The NEW Final Cut Studio announced today!

[Sherif Choudhry]

I am 6 months into my first move to a mac platform and using FCS3 and Logic - I love it.

It just feels so solid compared to the XP/Vegas/Cubase platform I used for years, and once you learn how to send stuff to Color and Soundtrack pro and return it back to FCP, its a wonder.

No bugs detected, not one crash, on my Macbook Pro as yet. Fingers=crossed.

[Floris van Eck]

Originally Posted by 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...

My thoughts exactly.

[Robert Lane]

Originally Posted by Xavier Plagaro

...I hope some other "old skool" boy could confirm this. I am talking just about the DV to MPEG2 (M2V) creation. It took like 35 minutes to convert 30 minutes. Of course they tweak their code to improve rendering times...

Actually you're right; I definitely remember G4 machines that could encode DV25 (miniDV) content into long-GOP MPEG2 for DVD authoring in just a tick over real time. I also remember we always fussed about the possibilities of having a better hardware setup to somehow get better than real-time results, which always pointed to a Windows machine running a hardware-based encoder, which back then would have cost about the same as a new Honda Civic!

I remember in 2008 I asked some key players in Burbank known for their DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray authoring expertise why the G5 and now Mac Pro towers couldn't get real-time encodes no matter how much HDD space or RAM you threw at them. One of the techs to me to a back-room and showed me a Linux based system that probably had the answer:

The system was "bare-bones" from a UI perspective; no glossy menus, no pretty desktop backgrounds and absolutely no "pretty" human interface stuff. It was as basic as a GUI could possibly be, and this thing was crunching out MPEG2 streams at almost half real-time.

Code-monkeys and system tweakers have been saying ever since the Power-PC days and OS 7 through 8 that *all* operating systems both Mac and PC based were becoming bloated with frilly features that have absolutely nothing to do with helping the computer do it's work and everything to do with creating a "feel good" experience for the human using it.

My suspicion (and I wish I had an older G4 to test out the theory - heck, I wish I still had my Amiga-based Video Toaster from NewTek!) is that as our wonderful, gorgeous and over-the-top pretty OS packages have become so full of themselves with nonsensical things like bouncing icons, icon previews, screen-savers and all other manner of human-interface toys that in fact all we've done is add bloat to the core processing engines and forced things to slow down globally and systemwide, not just pro apps.

I truly wish there was a Linux-like Mac OS that was so streamlined that it literally contained *only* the code required to do it's work, run your apps and help you navigate to find files. Anything else is a waste of CPU clock-cycles. Just how fast would ANY type of encoding be - especially HD codecs - if we had access to such a streamlined OS? My guess is it would be scary-fast. But we'll never know; Apple-land is all about uber-glossy and pretty, not utilitarian.

Of course people would say, "But there IS a Linux...". Yes, there is, but it can't run Final Cut, Photoshop or any of the other industry-standard tools we all need to do our work.

[Cole McDonald]

Originally Posted by Robert Lane

I truly wish there was a Linux-like Mac OS that was so streamlined that it literally contained *only* the code required to do it's work, run your apps and help you navigate to find files. Anything else is a waste of CPU clock-cycles. Just how fast would ANY type of encoding be - especially HD codecs - if we had access to such a streamlined OS? My guess is it would be scary-fast. But we'll never know; Apple-land is all about uber-glossy and pretty, not utilitarian.

My Apple IIe still boots to prompt in about 30s... but the interface would never support anything usable by the general public... its audience was geeks and gadget folks who could handle CLI commands and coding their own OS if they wanted anything remotely menu driven (Peeks, pokes and Beagle Bros!).

As a support guy for many years, I can tell you that there are many creative professionals who can't figure out the easy to use OS/GUI much less a CLI driven one... even though it's got plenty of speed due to a complete lack of really anything in the way of built in stuff.

This is however, completely OT and irrelevant, so I'll stop now ;)

[Simon Wyndham]

I doubt that the interface really has that much to do with speed of encoding speed. look at how fast programs like Handbrake can encode.

I just did a test encode. I took a 1min long DV file and encoded it with Compressor with Qmaster properly set up. It did a single pass encode in five seconds! That is just on my 1st gen Intel Mac Pro. That's rather a lot faster than realtime!

