Final Cut Pro X versus Premiere Pro CS6 by Oliver Peters

[John Davidson]

3 things I would like to add.

1. Collaborative editing on FCPX can be done with multiple systems. We do it all day long every day of the week using sparse disk images. Seeing it live and in action is really an eye opener. You can’t both edit the same event at the same time, but the sparse disk image option really opens doors for NAS users.

2. X has had a pretty substantial number of updates in 18 months, much faster development of the software is going on than with premiere. Not all updates have been ‘feature rich’, but many of them were. If you hate something about premiere (like being able to only open 1 project at a time), get used to it because that ain’t changing for a year.

3. Don’t underestimate the affordability and convenience of having up to 10 seats for X on an App store account. No license issues occur with the software at all in this regard. No serials, no deactivation, etc. If you own the program, you own the program and can install it on every mac you have unless you’re Richie Rich and have 30 macs.

There are good points about working with Premiere on pc’s and macs. We’re probably going to get some interesting updates with CS7. It’s possible the premiere that comes out of CS7 is going to be amazing. Time will tell.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[Dennis Radeke]

“Adobe software must be purchased with either a Mac or Windows license and switching platforms requires cross-grading the license. Unlike Avid, you cannot simply go from a PC workstation at a facility to a MacBook Pro at home with a simple de-activation/re-activation process.”

Oliver is somewhat incorrect on this as the Creative Cloud option provides for both Mac and PC as part of your subscription.

Check out the FAQ under “purchasing and getting started”: Creative Cloud FAQ

Dennis – Adobe

[Oliver Peters]

[Dennis Radeke] “Oliver is somewhat incorrect on this as the Creative Cloud option provides for both Mac and PC as part of your subscription. “

Does this apply to the licensing? I’m on standalone licenses, so I don’t know. IOW, can I have CC on two different machines of different platforms and switch activation between them?

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Dennis Radeke]

Under “On How Many computers can I install the software?” in the FAQ

“You can install the desktop applications available in Creative Cloud on your primary computer and one backup computer, as long as they are not running at the same time. You will have access to both the Mac OS and Windows versions, so if you have a Mac at home and a PC at work, for instance, you can install your applications on both. See the product license agreements page for more information.”

Let me know if you have other questions.

[Oliver Peters]

[John Davidson] “X has had a pretty substantial number of updates in 18 months, much faster development of the software is going on than with premiere.”

I think that’s a pretty dubious estimate. X is a young software and I am willing to bet that everything we’ve seen up until now was on the original roadmap, but just not ready. What you’ve seen up until 10.0.6 was effectively a beta software and what we currently have is really the “1.0”. That’s my opinion, of course, but I really don’t believe any of the features added in the updates were in direct response to customer feedback. So this is less “fast development” and more a matter of finishing what was started.

[John Davidson] “Collaborative editing on FCPX can be done with multiple systems. We do it all day long every day of the week using sparse disk images. “

Sorry, but that’s not collaboration. It’s a hack. I know it works for you. I’m on a SAN and it’s easy to shuffle projects between editors, too. Neither the X nor PPro solution is currently very good.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Dennis Radeke] “See the product license agreements page for more information.”

Let me know if you have other questions.”

And what does the licensing agreement say? I interpret the FAQ as talking about the software, so I’m confused. Again, I haven’t installed CC on any machines, so I’m used to platform-specific serial number entries.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Dennis Radeke]

Well, you can check out the EULAs here: https://www.adobe.com/products/eulas/

Bottom line – you CAN use a Creative Cloud subscription on two different computers (as before) but now you can easily maintain one on PC and one on Mac.

[Oliver Peters]

[Dennis Radeke] “Bottom line – you CAN use a Creative Cloud subscription on two different computers (as before) but now you can easily maintain one on PC and one on Mac.”

Thanks. I’ve adjusted the post accordingly. I appreciate the feedback.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Craig Seeman]

[Oliver Peters] “So this is less “fast development” and more a matter of finishing what was started.”

You haven’t defined or, in any way, addressed “fast development” IMHO.
If you mean development doesn’t count until it reaches feature parity with its predecessor or competitors then that would certainly be a personal reference point. I don’t see how that definition describes the speed of development though.

Starting from “ground zero” in which coders start doing the coding from as near as one gets to blank slate, they are adding features new to THIS PLATFORM at a fast pace compared to other NLEs, even if features somewhat parallel to it, already exist on other NLEs.

If that’s your point of reference though you should state that, rather assume the reader infers that. One would argue parity itself is a difficult standard because any number of NLEs are ahead or behind feature sets compared to others while also develop in areas which don’t have a direct parallel.

You can compare it to itself, this platform, and the development is fast. Compare it to other NLEs and many features are “catch up” but even from that perspective the addition of such features are happening at a fairly rapid pace.

[Oliver Peters] “I really don’t believe any of the features added in the updates were in direct response to customer feedback.”

So only response to customer input equates with speed?
Some might argue that most of the features that have been added are things customers have asked for. There’s no way of knowing what was or was not pre-existing on the road map. If fulfilling their own pre-existing road map “doesn’t count” then, since Apple claims a 10 year plan, would you then consider the 10 years of development irrelevant to development pacing?

Concretely the features updates have been frequent whether one believes they are “catch up” or they pre-exist on their internal roadmap.

I don’t doubt Adobe’s schedule feature update schedule will pick up as they shift into online only software delivery.

[Lance Bachelder]

I’m running Creative Cloud on a Mac and PC concurrently – this has been common knowledge since the Cloud announcement last NAB. In the past, you did have to buy the suite for a specific platform.

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1