Anyone like the FCP X update?

Feels like "meh" None of what folks who didn't like X wanted (Tracks, Mixer better CC, roundtripping to Motion) Brought back more structural things to make media management easier...but anything else to convince a FCP 7 refugee who's moved to Premiere to give it another look?

Nothing says Apple missed the mark like the deafening silence on this 10.1 update......

Since I can't run Maverick on my Mac Pro 1,1 I'm not able to run the FCPX 10.1 update

For a solo user there's some nice improvements but probably not earthshaking.

For a video shop working in a shared environment, this is major. This is NOT the sexy stuff of "news headlines."
Some small number of shops can switch to or at least integrate it.

The bigger impact will be in new startup facilities. FCPX was out of the question before. Now it's a significant player. These is where it'll start to make long term inroads. New facilities hiring young talent with FCPX chops along with a few veterans (there are admittedly only a few) who have made the switch.

The 10.1 update will have a significant impact on the industry but it won't become apparent until well into and possibly near the end of 2014.
This is actually not much different than the growth of FCP legacy although the dynamic is a bit different (then was major price difference between FCP and Avid including upgrades).

The new FxPlug 3 and XML is also something that won't be seen immediately. The plugin market is going to advance significantly with FxPlug3.

That Apple opted to spend their time on MAJOR under the hood improvements rather than the "sexy" you list is probably the most significant response to "does Apple care about Pros?" 10.1 is ALL about the "Pros."

The changes seem primarily directed toward getting folks to buy the new MacBook Tower to take advantage of the under the hood improvements.

Sadly there seems to nothing in there to convince folks who weren't happy with what was missing to say now is the time to switch.

Andy means the new MacPro of course.

This FcpX .01 is definitely great for a huge segment of video work.

But for long form project ... be it feature or documentaries I still can't figure how to manage those "big" timeline" without a proper line of audio tracks... with all that it takes... sound fx, versioning, etc

Connected clips are great but not for that. Roles are time consuming to manage, and you can not "assign a vertical positioning priority" : the big missing thing.

That appears "MAJOR" to me ; connection to the Chinese Youtube doesn't... sorry to say. ( Ok... along with a bunch of clever little improvements)

Something else... that still missing roundtrip to Motion is precisely what the "creative video segment" of our business needs the most.

I love FcpX but I am like Andy, disappointed.

I mainly work on features and I can't really see any choice other than Avid right now. The main selling points of FCPX and Premiere (no rendering, AE / Motion integration, mix and match media) are things that I wouldn't need in my workflow and the main disadvantages (longer export times, unstable with long timelines, harder to get data into other apps) are deal-breakers.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

On a feature I really don't think there is a great deal of issue using whatever NLE you want to use. After all some feature editors are even using iPads to cut!

I guess part of the issue with features is that there is still so many people stuck in older workflows for a variety of reasons.

Personally, I'd still prefer to use FCP7 on a feature than Avid but thats just because I've always hated Avid's "do-it-my-way-and-keep-double-checking-your-patching" timeline. Although it got better after they made it more FCP like.

Ultimately if someone wanted me to use iMovie to cut and pay me for it then I'd bury the pride and take the cash!

Quote

and the main disadvantages (longer export times, unstable with long timelines, harder to get data into other apps) are deal-breakers.

Actually I'd say Avid is still the slowest of the lot when exporting - I need to do another non-render export test between FCPX, PP and Avid but last time PP was way faster than Avid and FCPX was about 300% faster than PP on complex multi-format exports.

I'll have to check the instability on longer timelines with the new 10.1 and PPCC but Avid certainly could not raise a hand to stability when asked the question. Last 6.5 project I was experiencing several minor issues per day and usually 2 or 3 major issues per week on the Macs and more on the PCs. Not had enough time with 7 to comment but regardless Avid always seems to get the jovial line "oh that's just Avid" when things go wrong; but woe-betide FCP or PP crash once in a week and all hellfire of producer rants will ensue!

Might do a spot of testing next week if I get a chance to see what new problems I can find with 10.1 and test the export speeds compared to PP and Avid.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Ben King Wrote:
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> but last time PP was way faster than Avid and FCPX
> was about 300% faster than PP on complex
> multi-format exports.

For mixing formats, Premiere and FCPX are king. But when everything is in the same low-complexity codec like ProRes or DNxHD, Avid is better IMO (or FCP 7 but I'm trying to avoid starting new projects on it).

> I'll have to check the instability on longer
> timelines with the new 10.1 and PPCC but Avid
> certainly could not raise a hand to stability when
> asked the question. Last 6.5 project I was
> experiencing several minor issues per day and
> usually 2 or 3 major issues per week on the Macs
> and more on the PCs. Not had enough time with 7 to
> comment but regardless Avid always seems to get
> the jovial line "oh that's just Avid" when things
> go wrong; but woe-betide FCP or PP crash once in a
> week and all hellfire of producer rants will
> ensue!

