Options for editing 5d2 video

[ErikM]

$1300 on Final Cut Pro 6......... what other options do I have?

Huge newbie.

[aussieskier]

Anything that supports editing of h.264 video.

My recommendation, if you are starting out, is Adobe premiere elements. I use it for my editing work most the time, and it is powerful enough but not overly complicated.

[Tareq]

And what is/are the best software/softwares of Video editing if i ask?

[aussieskier]

Tareq- I think that the "Best" is really dependent on what you want to do with it. Also, whether you are on PC or Mac.

Most people seem to agree that for Mac, Final Cut Pro is probably the most capable and powerful. I don't have a Mac, so I can't speak out of personal experience.

For PC your options are probably Adobe Premiere CS4, or something like Avid's highend editing software.

But, if you want something that has a bit less of a learning curve, something like Adobe Premiere elements, has most the important editing features, but is a bit easier to navigate around and use.

[scotteisenphotography]

I have a mac...final cut pro i the best....I used to use Adobe Premiere on the PC..it was also very nice

[neil_r]

Final Cut Studio 2 is excellent however Premier Pro has support for writing to Blue-Ray.

Don't know anything about PC software though.

[Tareq]

OK, i have both OS's.
I will check both, and i don't want to take that less complicated software, i prefer to learn with the best or advanced/powerful tool then start with basic simple one, but to be honest, seems i will never work with video until now [who knows about the future].

Thank you very very much for the straight forward answers.

[ErikM]

Thanks for all the replies guys... I think I will have to bite the bullet... I want to write blu-rays :D:D:D

[farrukh]

Sony Vegas Pro has blu-ray burn option too. Its a solid competitor to adobe premiere.

[Stealthy Ninja]

If you don't intend to work professionally in the future.

Sony Vegas has a good rep and is (apparently) very easy to use.

Final Cut Studio (which includes pro) is pretty standard in the TV and video industry, so it's a good one to learn if you want to go pro.

Premiere Pro is simular in use to FCP and is a good choice on a PC.

Avid is the industry standard for film, but a lot of people (me included) don't like it.

I am a professional video editor BTW.

DVD Studio Pro (comes with Final Cut Studio) won't let you burn blu-rays at the moment (stupid Apple).

[neil_r]

DVD Studio Pro (comes with Final Cut Studio) won't let you burn blu-rays at the moment (stupid Apple).

+1 on that. Mac still does not offer native support for blu-ray full stop.

[dshankar]

How come nobody recommended After Effects?? I love using After Effects CS3!

[FlyingPhotog]

How come nobody recommended After Effects?? I love using After Effects CS3!

After Effects isn't usually considered as a stand alone NLE system...

All of the folks I know who have AE use it pretty much for animation and animating elements of video that gets cut into a project using Premiere or Premiere Pro.

[Stealthy Ninja]

After Effects isn't usually considered as a stand alone NLE system...

All of the folks I know who have AE use it pretty much for animation and animating elements of video that gets cut into a project using Premiere or Premiere Pro.

Precisely.

[Vermin87]

I use After Effects CS3 and Premiere Pro CS3. I must say that its quite powerful, but very complex to use at times. You have to do some programming in after effects to achieve certain effects. There aren't too many drag-and-drop effects that are that worthwhile. If you want the good stuff, you have to do it manually. I've never used Final Cut, but from what I hear, a lot of it is just drag-and-drop.

[Stealthy Ninja]

I use After Effects CS3 and Premiere Pro CS3. I must say that its quite powerful, but very complex to use at times. You have to do some programming in after effects to achieve certain effects. There aren't too many drag-and-drop effects that are that worthwhile. If you want the good stuff, you have to do it manually. I've never used Final Cut, but from what I hear, a lot of it is just drag-and-drop.

You mean templates?

If you use Motion, there are a lot of "drag and drop" templates. Same with DVD studio pro.

Final Cut Pro is more like premiere.

Aftereffects is different again. It's a serious 2D animation and compositing tool.

Though for 3D effects using 2D objects (ie zooming around a 2D object with a virtual camera) I find motion to be easier to work with over aftereffects (because Motion has a perspective view that is very useful for this).

[ErikM]

Interesting replies guys. So what are my options for burning to blu-ray format if I am on a mac? Nothing?

[osv]

Interesting replies guys. So what are my options for burning to blu-ray format if I am on a mac? Nothing?

sell it and get a pc.

steve jobs wants you put your hi-def stuff on his itunes site, lol

"In a Q&A session after the launch of Apple’s new notebooks (http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/10/14/apple-revamps-macbook-line-sleeker-sexier-slightly-more-expensive) today, Steve Jobs called Sony’s Blu-ray (http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/14/live-from-apples-spotlight-turns-to-notebooks-event/) a “bag of hurt” and stated that licensing the standard for Blu-ray hardware and software is currently too complex. Jobs then remarked that Apple is waiting for Blu-ray to “take off in the marketplace.”
However, the company was quick to point out that it supports HD video -- as long as it's not on a disc. Speaking after Jobs, Phil Schiller, Apple's vice president of marketing, noted iTunes already has the "best" HD movie and TV options."

