So what is happening with NLE’s in your area

[Tony West]

That sounds totally awesome.

I kind of scratched my head when they stopped shy of the 7

If you’re gonna upgrade get the latest is what I figure.

I will pass on your info to them.

[Erik Lindahl]

Even if we’re drifting off topic I’m not sure FCPX has issue monitoring SD, the main issue we’ve found is down converting or rendering SD to SD material. Here you run into the non-square pixel FCPX handles quite poorly. If you always use external hardware down conversion you might not run into the issue (i.e. working in HD and letting a Kona or BMD card do the SD-converision to another system or deck).

Monitoring in every NLE I’ve used should always match the sequence (i.e. SD sequence = SD monitoring, HD sequence = HD monitoring). This leaves the conversion on the card. FCP7 has terrible software output / cross-conversion. You get a picture but it looks like garbage.

[Erik Lindahl]

https://www.fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/16540-titles-quality#25697

Lots of talk and tests in that thread, even som work-arounds. I’ve heard from other source Apple sadly isn’t looking to fix this. A bit odd as even in HD-land we have various non-square formats (ProRes even supports these rasters natively).

[Aindreas Gallagher]

[Neil Goodman] ” you can even switch to a new project, or completely close Avid all together, and it still keeps chugging away”

doesn’t that kind of mean they’ve just got an adobe style media encoder going as a separate process?

Isn’t it true you can’t handle any of the encoding media before the encode is finished? As in – there is no invisible swap out of the avchd for pro res as FCPX accomplishes?

Could be completely wrong seeing as I haven’t touched it, but I read a bit on it, that’s what I took away from it?

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Daniel Frome]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “doesn’t that kind of mean they’ve just got an adobe style media encoder going as a separate process?

Isn’t it true you can’t handle any of the encoding media before the encode is finished? As in – there is no invisible swap out of the avchd for pro res as FCPX accomplishes?”

Sort of yes and no. It does not have FCPX’s “inviso-relink,” which I do agree is more elegant. It will immediately populate your bin with “.new” clips, which appear online (1 by 1) as soon as each transcode is done. At any time you can tell your sequence to relink with the new media. You don’t have to wait until the whole process is done to relink, you just won’t have them all.

On that note, though, I found that MC7 finally handles AMA media smooth enough to work with, from beginning to end — so long as you have really fast storage. I was editing a TV promo filmed with H264 footage. I did a few tests and determined that editing with AMA footage was in the same realm (cpu usage wise, etc) as editing AVCIntra, which my laptop handles with ease. I ended up not transcoding and found it working just fine. Surprising! When the project was finished, I sent the sequence (not master clips) into the background transcode process, just so I could archive the project. Worked as expected.

As a small side bit: I did desperately want an excuse to try Premiere CC, and actually attempted an edit of the same TV promo in it. True, scrubbing the H264 footage was faster than Avid, but the project used a lot of slow mo speed ramping, to which Avid’s fluidmotion was a better option than constantly making AE comps and placing them into Premiere. It’s weird.. but if Adobe wants their time remap feature to be used in Premiere they really need to add proper frame interpolation such as what AE has.

[Kevin Rag]

Here in Singapore it’s pretty much FCP legacy everywhere. One network use Avids, but most other places still use FCP 7. Hardly anyone use FCP X (I do:). A handful of freelancers use PrPro. After CC, most of them are planning to switch. To what? That’s the big debate going on:) I’m pretty happy with my legacy (for live broadcast OB edits) and FCPX for corporates and segment edits (for TV shows). My copy of CS 6 is not being used as much. Am going to upgrade my MC6 to 7 soon. Was an Avid editor before FCP, still like MC.

Kannan Raghavan
The Big Toad Films Pte. Ltd.

[Jack Lee]

Here is what’s happening in China. Most of the post production workflow involves EDL for film production so there is no doubt FCP Legacy is the lead horse. The number of Avid users is growing fast especially in the film industry. FCPX is quite acceptive by indie films as well as FCP7. I love FCPX for its advanced background rendering and the magnetic timeline. They are just awesome! And I believe Apple is to release a better version later this year along with the new Mac Pro, which would change the post production industry. For the others like Edius and Premier, I see few people mastering.

[Ronny Courtens]

I agree the next major update of FCPX and its performance on the new MacPro could be important factors in decision-making.

Yesterday I had a meeting with our editors to assess our FCPX workflows and see where we could improve. Although we work with maxed out MacPros and the “latest and greatest” iMacs the general consensus was that faster hardware would be welcome, especially for handling long-form and effects/title-heavy projects. And another thought came up.

As we are on the verge of merging our film dept. (still on FCP7) with our broadcast post shop (now all FCPX) some people suggested to gradually replace our FCP7 bays by Avid MC7 for our film and tape based work. I honestly think that’s not a bad idea.

FCPX excels in the areas where MC is lacking, and MC is king in the areas where FCPX is still weak. Premiere CC just seems to be somewhere in the middle of anything, so we’re not interested. Having both MC7 and FCPX under the same roof running on the new MacPros could offer the best of both worlds to serve a broad client base. Most of our editors are very familiar with MC (we used to be an Avid house), and they all love working with FCPX as well. And both NLE’s work nicely with our GC and finishing tools (Smoke/Resolve). Wether or not this will be our road for the future will partly depend on what we see happening in the next major update of FCPX, and on how well X and MC will perform on the new MacPro. Exciting times indeed.

– Ronny

[Dennis Radeke]

[John Pale] “Broadcast outfits that rely on shared projects and storage will gravitate toward Avid.”

We have introduced Adobe Anywhere which we hope will address this particular area – Adobe Anywhere

Dennis – on vacation

[Oliver Peters]

The MC + FCP X combo is exactly what I have advised and help set up at an area college film technology program. While Premiere is good, the Cloud subscription alters how they have to fund upgrades, which currently is problematic. With very attractive educational pricing and cheap App Store prices, it gives them the best of both world, with a hedge for either direction. Plus, they still have FCP 7/FC Studio from before. There’s really no reason you have to do everything with a single piece of software.

Olive

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