Ken,
Sorry this took so long. Been on my flat roof, repairing and sealing.
[Chef Ken] "No offense taken, I love a good beatdown."
You beat back quite well and eloquently.
[Chef Ken] "You make several references to " getting on to something else". I cannot come to grips with what that something else should be. I just cannot seem to pick the lesser of 2 evils, FCP or PPro. I'd rather go Avid but as the guy who has to write the check, I don't want to do that either. And I'm tired of picking beautiful losers. Thanks Discreet! My (editorial) workflow with edit* is as good as I can expect (Avid aside). I do mostly long-form (10-90 minutes)and sessions I've done with both FCP and PPro just give me headaches after more than 4 or 5 hours. I feel like I'm fighting them for what comes so easily on edit*. I use the keyboard absolutely everywhere possible (CRX habits die hard), and again, aside from Avid and maybe Media 100 844, edit*'s keycuts (single keys as opposed to a lot of multi-key combos for those constantly-used tasks)are the bedrock of my productivity. I'm not a mouser."
I'll take one more crack at urging you to "move on," and let it go at that. Not a mouser, me neither, but..., there have been some very elegant, efficient mouse operations developed in NLE software, particularly Vegas, but also FCP and PPro since the demise of edit*. We ask our NLE's to do so much more than we did 6 years ago, that the simple keyboard elegance of edit* will (must) stay in the NLE Smithsonian. But all of these current NLE's have keyboard mapping that is nearly as extensive as edit*s and there are inexpensive alternatives to cutting control to keep it much like your CMX experience, if you chose to do so.
I believe that all the NLEs (except possibly Avid) work with the Contour Designs Shuttle Pro (a bit over $100) which has 15 extra single stroke programmable keys, plus auto senses when you move from one app. to another, so goes even further and gives you a pretty good shuttle knob besides:
http://www.contourdesign.com/shuttlepro/
If 15 extra single stroke keys isn't enough, put this (a bit over $200) above your keyboard and have pretty much all the single stroke keys you'll ever need as long as it's a PC system:
http://www.logiccontrols.com/web/prodKB3.htm
I'm sure you could find Mac programmible keypads as well.
[Chef Ken] "I'd rather stay on Windows if I can. I'd hoped that Ppro v3 would be a serious upgrade. Why they've chosen to expend resources porting to Mac at this point of the product life is beyond me. They should catch up to FCP first, and then crossover. Maybe they think they have."
I don't believe that they think they have, but now was the time to draw a line in the sand and challenge Apple on their own turf before Motion can directly challenge AE and while they have a big leg up on media creation integration. You mention that you deliver mostly DVD and Website Product. I assume that you must have a Digital Rapids card or some such to do so efficiently with edit*. Delivery for DVD with any of these products, for at least approval purposes will with the right computer be considerably faster than RT with Digital Rapids, and delivery for WEB, Cell Phone, whatever, will be much more adept with current systems, but particularly with Adobe.
An astounding example of Adobe integration at work is a little reported capability of Encore, the DVD authoring app. You can author a complex DVD in Encore and, assuming that you have set up the perameters for the export ahead of time, with a single button click export a full HTML with Flash media version of your DVD that can be uploaded and linked in you or your client's website that will perform just like your DVD on the website. Everyone knows how to navigate a DVD, so what could be simpler. You won't find anything even approaching this from the other guys.
This is what Tim is refering to as part of the Media creation Livestyle Issues, what I label Macro Workflow Issues. I think that you might be doing yourself a disfavor by dissing the Adobe NLE because of a few negative micro workflow issues when the positive macro workflow issues might quite overshadow those little things. Whatever system you end up on just ain't gonna initially be as comfortable as edit*, and it's quite possible that PPro wouldn't be anymore uncomfortable than Avid or FCP.
It's time to move on before you get demands for HD and have to deal with that while having to move on at the same time, IMO.
[Chef Ken] "The determinant is whether I have to invest in a new computer that will run the T3000 AND 6.5. If that's the case then I'm sure I won't do it."
Lyn seems be out of the office at the moment, and likely only he, who still must be supporting a few 6.5s, can answer that question definitively. You might want to post the specific model of MPro that you have with all its accoutrements.
[Chef Ken] "There is simply nothing compelling enough out there RIGHT NOW to make me want to do it."
Nor will there be in a year or two, so bite the bullet before it becomes a bomb. As Tim says, whichever way you go, you'll learn to live with it's edit* differences, and appreciate other things that you've only dreamed about. It's pretty much down to the 3 A's for pros at this point in time and if any of them go away in the future it's more likely to be Avid than Apple or Adobe.
My last word, unless you have specific questions I can answer.
Good Luck again,
Ron
