Edius vs. Prem CS3

[Luby]

Hi Gals/Guys,

On the same machine, would Edius be better than Prem. CS3 (or not) and by how much, in:
1. Real time preview
2. Real time output to Firewire (if they can do this)
3. Rendering effects/transitions
4. Importing and working with 1440/1080 footage from Sony Z1
5. Importing and working with upcoming 1920/1280/1080 Sony EX1 camera footage.
6. Being able to provide video output to a standard or HD TV/monitor
7. Other features I have missed to ask.

I will be using PhotoShop CS3 and most likely After Effects.

Thank you much,

Luby

[Martin_Gleeson]

1. Real time preview

Edius is much better. It give full quality relatime preview to external monitor. PPro has a "draft" preview of unrendered footage. Maybe it was my system (see below), but I though it was dreadfull!

2. Real time output to Firewire (if they can do this)

Both allow this. But as above, PPro will show draft preview if a clip needs to be rendered. Edius will show full quality preview. How much realtime preview you get from Edius depends on you system.

3. Rendering effects/transitions

Unless you really pile on lots of effects onto multi layered video tracks, Edius generally doesn't need rendering. But this depends on your system. When it does render, it's quite fast.
Premiere Pro, any effects or transitions must be rendered.

4. Importing and working with 1440/1080 footage from Sony Z1

With edius, you can import this footage as either MPEG2 files and edit straight on the Edius timeline. However, your realtime is seriously reduced. It's better to capture as Edius HQ AVI file (hi def) without loss of quality. You can then edit this on the timeline with much better realtime.
My experience with SD footage in PPro wasn't great, so I guess HD would be a bit poorer. But I have never tried it.

5. Importing and working with upcoming 1920/1280/1080 Sony EX1 camera footage.

I don't think Edius supports this camera at the minute (has it been released yet?). It does support the P2 cameras, and the concept is the same. I presume they will support the EX1 at some stage.
PPro: No idea.

6. Being able to provide video output to a standard or HD TV/monitor

You need an NX Express hardward card (two of them) to get HD output from Edius. With this you do get full realtime (without OHCI delay) to your monitor. That is what I have and am very pleased with it. Always seems a shame to downconvert to SD for the DVD.
You can also use you OHCI (Firewire) connection from Edius to camera to monitor. Same with PPro.

7. Other features I have missed to ask.

I'm sure there are :)
IMHO Multicam in Edius is the best implementation I have seen. But this may only be because of my off multi-cam workflow.


will be using PhotoShop CS3 and most likely After Effects.

No plug-ins for these from Edius. You need to export / import you assets.
PPro obviously does integrate with these products.

Thank you much,

You're welcome

Luby

Martin

[mattmatt]

What an in-depth and pretty response, thanks Martin :)

I agree about all you have said. IMHO though, I reccon the ability to have intergrated programs (like AE with PP) is barely worth worrying about.

All in all, if premiere pro was as "real-time" as edius for the same cost, and if it had multicam, I would prefer it, but its not. So Edius wins - especially in conjunction with After Fx.

[Luby]

Hey, Martin,

I deeply appreciate your nice post. It had helped me steer towards Edius. I even watched some of the tutorials. When you say "you need two of Express cards" does this mean that with those I will be able to export to DVCam tape (via Firewire) without rendering? If I have only dissolves, occasional title, some stills and color correction on two tracks, would you say this will play in real time, without the Express cards?

Thanks again,

Luby

[Jerry]

I agree about all you have said. IMHO though, I reccon the ability to have intergrated programs (like AE with PP) is barely worth worrying about.


If you have the previous version of these applications you can grab the plugins and manually place them into the proper folder within each of the respective programs.
I have output for AE and Photoshop with Edius. I also have those two outputs through my decklink card as well.

[mattmatt]

Cool! Nice one :)

[Rusty]

Hey, Martin,

I deeply appreciate your nice post. It had helped me steer towards Edius. I even watched some of the tutorials. When you say "you need two of Express cards" does this mean that with those I will be able to export to DVCam tape (via Firewire) without rendering? If I have only dissolves, occasional title, some stills and color correction on two tracks, would you say this will play in real time, without the Express cards?

