I like to have this site to feature software reviews like writing up critiques of new records of yester century. If you’re a creative pro that left Apple and Final Cut Pro or you can’t afford a Mac and FCP; take a look at Grass Valley’s Edius 9. This is pretty awesome even for a hobbyist news gatherer shooting minifigs from the field of your back yard! Version 10 (branded as EDIUS X) has rolled out since, but I have not tried out version 10. This was recorded in February.
Edius is the primary editing system at many local media outlets, many have trashed Avid’s NewsCutter and has at least 100 stations, since the CBS, NBC, ABC O&Os and the Fox Television Stations all are using this product, along with Tegna and possibly Hearst and other chains too. Sinclair’s 200 station portfolio though is very loyal to Avid, and specific version of Media Composer for newsrooms are still used along with the dated iNEWS Newsroom Computer System or NRCS.
EDIUS runs in tandem with another application included called Mync, the media management side. This is where you ingest video from the field, or wherever. EDIUS is designed to be a file-based workflow (i.e. flash cards, SD cards, no tapes, unlike Avid’s Media Composer that still thinks the world is still on Macintosh IIx boxes and Betacam SP tapes. Seriously I am not kidding here. I’ll do a review on Media Composer in another video.) MYNC reminds me of iPhoto in it’s user interface and media management.
The metadata written in MYNC (like names, subjects, dates, etc.) gets written into Windows’ Explorer, and that metadata can carry onto any file server you own, even if it’s on a Mac. Avid by comparison, stores it’s meta data within the large application, and only Avid Media Composer programs can read it. Databases is a hot mess in 2021, of which Avid continue to neglect to write their software on the operating system it runs on. While Grass Valley does market playout servers and ingest systems for the major local TV stations, you do not need it for home.
Paging Chyron Dudes!
Of all the Non Linear Editing systems, EDIUS has the best title feature that no other NLE can hold a candle to (yes and I am talking about Apple’s legacy Final Cut Pro too!) It’s in par to a true character generator, like a Chyron, a Deko, a Viz, or even an Xpression! Especially if you produce simulated-live events in post production, because you’re trying to achieve a studio grade production, without all the space for hardware!
it kicks ass. Big time.
In my test runs I also tried to key in a lower third that’s a looping video, that gives the animation, that keys into the overlaying video.
The rest is techie stuff:
Edius requires Windows 7, and it’s recommended to have a laptop or desktop with a graphics processor, of which helps a lot even if you do little rendering. It also works best with a multi core CPU, ala an Intel i5 or i7 (doesn’t matter what generation, if it was made in the last decade.) I used this on my Thinkpad W520, with Windows 7, on 16gigs of RAM with 256 Flash Hard Drive and an i7 CPU, quad core and a NVIDIA graphics processor (originally to meet Avid’s diva of system demands, forget “requirements”)
Unlike Avid which runs it’s own program basically, (it love to eat RAM for lunch, and not use your CPU or GPU appropriately)
EDIUS can run on Mac hardware in theory, an Intel Mac with a Windows install with the appropriate BootCamp drivers, so EDIUS can make use of all your hardware’s abilities. Your mileage may vary, and if you actually booting in or running it via a virtual machine like VMware Fusion or Parallels.
Cost:
You can get a license of EDIUS for about $300 for home use, assuming you won’t make a lot of dough being an at home freelancer. Just don’t tell Grass Valley your business agenda. @MinfiigNewsguy is a micro enterprise 🙂 You can try this for 30 days by registering a Grass Valley account too.