I recently bought a Canon Xl-1 and I'm looking for an editing system. I'm considering buying a FireMax Studio from ProMax and would like some feedback from anyone who has used this system. Were there any problems and if so how did the company respond?

Thanks

-- Steve Brooks (Nilesby@mindspring.com), December 26, 1998

Answers

Steve, Are you Mac or PC? Anyway, I'm in the same boat, looking for a Mac DV system. Go to the Adobe site, for the Premiere User Forum, cause if you get the promax that is what you will probably use. Premiere 5.1 is a dog...Check out Radius EditDv, that is what I will likely get... less features than premiere (it's only in edition 1.5), but it has won tons of awards and is much more stable than the new premiere.... Good Luck, Brian

-- Brian R. Amrhein (amrheinphoto@earthlink.net), January 05, 1999.

I'm far from an expert, but I have delt with the folks at ProMax for a while now and they seem committed to providing only products that work. I have basicall the same set-up they are now selling and the Firemac Studio, only I bought mine a while back with a Media100 QX. I have been very pleased with the capabilities of the equipment, and unlike a previous respondant, I don't think you can do better that Premier 5.1.

-- Robert Sewell (sewellr1@airmail.net), January 16, 1999.

I opted for a Matrox Digisuite LE and SpeedRazor and have been extremely happy with the setup. Bundled together they're a great deal. The new NT machines from SGI (http://www.sgi.com) might also be a terrific option, since they'll have dual stream real-time editing ability built on the motherboard. In-sync (http://www.in- sync.com) has said they they'll support the machines with SpeedRazor, so it may provide some incredible bang for the buck.

Happy NLE hunting, - John

-- John Windmueller (jwind@cais.com), January 18, 1999.

Regarding Remarks about Premiere 5.1:

First of all most of the complaints are from PC not Macintosh. In my opinon most PC developers did not do a good job of writing new drivers to works with Premiere 5.0 and 5.1 thus all the problems.

ProMax worked very hard to make Premiere 5.0 an 5.1 compatible. We have few complaints with the updated Premiere 5.1 which fixed a number of bugs. There is love hate for every NLE software package ever published...that goes for Premiere, EditDV, Media 100, Avid and others. Premiere has the largest installed base. Probably as much as all the rest combined. It has a lot of third party plug-ins for effects as well as audio that are highly prized.

Visit our web site and see the features offered by our FireMAX Studio packages and turnkey systems at www.promax.com.

Thanks,

Charles F. McConathy President ProMAX Stystems, Inc. 1-800-977-6629

-- Charles F. McConathy (mcconathy@promax.com), February 05, 1999.

I really can't agree more with the President of Promax. As stated before, I run a lab at USC with 18 DV editing Stations (MAC) using Premiere 5.1 and the Promax firmax-c card (uses the better Texas instrument chipset for device control) which makes for a perfect solution to our DV editing needs. The card is very stable and has always delivered what was asked from it. So, if you want to deal with the Mac side of things -- definatly go with Pro-max --they are hands down -- the best.

Now on the PC side. There really only is onme good company that I have tested for. The Canopus DVRex and Rapter are excellent cards with a great playback engine and very stable working environments. I liked it so much, I now own one.

So, I guess it depends what operating system you like, but believe me these two companies are where it's at. BTW, I have no intrest in promoting these cards, except for the fact that I will always support people and companies that go out of the way to provide good products and service.

Jeskid

-- (jcowell@scf.usc.edu), February 06, 1999.

After 3 years of linear edit attempt, I purchased Pro-max turnkey system. As a novice computer person, I found it took ~ two weeks to capture over 100 "clips" and edit with Adobe Premiere 5.1 "cut & paste" an impressive (for me, anyway) 5-minute production. If you wish a complimentary 5-minute copy, request same from source info at:http://hometown.aol.com/umbra1226/waterdog/index.html or http://hometown.aol.com/umbrawon/dogpaddle/index.html (Diane's page)

-- Ted Erikson (Umbra1226@aol.com), June 13, 1999.