Thanks again,

Luby

Edius will operate as software only with continuous 1394 output of DV projects from any OCHI device. (with lag)

For RT w/no lag get NX with the Expansion for HDV. It pays for itself on your first job. DV projects also benefit with the component output.

Rusty

[alias]

I agree with what has been posted thus far. Edius can out put back to OHCI in true RT but Premiere Pro is not a bad program. The intergration with AE, PhotoShop and Audition is very handy. In a nut shell if you only use a few titles, CC and a few transitions Premiere Pro will give you very good previews but not true RT with OHCI (using Dual Core P4 or Core 2 Dual CPU and DV-25) . If you out put to DV tape then Edius might be your best bet. If your going ot out put to DVD then Premiere might work best. Premiere Pro comes with Encoreand can also authorize DVDs from within Premiere Pro. Edius now does DVD authoring so Edius is still a good choice for out put to DVD. I think you should test drive both programs and decide which GUI you like best. If Premiere Pro was true RT then I would use it over Edius. Both are good programs but the integration of Adobe products can not be over looked.

[Ron Evans]

Of Premiere pro, Vegas 8 and Edius 4.5, Edius has by far the best multicam editing. So if you do a lot of multicam Edius is the choice. The others create a single multicam timeline which makes corrections difficult. For audio, Vegas 8 is the best by a long way ( it did start as an audio editing program!!)
Ron Evans

[mark_m]

I must disagree with Ron here about Premiere's multicam ability. I much prefer Premiere Pro's multicam, and use it in preference. This is, of course, probably a case of each to his own!


(It is actually very easy to change the camera angle on PPro's single timeline. You just double click the clip you want to change, all camera angles open in the source monitor, and you click the one you want. Or right click the clip and choose the camera by number from there.)

[Romigo]

In many aspects Premiere and Vegas are much more handy in operation.
Edius has a great gear and engine but sometimes squere steering wheel. Sometimes its like cleaning the left ear by right hand.

In Premiere you lose RT but sometimes You can do grafic composition much faster. The same in Vegas with audio.

I like EDIUS but its the pitty that Canopus programmers didn't learn from them since the beginning.
We could have had the greatest editor on the world.

[GrassValley_BH]

I like EDIUS but its the pitty that Canopus programmers didn't learn from them since the beginning.
We could have had the greatest editor on the world.

...or we would have the editing equivalent of Microsoft Works...

My point being that the reason why a particular tool excels for a particular task is that it's designed to do that task.

A multi-tool is quite handy when you don't have a dedicated tool, but I'd still take a regular screwdriver over a multi-tool with a screwdriver if I'm going to be tightening or loosening a number of screws.

[shueardm]

I agree. Every tool needs a reason for existance. EDIUS has a focused existance and it excells.

[rando]

Edius vs. Prem CS3

Having all three of the leading programs. Edius, Premiere Pro, and FCP I learned its all about taste. FCP seems to be written for film makers Edius was built for speed where Premeire Pro is somewhere in between. Edius is faster but Premiere Pro has more growth potential. I personally think Edius's Multi-Cam is the best one out there. 1. you dont need to render 2. it actually outputs to a monitor while your working and 3. You can put in a transistion on all your clips when you done.

[Ron Evans]

Mark,the reason I like Edius multicam is that all the tracks are visible all the time( just the way I used to do it with PIP's), the markers can be dragged to make fine adjustments of the transition and by positioning the cursor at the marker position( precisely identified in Edius) the selected camera can be changed in multicam( or even right click and disable/enable the appropriate clip/track. Very intuitive coming from the PIP way of working. Seeing whats happening and being able to drag the markers is very useful. Now if i have to do traveling mattes etc then its Premiere Pro( again because I have done this many times and know how to do it easily in Premiere Pro)

Ron Evans