FCP’s poor handling of mp3 files

[Tom Adams]

sean,

once again. exactimundo!. that’s precisely why i posted my original post…

i’m a huge fan of apple…some might say i’m obssessed…so, who knows, maybe the apple gods are watching and after the next FCP update, we’ll magically be able to play our stupid, little, crappy, (but, at-times, extremely important) freakin mp3 files without the ocassional cracks, pops and blips.

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1

[Tom Wolsky]

The slogan is “Edit Anything,” but it left off the “but only one thing at a time.” What marketing touts and what the application does may not be the same thing. Yes, I’m talking about 5. The fact is that anything put into the FCP timeline has to be converted to the format and settings the the timeline is in. Period. It’s not a true multiformat timeline. Sure fast computers can do a lot of this in real-time, or semi-real-time with dropped frames and proxy playback, but that’s not the same thing. Not what Vegas and Avid are doing.

It’s actually much harder for the computer to do different streams of audio in different formats that have to be mixed in real-time than it is for one stream of video. On the video track the heads are only reading one file at a time. On the audio tracks they have to read multiple tracks simultaneously. They’re lucky enough to do multiple tracks in one format.

You’ve been watching too conspiracy movies. Pinnacle is dead, long owned by Avid, and CineWave has been dead even longer, essentially abandoned years ago by Pinnacle, a PC based company, before it was bought by Avid. Pinnacle long had a record of buying good companies, sucking their one good product dry, and abandoning development on it. They were a crappy, crappy company and being taken over by Avid was the best thing for everyone.

I’ve expended enough energy on this. I couldn’t give a toss about MP3, whether it works or not. My point is that there are much more important things to fix and do in the application in my view than MP3 playback. New things are broken in FCP5 like XML export and import, which is a major killer, and long time things have yet to be made to work properly, like merged clip and freeze frame media management, and a true multiformat timeline are just a couple of them.

All the best,

Tom

Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD

[Sean Oneil]

[Tom Wolsky] “My point is that there are much more important things to fix and do in the application in my view than MP3 playback. New things are broken in FCP5 like XML export and import, which is a major killer, and long time things have yet to be made to work properly, like merged clip and freeze frame media management, and a true multiformat timeline are just a couple of them.”

I agree. I never said MP3 playback should be the FCP team’s #1 priority. Nor did anyone else to my knowledge. That hardly justifies the notion that people shouldn’t talk about it.

[Mamba_admin]

wow! this has to be the longest thread i’ve ever come across at creative cow. you guys need girlfriends

[Tom Adams]

mamba_admin,

Good point. Although I’m happily married with two kids…it does reinforce the notion that I spend far too much time in front of this gosh-darn thing…good thing I love what I do… and I’m able find the time to enjoy the family life (since I have a home office)

and wow, indeed, I’m proud to have been the originator of this thread (although i’m not sure why). I thought it was a simple question but apparently it raised a lot of “ire”…

As with most technology related ‘discussions’ i think it’s a classic case of “old school” thinkers versus us “newbies” (I consider myself a newbie with over 15 years of experience in the field of video production). It’s also realizing that (these days) there is no “right” answer, since there are a multitude of production workflow scenarios to consider.

uh, oh, i think I may have just opened another can of worms… you’ve got to admit I make a good point…

funny though. I like your addition to the discussion.

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1