Pro into mix ??

Comes standard with basic DVD authoring and "extra" 2D animation and rotoscoping tools not found in the other applications listed. Great compositing and also has a plugin for HDV work. Also looks like they just dropped the list price down to $300. (Probably in anticipation of the Vegas upgrade.)

The one thing I completely agree with right now is not to buy anything until Vegas5 comes out. It's only a week or so away so the last thing you want to do is buy something only to regret it once V5 is on the market.

Have fun.

[Joe Moore]

Jeff,

I was leaning toward Adobe and back to Vegas, then back again. But I think I am going to heed the advice and wait til V5 comes out and demo it. Nick did you say it was a week away. Does anyone have any insider knowledge on the perks of V5. Best of luck to all in the decision process.

Thanks,

Joe

[Edward Troxel]

<<<-- Originally posted by Joe Moore : Jeff,

I was leaning toward Adobe and back to Vegas, then back again. But I think I am going to heed the advice and wait til V5 comes out and demo it. Nick did you say it was a week away. Does anyone have any insider knowledge on the perks of V5. Best of luck to all in the decision process.

Thanks,

Joe -->>>

Anyone with "insider knowledge" is still under strict NDA.

[Yi Fong Yu]

any1 know the cost of the full version of vegas5+dvda-2?

[Edward Troxel]

<<<-- Originally posted by Yi Fong Yu : any1 know the cost of the full version of vegas5+dvda-2? -->>>

I'm sure that will be announced when Vegas5+DVDA2 are officially announced.

[Joe Cirino]

Buy an Apple eMac for a few hundred more than what you are going to spend on just software. You are new at video, Apple suppies you with all you need from sound, dvd, photo, and movie editor all for FREE. In some instances, they are bettter as a set than some expensive movie editors.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72603/wo/AG5F88jAnyAC3tVZt7Q1O443KAU/0.0.7.1.0.5.21.1.2.1.0.0.0.1.0

iMoive, iPhoto, Garageband, iDVD are all that you need to create awsome movies that will impress the pros.

Today in the video world, any computer can do just about all you need for family movies and short films. In fact, the first year I had switched from a custom PC to an iMac 800, I made over 5k just playing around and doing video conversions to DVD for people. Prior to the apple, I had spent thousands trying to get my PC box to work with Firewire. In fact, I still think they are having issues with them....

either choice you make, just make sure you get a simple enough program that will not turn you off and require too much time for you to learn it...speding countless hours just to understand the basics does not sound fun. Creativity needs to be expressed within a certain time-frame, or interest is lost. Using any of the above video editors will garentee a migrane. I used just about every one listed, except AVID.

Using Apples iLife suite is about as simple as checking your email....really.

[Linda Schodowsky]

Hi Jeff...

I strongly recomend a Mac. I have an eMac. The saying is true... "Once you buy Mac, you'll never go back". eMac has everything you need to get started. Perfect for us "newbies". Also... I heard through the vines on this board that a movie made it to the Sundance Film Festival using iMovie.

Once I get more familiar (and more money), I plan to purchase Final Cut Express, a slightly trimmed down version of Final Cut Pro... and alot less expensive.

About the eMac... mine needs to be upgraded. I only have 128mb of memory. iMovie runs kind of slow because of that. Also, my eMac doesn't have a dvd drive, nor does my eMac have iLife. I am going to purchase those eventually. Not to worry... most eMacs have all that stuff.

Hope this helps!

[Jim Lafferty]

Actually, the saying is "Once you go black, you never go back." :D

Prior to the apple, I had spent thousands trying to get my PC box to work with Firewire. In fact, I still think they are having issues with them....

This is far from typically true, but more likely the kind of thing someone who did little necessary research would say about a PC.

Since the market for PC products dwarfs what's available to the Mac, the number of garbage products also goes up -- there are many junk firewire cards out there, but there's a high number of them which are wonderful -- so you've got to be picky about your purchases.

Make sure when you do purchase a firewire card that it comes from a reputable vendor (anything ADS or SIIG is wonderful, as are the 1394 Audigy's) -- and make sure they're OHCI, which means they don't need drivers -- to install them you open your case, plug them in, and boot up -- it's that simple.

I'd say stick with a PC, especially if you've already got it, or are more familiar with the platform. Vegas5+DVD is a bargain, and so is PPro/Adobe Production bundle.

I have Vegas 4 and I like the workflow (you could say I'm committed to it, now) so much more than standard NLE's.

Vegas 5 adds a LOT of bells and whistles to an already great program, but among them some genuinely great improvements -- most notably network rendering.

The biggest selling points for Vegas, to my mind, are its stability (can't remember the last time it crashed on me), flexibility (format agnostic timeline -- from quicktime up to HD and everything in between), audio features, and quality of its output.

- jim

[Magnus Helander]

We have just completed our first major production,
three days of location shooting w/ DVX100's, eight hours of footage to log and process, uncompressed animation sequences with alphachannel from Cinema 4D , stock footage converted from NTSC to PAL, soundtracks from ACID and royalty free discs, mastering in MPEG 1 for CD-rom, MPEG-2 for the DVD,
A total of 18 minutes of video - and vegas did not crash once, did not loose/corrupt a single file. Vegas is now a trusted friend for me.

The only irritating thing is that you can't insert a project into another, no "nested timelines" as in PP, you have to open two instances of vegas and copy/paste between them. I was hoping VV5 would have a solution to this, but Sony spent their time on 3D compositing tools instead which I very rarely use - slight dissapointment. But, network rendering saves the day, finally i can justify a rack-mounted PC ;)

/magnus