PC / Mac getting along yet?

[GGlover]

Hi there~

Is it feasible for production work done on a PC and Mac to be integrated into a master done on one or the other?

For example, let's say some HDV footage is shot with something like a Sony ZIU, then loaded into FCP. Some organizational editing is done by the main entity - we'll call Primary.

At that point, some minor editing has to be done, and a portion of the project is farmed out to someone who has a PC with Vegas Movie Studio. OR it's farmed out to someone who also has Final Cut Pro.

Assume the editing is done equally well and the results are sent back to the Primary, who has been working on the main parts of the video.

Would the Primary be able to tell the difference between the two, or have to work with one or the other somehow differently?

Actually, my main thing is music and voice, and I have both a PC and a Mac, but I have worked some with Vegas, found the whole editing thing intriguing and that triggered my curiosity about the current state of compatibility (or lack thereof).

Thanks~

-GGG


it seems that Final Cut Pro is the on a Mac is the video editing tool of choice

[ozymango]

From my own experiences it's not so much a question of PC/Mac compatibility but software interchange, i.e. the format of your output, not the platform.

If you're outputting DV, then you should be able to further edit that DV on any platform with any editor that accepts DV. So if I do a bunch of editing in Premiere (my own personal choice), I can output to DV and then anybody can edit that DV.

But if you mean, can two different software programs read each other's "proprietary format," then the answer is ... I dunno. Or, rather, I'm guessing that an internal Vegas or Premiere "project format," e.g. the non-output editing flags that you can preview within each program before you actually out put it, won't be readable in FCP. Or vice-versa. Which makes sense, as each program has a different way of handling data before it gets output, and that handler is what you're getting when you buy that particular program, for editing speed and technique and all that stuff.

That being said, I suspect that if you're going to be further editing whatever it is you're getting submitted from various sub-editors, you're gonna need it in DV format anyway because that's a genuine interchangeable standard. So just make sure that you tell everybody you need DV format output and you should be good to go.

[GGlover]

Good to know - thanks!

So if I understand correctly, as long as all involved create a DV copy of what they've done, they can pass around at will, edit each other's work, etc. without losing anything substantial?

Coming up...some woodshedding on the DV format!

Thanks again - --

-G

[ozymango]

Yup, that should do it! As long as the edited footage is exported to DV from DV, there's no image loss, each frame is a complete frame (I know edDV will correct me if I'm wrong!). Good luck and have fun!