The NEW Final Cut Studio announced today!

[Ethan Cooper]

While we're talking about renders and encoding, what in the world keeps Apple from making FCS fully multi-processor aware? Using Compressor and it's distributed processing I can encode 3 to 4 times faster than through FCS itself. This is stupid. If I could harness that same power for renders in FCS I'd be a happy boy but nope, can't do it and it makes no freaking sense to me. If they'd ever get that right I'd suddenly have a much faster editing machine. Why give me 8 cores if I can't use them fully?

[Heath McKnight]

I think it's the opposite of a lot of people have Mac Pros and no Apple pro apps--I think these days more people have laptops (and iMacs/Mac minis) running pro apps than they do Mac Pros.

I think that's one reason why we have the new flavors of ProRes--we can now edit really high-end stuff (RED, HDCAM SR, etc.) with ProRes, on laptops, etc., without bogging down the system.

Heath

[Andy Mees]

While we're talking about renders and encoding, what in the world keeps Apple from making FCS fully multi-processor aware?

Ethan, as has already been explained, some parts of FCS are based on legacy code that predates our modern multi-core hardware and multi-everything operating systems, and those parts (such as a large proportion of FCP) require a major rewrite to properly leverage the power of these newfangled computers. Most observers believe that such a rewrite is indeed happening but many had also sincerely believed that FCP7 would be the first public fruition of that rewrite. Sadly not. But nonetheless Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) is due soon and that should bring a significant advantage to all our apps regardless of architecture. Something to be going on with until a true OS X native rewrite hits the shelves.

Why give me 8 cores if I can't use them fully?

Well as you note yourself, not all the apps are mired in old code.

[Dan Foster]

Originally Posted by Scott Balkum

Wow, I see the academic version is priced at $899.00. FCS2 academic was priced at $549.00. Seems silly to pay $899.00 and not get any upgrades. Not sure about their new pricing model.

I dislike reviving old threads. :-) But for what it's worth, a colleague who is an older, non-traditional university student attending to pursue additional degrees, tells me that FCS 3 academic pricing at her university costs USD $299 for the whole kit-and-kaboodle.

So I'm not sure where the $899 price came from. I'm guessing either the school Scott mentioned hadn't yet updated their pricing web page or that they weren't eligible for the full academic discount?

I've heard vague mentions elsewhere in the past that academic discount pricing was partially tied to volume of sales an higher education institute engaged in. The school my colleague attends does high volume of Apple-related sales on campus from what I've heard in passing. Food for thought, if nothing else...

[Greg Quinn]

Yep, same price at UCSD where I work and I suspect many other campuses.

[Andy Mees]

Correct, my understanding is the 299USD tag is the price at which it is sold to educational establishments, and the price at which they are then allowed to resell. As far as I recall, this was never in question and was much discussed at the time. The 899USD tag is the academic price direct from Apple. Again, pretty sure all this was much discussed at the time.


Let sleeping thread lie.

[Greg Quinn]

What they told me in the Bookstore at UCSD is that Apple provides them with a wide latitude on pricing, it seems to be up to them; plus the other factor is the nature of their affiliation with Apple. You do have to show your University ID to snag a copy, similarly for Adobe and other academically priced software.

[Bryan McCullough]

I've finally upgraded my G5 PowerMac to an Intel and am back to considering FCS3. I hadn't upgraded yet because I wanted to keep my MBP and my other editor (the G5) on the same version.

I've not heard too much about FCS3 since the release, what's the general thought? Worth the upgrade or not worth messing with?

[Joachim Hoge]

I am very happy with FCS3. Lots of small things that makes life easier on a day to day bases. This depends on your workflow I suppose, but for me (I work as a cameraman and DP) it´s really is a step up.
When I edit I often have to send or upload versions on the way as a director I work with is in a different country than I am (not when we are shooting of course) and the "Share" templates are great. YouYube, MobileMe, Web reference movie, Apple TV or Blu-Ray?
Just one click away AND it you can still continue working in FC while it´s transcoding. (works best on a MacPro, not laptop though)

I´m looking foreward to when he upgrades to Snow Leopard as we he can then see my screen over iChat Theatre and look at changes directly.

The new speed tool is great for when I edit extreme sport stuff.

It seems very stable and I´ve been running it since it came out more or less (not every day though)

I kind of forgot that I have upgraded to FCS3 and I suppose that´s a good thing.

It´s not earth shattering upgrade, and a few bugs are not worked out, like if you expert directly to Compressor, you can´t use your Qmaster Cluster. You still have to export a Quicktime file and bring it in to Compressor for that to work. Really annoying.

This is on the top of my head and I just got up, sure it´s a lot I forgot

I would recommend upgrading

[Simon Wyndham]

Personally I'm not bothering with FCS3 as I'm of the firm belief that a real update will appear this year.

[Joachim Hoge]

I think that is unlikely, but no one knows when it comes to Apple.
I hope you are right though.
I got FCS by first buying an old copy of FC3 for $50 as they started to have the same upgrade price no matter what version of FC or FCS you upgrade from.
So for $350 I got the full FCS3, well worth it

[Heath McKnight]

So far, no problems with FCS 3 and I use FCP 7 every day on a MBP running Snow Leopard. Faster rendering in many cases, along with faster encodes.

Heath

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Bryan McCullough

I've not heard too much about FCS3 since the release, what's the general thought? Worth the upgrade or not worth messing with?

Can't live without the FCS3 moving markers. SoundTrack Pro is a useful tool rather than a termite nest. Loving 4:4:4:4 for Motion Graphics. A clean install after two years of playing with filters did the system a world of good.

Hmmm. Well, it's not exactly earth shattering, is it?

Worth it if you do FCP for a living. It also can depend on your operating environment. Lots of my associates upgraded too, so sharing files between us kinda dictates the version level, and we all went for FCS7.

I've got one system on Leopard, one on Snow Leopard. The SL machine feels 'tighter' if not out and out faster. My main machine remains on Leopard for full No-Tears(tm) EX compatibility, but once the new drivers prove themselves, will up to SL simply because, once again, a clean install makes everything run sweeter for a long while, and a new interface just adds a little air freshener into the mix.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Today, Apple added 64 bit to Logic Pro via an update. A sign that they release 64bit to a pro-app via a software update!

Maybe the same awaits us, Final Cut Studio 3 users...

[Carlos Viteri]

Just got my Final Cut 3 Studio today. it's going to be great and waiting for a Blue-Ray Burner.

Thanks for the info.