FCS upgrade cost -What does the COW think?

[Rcpics]

>>give the man some slack, maybe he’s right and it’s a lot of money for him. There are countries where 500 bucks is a years income, so.<< And they're not spending everything they have on an editing system, only to be caught off guard when upgrades come out. I do sympathize in that no-one wants to just htrow away even a penny. But it's wrong to blame Apple when they are proceeding in a way that has worked fine for the vast majority of people who know and use the system, amny of whom don't have displosable income. They offer their software for an amazing price, but it's up to the user, like with many other things, to do their research and stay on top of coming changes and the state of development of what they are making their living with....and come up with the right plan that suits them best. If anything, maybe Apple makes all this stuff too accessible, and it misleads less-experienced folks into thinking that they can be up and running at the same pace and level as people who have been doing this for many years...because they bought the same tools. We all know there's a lot more to it than that. So you can go out and get the latest-greatest shoes and sports equipment, but you can't blame the league if you don't know the rules of the game. I just think it's wrong to point the finger at Apple about this, when most others who've spent as much and still have to spend just as much aren't...and it's not because they're loaded.

[Winston A. cely]

Am I the only one that feels this post is a fishing trip?

[Bret Williams]

[decloux] “This is not whining. This is a very justifiable complaint:
Apple’s previous behavior had given me confidence that an upgrade done within 3 months (or even longer) would not be exorbitant. “

It is whining. It is not justifiable. For the longest time you could expect a major upgrade every 12 months. Once it was even less! If FCP served your needs 4 months ago, why has that changed? Nobody is forcing you to purchase anything. Hey, I just bought a Mac Pro in January and now they have an octo and now my computer costs less, blah blah blah.

Here’s a thought. If it’s about costs, don’t but FCP6 until you need it. Which is what you should have done with FCP5. Perhaps youi’ll never need 6. I mean, are you a Motion expert already after 4 months? Have you already outgrown the tools in Soundtrack?

If you buy a refrigerator at Home Depot and 3 months later they come out with a better model for less money, do you really expect to be able to take yours back or be reimbursed or something?

People’s entitlement mindset just blows me away.

[Decloux]

It looks as if my earlier reply is still embargoed (or the cookies didn’t stick)
If this becomes a duplicate, apologies.
I suppose I was looking for someone else here to say “yes -there should be a recent purchase discount!”
——–
Perhaps I made a mistake in complaining to a “choir” of wealthy enthusiasts.
Perhaps I should have removed myself from the keyboard after
phoning apple. I’d begun to get very frustrated, for sure:
I did express a brief but reasonably polite exasperation to sales staff,
and I posted HERE — not to applesucks.com nor to CNET. I was/am
very unhappy about the whiplash, and I stand by everything I said.

There were some good comments here. Thanks for those.
I will not take the time to sort out all of the comments I feel are bogus.

–Here’s a few points in defense of the point: —

The crossgrade experience gave a false expectation of what woud happen to me.

A software upgrade, with only modest packaging, costs a few dollars.
Since $499 represents about 6% of the total system price (to-date),
perhaps I shouldn’t feel so bad, but it still feels like:
I paid X. Then it was of course instantly worth Y (because it’s unwrapped software).
Now, a few weeks later it is Y minus$499. I still feel gipped:
I wanted a stable late-model FCP, (not necessarily the New Hotness with *$24k COLOR*)
now it feels like Old and Busted, unless I cough up $499. Total of $1800.
[Actually $1700 (B&H).]

UNIVERSAL came out only last year. When I bought in January,
I had barely upgraded to (then current) 5.12 when the buggy 5.13 came out,
and then one week later the more stable 5.14 (maybe better than 5.12 — jury is still out?)
Now FCP *VERSION* jumps from version 5.1x to 6.
Industry Standard is an oxymoron in software,
but there was never a 5.2, not even a 5.15.
I have seen the way bastard-stepchild software can get treated by publishers
(limited support/patches/resources, etc)
and my confidence in this product (v5x) is inevitably reduced by this situation.

My sense from three of months of reading this forum was “wait for MacWorld,”
which I did — not “wait for NAB.” Perhaps I could’ve read closer.
Perhaps I should’ve read every COW post for 6 months instead of only three.

