A detailed feature by feature comparison between Final cut pro X and premiere Pro Cs 5.5
by Ali Lassoued
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| -64 bit : Full access to all ram you can install in one machine/ Access all the cores in the computer-Open CL/ Graphic performance-Open CL / Graphic Performance- Background rendering . but it might be very intensive on the CPU and may interfere with other application as its not controlled by the user-Resolution independent playback system SD/HD/4K-Locked interface and no external monitors supports-Native editing for an expanded range of format : mix and match different formats mainly H264 straight from DSLR- No native R3D (Red footage)-Media Detection : Images stabilization analysis/ Shutter roll/ people detection/ Shot detection (MS/CU/Full Shot)/ Automatic color balance/Audio Clean up.
-Range based Keyword system : Keyword / tagging to the subclip level - Magnetic timeline : avoid collision and overwrite of multiple clips in different tracks. - Clip Connection: Compile multiple tracks of audio and video an merge into one clip -Compound clip : Merge collapse clips in one track. - inline precision editor : see a low opacity part of both ends of the clips to do accurate trimming. - Thumbnail, Filmstrip view - Viewer panel is replaced by a filmstrip thumbnail view that enables instant preview. - auto sync for separate video and audio recording - Audio millisecond timecode. - pitch correct audio skipping : Keep the correct pitch when scrolling the audio - Level based video clusters - manual interactive fading for waveforms - prebuilt in time remapping with color coding -Compound clips - No Equivalent - Very limited support - Use Compressor separately to encode files with no integration with FCPX whatsoever - Soundtrack pro is discontinued and some basic features were included in FCPX - No OMF Export. Sound editing has to be done in FCPX
-No Equivalent
-No Equivalent
- Price : 299 $ plus 49.99 $ each for Motion 5 and Compressor 4 |
-64 bit : Full access to all ram you can install in one machine/ Access all the cores in the computer-Open GL/ Graphic performance-Open GL/ Graphic Performance- Mercury system that uses CUDA technology and render video using the graphics card GPU independent from the processor.- Play and pause video in different resolution and different fields selection for interlaced footage.-Fully customizable interface with multiple monitors support- Native editing for an expanded range of format : mix and match different formats mainly H264 straight from DSLR .-Red R3D Native support with a dialog box to tweak video audio
- Image stabilization and shutter roll can be done in after effect and audio clean up in audition cs 5.5 with a couple of click and with much more controls. -universal metadata tagging systems that works uniformly across all adobe application. -No Equivalent
-can merge and combine clips into one with a right click. -No equivalent. - Trimming dialogue box opened and closed by just hitting T back and forth. - Thumbnail, Filmstrip view -viewer or source panel is kept to preview the files and set in and out points if needed - auto sync for separate video and audio recording - Audio millisecond timecode.(since CS 4) -No equivalent. -No equivalent -No equivalent
-Keyframable Time remapping with pixel blending options. -No equivalent -new sequence from clip option -Exponential support for a larger number of nvidia cards -Drag and drop sequence to media encoder to encode files on the fly -Seamless integration with adobe audition CS 5.5 -Bouncing tracks from audition to premiere pro or OMF export to Protools. - Camera lens effect : create a blur map and then set the focus point / Bokeh effect : have hexagons or circle of the blurred dots -Better integration with adobe story and premiere pro. Special astx format to bounce to premiere . - Price: Monthly subscription : 129 for master collection Or full Upgrade for 600 dollars |
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Mac Attack (alilassoued.com)
Thank you for this, albeit it biased, given your history with CS5.5, I too am questioning where to go as far as software concerns… I think I’ll let my wallet, empty as it is, do the talking. no where. I don’t have a NEED to switch to anything right now… Thats where I think Everyone has been bitten by the need for choice, and how choice creates this anxiety we feel. FCPX or CS5.5 ??? Ill just keep on creating movies, because thats what I love to do. Regardless if Apple or Adobe tell me I need new Software.
*side note:
Adobe uses the CUDA graphics cards, but if you have a Mac computer, This is not the option. Cutting the benefits for RAW footage ingest in half. You still need to transcode.
Well, I think I was fair in the most part and I tried to include every feature that every application has to offer. You can always use this list as a reference and make your own research as the resources are endless.I’ll be interested with what you find out….
Programs are always a tool and for the better or worse it might affect your creativity and end product to some extent.
Software releases are every two years and they enlist a hardware requirement and unless you’re doing youtube videos you need to update you machine accordingly.