[ErikM]

sell it and get a pc.

I will never do such a thing! :D

[Tareq]

There is a way, but i have to read more and research to be sure then we will see.

[Tony-S]

$1300 on Final Cut Pro 6......... what other options do I have?

Huge newbie.

What is your Mac's specs? It looks from Canon's spec sheet that the video is in a Quicktime MOV container, so you should be able to open it with most Apple software, perhaps even iMovie HD. There's also Final Cut Express.

However, while you can write to Blu-ray discs with Toast, you cannot author Blu-ray Discs on Macs. This is largely a battle with the studios, which they seem to be winning, because of the OS and hardware requirements for Blu-ray Disc playback.

[Matthew Craggs]

You can get Blu Ray on a Mac but it's tough. I believe you export the HD sequence, then burn it using Toast with no menus, it will work. May want to do a little Googling and confirm that though.

[Stealthy Ninja]

Interesting replies guys. So what are my options for burning to blu-ray format if I am on a mac? Nothing?

Toast (http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html)

Adobe Encore CS4 (http://www.adobe.com/ap/products/premiere/encore/)

According to this guy: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/145/864272
you can author and burn to blu-ray (on a mac) using Encore CS4 (not CS3).

I can't confirm or deny this as I have never needed to produce a blu-ray before.

[Vermin87]

You mean templates?

If you use Motion, there are a lot of "drag and drop" templates. Same with DVD studio pro.

Final Cut Pro is more like premiere.

Aftereffects is different again. It's a serious 2D animation and compositing tool.

Though for 3D effects using 2D objects (ie zooming around a 2D object with a virtual camera) I find motion to be easier to work with over aftereffects (because Motion has a perspective view that is very useful for this).

Oops, most of the stuff I do is for slideshow presentations, so I was talking about transition effects...there are ones that you can drag in, or you can manually create your own. I've heard that the apple movie editing programs have better transition effects and templates to drop pictures and movie clips in for slideshows.

[twofruitz]

CS4 now supports blue-ray and high def editing. CS3 didn't really incorperate the needs of HD video editors.

The problem I have with my Windows machine is that HD video just seems to be so unstable... I'm using a XP machine with C2D E6850 3.0ghz + 2gb ram + 9800GT graphics and it's still slow.

I think an upgrade to 8gb ram and 64bit windows may be the go.

[FlyingPhotog]

CS4 now supports blue-ray and high def editing. CS3 didn't really incorperate the needs of HD video editors.

The problem I have with my Windows machine is that HD video just seems to be so unstable... I'm using a XP machine with C2D E6850 3.0ghz + 2gb ram + 9800GT graphics and it's still slow.

I think an upgrade to 8gb ram and 64bit windows may be the go.

What's your hard drive spindle speed? 7200? If it's 5400, it can makes things choppy...

[osv]

The problem I have with my Windows machine is that HD video just seems to be so unstable... I'm using a XP machine with C2D E6850 3.0ghz + 2gb ram + 9800GT graphics and it's still slow.

I think an upgrade to 8gb ram and 64bit windows may be the go.

if you are editing avchd, think quad-core.

i just finished a two-hour hd edit, including encoding and authoring the sd dvd, with zero crashes... most of the footage was canopus hq as the intermediate, mixed with some 24Mbps avchd in the timeline... sony vegas.

doing the mpeg2 encoding for dvd took 12 hours, frameserving it up from vegas into procoder, but it went off fine the first time around.

[DrFil]

all these people are mentioning adobe premiere pro...and i have cs4 (on a pc), but will it be able to use the .MOV files out of the 5D II? i thought there was a problem with this. and if so, is it possible to convert to another format first in another program without losing detail and whatnot?

edit:
also, this is unrelated, but can anyone help me find the kind of splitter laforet talks about here http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2008/12/08/tips-and-tricks-for-the-5d-mkii-part-ii-audio/#more-1669
I have a 1/8" splitter that i use for splitting my audio input in my laptop to be able to plug in more speakers, but is this the same thing? or are there special ones for when you're recording audio?

[Stealthy Ninja]

all these people are mentioning adobe premiere pro...and i have cs4 (on a pc), but will it be able to use the .MOV files out of the 5D II? i thought there was a problem with this. and if so, is it possible to convert to another format first in another program without losing detail and whatnot?

edit:
also, this is unrelated, but can anyone help me find the kind of splitter laforet talks about here http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2008/12/08/tips-and-tricks-for-the-5d-mkii-part-ii-audio/#more-1669
I have a 1/8" splitter that i use for splitting my audio input in my laptop to be able to plug in more speakers, but is this the same thing? or are there special ones for when you're recording audio?


