Thoughts on new FCP X Sneak Peek

[Heath McKnight]

We are getting off topic from the FCP X sneak peek, but I think it's valid to be excited about Thunderbolt products coming out soon. Firewire 800 and 400 ultimately was for video capture and external hard drives, and early on in the iPod's life, you charged and connected your iPod via Firewire.

I'm ready for something faster, something that will enable me to be able to avoid going to a Mac Pro (a $5000 or so proposition) and stay with a MacBook Pro or iMac, and still be able to use my MXO 2 box, and some faster storage solutions.

Plus, to be able to connect more than one device to a single port? Yes, please!

Okay, back on topic to FCP X.

heath

[Craig Seeman]

That FCPX brought us to a Thunderbolt discussion does have significance. I've seen this Thunderbolt from FCPX drift happen in other places as well. In the Apple ecosystem so much of this is tied closely together.

I think part of the frustration people are feeling is that while the ecosystem approach is integral to the value of FCPX for example, none of this was hinted at in the Sneak Peek.

I can certainly make what I believe is reasonable speculation but it's based on past history and not the Sneak Peek.

Some of my thoughts are:
Final Cut Server gets integrated in some fashion just as OS Server is going to be part of Lion rather than a separate product. That's assuming Apple and End Users both believe there's a need for it. I can't help but believe though that Apple isn't thinking of Facility even though people point to Sneak Peek as focused on "the one man(woman) band"

Thunderbolt as a network connection Wild speculation? That's a lot of useful bandwidth. I can see a whole new avenue of ingest which jives with the loss of direct tape ingest (which wasn't mentioned one way or the other during the Sneak Peek either). An editor and certainly one in a facility environment, really doesn't want to tie up an NLE for ingest when it should be used as an Editing station. They DID mention editing while files are coming in at the Sneak Peek.

In a facility environment you may want that all to come in through the server and have the Editor pick off the material while they keep editing. Even as a one man band, isn't it/ wasn't it a drag to tie up your computer for HOURS while you were ingesting a bunch of tapes. Even the Wedding editor would be ingesting DV tapes all day and while tape 1 was done in the first hour you had to keep the NLE tied up while you continued Log and Capture.

So imagine this even for the one man band. Your MacMini FCS Server Ingest box is pulling in what's left of your DV/HDV (and maybe your a little big band with your DigiBeta deck) sending out through its Thunderbolt port to your MacPro/iMac/MacBookPro FCPX box so you can start editing while the Mini continues to ingest. Of course that Thunderbolt pipe might be overkill for HDV but not for the Apple ProRes HQ files from your DigiBeta. Of course that big pipe has to move all that data for the 8 cameras you've got in multicam. OK this is a bit contrived but the point is the idea of a FC Server that can scale from home use to facility use so you can ingest and access files, multiple simultaneous, while your NLE keeps editing.

Alas all my own fantasy and even if it were to come to pass it may not be the first iteration of FCPX. I can't help but think Apple's looking at Enterprise/Facility level integration. Again keep in mind Apple wants you to buy more Macs and making the use of another Mac as a FC Server is yet one more hook into another Mac purchase. BTW on the facility level I can't help think that the MacPro will evolve at least in part, into the next Server. A box with several Thunderbolt ports that's thin enough to rack mount . . . but can be used as a desktop as well.

One might argue about the above but you'd only be arguing with my speculation but I just can't help but think FCPX is going to be part of a bigger piece . . . as Apple rethinks what went wrong with Xsan and Xserve.

The problem with FCPX discussion going in various directions is one thinks about ingest for example and then thinks about what that becomes especially when they do mention about editing while files are still ingesting.

[Craig Seeman]

I'm laughing out loud now. I just saw on 9 to 5 Mac regarding the next MacPro prototype

The new design is said to be narrower at just over 5-inches and a few inches shorter at around 19-inches. One of the reasons that Apple might be making this particular Mac Pro prototype smaller is because it is able to fit on to a standard server rack.

This possible new design could alleviate some of the system administrator distress caused by Apple’s discontinuation of the Xserve. The new machine is said to carry “stacked” drives with two drives per sled which will allow a higher drive density than what’s already out there. These stacks are not only built for conventional hard drives, but faster, more reliable SSDs in different configurations. The width of this system configuration is said to be 3U (U = 1.75 inches).

Beyond what we’ve heard, it would seem appropriate that these new Mac Pros would also have a Thunderbolt port and perhaps even BluRay options for the Final Cut Professionals.

FCPX server anyone?
I'll read you palm for $20 too. <grin>

[Heath McKnight]

Yeah I saw that rumor on other Mac rumor websites. The basic Mac Pro design goes back to summer 2003 when Steve Jobs announced the G5 Power Mac, so maybe an overall appearance update is in the cards.

heath

[Arnie Schlissel]

Huh? The exterior may look the same, but what's in that aluminum box is totally different. Even the layout of fans, power supply, drive bays & boards has changed completely. Heck, the power cord doesn't even plug into the same place!

[Heath McKnight]

Arnie,

I'm talking about the basic exterior design of the Mac Pro, which was highlighted in that 9to5Mac.com article:

"Looking at the Pro Mac design evolution, it is interesting to note that the Mac Pro’s current design first hit the market in the form of the Power Mac G5 in mid-2003. Nearly eight years after the Mac Pro’s current design debuted, Apple is toying with a re-designed version of the product."

