MediaValet vs. Perforce P4

MediaValet is an exceptional tool for our end users. We upload the images and they find them. Most often with great ease. Had we known how many images we would be adding, and our different audiences from the start, we might have set up our file structure a little differently.

Incentivized

For large-scale codebases with fixed and regular releases that do not follow a continuous delivery paradigm, Perforce is certainly well suited. In projects that are small and distinctly separated from other discrete (though potentially dependent) units, the benefits of the Perforce tool may not be as clear of a victor over other systems.

Incentivized

• We love Portals, as a means of creating, editing and sending collections of pictures
• The tagging system allows for end users to find our photos, without knowing where we put them
• The system is quick
• Apart from our initial edit for size, customers gets full sized uncompressed files

Incentivized

• Merge algorithm is smart and utilizing the visual interface to do merges makes them easier to digest.
• Easy to set up on multiple platforms and architectures and is well supported on all of them.
• Visual interface has many tools and customization options that help to optimize and personalize workflow.

Incentivized

• More flexibility/features when using Lightboxes
• Replace an old version of an asset with a newer one without having to check-out, then check-in
• Sharing an asset or a set of assets via a share link -- would be great to generate shorter, dynamic URLs for sharing as opposed to the longer string URLs it currently generates

Incentivized

• I was having a hard time learning it. Even if you are an experienced developer, there is some learning curve.
• Can be slow when working with large data sets at once.
• When working on multiple workspaces on the same machine, Perforce can make it difficult not to mess up the code.

The product is the best we've seen. Others on staff who use our partner's DAMs have commented that our Media Valet DAM is far and away the best they've seen. I can't say enough about Media Valet's customer service. It has been consistently helpful, quick to respond and very reliable.

We have a need to consolidate into a single package, and have such a large variety of technical proficiency among our users that Perforce seems less suitable. Many would like to remain using it, however, even those who use Perforce are the minority, and are often limited to our development teams.

Incentivized

New staff is able to use our DAM with an hour of training.

With Perforce Helix, you can use it via the command line, via P4V, or any of the other APIs included with the product. It is extremely easy for new users to get up and running. Users of Perforce Helix only have to pull in the files of interest to them. Also, Perforce is very easy to script and integrate into your CI/CD pipeline. Streams allows you to have pinpoint control of your workflow, and P4Search is the absolute best--I wish Perforce (the company) would talk more about this. It is absolutely fabulous!

Incentivized

In our large environment, Perforce is rarely "down". We have regular maintenance windows and from time to time Perforce can feel a little slow, but its always available. Tech support has always worked with our engineers and IT department to make sure that any real performance or stability issues are addressed quickly.

Incentivized

The team is very responsive to requests and makes a point to provide feedback or status updates before confirming solutions.

Incentivized

I had two representatives from Perforce contact me after downloading it but never responded when I had questions. I also had a difficult time finding good training material for getting started. There is a lot of available support material when running into issues, though, because of how many large companies use it.

Incentivized

I mainly use MediValet to send special medical images to our partners. Collaboration with other companies is very simplified through MediaValet. The qualitatively uploaded images can be excactly assigned and organised through various filters. It is much clearer and easier for our partners to understand when the images have been accurately labelled and assigned beforehand.

Incentivized

This rating is related to setting up an environment from an existing Perforce repository. Initial setup of Perforce as the repository for the company was done by a separate team long prior to my inception.

Incentivized

They really are very different platforms. MediaValet offers much more control over who has access to files and how they are downloaded, as well as offering conversions of some files such as JPEG to PNG or TIFF. Also, through user profiles, you can grant access to a specific path to some users and not others, so it has a lot of customization. The other platforms are just for storage and sharing but there is no user control.

Incentivized

New users of Perforce Helix can be up and running in less than thirty minutes. It is easy to use, but also very powerful. Bitbucket is slow, prone to outages, and (for large teams) requires a team of dedicated administrators. I've had request for information from Bitbucket that requires hours to pull together that would take me less than 30 seconds in Perforce Helix. Large file storage in Bitbucket is clunky and requires you to jump through too many hoops. It's not even something you have to think about with Perforce Helix, as you are only limited by your OS. Perforce Helix is very easy to use even for non-developers. I wouldn't dare ask a non-developer to store their documentation in Bitbucket.

Incentivized

• Easier to send specific files to other people
• Can combine different assets in an aesthetically pleasing website like platform with Portals to present
• Gives peace of mind knowing that our files could be deleted from our system, but MediaValet has the backup

Incentivized

• Locking assets make us have no merge problems which are harder to manage on other versions control without locking
• Almost no need to give support to artists or non-tech folks because the operations are very straightforward
• There's no way to do interim checkins without going to the process of creating a stream

Incentivized