I guess it should be OK. Premiere prefers .avi files, but it should be able to handle .mov files I'd think. It is suppose to be a professional editing system after all. ;)

If it doesn't it probably means you'll need some codecs or something.

[Mark1]

Dont know any software for you . But one tip I hear a lot on podcasts is to import it as 540 instead of 1080. The experts say the visual quality is barley degraded, but the file sizes are half size, and easier on the processor.

[Stealthy Ninja]

Dont know any software for you . But one tip I hear a lot on podcasts is to import it as 540 instead of 1080. The experts say the visual quality is barley degraded, but the file sizes are half size, and easier on the processor.

If you're watching on a computer monitor, you're likely to be a little closer than if you're watching a TV. So smaller sizes would be OK I think (personally I never watch stuff on youtube etc. full screen).

[danskim]

DVD Studio Pro (comes with Final Cut Studio) won't let you burn blu-rays at the moment (stupid Apple).

That's because whatever the Apple God (Steve Jobs) says is holy - he claims Blu-Ray is "a bag of hurt," so Apple will never implement Blu-Ray until he changes his mind. He goes on to say, "we're waiting until things settle down, and waiting until Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace before we burden our customers with the cost of the licensing and the cost of the drives."

What he means is that he might actually feel bad about charging at least $1000 for an Blu-Ray drive on Macs a la $500 SuperDrives even when DVD R/W drives were beginning to drop far below $100 retail. Or $1500 for 8GB (4x2GB) of memory for Mac Pros when 2 sets of 2x2GB DDR2 6400 sells for less than $80 retail (not ECC, but still)

[BrantG]

Played around with Adobe Premier CS4 and really like it. The problem is the money for the software is a bit expensive.

Will Adobe Premier Elements 7 (latest I believe) allow me to burn an HD file that will playback on my Blu-ray player?
Will it also allow me to compress the HD file to use a bit rate of 10MBps or so?

If so, that might be my route for around $100.

[Tareq]

Played around with Adobe Premier CS4 and really like it. The problem is the money for the software is a bit expensive.

Will Adobe Premier Elements 7 (latest I believe) allow me to burn an HD file that will playback on my Blu-ray player?
Will it also allow me to compress the HD file to use a bit rate of 10MBps or so?

If so, that might be my route for around $100.

How large is that HD files? I have some HD files [if they are really HD] and i burnt them on CD/DVD and playing them on my normal DVD player, and when i read about some Blu-ray players i found all of them can read DVDs as well, so what is the problem?

[BrantG]

How large is that HD files? I have some HD files [if they are really HD] and i burnt them on CD/DVD and playing them on my normal DVD player, and when i read about some Blu-ray players i found all of them can read DVDs as well, so what is the problem?

The question is just a hypothetical. There will be a couple of things I might want to do with these video files.
1.) I might want to host some HD clips on my website, so I'll want to compress them down so they aren't as large.
2.) I want to be able to burn them to Blu-ray at close to the highest bit rate. while most smaller clips will fit on a standard DVD, if I want to put longer clips or multiple clips together, I'll need a Blu-ray disc.

[Tareq]

The question is just a hypothetical. There will be a couple of things I might want to do with these video files.
1.) I might want to host some HD clips on my website, so I'll want to compress them down so they aren't as large.
2.) I want to be able to burn them to Blu-ray at close to the highest bit rate. while most smaller clips will fit on a standard DVD, if I want to put longer clips or multiple clips together, I'll need a Blu-ray disc.

OK then, stay with PC and find cheap solutions :lol:

[Mark1]

OK then, stay with PC and find cheap solutions :lol:


With blu-ray blanks at $20 a pop, good luck!

[YONG JIA LIN]

Have you people ever try the Canopus Edius? www.canopus.com

Video editing is all about Patience, Patience and Passion. It is unlike photo. it is not a minute or hour work. Have passion is not enought for it.

Anyway, ask yourself what will you going to do with video. Just a time of passion or going to do it professiona? How many time and money will you pay on it? When you know your answer, you don't wast time and money on the wrong way.

[Stealthy Ninja]

Have you people ever try the Canopus Edius? www.canopus.com

Video editing is all about Patience, Patience and Passion. It is unlike photo. it is not a minute or hour work. Have passion is not enought for it.

Anyway, ask yourself what will you going to do with video. Just a time of passion or going to do it professiona? How many time and money will you pay on it? When you know your answer, you don't wast time and money on the wrong way.

Good advice. It literally takes days to edit videos (months even). I've worked on a DVD (adding subtitles and DVD authoring) that took (on and off) 12 months to finish.