Hurry Up Apple

[Robert Bec]

Hurry Up Apple, Adobe are about to release CS5 x64 and Mercury Playback Engine where are you guys DISAPPOINTING :(

Not Happy

Rob

[William Hohauser]

We'll see. Alleged beta testers (or possible beta liars!) have posted that they were not impressed with some of the improvements in CS5 but nobody specifically mentioned Premier.

[Chris Korrow]

Adobe just has software to deal with.

Apple is software & hardware and they kept up pretty well, though the success of their iitems has certainly shifted a lot of their focus in the last few years.

Personally I'd like to see another company making comps for mac OS, as I think it would make them a better company. They don't have to work as hard for their customers loyalty - once your hooked... (sounds like a drug addiction).

I put off buying a MP in Dec ("put off, update imminent"). and I wasn't terribly excited about getting an 08 (because I felt it was a better value than the 09).

I have high hopes for the 10's though, but if they don't come out in the next 2 weeks, I HAVE to get a new comp, or at least find a good deal on CL.

So I do understand your "disappointment", though I do have a feeling that they are going to "come thru" for their pro customers this year. Like you, I do hope that it's soon.

[John Stakes]

Apples entire strategy has changed. They are lowering prices, expanding product lines and removing features of the lower end models.

I don't think we need more OSX based systems. The wider spread Apple gets, the less "exclusive" they are. A PC is a "houshold" name, whereas a Mac is more of a luxury.

Ummmm...I don't know exactly where I'm going with this. /end

JS

[Robert Lane]

Originally Posted by Robert Bec

Hurry Up Apple, Adobe are about to release CS5 x64 and Mercury Playback Engine where are you guys DISAPPOINTING :(

Not Happy

Rob

While those of us who are Mac-based feel your pain and disappointment I need to point out that Chris Hurd, the owner of this forum, didn't create DVinfo as a place to post rants or threads that have no real purpose. DVinfo's mission is quite simple: To provide a vehicle where useful and experienced information can be shared with those who either need help or advice.

If you really feel the need to simply vent without actually offering something productive or useful information then start up your own blog; it's free. However Chris's site isn't free for him, he pays for the bandwidth and gets sponsors to offset those costs. Keep that in mind for the future, and enjoy the site for all it's worth - it is by far the best resource on the planet for all things DV.

[Steve Oakley]

I don't think ANY real adobe beta testers are commenting because they are under NDA. so anyone who really knows can't say, and anyone talking really doesn't know... and in a couple of weeks you'll get to find out officially.

[Jeff Wallace]

I've actually heard some grim news about the future of Final Cut Pro and the Mac Pro platform in general. Recently Apple laid off 40 employees from the FCP development team and rumor has it Apple's business strategy is getting an overhaul and focusing only on the things that actually make the company money, like iPods and iPhones, etc.

Apparently FCP and Mac Pro are an extremely low percent of company sales.

As a Mac and FCP enthusiast, I for one would be deeply saddened if Apple decided to shut down Final Cut Studio.

[Shaun Roemich]

Jeff: discussion here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/area-51/...w-leopard.html

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/area-51/...live-well.html

AND you will notice the discussion is taking place in AREA 51...

[William Hohauser]

The discussion of Apple shutting down FCP is a bit odd. It is the tool of choice for editing in this country and possibly around the world above and beyond any other software based editing software. It's a great promotion for Apple hardware as well.

The problem as I see it is the same for any other mature piece of software. Where do you go from here? Look at Photoshop, it has not changed much in basic function for years. Many people are only forced to upgrade when their new computer can't run the old version they've been using for years. Sure, a great new tool shows up once in a while, like the healing brush, but for the majority of users Photoshop was already "there" years ago. The same is true for FCP, pending a major revolution in editing concepts, it has been "there" for quite a while now. Yes improvements are needed but they are small to the majority of users. The job for us is to keep the pressure on Apple to keep working on the FCS package so they don't fall into the Quark pit where a program becomes crappy just because it owns such a large portion of the market and the developers get more interested in their million dollar vacation homes then their business.