Lastly, adobe is expanding the list of the CUDA supported cards and now you can get a 200 $ cards to get the mercury engine runnung.
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/tech-specs.html
That’s why I don’t like apple because their machines comes as a locked package and you’re stuck with them. I think its impossible and ridiculous !!!!!
Of course there are compound clips in Premiere Pro.
In your project you can have multiple sequences, and import a whole sequence (that will appear as 1 video track/1 audio track) inside another sequence… making a compound clip…
It might be a little confusing as every software company is trying to be fancy and name same feature with a different name. I think you are talking about nested sequences. What FCPX compound clip does is a little different. Its like a smart object in Photoshop.
really, you can’t even get an actual FCPX icon for your article? not sure how seriously I can take it.
Not sure what you mean….
Agreed. Your final cut icon invalidates all the thorough unbiased information you’ve provided for all of us. How dare you.
Wasn’t sure what he meant…Thanks for clarifying…Fixing it now…
Thanks for this. I’d like to ask, as one who has basic familiarity with the older FInal Cut Pro Studio and has now got to decide if I should move to Premiere 5.5, which I have as part of a full Adobe package, or whether I should be looking at FCP ProX download. Aside from the cost of it, the interface to the Apple product seems, at first glance, to be cleaner and easier for an inexperienced editor (with a large project shot but not yet edited), but then again…my footage is all Canon MXF format, and Adobe imports it natively, while Apple requires an intermediate app to convert.
Your opinon?
Not to be biased against apple but adobe has proven over the years to be consistent and evolve at a much better rate than any other software developer out there. I think premiere pro is the way to go. For any interface issues you should check out adobetv.com for tutorials. May be at some point I’ll be posting short tutorials that would help you make the transition. Having said that if you still find premiere pro too overwhelming for you, consider premiere element which is a light edition of premiere. Hope that would help.
Michael Cox, instead of deciding between two semi professional or low end professional apps, why not choose a real high end professional app that was the first to the market and stays right there with the big time producers like hollywood and new york . . Media Composer or with the really HOT deal going on over at Avid right now . . Symphony?
Why would anyone want to edit native h.264 footage from a DSLR? That is 4:2:0 8 bit. Have fun doing color grading with that. No matter what editor you use, please transcode that into something better before color grading.
I find the GPU-accelerated, close-to-real-time performance of FCP X and Motion to be a huge time saver over Adobe’s software. I just did a basic blue screen keying test with the same footage in both applications and FCP X was much faster and gave me a superior key. On top of that, I was able to play back the composited project with sound in close to real time playback speed without having to render a RAM preview. Adobe’s key was dirty and required a lot more tweaking and the playback speed was very slow.
1- H264 codec: This a huge misunderstanding that people keep reiterating. If you convert footage that has color sampling of 4:2:0 to a 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 , you will not get those color information back. If the camera doesn’t produce footage that is 4:2:2 you cannot get any lost info by just converting. It is not there in the first place. The advantage of editing straight from he camera is a faster, more efficient workflow.
2- I have no idea about the hardware installed in your computer but generally Mac has always being good at streamlining small tasks. You might be right about the speed difference but once you try working with more footage and have to do a complex composite you can switch very quickly to after effect with just a right click whereas FCPX is limited to the very basic function within the application.
Thanks for the comment
why on earth would you bother to key in an NLE? Anyone?
For a lot of different reasons. You can quickly tweak basic motion parameter (scale, position, transparency) Keyframe transitions (sometimes you have to do that for insufficient media), Basic sound mix….
To answer your other question regarding the behavior of premiere pro and audition on both platform the answer is no. The feature you’re referring to is a cross platform software. You open your project with let’s say premiere pro in a mac anf finish it on a windows. That is not possible yet. in CS 5 they made only encore (DVD authoring program) a cross platform software. The feature is requested by a lot of users. I hope they included to the rest of the production suite CS6.
I have found this thread most interesting and helpful as someone who is an old Die-hard FCP user. I used Premier originally back in the 90′s but switched to FCP for workplace compliance, and pretty much never looked back. Once again, I find myself at this same cross-roads, and the one thing that is so small – but becoming a huge issue on my end is DVD authoring. I can no longer use DVDSP for disk mastering due to the fact that all of our computers have been upgraded out of support for the program. I would be curious to know what the FCPX supporters here are using for DVD authoring… or if it is even a problem/consideration for them…?
So what is Best FCPX or APP for putting clip together :-)
For Movie making