Final Cut Pro alternatives for video editing on a PC

Hi all:

First im on a PC not a mac but i have used final cut pro. To those taking full advatange of thier slrs capactity to record video what software are you using to create your short films or video clips. The possible options ive heard have been:

Adobe Premier Pro couple with Adobe Aftereffects
Avid
Sony Vegas

Have any of you used any of the above and what are your suggestions?

I've used Premiere Pro and Vegas. PP has a steeper learning curve IMO but both are more than capable of post production quality editing. Sony's user interface takes a little getting used to with the trimming of clips but it becomes second nature after the first few trys.

This sticky thread has tons of info https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=624302

Thanks a lot Haknslash! Ill look into it, im trying to figure out whats the best software to use in terms of converting the 7D video into something uncompressed which will be easier to edit with.

I learned Vegas through Youtube and there are a lot of enthusiasts on there.

I transcode all t1i, 5DII, 7D to mpeg2 but Vegas really sux at handling multitude of clips in one windows. It kept crashing on me. I have to keep the # of clips at maximum of ~30 per window.

Neoscene(.avi) codec has no problem on Vegas, from what I heard.

Yup I've heard you'll need to transcode down as most non-linear programs seem to playback choppy from the native file.

Thanks guys what ive heard is that since the native file is compressed even the best rigs will slow down trying to edit a compressed file. Thats the reason for transcoding.

vipergts831 wrote in post #9118572
Thanks guys what ive heard is that since the native file is compressed even the best rigs will slow down trying to edit a compressed file. Thats the reason for transcoding.

No, it's just how the file is compressed rather than the fact it is compressed. But yes, even an i7 or a dual xeon 5500 (including mac pros with FCP) will slow.

My personal favorite is to use a dummy file in a frameserver for editing, then redirecting to the actual file for exporting. so you can re-encode down to a 480p video to edit, then have the actual file for final encoding. AVISYNTH works well, but there are plenty of others that do the same as well.

I love sony vegas, its great for almost everything, unless you wana do some chroma keying, or any kind of intricate special effect. For that i have after effects