To the comments attacking me personally about money and business,
no comments, except:
This is a very long-term project involving everything from old betaSP,
cruddy Hi8, DV … travel, accomodations … it goes back 14 years.
And there is no Yugo; but I did spend 9 months in the yugo war-zones, on my
own nickel. Long ago I could have had a nice house for the money I’ve spent on this.
Perhaps you were only naturally responding to the anger I expressed. If so, fair enough.
If NOT, perhaps you’re spending too much time in this forum. Get out. Socialize.
Or go back and bilk some hi-dollar clients!
(Go ahead, call me a hobbyist: maybe it will help you “win.”)

OK -I’ll try and tone down my Apple expectations and be happy —
or, at least Think Differently — maybe even learn to love Big Brother.

Congratulations to whomever of you does “win” this thread.

Thanks to those who expressed sympathy and/or genuine advice.

[Walter Biscardi]

[decloux] “This is not whining. This is a very justifiable complaint:
Apple’s previous behavior had given me confidence that an upgrade done within 3 months (or even longer) would not be exorbitant.”

Nope, none whatsoever. I paid $5,000 last year for Final Touch HD (now Color) and other folks paid $25,000 for Final Touch 2K (now Color) and that product is completely free with the new Studio.

You’re expecting us to be concerned about you having to spend $499 to upgrade to the new FCS 2? Nope, what you’re getting for that $500 far exceeds what you’re paying in cash.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Richard Martz]

Yep…You’re whining alright. When my kids do that I just tell them what it was like when we had to walk to school 10 miles in the snow…barefooted. For you I’ll just say that I grew up during the days of linear editing and when we finally got our first AVID it cost $105K and crashed frequently. It also had almost no storage. Those were the days of steam powered computers!

Anyway I’m sure you wish you hadn’t asked for an opinion by now!

Richard Martz
MagicMartz Media

Final Cut Pro HD
Kona LH
After Effects
PhotoShop
Illustrator
Lots of other Fun Stuff!

[Chris Borjis]

[Steve Wargo] “feel bad for the newbies who think that they can get into a professional editing machine for such a low price. 10 years ago, we paid $35,000 and more for a Discreet Edit* system with real time 3D and a whopping 36Gb of SCSI storage.”

Indeed Steve.

We paid $ 250,000 for a discreet smoke* when it came out.

[Steven Gonzales]

Since you’re a new Apple customer, don’t worry about the upgrade. There’s plenty to learn about version 5 of FCP Studio.

By the time you master the program, perhaps version 7 will be out, and then you can spend toward that upgrade with the $500 savings.

It’s the creative spirit using a tool they understand that does high quality work.

Shakespeare didn’t have a word processor, or even a typewriter. Although I’ll bet he was real mad when a new quill came out just after he bought the old version.

[Rcpics]

The only question I have is how much time/money would you have lost waiting the month to get full FCS2 package, compared to the $499 upgrade? Could you have afforded to wait until may to get started? If so, then I do sympathise with your situation…money is money. But if you had to get started now, then this was the only way to do it, it’s how it’s always been, and by no means will your version be obsolete any time soon…which IS a generous effort on Apple’s part. Yes, $499 is $499, but if you compare that to the capabilities you are getting with that, it really is like pennies on the dollar for the next version compared to what AVID offers (or can’t offer)….an insanely low price per performance ratio, and major updates for long-existing apps have always cost money, even for people who bought the old version a week before the release of the next. They are not gipping you, but I do think it’s unfair to think that they should’ve extended an extra courtesy for your case and others like it, when they are already bending over backwards to make it all so accessible to begin with. You got unlucky with timing, happens to all of us…but the sting really isn’t that bad compared to if you were to seek these capabilities elsewhere, even if you were right on time.

[Walter Biscardi]

[decloux] ”
Perhaps I made a mistake in complaining to a “choir” of wealthy enthusiasts.”

Wealthy enthusiasts? No, we’re just working with our systems and earning money so we don’t see $500 as a problem to receive everything that Apple has put into the Studio 2 package.

[decloux] “My sense from three of months of reading this forum was “wait for MacWorld,”
which I did — not “wait for NAB.” Perhaps I could’ve read closer.
Perhaps I should’ve read every COW post for 6 months instead of only three.”

For computers yes, for Final Cut Studio, NAB is the release time. That’s been the case for the past three years.

[decloux] “Congratulations to whomever of you does “win” this thread.

Thanks to those who expressed sympathy and/or genuine advice.”

There is nothing to win. You asked what we thought and the Cow responded. I personally feel $500 is a heckuva good price for the upgrade and there’s really nothing to complain about.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi