The NEW Final Cut Studio announced today!

Andy Mees · July 31st, 2009, 06:09 AM

>Speculation belongs in Area 51.

Well said .. but who can help themselves eh? Its so much fun :-) By the way, by Pro Tools one assumes you mean Pro Apps right?

Heath McKnight · July 31st, 2009, 07:53 AM

I just received the upgrade today and I love the tiny box. I will be installing this weekend.

Heath

Pete Cofrancesco · July 31st, 2009, 08:16 AM

Can anyone tell me if the new version of FCP now has the ability to use multiple cores like Compressor?

Thomas Smet · July 31st, 2009, 10:39 AM

Have any of you ever developed this kind of software before? How can any one of you honestly say how long an update should take or how much stuff it should have after 2 years? I don't think many of you realize just how hard some of these updates are. Did it occur to any of you that the reason you don't see many major updates is because FCS already has a lot of great core stuff included? What kind of logic do you people use to think pro aps get major updates like you were all used to with FCS2. Take a look at autodesk products or Lightwave. These programs get these exact sort of updates and nobody in the 3D industry thinks 3D Studio Max is about to go under. The only reason why Adobe had such a huge update with CS4 is because CS3 was so far behind FCS. Considering the impressive amount of tools we already get in FCS I'm pretty amazed they found that much stuff to update.

I understand maybe this update didn't address the stuff everybody wanted. I'm sorry you feel neglected and dissed by Apple for this. To call this a weak update is simply wrong however. I can tell you from first hand experience in developing this type of software that the stuff in this update was not easy. You all talk like some geek sat down and whipped together these updates in a few weeks. Dream on.

This all comes down to most of us are spoiled by the huge updates FCS has had in the past. We now use the major features such as the addition of Motion or Color as a benchmark of what we expect each major release to look like. When you think about it however would FCS2 have been all that great of an update if they didn't include Prores and Color? So does Apple have to add a new program to the bundle every time just to make it exciting. Software updates are not supposed to get you excited like a movie trailer. Personally I have always felt by branching into so many other programs Apple was really stretching itself thin instead of focusing on one or two pro aps.

You all need to stop knocking DVD Studio Pro as well. Look the DVD specs are very limited. There isn't anything else Apple can do with the DVD format. The only thing they can really add to DSP is Blu-ray authoring. Take a look at most of the other DVD authoring software out there. DSP was so far ahead of everybody else there is very little left to update. I'm talking about the full interactive and scripting specs. Apple could have fed us those features a little bit at a time but they decided to give everybody the full enchilada from the beginning. Some people think Encore is so great because it can do Blu-ray but the interactivity features are extremely limited compared to DSP.

It is up to all of you to decide if this update is worth it or not but to call it weak is just plain foolish.

Matt Davis · July 31st, 2009, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Smet

Have any of you ever developed this kind of software before? ... to call it weak is just plain foolish.

I have developed software products. I have worked with software developers for a long time. I sense the awful heavy hand of marketing strategy interfering with an amazing engineering team's objectives:

"Let's make a pay-for upgrade that's applicable to as wide a user base as possible, which generates more revenue than if we launch with all the goodies a bit later on, but only for people who run Snow Leopard. With any luck we can 'double dip', but at least we can generate lots of positive PR and spank the competition if we have to release the Snow Leopard version as a free upgrade."

Simon Wyndham · July 31st, 2009, 11:15 AM

Thomas, most of us don't want extra features (apart from obvious things like 3D shadows and reflections in Motion which have just been added) so much as we want the silly little niggles and bugs to be fixed.

A lot of people have been demanding some pretty essential things. Things which on the face of it should have been very easy to implement.

That said I love using FCS2 in general. My edits are not suddenly going to become jaw dropping just because of one or two extra things in FCP7. I don't even use most of the feature set of FCP6. I try to stay away from gimmicky graphics and animation too, so Motion rarely gets a look in from me either.

Perhaps the only thing in FCP7 that I would use a lot is the real time video chat thing. That would help me a lot in many cases, IF I could get a broadband connection that was fast enough!

Jim Wood · July 31st, 2009, 11:21 AM

Installed FCS3 last night and everything went well. Love the improvements in Motion. Plan to use Motion much more than in the past as a result.

Christopher Drews · July 31st, 2009, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Smet

but to call it weak is just plain foolish.

Apple wouldn't have been censured if they would have just addressed the stability issues.
Apple: F*cking Fix Qmaster!
It doesn't even work now. That is truly weak.
-C

Heath McKnight · July 31st, 2009, 11:24 AM

More ProRes options is what I love! For me, ProRes 422, SmoothCam, and the Open Format Timeline kicked serious butt in FCP 6. Yeah, I'd love to see new and improved, but since FCP 6 came out, what new camera tech has arrived that we'd need native support (wait I know there is at least one format)? With FCP 5, we had HDV support, and FCP 5.1 and 6 brought even more support.

Heath

Joachim Hoge · July 31st, 2009, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heath McKnight

More ProRes options is what I love! For me, ProRes 422, SmoothCam, and the Open Format Timeline kicked serious butt in FCP 6. Yeah, I'd love to see new and improved, but since FCP 6 came out, what new camera tech has arrived that we'd need native support (wait I know there is at least one format)? With FCP 5, we had HDV support, and FCP 5.1 and 6 brought even more support.

Heath

How do you find smoothcam great?
Everytime I tried it the quality of the image just gets too degraded. Do you have any tips for me?

Heath McKnight · July 31st, 2009, 12:19 PM

I've never seen any image degradation on EX1, P2/DVCPRO HD, or HDV footage, but I don't know about anything with less compression, like HDCAM, SI-2K, or RED ONE.

Heath

Joachim Hoge · July 31st, 2009, 12:23 PM

I had real problems with hdv footage, so I never really bothered to try with me EX footage.
From my experience it really softened the image.

Pete Cofrancesco · July 31st, 2009, 04:42 PM

That's weak no multi-core support! Why does Apple build 8-core Power Macs when their video editor can't utilize them? Video editing/ encoding is the most demanding type of thing you can do. It boggles the mind.

Harrison Murchison · July 31st, 2009, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete Cofrancesco

That's weak no multi-core support! Why does Apple build 8-core Power Macs when their video editor can't utilize them? Video editing/ encoding is the most demanding type of thing you can do. It boggles the mind.

Because the multi-core technology coming in Snow Leopard is far more pervasive and easy to setup.

When Final Cut Studio is updated to leverage Grand Central Dispatch it's performance is going to jump markedly in my opinion.

Pete Cofrancesco · July 31st, 2009, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harrison Murchison

Because the multi-core technology coming in Snow Leopard is far more pervasive and easy to setup.

When Final Cut Studio is updated to leverage Grand Central Dispatch it's performance is going to jump markedly in my opinion.

Why was Compressor given multi core support many years ago? Even if FCP can't use multi-core what sense does it make that the export to Compressor won't use multi cores, considering Compressor is doing the encoding?

Are you saying FCP7 will support multi core as soon as you install Snow Leopard or are we going to have to wait another 2 years for the next version of FCP? Seems odd how far their pro apps are lagging behind their hardware. Mulitcore isn't a small issue considering FCP is for professionals with a price tag to match. It be like selling a turbo charged Ferrari and having the sales man explain to you can't use it.

July 31st, 2009, 07:53 AM	#152
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	I just received the upgrade today and I love the tiny box. I will be installing this weekend. Heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

July 31st, 2009, 11:21 AM	#157
Jim Wood New Boot Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Brentwood, TN Posts: 6	Installed FCS3 last night and everything went well. Love the improvements in Motion. Plan to use Motion much more than in the past as a result. __________________ Jim Wood Baby Kitty Productions

July 31st, 2009, 11:24 AM	#159
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	More ProRes options is what I love! For me, ProRes 422, SmoothCam, and the Open Format Timeline kicked serious butt in FCP 6. Yeah, I'd love to see new and improved, but since FCP 6 came out, what new camera tech has arrived that we'd need native support (wait I know there is at least one format)? With FCP 5, we had HDV support, and FCP 5.1 and 6 brought even more support. Heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

July 31st, 2009, 12:19 PM	#161
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	I've never seen any image degradation on EX1, P2/DVCPRO HD, or HDV footage, but I don't know about anything with less compression, like HDCAM, SI-2K, or RED ONE. Heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

July 31st, 2009, 06:09 AM	#151
Andy Mees Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Posts: 645	>Speculation belongs in Area 51. Well said .. but who can help themselves eh? Its so much fun :-) By the way, by Pro Tools one assumes you mean Pro Apps right?

July 31st, 2009, 08:16 AM	#153
Pete Cofrancesco Inner Circle Join Date: May 2004 Location: USA Posts: 3,005	Can anyone tell me if the new version of FCP now has the ability to use multiple cores like Compressor?

July 31st, 2009, 10:39 AM	#154
Thomas Smet Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Milwaukee, WI Posts: 1,719	Have any of you ever developed this kind of software before? How can any one of you honestly say how long an update should take or how much stuff it should have after 2 years? I don't think many of you realize just how hard some of these updates are. Did it occur to any of you that the reason you don't see many major updates is because FCS already has a lot of great core stuff included? What kind of logic do you people use to think pro aps get major updates like you were all used to with FCS2. Take a look at autodesk products or Lightwave. These programs get these exact sort of updates and nobody in the 3D industry thinks 3D Studio Max is about to go under. The only reason why Adobe had such a huge update with CS4 is because CS3 was so far behind FCS. Considering the impressive amount of tools we already get in FCS I'm pretty amazed they found that much stuff to update. I understand maybe this update didn't address the stuff everybody wanted. I'm sorry you feel neglected and dissed by Apple for this. To call this a weak update is simply wrong however. I can tell you from first hand experience in developing this type of software that the stuff in this update was not easy. You all talk like some geek sat down and whipped together these updates in a few weeks. Dream on. This all comes down to most of us are spoiled by the huge updates FCS has had in the past. We now use the major features such as the addition of Motion or Color as a benchmark of what we expect each major release to look like. When you think about it however would FCS2 have been all that great of an update if they didn't include Prores and Color? So does Apple have to add a new program to the bundle every time just to make it exciting. Software updates are not supposed to get you excited like a movie trailer. Personally I have always felt by branching into so many other programs Apple was really stretching itself thin instead of focusing on one or two pro aps. You all need to stop knocking DVD Studio Pro as well. Look the DVD specs are very limited. There isn't anything else Apple can do with the DVD format. The only thing they can really add to DSP is Blu-ray authoring. Take a look at most of the other DVD authoring software out there. DSP was so far ahead of everybody else there is very little left to update. I'm talking about the full interactive and scripting specs. Apple could have fed us those features a little bit at a time but they decided to give everybody the full enchilada from the beginning. Some people think Encore is so great because it can do Blu-ray but the interactivity features are extremely limited compared to DSP. It is up to all of you to decide if this update is worth it or not but to call it weak is just plain foolish.

July 31st, 2009, 11:15 AM	#156
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	Thomas, most of us don't want extra features (apart from obvious things like 3D shadows and reflections in Motion which have just been added) so much as we want the silly little niggles and bugs to be fixed. A lot of people have been demanding some pretty essential things. Things which on the face of it should have been very easy to implement. That said I love using FCS2 in general. My edits are not suddenly going to become jaw dropping just because of one or two extra things in FCP7. I don't even use most of the feature set of FCP6. I try to stay away from gimmicky graphics and animation too, so Motion rarely gets a look in from me either. Perhaps the only thing in FCP7 that I would use a lot is the real time video chat thing. That would help me a lot in many cases, IF I could get a broadband connection that was fast enough!

July 31st, 2009, 12:23 PM	#162
Joachim Hoge Major Player Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Oslo, Norway Posts: 402	I had real problems with hdv footage, so I never really bothered to try with me EX footage. From my experience it really softened the image.

July 31st, 2009, 04:42 PM	#163
Pete Cofrancesco Inner Circle Join Date: May 2004 Location: USA Posts: 3,005	That's weak no multi-core support! Why does Apple build 8-core Power Macs when their video editor can't utilize them? Video editing/ encoding is the most demanding type of thing you can do. It boggles the mind.