Pro Editing @ Home

Reader Q&A : Upgrading to Media Composer

 

Hi Kevin,

Just read your review on Media Composer 3, I am currently using Edius 5 and I am thinking of moving up to Avid Media Composer 3, what are your thoughts on this? I am really keen on the features of Avid compared to Edius, Any help would be great, also what is the learning curve like on Avid compared to say Edius or Premiere Pro. Once again thanks for any help.

Regards

Steve

Hey Steve,

Choosing a new editing application is a big decision, and there are a lot of factors you need to keep in mind. One thing that I will tell you right off the bat is that no one makes a better editing application than Avid does. Media Composer is the industry standard, and if all you are doing is editing you can not go wrong with Media Composer. After looking at your website and seeing that you are in the wedding video business, Media Composer might not be the right application for you. Like I said before, Media Composer is the best editing application on the market, but that's the problem. It's just an editing application. No graphics, no DVD creation, no still image manipulation. Nothing! You need to consider that Media Composer is $2499 US (MSRP), and a package like Adobe's Production Premium has:

* Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 (Editing)
* After Effects CS4 (Motion Graphics)
* Photoshop CS4 Extended (Still Graphics)
* Flash CS4 Professional (Web Design)
* Illustrator CS4 (Still Graphics)
* Soundbooth CS4 (Audio Restoration)
* Adobe OnLocation CS4 (Live Camera Shoots)
* Encore CS4 (DVD Creation)

All for $1699 US, direct from Adobe. If you are purchasing this for your Wedding business, I would probably recommend you go with Adobe's Production Premium, as you get way more bang for your buck. Premiere Pro CS4 is not a good as Media Composer for editing, in my opinion, but it is still a good editing application (that even has features that Media Composer doesn't), and the rest of the line up makes this package almost a no brainer. If you are looking at spending about $2500 US, you might just want to go for the Adobe Master Collection that is $2499 US, the same price as Media Composer. That way you would have not only post production, but complete web and print design as well (just no audio mixing!).

Do you have a question about editing or post production in general? Send an e-mail to us by clicking here, and you might just see it in our next Reader Q&A!