What I mean is that I think Avid is better geared towards larger projects from a structural point of view because each bin is a separate file. Premiere is the worst in that respect because everything is lumped into one XML file (along with unnecessary data like caches) which is then made worse by gzipping it.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

I get ya.

I've yet to do a really long HD or 4k project on FCPX but I did a showreel from about 600 hours of SD footage on one if the first X iterations and had no issues - keyword collections and proper metadata are so important though.

When media managing however I still prefer to have original or transcoded media that contains a good and relevant filename rather than the awful Avid/FCPX database of meaningless filenames. I'm a happy chappie if I can media manage and/or search and use footage outside of the NLE.

On a side note: I'm starting to use finder tags in Mavericks. Do you know if these transfer into FCPX as keywords? I might have to test when I get home.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

We've found Premiere CC rock solid for long and short form (finished a 1/2 hour show a few months ago without a glitch) Export time isn't an issue as you offload it to Adobe's version of compressor - it grinds away in the background (real background - not FCPx's background till you start editing again and then it stops) while you go back and keep editing.

AND - you can output multiple formats at once - MPEG - Youtube - DVD - whatever you want - as many versions as you need - while you continue to edit.

If you're comfortable in and like how FCP 7 works - you can make the transition to Premiere in minutes (and even use the same keyboard commands)

I must say I've found the latest Adobe Media Encoder CC is incredibly fast.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

..and did i mention the keyframable real time audio mixer? And tracks? Outstanding in Premiere Pro - as well as seamless round-tripping to Audition, AE Photoshop and now Speedgrade - no transcoding for that - just open the Premiere Timeline in Speedgrade - grade - save - and you're back with the same (now graded footage) in Premiere.

Russ Blaise Wrote:
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> Since I can't run Maverick on my Mac Pro 1,1 I'm
> not able to run the FCPX 10.1 update

I found a hack that will let me run Maverick on my Mac Pro 1,1. So now I can run FCPX 10.1, also the new Compressor looks pretty good with that simple interface.

Just curious, what's the hack for running it on an older Mac?

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Jon Chappell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just curious, what's the hack for running it on an
> older Mac?

You have to install Maverick on a clean hard drive from a newer Mac able to run Maverick. Then you have to replace the “boot.efi” file that is in this path: System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi. You’ll replace it with the hacked “boot.efi” file that someone made and I now have. The original “boot.efi” file is locked so you follow these instructions to unlock it:

1. Open the Terminal.
2. Type the following command, followed by a single space (do not press enter yet).?sudo chflags nouchg
3. Drag the locked file from the Finder to the Terminal window to complete its full folder path.
4. Press Enter to run the command, supplying your password when prompted.
When run, this command will undo the lock flag for the file, regardless of whether you own the file.

Then you’ll need to add the same hacked “boot.efi” file to the “i386” folder. The path is: “usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi” , though it is hidden. You’ll need a program like one I used. I used a FTP program called, Transmit. Drop the hacked file in the “i386” folder. Then you are done with the hard part. Reboot the computer from the newly installed Maverick hard drive and the fun begins. As the OS is starting up you see all these lines of code as it boots up. It will do that everytime you boot or reboot your computer. No a big deal! One thing, your graphic card need to be one that is compatible with Maverick. Not the one that originally came with the Mac Pro back in 2006.

Note: when update for Maverick come available and you download and install the update to Maverick, you’ll need to replace the “boot.efi” again with the hacked one. It’s safe to say you need to have a back drive with the Lion OS on it to boot the computer to make to replacement of the “boot.efi” file.

This worked for me the first time. I wish there was someone there with a video camera to capture my face as it booted up. I was in shock that it worked! I now was able to download FCPX and all the other app from the Apple App store and they all work!

If you want to make the plunge, just let me know and I’ll walk you through it with finer detail.

Please be aware. I take no responsibly if your computer blows up during the hacking process The worst that could happen is that is does not work and you just waisted your time. It process does not change anything that will do damage to the hardware.

Thanks, I might take a look at that when 10.9 becomes more stable.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Russ

If you get an error when you post it is because of a syntax error and hard to pin down what the syntax is.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Hi Michael,

Okay so it was on my end. Probably the error came from one of those paths I typed in.

Thanks,

Russ

I'll vouch for Premiere CC being stable on long form too. I've overseen one hour-long broadcast spot that had about 24 hours of HD footage, and recently, one 'straight to DVD' project with hundreds of hours of extremely mixed format stuff. Not a hiccup on either. Not sure where this idea of instability comes from.