FCP vs. FCE

vgd07vgd07
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Hey guys-



I'm a soon-to-be Mac user and I was wondering what your opinions were on Final Cut Pro 4 and Final Cut Express.



I do usually light home projects, so Final Cut Express, I think has all the funcionality I need. However, i like the features included with Final Cut Pro, especially LiveType or Soundtrack. And, if the learning curve isn't too steep, I would like to do heavier projects and learn to use Final Cut Pro's capabilities.



Does anyone know what the titling features are lik in Final Cut Express, or is there any way I can get LiveType with Final Cut Express?



Thanks!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    houseleyhouseley Posts: 147member
    If you can afford it, go for FCP. I recently upgraded to FCP from FCE and haven't regretted it



    Livetype is not available except as bundled with FCP. FCE has Boris 3D type (also included in FCP4) and some other useful text tools, but you cannot get anywhere near the animation capabilities of Livetype which is impressive.



    If you are interested in purchasing Soundtrack as a standalone and think you might be interested in FCP at some stage, then I would just go for FCP now.



    If you buy FCE you can upgrade for the difference in price from FCP - so you could try FCE and see how serious you want to get with digital video before springing for the big bucks.



    FCP4 is quite a leap from FCE in terms of functionality. FCE is essentially a cut-down version of FCP3.



    David
  • Reply 2 of 3
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,425member
    Good points Housely.



    Let us not forget Compressor to. You can only get Compressor in DVD Studio Pro 2 or FCP4.



    Compressor is a much better MPEG2 Compressor than what is in FCE. Think of it as a simplified Media Cleaner Pro.



    The biggest feature thought that you would miss in FCE is Batch Capture by logging tapes. Personally after using this I could not live without it. Knowing that you can at anytime pop in a tape and recapture your selected scenes as first generation is outstanding.



    The Audio Features of FCP4 rock too. I'm a student so I will eventually buy the Academic FCP4. I can't wait....new Mac must come first<sigh>
  • Reply 3 of 3
    scott_rscott_r Posts: 98member
    Another thing that you might find out like I did is that FCE will not pull video from old analog tapes, but FCP will. That is a big problem for me as almost all of my stuff is old analog. I have used iMovie but my camera (a Sony Digital "8") and iMovie don't get a long for long. Either the camera will stop responding the commands from iMovie, or just plain won't see the camera at all! Says: "no camera connected." This is one case that "it just doesn't work". No problems with FCE though!



    -Scott
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