Pro Tools for film / video sound on a budget

[Vytis]

I am about to switch to Pro Tools (LE or M-Powered). I'm a bit on a budget (let's say up to £500) And I can't really decide what to choose.

As my main interest is sound for film/video, I suppose the first shortcoming would be the fact that LE and M-Powered versions don't have SMPTE timecode and several other functions vital for typical post-production. DV Toolkit is only for LE (not M-Powered), but can its price alone (around £800 if I'm not mistaken) be justified at all? Also, as the official Digidesign PDF manuals and quickstart guides don't state how much working with movies is different and limited in LE/M-P in comparison with HD/TDM, could any of you guys shed some more light on this subject, please? Will I be able to import MOV files / perform basic synchronisation in LE/M-P without the need of purchasing any other add-ons / upgrades?

And the options are as follows:

MBox 1 - £199 (if I'm still lucky to find any around)
Firewire 410 + PT M-Powered - £250+£230
Firewire 1814 + PT M-Powered - £320+£230
MBox 2 - £330 (the least appealing to me)

At the moment I have a fantastic Edirol FA101 interface which is absolutely great and I wouldn't want to get rid of it. Maybe recording through its 10 brilliant inputs in another DAW host and importing into PT LE on an MBox 1 could also be an option.

What do you guys think?

I'd like to thank you very much in advance.

[will the moor]

Is there a specific reason you want to use pro-tools? PT is great but for audio/video on a budget, particularly since you already own a converter you're happy with, I'd be taking a close look at sony vegas. I dont want to be labeled a heretic but as great as PT is, it's not the solution to everyone in every situation.

2 cents,
will

[ESR]

I teach sound for film and postproduction of sound in video and I really have to tell you that PTLE is not your best bet for audio/video post on a budget. This is because it is very limited (you already mentioned the lack of TC). Do a search at Steinberg Nuendo, I think it's a better option and if you want to edit video try Adobe's Premiere Pro 1.5 or Sony Vegas.

[gerax]

Hi

I have done several A/V post projects with my LE rig, from long form indie to shorts and TV commercials; I think it depends a lot on the the level of depth you want to achieve with your editing and mixing; currently you have some limitations within the LE platform, but I think that for short movies or "simpler" kind of A/V post work it's totally workable; you'd just have do to some more work, like premixing stems to be able to have all of your material into your final mix session within a manageable amount of tracks. Yes, you're not going to have timecode unless you buy DV Toolkit, but that's a limitation that you can find a workaround for (as I did). The biggest shortcoming that you are going to find is that if you need to import OMF compositions from other video editing systems (like Avids or Final Cut) you really NEED Digitranslator, which is sold separately (at about half the price of DV Toolkit). There's workarounds to this too, (like consolidating all of the audio files from the start of the movie file) but they are time consuming.
You can import movie files just as you would do in a TDM rig, but you'll need a suitable video plyback device to have the video on a bigger external screen; Avid Mojo or Canopus ADVC 100 are external boxes that do that kind of work, but I suggest you to get a dedicated video card like a Matrox Parhelia (Triple head) and set it up to have the dual head monitors and the feature playback on a TV screen: it's easier, cheaper and won't cause you any sync or latency side effects once set up (some minor tweaking is needed).
So, in the end, I'd say that the purchase of DV Toolkit depends on the amuont and complexity of the work you are going to do: for small things I'd say go without it, if the work gets more serious (read: paid) then the expense is justified, in that it will enable time saving features that'll speed up the work noticeably.

Hope this helps

L.G.

[Vytis]

Thanks for your replies.
I see that Pro Tools LE/MP is not the software of choice for post-production on a budget. I am quite familiar with Nuendo, and I think it's much better value-for-money in comparison with Pro Tools, but as I am currently looking for a job, all the studios require Pro Tools experience, which you can't get however good you are in Nuendo. That's why I was just thinking of buying into LE/MP to start with, and using it on my daily (small) sound-for-video projects so I can get more experience with it. I would also use it extensively for music production / mixing. If there is a workaround for the lack of timecode (a good one btw!), I might go for the cheap Mbox 1 if I can still catch one around.
Thanks once again.

[froyo]

Hello. There is a workaround for the timecode. Have someone save a session from a TDM system where the main timeline is set to Timecode, and the nudge and grid values are also set to timecode as well. Then, when you open this session on LE the timecode timeline will appear. However you will not be able to use the Spot feature of Pro Tools, nor will you be able to nudge in timecode increments or have a timecode grid. Also, if you switch to min and seconds and back, timecode would go bye bye. This however is useful for most people. If you have timecode burned into the QuickTime and this timeline, you'll be able to do just about everything else manually. Good luck.