Premiere vs. FCPX

Just some quick observations. Did a stabilize test on the same clip in FCPX and Premiere - this is on an 8 core Mac with non-CUDA 5770 graphics. Time to analyze took nearly double in Premiere and then it failed. So I repeated with same clip (h264 1080p) on Win7 workstation. End result: FCPX did much better job at both stabilizing and removing jello cam. Premiere, besides zooming in way too much using defaults also introduced bad jello cam where there was none! Also tested same clip in Sony Vegas (can't say which version but much newer than current shipping version :) - Vegas also did much better job than Premiere and analyzed much faster. I realize Warp Stabilize is an accelerated effect so probably would be great to use with approved CUDA card.

And let's talk about "skimming". This is so much better in FCPX, crazy that once a clip is selected you can no longer skin in Premiere! I like that I can scan clips in bin and set in/out etc. but only when I actually SELECT a clip. Skimming in Premiere seemed to be an afterthought and needs fine tuning.

Also playback is much smoother in FCPX than Premiere when I ad a filter - say Sharpen - Premiere slows to a crawl while X keeps playing smoothly. I know, i know - I need an approved CUDA card in my Mac - or Adobe needs to quickly approve the very popular 5770!

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California