The basic exterior design of the MacBook Pro goes back to the Titanium PowerBook in early 2001, and the MacBook's basic exterior design goes back to the iBook re-design in May 2001.

Heath

[Bill Davis]

More slightly OT, but for what it's worth, I was chatting just before NAB on the phone with Phil Hodgetts (Intelligent Assistance )- who knows a thing or two about FCP hardware. He was recounting his impressions of what Thunderbolt truly means and suggested that while the first iteration (copper) of TB "merely" makes around a 10 fold increase in exterior connectivity bandwidth - the planned second implementation (copper plus optical) and even more so, the THIRD planned implementation (optical only) are designed to push those speeds up to something on the order of 100 times the current data flow.

Imagine, he said, taking a group of low cost Mac Mini's each with a few core processers, and with simple Thunderbold connectivity - creating something "plug and play" that functions precisely like a "mini-supercomputer" with Grand Central "traffic copping" work to 20, 30, or even 100 processors in your suite. Suddenly, computer performance could reach currently unimaginably levels of performance.

When you eliminate the bottlenecks of shoveling data through inefficient busses and rather have a viable ULTRA high speed plumbing system distributing data "core to core" — the entire computing GAME changes.

I came away from that chat with a new appreciation for just how game changing the Apple TB strategy might turn out to be to the future of Mac computing.

For what it's worth.

[Craig Seeman]

Bill, this is exactly why I think Final Cut Server is being "rethought" as well.

A device like Telestream Pipeline captures video and communicates via IP over Gigabit Ethernet to a server or FCP and Final Cut Pro can start editing a tape or live camera feed while it's still coming in.

Given that FCPX is going to be able to edit while background file ingest, it may be extended to ingest in general. Imagine what you could do with Thunderbolt on a server. Imagine several FCPX stations editing a multi-camera shoot while the tapes (or even the live camera feeds) are coming in.

On the flip side think of the distributive rendering capabilities with a bunch of those MacMinis via Thunderbolt pipes.

Philip Hodgetts is pretty good at understanding Final Cut's development thinking.

It's exactly the kind of conversation you had with him that leads me to believe there's something in the works regarding FCPX and FC Server "X" in some fashion. We might be a year away from it given that Thunderbolt really has to come out for the entire line, but it looks possible and sensible given Philip's comments.

[Kris Zimbelman]

my last experience with Final Cut Pro was in a video production class about a year and half ago. Would it help me to download iMovie 11 and practice with this?

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Kris Zimbelman

my last experience with Final Cut Pro was in a video production class about a year and half ago. Would it help me to download iMovie 11 and practice with this?

I think it could. People who use FCP likely don't use iMovie at all so know little about it & its functionality has come on in leaps & bounds in the last few years. I thought that FCP could really benefit from adopting the Event Browser & Precision Editor amongst other features of iMovie & from the look of FCP X that is exactly what they have done. It's still a very consumer oriented application though that mixes some clever & sophisticated editing functionality with some awfully cheesy templates & other features.

Ken Stone has a good review of the previous version iMovie '09 which highlights the main neat features iMovie 09

iMove only costs $14.99 from the App Store so it must be worth a whirl.

[Heath McKnight]

I think there are a few similarities between iMovie and FCP X, but I think if you've been using FCP 1-7, you might be better off when ver. X comes out.

By the way, this new Final Cut Pro/Avid commercial should put the debate to rest:

Final Cut Pro VS Avid on Vimeo

heath

[Charles Newcomb]

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

I would be amazed if there are really "lots of MAC users running Vegas and Edius on their MAC's"? The ability to run Windows on Macs seems to be mostly used by people wanting to run games. I have seen the odd posting on the Edius forum from such users but seriously who is going to buy & Mac just to run Windows programs?

Well, I'm one. I don't even own any games.

I have FCS3 on the Mac side and Sony Vegas Pro 10 on the windows side, because I have clients who prefer one over the other for various reasons. Apple made it possible for me to do that on one machine. And now that's I've been on Apple hardware for three years, I'm never going back. I have not had to have my computer go into the shop since I switched. Seems like my PCs were always in the shop for something.

Anyway, I admit I prefer to work in Sony Vegas over working in FCS. But this new version looks like it just might change my preference.

Time will tell.

Originally Posted by Randy Johnson

II used to use my Mac for titles with Livetype then go Windows and drop them into my Edius time line.

I've done that, because Vegas' titling is... weak. I've also used motion to create graphics, then put those on a Vegas timeline. It's kind of like Democrats and Republicans getting along.

[Michael Liebergot]

Anyway, I admit I prefer to work in Sony Vegas over working in FCS. But this new version looks like it just might change my preference.

Charles, I'm the same as you.

I always preferred the Vegas interface to FCP, I found it to be much more streamlined and fast.
I was always able to capture/edit/encode faster on Vegas than FCS. But I greatly preferred OSX to Windows.

As a matter of fact I made the jump to OSX, when Microsoft introduced Vista, which was a huge memory and resource hog.

Now, with the upcoming preview and release of FCPX, I might finally have the OS and NLE workflow that I love to work in. If this is so, then Windows could very well likely go away forever on my MACs.

[Oliver Neubert]

shipping in June... would be nice to know a date, I would like to be able to plan for a couple of days to test drive it before using it in a real project.

[Heath McKnight]

Unfortunately, Apple doesn't offer demos on their software. I think MobileMe and iWork are/were available once as a demo. I'm guessing we'll see a release date towards the end of June, if not June 30.

Heath