Using the same compression settings an MPEG2 DVD encode from 1080 EX footage took about the same as the length of the clip itself (realtime).

An HD MPEG2 encode was about two secs faster than realtime.

I like having a nice looking interface. I have to look at it all day when editing. I used to feel like I was working on something from the early 80's whenever I worked with XP set to the classic interface.

[Michael Maier]

I still have not updated. Don't know, just doesn't seem much of an upgrade. Is Apple actually officially calling it Final Cut Studio 3? I have not seen this mentioned in any official documentation.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Interesting to know, if it's true:

Apple Reportedly Lays Off 40 Final Cut Employees - Mac Rumors


Could be good news (fresh people), could be bad news...
Didn't want to make a new thread because it's still not confirmed or official.

http://petewarden.typepad.com/search...in-austin.html

[David Chapman]

Layoffs: Was this not a phone support team layout/cutback? Just because we never saw that Shake/Phenomenon remake doesn't mean that Final Cut Pro is gone or dwindling. Red's entire workflow revolves around ease of use with FCP.

I can see Express getting scrapped. Why have 3 video editing apps?

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Ow, I'm also pretty sure Final Cut Pro isn't going away, with 50 procent or more of the market share...

But you can't ignore some facts. Steve Jobs saying at the iPad presentation that Apple is a mobile company...
Apple killing Shake.
One of the key people that worked on the Shake replacement, and went over to Nuke.
A Final Cut Studio 3 update that wasn't really great (but had a pretty cheap upgrade-price either, so)

This could be just a sign that their focus is less and less on Pro apps. It could also just be that they layed off people who weren't necessary or that they are trying to streamline things...

On the other hand. They just released a 64-bit Logic Pro. A new Aperture, but one that I've heard has many bugs in it.
But admit... Final Cut Studio 3 has been out since August now, and the (pretty big) Share-bug still is in it...

[Andrew Kimery]

I think the layoffs were more than that. Bob Sliga, who used to be part of the Color dev team, said three of the layoffs were staffers from the Color team (1 engineer and 2 QA guys). I think saying that Red's entire workflow revolves around FCP is giving FCP way too much credit and Avid, Adobe, Scratch, etc., not nearly enough.


-Andrew

[Peter Moretti]

I believe that Apple first created FCP b/c Avid refused to support a new version of Mac OS. So Apple bought from Macromedia what has become FCP.

Apple wanted to insure that the Mac platform would be entrenched in the multimedia world. We all know that any computer nowadays can run office apps perfectly acceptably. It's multimedia that still needs cutting edge, i.e. expensive machines.

FCP clearly met that goal. But so are other software as well. Premiere and Avid both run on the Mac. There is no reason for FCP to feel like it has to carry the torch for the Mac platform. Other companies are developing Mac software that will require top of the line Macs.

FCP isn't going anywhere, but I could see Apple deciding the program has accomplished what it set out to do and slowing its pace of development.

Just my humble .02.

[Andrew Kimery]

Peter,

That's what I've been wondering since Apple discontinued development for Shake a few years ago. How far down the post production rabbit hole is Apple willing to go? 'Cause the deeper you go the smaller, less revenue generating but more demanding of a user base you encounter. I would be surprised if Apple flat out killed FCP, but I wouldn't be surprised if they 'leveled off' development compared to the early years when you really felt that Apple was gunning for Adobe and Avid.


-Andrew

[Simon Wyndham]

I think I'll cry if I'm only left with a choice of Adobe or Avid! FCP is like the Vegas of the mac world from a price/performance/features angle.

I hate the Avid interface, and there is no way that Adobe is getting my money. So if FCP development stops it's back to Vegas for me.

[Heath McKnight]

I doubt FCP is going anywhere, but I do think they are slowing down development. I'd like to see the Share slowness to get fixed, and background rendering to come into play. And better Smooth Cam functionality--it's great now, but could be better.

Heath

[Andrew Kimery]

While FCP is my preferred NLE it's just a tool. I've actually been planning on buying the Creative Suite as well as picking up Media Composer to use for things that don't suit FCP all that well. The only Pro App loss that would really bum me out would be Color going down the tubes because there really isn't anything comparable for the price.


-Andrew