[Randy Johnson]

With all due respect FCP has a lot of work to do. Not so much with the interface that like Premiere is fine so why change it. Where it needs work is in format support it barley does blu ray if your using AVCHD you still need to convert the footage. What I believe ( and this is just me) is that Apple has hit a wall with FCP and they needed to make a decision to continue developing or not. They didn't write DVDSP or Livetype so they may be hitting wall on integrating it with FCP. I think there forced into a rewrite. So I think one of 2 things are going to happen 1. FCP slowly drifts away with a small update here and there or 2. or Apple is working on something REALLY big that will change the whole suite.

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Randy Johnson

if your using AVCHD you still need to convert the footage.

Remember that FCP HEAVILY levers the power of QuickTime to achieve what it does. It has been that way since version 1.0.

This is also why there are a number of relatively low cost I/O and accelerator devices available for FCP because it doesn't use proprietary codecs (well, the ones it does use are coded into QuickTime) and AVID was still hardware accelerated, as was Media 100.

Can this be changed so that there is more camera native support? I don't know but HISTORICALLY this is not how FCP has been set up and remember that FCP was really the first software only solution to cut DV in real time (when FCP 1.0 was released, you could only preview DV in Premiere - you needed to render out a final project prior to going back to tape).

Perhaps in the move to 64 bit (which apparently requires a complete rewrite anyway), we will see some of what you are asking for. This of course is PURELY speculation on my part.

[Shaughan Flynn]

FCS is just a tool. If it dies, I will use what I have until it no longer meets my needs. When that happens I will get the tool that does meet those needs. Not good to get emotionally attached to tools IMHO.

[Robert Bec]

Apple needs to wake up and support Blu-Ray quick smart
Spend money on licensing apple I'm sure you will make it back

[Robert Lane]

When it comes to the "pro" offerings there's a ton of things Apple needs to wake up on, both in software and hardware. The list is long and is getting longer as time goes on.

However it's been painfully obvious for more than 5 years now that Apples'/Steve Jobs universe revolves around the "i" world. The 'net is all abuzz about the iPad and how iTunes is changing TV/movie content distribution. This is all general consumer related, not professional work. Jobs saved Apple from extinction with iTunes and the iPod and it's been "i'm an iGod" from Jobs ever since.

Nobody knows what Apple will bring to the table near-future but I can say for sure that as we beta testers are wrapping up our input for the CS5 suite Apple is way, way behind in several key areas.

If Apple doesn't play "catch-up" sometime this year in everything from hardware offerings to simple Blu-Ray playback for the general consumer it's my opinion that Apple will become the "i-center of gravity" to the consumer market and A/V pros will slowly migrate back to PC's to get work done. (the print/publishing market will always be strong in Mac's)

[Shaun Roemich]

I need to ask a really dumb question here (and pardon my ignorance):

For those of you who are currently able to burn BD-Rs, whether on a Mac or PC, what is your rate of failure to play back? Are we at the same point in BD-R playback that we were in DVD-R playback 8 or so years ago (ie. 10% or more of discs didn't work, either due to media OR consumer units not recognizing them)?

Apple was late into the support of DVD burning compared to our more adventurous PC peers (as those of us with some grey hairs may remember) by about 2 years, give or take. Wondering if we are seeing a similar careful foray into a much larger (and UGLIER!) minefield here.

Am I frustrated by the lack of native APPLE support for BD-R? Yes. BUT if I was to start supplying BD-R's to clients who faced a high percentage chance of not being able to view them WHERE THEY EXPECT TO (ie. their set top box and/or game console), I believe I would hold off as a business model. I waited a LONG time for DVD to become a staple of my business model solely because the kinks weren't worked out yet. At this point, while I source 98% of my material in HD, I deliver mostly to SD DVD or HD online files and NOT consumer playback HD. Of course, I deliver exclusively in 16:9 excepting broadcast stuff which is still 4:3 SD in the market I still provide TV commercials for.

I remember when DVD-R's really started to make inroads - clients asked for them and you would go through your spiel about how they may not work in all their DVD players, ESPECIALLY the older ones. They would nod and say "sure, we understand" and then the phone calls would start a week later "so and so can't play back YOUR DVD in their player so it's obviously the DVD. Take it back and make them a new one"

GONG!

Not going there again ANY TIME SOON.

2 cents from a crusty "old" man of 38...

PS. YES, I want BluRay support from Apple but make it WORK, please.