Feedback from a new user

[Gregor Queck]

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/344/1855

Quotes from a pro:

Just finished first real project – experiences
by Frank Stäudtner on Jul 12, 2011 at 2:22:27 pm

Hi guys, just finished my first project on FCPX for adidas; a trade show video wall loop;

Never have I worked as quickly, flexible and had so much fun in HD; color corrections were so quick to do….

[Bernard Newnham]

When I was a producer at the BBC, I did some work for a department called Digilab. As a technically aware producer, my task was to try equipment to see if I thought it was suitable for production staff to use without a crew. Along with cameras and stuff, I went through a good number of editing systems, with the odd trip to IBC and NAB to get the cutting edge.

The famous Randy visited us at one point and we were suitably impressed. We got hold of an FCP beta from Apple UK, about 0.8 or something, and were again very impressed. This was the system we had been looking for. I went out and shot some material – kids doing bike safety – and knocked together a short programme, with opening titles, all built in FCP. It crashed a few times, but in my view it was a winner. When I left the BBC and went freelance I bought a G4 and FCP and edited on it from then till now. Along the way I’ve continued to test out and use other systems, because people still ask my opinion.

Yesterday was my first try at FCPX.

Oh God it’s junk. That’s a highly technical value judgement based on years of comparative testing.

B

[Geoff Dills]

You spend one day and you decide it’s junk? Nice. Very thorough evaluation I’m sure.

Best,
Geoff

[Chris Jacek]

[Geoff Dills] “You spend one day and you decide it’s junk? Nice. Very thorough evaluation I’m sure.

Best,
Geoff”

Are you suggesting that you cannot make such a decision after one day? If something is really bad, how could it possibly take any LONGER to make such a judgement. It does not take long for the aroma of crap to make itself known.

WIth every good editing or compositing system, it’s value pretty obvious in the first day. It may be complicated (like the first time many of us used an Avid) but I don’t think the quality of the actual product takes long to determine.

Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee

[Michael Hendrix]

Also, how do you evaluate software? Most demos are at most one day.

How long do you spend at a booth during NAB? Probably no where close to a day.

Just saying….

[Tom Daigon]

Quotes from thousands of pros…

“This software is pathetic…I want a refund”. 😉

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com

[Jeremy Whaley]

Uh yea… crap is the word. After struggling through getting a video done yesterday and last night, I finally got everything working the way I want. We’re not talking hard stuff here. 3 clips, a couple cross fades. NOT HARD. I went to bounce the video down and encoded it at 264. For some reason, it keeps panning my audio about 70% to the left. But only when I do the bounce/export. In FCPX it plays fine. I’ve tried it three times and finally gave up. There’s just not a single export option I can find that would cause this change. I’m telling you, Apple F’d this one up in a major way.

I can not for the life of me figure out how real people are saying nice things about. I think they are paid plants from Apple. Most of the nice reviews I’ve seen come from educators and people who have a lot to lose if they say anything negative. Too bad Apple can’t see it.

Here’s a solution – just offer FCP Studio 3 again and sell them side by side. Buy yourselves another year for continued development to prove X is a bigger disaster than Windows ME, and then you can invest another 2 years in fixing FCP studio. I think I’m going to go back to Final Cut Express. I had better success there then I am having with FCPX.

I will say, the one thing I do like about it. The background rendering is very nice, and it bounces down the files relatively quickly. I was able to bounce our 2 hour class in about an hour, so about 2x faster than real time. That part I like.

[Steve Connor]

oops wrong forum!

Steve Connor
Adrenalin Television

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

[Jacob Kerns]

Its junk, I gave it shot and it failed and failed miserably the background rendering is a joke! It worked great with DSLR footage but it sucked with AVCHD which premiere handle as is! It still had to render to be usable and even once it was render I couldn’t scrub the timeline without it stuttering in spots when I stop playback it was a solid green screen so I and to nudge it a frame or two see the video in the viewer. I didn’t even add effects or transition yet.

To be fare there was one thing that it had that was great and that was ……..wait there wasn’t anything.

Adobe and Edius got it right edit any footage without transcoding and in real-time.

NIADA
Technical Director

[Bernard Newnham]

“You spend one day and you decide it’s junk? Nice. Very thorough evaluation I’m sure.”

I’ve had a lot of experience in evaluating, most of it for the BBC.

Think of it in another context. You want to buy a new car, so you do some test drives. Most have the accelerator pedal on the right, and the manual gears are laid out in an H pattern with first top left. Some company decides it can do better. Their engine is more efficient, the sat nav more up to date – but they’ve also decided to “re-imagime” the car. They tell you that lights (or Flash) are a thing of the past, so they left them out. The accelerator is on the left foot, and the brake is operated by leaning backwards. Oh, and they didn’t bother to put tyres on the wheels, as third parties will supply later. Going to buy that one? Thought not.

It’s true that Apple doesn’t need the money of a handful of professionals, but I think they very much need their goodwill. The Apple reputation is build on innovation and class, so much so that it’s almost a religion for some people. Now a group of devoted and high profile followers have been badly let down, and are shouting loudly. Don’t underestimate their influence. If you were a “prosumer” rather than a professional, would you leap in and buy the software that the people you would like to emulate have trashed. Not a chance.

B