Interesting read, but also one that has me worried:
http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/why-film-editors-love-avid-media-composer/
My worries are that a lot of the points Oliver makes are valid (save for no.3 in my humble opinion). But if these are the points that separates Avid from the competition, one wonders why nearly all of them are either broken or unfinished or out of date.
1. Film Metadata
It's still there, but without DPX import and metadata tracking, it is not really up to date. On a similar level, having the ability to have ID3 tags be the source for bin info would have been nice. Stuff like FilmScribe has not been updated for modern requirements of file-based workflows, even though it could be of great help when generating VFX-lists and such. It's something Avid has, but it seems to ignore its potential.
2. Trimming
Great trimming tools are of little use if they don't work with your 3rd party hardware. Also, FrameFlex reformat settings and LUTs are ignored during trimming, so you can't always tell what you are doing anymore. Broken feature.
3. Logical layout
Not everyone may agree on that, although all the other apps allow J-K-L. Also, not everything is mappable, and only regular keys and the shift layer. Plus, it's still all based on a keyboard designed for typists, rather than an editing interface, by nature.
4. Script integration
Great feature, especially combined with the ScriptSync option, but it has been left to its own devices for too long. A great many improvements to Script Based Editing are sorely missing, the easiest one being able to see 16:9 images in the script, rather than squeezed 4:3 ones. ScriptSync was broken out of MC, and even though it was called 'v1.0', there is no sign of any updates to the feature. And since it is a feature that very few people seem to use, I'm not sure how big the incentive is to keep working on it. It's one of the reasons I would like Avid to have a premium version of MC, with everyting included, at a premium price. So the folks that really depend on this may still have a choice and thereby pay for the development of these tools. But indeed, the competition has no comparable feature.
5. Built-in effect tools
They are there, but they also are a bit cumbersome. They follow the mid-nineties concept of timeline stacking. No way to turn an effect off. No way to turn a segment off.
6. Surround mixing
I think other apps have it, we got it very late. It works great, save for some issues with channel routing, LFE routing, source monitor defaulting to stereo rather than mono or 5.1, etc. Most importantly: MC cannot recognize a standard Pro Tools BWF-M export as being a multichannel group. Neither can it export BWF-M, so you are limited to 2GB exports, meaning no way to export a 2 hour movie to BWF.
7. Project sharing
Awesome. Downside is that Avid does not allow for easy multi-project media management. A lot of manual labor goes into tracking all that. Can't tell video mediafiles from audio mediafiles at finder level, can't have media stored in project-related subfolders. Makes for less easy sharing with VFX and sound peeps. Also, using shared storage between Mac and PC is complicated, as you get all these ._ files that should be hidden.
8. Cross-platform easy authorisation
True, but not as easy as you'd want. You can have a dongle with MC and SY option, a license code for ScriptSync and/or PhraseFind (two different codes for MC5.5 or MC6+ actually), an iLok for AudioSuite plugins, serial numbers for third party plugins like BCC and Avid FX. Not that easy to move around.
9. Portability of projects and media
True, but could be much easier with better media management controls. Media Mover and MediaCopy, but more powerful. Also, the new H264 codec option can be nice, but the 24p version is limited to a single low-quality option. Because Interplay / Interplay Sphere doesn't care for 23/24/25p, apparently.
10. Interoperability with lists
EDL Manager and FilmScribe have had no TLC, and can use some. Especially FilmScribe can be much more powerful in current workflows, if only they would update it.
11. Flexible media architecture
True. But not everything is handled as fluidly as for instance Adobe does it. Performance is far from stellar.
12. Robust
It is. As long as you're on Avid hardware.
I'm not sure this means MC is in a good shape, if you see what I mean.
Job
P.S.:
Here's a longer list: http://community.avid.com/forums/p/120979/696930.aspx#696930
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