Is FCE4 a good starter video editing program or should I save up for FCS2??

I'm considering FCS2 down the road but didn't know if FCE4 would be a good start to get into digital editing. I wonder if I would quickly get frustrated with the limitations. I'm running a 2GHz intel core duo w/ 2Gb of RAM. Would FCS2 even run on my system? Thanks for your help.

If you think you are beyond iMovie, then FCE4 is your next step up. It has significantly more capabilities than iMovie, and it has a comparatively higher learning curve, so be prepared for that. The rewards, however, are that you have much greater creative control over your projects.
You did not say what level of experience you have or what kind of video editing you want to do. FCE was designed for working with DV, HDV and AVCHD media; but the interface and all the basic editing features are identical in FCE4 and FCS2, so by learning FCE4 you would be on the right path to 'step up' to FCS sometime in the future.
What 'limitations' do you think you will be frustrated by? For people 'starting out' it's hard to imagine what limitations FCE4 would present ...

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"...So your FCP will only be as good as the system your working with, while using a more professional based one will allow you to utilize the clock generator and timecode syncing devices much more accurately than say a software based application..."
Sorry, but if you're using 3rd party capture cards, this is not completely accurate. 3rd party gear will add the same sort of functionality that you're talking about with Avid. You've got to make an apple-to-apples comparison. A bare-bones software-only MacPro running FCP is not what needs to be compared to an Avid system. Once you've added a high-end capture card to the FCP system you've got something much more on par with what the Avid's can do.
And as far as being "professional" - there are a ton of movies and TV shows that are cut on FCP - daily. And the list is growing. These folks aren't making these choices because of Apple sponsorships. They going this route because there is a ton of power from FCP - at a much more affordable price point.
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Hello,
I am a newbie to Final Cut Express as well as Mac's in general. I am wanting to use Final Cut Express for video editing of files, but without an attached camera. Is there any way to have Final Cut Express startup without having it prompt for an external A/V device? I just want to do some basic editing and use the chroma key feature. Can anyone help?
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Hi Zak,
Unfortunately, I've tried that and I get into an issue that was addressed in this posting: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=836595&tstart=120 where FCE will show the splash screen and then the program doesn't start. I then have to delete FCE preferences and then I will get the Easy Setup dialog box prompt me again for choosing the external device.
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For those of you who cannot afford a proper video editing system...

...don't buy any prosumer video editing program (including Premiere Pro CS5.5). Here's why:
Last night, I ran the PPBM5 test on an Intel i3-2100 system with 4GB of DDR3-1333 RAM, a 500GB OS drive and a 1TB project drive (both drives are 7200 RPM) and integrated (onboard) Intel HD Graphics 2000. (This is the kind of system that one might buy for the purpose of Interner surfing and some limited gaming.) I have just submitted the results to the PPBM5 site.
The result?
With a total time of 976 seconds, that system is around 20 times slower than a fast i7 system (although it was marginally faster than the other systems with dual-core CPUs on the PPBM5 results list). That i3-2100 system also proved that no system with a dual-core CPU performed as fast as a system with even a mediocre-performing quad-core CPU.
In other words, at the lower end, you get what you pay for. This post and thread is to inform how senseless it is to cheap out on the components when building a video editing build.

If you absolutely can't afford the "fully ready" cost of...
16GB DDR3-1333 RAM: $120
4 x 1TB 7200 RPM SATA hard drives: $240
320GB or 500GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive (for OS): $45
You could START with...
8GB DDR3-1333 RAM (2x4Gig)
2 x 1TB 7200 RPM SATA hard drives
320GB or 500GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive (for OS)
And then add Ram and/or hard drives as need and $$ is available
The computer I built a bit over a year ago is described at http://forums.adobe.com/thread/652694?tstart=0
My 3 hard drives are configured as... (WD = Western Digital)
1 - 320G WD Win7 64bit Pro and all program installs
2 - 320G WD Win7 swap file and video project files
3 - 1T WD all video files... input & output files
Search Microsoft to find out how to redirect your Windows swap file
http://search.microsoft.com/search.aspx?mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US
For home hobbyist editing of AVCHD my computer does very well... for me

Is FCE4 a good starter video editing program or should I save up for FCS2??

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