FCPX and very occasional lag.

[John Pale]

“We had these lags until it was discovered that the Mac Pros we booting in 32 bit mode. Just a thought.”

It would be impossible to boot in 32 bit mode using Mountain Lion, as it has no 32 bit kernel and cannot run in 32 bit mode.

Earlier versions of MacOSX, it is possible. Less likely with Lion, as it normally defaults to the 64 bit kernel, unless you are on hardware that can’t use it…such as a Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1.

If you are using a Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1, you are incapable of running the 64 bit kernel without extreme hackery, as the computer only has 32 bit EFI.

[Shawn Bockoven]

We have not upgraded to Mountain Lion.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Chris Harlan] “I think the potential for collaboration in X is just fine, especially with some of the stuff John has shown. Its just not up to the industrial strength that ISIS can bring, but far fewer people need that. “

I would word this differently in that “far fewer people will pay for that”. If the tool was available to more users for a better cost, people would find use for a shared environment.

What I find most intriguing about FCPX sharing is that the Projects are separate, in the Finder, from Events which means parting out sections of material is really easy. This is a different mindset from FCP7, is closer to an Avid (or Media 100) setup.

Also, if you need to share a bunch of clips, tossing a mess of them in a Project, exporting the metadata view to “everything” with an XML, allows another user to import the XML and it creates a new Event with the new clips. It’s really easy, there’s nearly zero Finder work that needs to be done, no media managing, no file structure, nothing. Keywords come in, organization comes in, a timeline comes in. It’s truly useful and rather remarkable, and also different from how FCP7 works.

I know that people say collaboration is no good in FCPX, but I find it to be a bit better than 7 (for my needs), albeit different.

[Chris Harlan]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I would word this differently in that “far fewer people will pay for that”. If the tool was available to more users for a better cost, people would find use for a shared environment.
“

I see what you are saying. What I was really referring to is that far fewer people have an actual need to have multiple users in the same project at the same time, as opposed to working on the same project at the same time. For large hard-deadlined non-scripteds, for instance, its critical. For many others, its a terrific convenience, but a convenience that can be achieved, or nearly achieved, by a variety of alternate workarounds.

[Jeremy Garchow] “Also, if you need to share a bunch of clips, tossing a mess of them in a Project, exporting the metadata view to “everything” with an XML, allows another user to import the XML and it creates a new Event with the new clips. It’s really easy, there’s nearly zero Finder work that needs to be done, no media managing, no file structure, nothing. Keywords come in, organization comes in, a timeline comes in. It’s truly useful and rather remarkable, and also different from how FCP7 works.
“

That’s terrific. Sounds like its getting close to the all around utility of MC’s bin model. Sounds like sharing is definitely better than 7. In 7, I would throw a bunch of clips into a timeline and media manage to share, which was okay, but that you can bring keywords, means that its like sending bins, too. That’s cool. Can you media manage in X yet? If I just wanted to give somebody a small portion of a project in a separate folder or sneaker-net drive, can I give them just the clips I choose with handles?

[Chris Harlan]

[Oliver Peters] “I’m fortunate in that I have not needed to work with tape much over the past few years. There are still enough shops in town that have decks, so that on the few occasions where tape ingest or output is required, I can simply buy time, walk in with a drive and get the job done. Far cheaper for me (or the company I’m freelancing for) to do that than invest in the purchase and maintenance of tape decks. Plus the facilities who still have them, make some additional revenue off of that investment. So it’s really a win-win.
“

Yeah, that’s where I’ve been for the last five or six years, and tape is now such a rarity for me, that its been more than a year since I’ve touched one.

[Rafael Amador]

[Jeremy Garchow] “[Oliver Peters] “Ironically, I think FCP X is the best-suited NLE for a server-based environment.”

Yeah, but it’s weird when people say the collaboration in FCPX is no good, when in fact, it works OK if you know how to use it, you actually have a shared environment setup, or use something like John Davidson uses with sparse bundles.”

[Charlie Austin] “[Carsten Orlt] “The real advantage that FCPx gives me is that I actually have to think less about the mechanics than about the content I’m creating. This is the real revolution. ”

That’s it in a nutshell for me as well. “

Are all of you talking seriously?

When a newcomer comes to FC Forum asking how to share a project his his friend in Alaska, you can explain the process in two lines.
The solutions are workaround you are proposing are not OK for video editors.
Do you really now “think less about the mechanic than about the contents creation”?

I agree, now you don’t need to know any video specific technology (YUB/RGB, pixels aspects, data rates,..), but you need to get deeper in other no-video related technologies (computing, server management..).

Is this the way to “unleash the creative freedom”, when you need to be a System Engineer to be able to set a proper workflow?
Is this an application made to make things easy for the editor when a minimal mistake in organizing and planning can leads to a mine-filed without way out?

We can call the glass half empty or half full, or just to call it half a glass.

[Charlie Austin] “Agreed. I do think that, in some cases, problems with people’s installations are attributed to problems with X, “
I fully agree with you.
Installation and System Maintenance.
Without a properly optimized system, no application can run smoothly.
Do people repair Permissions, clean caches, rebuild directories..?
rafael

[Charlie Austin]

[Rafael Amador] “When a newcomer comes to FC Forum asking how to share a project his his friend in Alaska, you can explain the process in two lines.
The solutions are workaround you are proposing are not OK for video editors.”

You might want to read a bit further in the thread. But here’s how to share an X project with your friend in Alaska:

1-get all the media to them, or ensure they have the same media as you do (just like any other NLE requires)

2-Duplicate your Event and Project and give them the copies. They put them in the proper directories, open FCPX, and edit. Maybe some relinking is involved, but this is also common to other NLE”s as well right?

2A-they perform steps 1&2 to get it back to you. Not that difficult really… 🙂

Even easier if you have all your media local in the Event folder. 1-Copy your Event and Project. 2 Get it to Alaska. 🙂

————————————————————-

~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Keith Koby]

If you were using that computer “in my shop” for FCPX, then that would be my problem because I’m responsible for outfitting “the shop” with computers. You’d certainly be working at a station with a better computer for the job.

I’d also be stripping away, systematically, all of the other pieces of the puzzle until we found what was causing the slow down. Maybe take this to the techniques forum for a rational discussion.

Back to the hardware-
Throw out all the other nonsense here and it’s true: FCPX is more responsive on a new iMac than on an older mac pro. We have used it with 12 core machines and depending on what you are doing it is ok. The iMac is much better though. I don’t think it is much of a matter for “debate” though. It’s just how it is.

[Keith Koby]

I agree with Jeremy… It works OK. At least as ok as it did with 7 and in some points better. I agree with you too Oliver in that it can be better. I hope it gets there.

Keith Koby
Sr. Director Post-Production Engineering
iNDEMAND
Howard TV!/Movies On Demand/iNDEMAND Pay-Per-View/iNDEMAND 3D

[John Pale]

“We have not upgraded to Mountain Lion.”

Kind of suspected that, but posted the info for others. Without more background on the issue, some could end up chasing their tails troubleshooting the 64/32 bit setting when it was a non issue for them.