Does FCS hold a candle to Adobe anymore?

[Jeremy Doyle]

I’m guessing most FCP user are in the same boat as I am. I edit in FCP, but use AE and Photoshop daily. Because of this I have both the FCS and Adobe Production Suite on my machine. I’ll be making the upgrade to CS5. By default I’ll be getting PPro. My thought is that there are thousands of people that have PPro already installed and just never use it. Now with the mercury engine, it might be a time to give it a try. Heck, it is even supported by the Kona 3 in my box.

If you don’t like it you can go back to FCP. What’s it going to hurt to try it. I’ll have a full copy of PPro on my machine regardless. Doubt I’ll use it as FCP is kinda the standard, but it will be there to play with if I get an itch.

[Blayne Gorum]

For What it’s worth: https://macsoda.com/2010/04/13/steve-jobs-next-final-cut-studio-will-be-awesome/

[T. Payton]

I think utilizing the GPU for video editing will be revolutionary for our industry. However, Adobe didn’t invent this stuff, they are just the first with a shipping product.

Apple created and is pushing the standard of Open CL which is a hardware independent version of Nvidia CUDA ( what the Mercery Playback engine is programmed in). Apple knows the future is in the stuff, I would just be patient while Apple creates a shipping product.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCL

Snow Leapord was the first OS to ship with Open CL last August, we are still just waiting for the development to catch up. Search on YouTube for some Open CL demos and you’ll see some of the potential.

As a fellow who does about half print work and half video, After Effects CS4 on the Mac is stellar, but not without a few hickups. The rest of the creative suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Media Converter), is getting to be a bloated mess over the years. I can’t even quit any of the apps anymore without those apps crashing (apparently a widespread problem.)

I’m not trying to throw Adobe under the bus, but I just think that any software is not without its problems.

If you are a FCP user and attracted by the great promise of the PPCS5, I would just give Apple a few months and see what they will offer.

My 2 cents.

– T.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Steve Connor]

Hadn’t seen that quote from Steve Jobs, gives me some hope!

Steve Connor
Adrenalin Television

Have you tried “Search Posts”? Enlightenment may be there.

[T. Payton]

Okay, I’ll throw Adobe under the bus….

As I was writing my post a few minutes ago the infomous “Adobe Updater” popped up and wanted to update Acrobat Pro. In the middle of that it got “stuck” and left a dialog box on my screen that was unresponsive. The only way to remove it was to restart my Mac Pro.

Hopefully CS5 will be better.

Oh before I go I should point out that the only software that I would call bullet proof is Avid/DigiDesign ProTools. Never ever had a crash or a problem in 10 years. And they are slow on the upgrade, typically taking 6 months after a OS is released to certify it on a system, and when they certify it, it really works.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Erik Lindahl]

Steve Jobs comment (if true) gives some hope.

Regarding AVID vs FCP I don’t see any difference really. We’ve had odd bugs hit us in our Protools setup and I had numerous crashes in our AVID setup at my old jobb when FCP was still gaining ground. From my experiances every system has it’s good and bad days. FCP 6 / FCP 7 / AE CS4 have been stable enough in my book. AE CS3 was pretty horrible compared to AE7 though, but that might just be our particular setup / OS at the time.

————————
Erik Lindahl
Freecloud Post Production Services
http://www.freecloud.se

[Scott Sheriff]

“No, FCP just can’t compete any more. That’s why Steve Jobs scrapped the entire pro apps development team (you saw the announcement, right?) and diverted all the company’s resources to developing iPhone OS 4. And no more Macs. The desktop is dead. Handheld is the future.

We have all pre-ordered CS5 for our Windows 7 machines. Frankly, I’m surprised this forum is still here.”

Yes, FCS3 is so 2009!

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Kevin Monahan]

I wouldn’t invest in anything Avid. Have you seen their balance sheets?
I’m glad CS5 is coming out soon. Lights a fire under Apple a bit more to get the “next gen” right.

Kevin Monahan
60 Blu-ray Templates for Final Cut Studio 2009
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro

[Craig Shields]

Yes, that’s exactly what competition does. It’s a good thing. I’m not so sure that I would trust Adobe about now with PP. Last time they had a major beef with Apple, they recommended the PC (see PC Preferred), took their ball (Premier) and went home. Now there is this Flash thing. Mmmm… I don’t know.

[Allan White]

While I agree FCP development in particular (and Pro apps in general) are lagging, I don’t think the “Entire Pro Apps Team” was laid off. The article I saw was some FCP engineers were laid off in Texas. Got a prooflink?

I, too, am disappointed in the lack of announcements at NAB. But then why release new MBPs, with Pro Apps prominently featured on the page?

I wondered, too, if Apple was just done with non-mobile devices after the success they’ve had in the last few years in that space. They’ve redefined how we’ll interact with computers in the future. But then I realized: you can’t build iPhone/pad apps without OS X on a Mac computer.

No, Mac development hasn’t stopped. It’s no longer the very core of their business, but it won’t go away soon. It’s just going to change… how many years before the iPad OS matures and we’re editing, Minority-Report-style, on a powerful 50-core multitouch display? Probably less than we think.

– Allan White, Video Producer, Luis Palau Assoc.

Quad 3Ghz Mac Pro, 10GB RAM, X1900 GPU, XSAN, CatDV Server