Have both PC and have a mac(maybe upgrading depending) and was planning on getting FC express but a class i am taking next year at my school(i am a sophmore in high school) will be using Adobe Premiere and After effects. So i cant decide whether i should go with FC express and learn that adn then learn Premeire/AE or whether i should consentrate on Adobe and go down that road. Either way im getting a new computer this summer whether it be a mac or building a pc so this is part of that disicion. thanks.

depending upon how profess you wanna go! The macs and final cut pro (fcp) are the best! HOwever if money is a issue (usually is) then pcs aren't that bad especially if you are only doing it for personal fun! Right now i run off of a pc but i use vegas by sony which is a kickass program either way good luck <BR>one more thing --- although more expensive i sure as hell wish i had bought a laptop so when i go on long trips (airplane) or wherever; you can bring along your editing master machine

ok thanks

Nick <BR> <BR>I know when your in college you can get student discounts on mac items, maybe other things too. I dont know about highschool. Id look into that though. <BR> <BR>Danny Turner <BR>HYPOXIC FILMS <BR>hypoxicfilms.com

i im positive about high schools thanks for the warning though.

The two programs are very similar in the way they operate and functions. You can get either program cheep if you are a student. Go to the Apple site <a href="http://www.apple.com" target="_blank">www.apple.com</a> and go to the education section. you can get final cut pro for around $600 Adobe package about the same and FC express for about $200. FC express is awsome. You can't batch digitize but most of us don't use that anyway. I would stick with Apple computers if you can the OS is way better and more stable. I teach Media in Michigan at Clarkston High School and we have used all the programs you mentioned... all are very good. I wouldn't feel disappointed about any of them...

hey check out this site <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.genesis-technologies.com/" target="_blank">http://www.genesis-technologies.com/</a> <BR> <BR>for students they sell adobe premiere for $240 <BR> <BR>You can learn basically learn adobe enough in one day to get you by in school, it is an easy program to run.

I would go Final Cut if you can swing it on the Mac, Avid or Vegas on the PC.

I use both FCP and Avid everyday at work. <BR> <BR>I would go with Avid for MAC. Much easier to use than FCP and alot more stable. For home applications, Avid DV is the ticket. <BR> <BR>

"I would go with Avid for MAC. Much easier to use than FCP and alot more stable." <BR> <BR>I only used Avid Dv briefly but it seems like a great program. For me though why learn another. I've haven't yet had FCP 4 running under 10.3 crash so I certainly have no stability concerns. That includes doing long renders with FCP, burning a DVD with DVDSP 2 and netsurfing all at the same time. If that won't crash a program I do know what will!

Rich, add running Outlook in a Classic 9 environment! <BR> <BR>Avid just seems more intuitive and has better tech support........if you need it of course.

I'm done with classic as everything I use is OSX native. Should of known it would be a Microsoft product causing the problem! I like Avid a lot and someone who is going to do this full time could do a lot worse then learning it. If I had to use this stuff daily like you I'd take a hard look at Avid because there are a lot of Pro's saying what you are saying. But for the projects and level I'm at FCP works just fine and does everything I'll ever need.