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The Macintosh – Is it a Time Bomb for the Hard User?
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“You said FCPX is a closed ecosystem. I ask you to explain what you mean for further clarification“
OK I’ll try it.
– FCPX is sold only at the Apple’s App Store
– FCPX alienates former FCP users by not opening legacy projects
– FCPX has a unique trackless timeline that forbids OMF audio workflows
– FCPX denies existence of professional tape input/output
– FCPX denies existence of film based editing
– FCPX is based on RGB color space only
– FCPX has only a couple of developers allowed by Apple to make plugins
– FCPX has primarily a single window interface prioritizing single screens
– FCPX won’t allow you to use layered PSDs as layered timelines
– FCPX restrains the user that wants to set up custom size/FPS projects
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[Simon Ubsdell] “OK so the quality is better than than the FCP legacy 3-way, thanks to floating point implementation, but really in every other respect it is surely inferior.”
Inferior to what? The 3way cc? If the 3way interface is better due to 3 color wheels and luma control together, but the quality is worse, that automatically makes the color board inferior? You would rather have a worse output because it made more sense to use?
Secondaries, user masks and control inside and outside of said masks?
A keyer that actually works?
I don’t know. I’d prefer color wheels in the app, but I would take the board over the 3 way as an “in app” tool due to the quality it produces. I understand if perhaps not everyone sees it as such.
By “a lot of work”, you mean it needs three color wheels? Or a color wheel with three pucks (which won’t work). And perhaps “exposure” control on the same interface?
And if you are comparing inferior to a dedicated color app, then yes. It is.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “A keyer that actually works?”
You’re kidding, right? A keyer that you have absolutely no serious control over???? The old 3-way was waaaaaaay more sophisticated than that – OK, so it didn’t have user masks …
But my point was actually about how coarse the controls are – not up to the job of refined colour correction, OK for a quick fix type job. In short, it’s not good enough …
… yet.
Actually I’d also like to some some quantified comparison of the picture quality as I think there is a general idea that it’s better without any actual data to back it up … How much of this is subjective at this point?
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
Much better. Thank you.
[Christian Schumacher] “- FCPX is sold only at the Apple’s App Store”
Yep, could be a problem where bandwidth is limited.
[Christian Schumacher] “- FCPX alienates former FCP users by not opening legacy projects”
It does not alienate “former FCP users” from X. It does not allow them to take a current FCP7 project and bring it in to FCPX. I can’t bring my Color session in to DaVinci with just my Color project either. I already know what your answer is going to be to this, so yes, FCPX is that much different from FCP7.
[Christian Schumacher] “- FCPX has a unique trackless timeline that forbids OMF audio workflows “
False.
[Christian Schumacher] “- FCPX denies existence of professional tape input/output”
Tape capture will come to FCPX via your capture card company. Instead of Apple working behind the scenes with 3rd party capture card companies, you will be able to interact directly with capture card companies to help further develop your ultimate tape capture interface. How is this a closed system? You can also capture from tape if you use firewire based cameras.
[Christian Schumacher] “- FCPX denies existence of film based editing”
You cannot edit film in a computer. Correct. In all seriousness, FCP7 “denied” film based editing, too. I guess you are probably referring to a database system such as Cinema Tools?
[Christian Schumacher] “- FCPX is based on RGB color space only “
Explain what you mean here as about 10 things come to mind. Or I can go back to coloring.
[Christian Schumacher] “- FCPX has only a couple of developers allowed by Apple to make plugins”
Not quite sure what you mean by that. Also, anyone can create plugins due to the tight integration of Motion. Again, I don’t know how this is a closed ecosystem.
[Christian Schumacher] “- FCPX has primarily a single window interface prioritizing single screens”
It’s true the interface is not very customizable, but there’s menu options for dual screen capability right in the app.
[Christian Schumacher] “- FCPX won’t allow you to use layered PSDs as layered timelines”
True. I guess it’s over.
[Christian Schumacher] “- FCPX restrains the user that wants to set up custom size/FPS projects”
Yes, a true holdover from FCP Legacy. I guess they want to stick with SMPTE standards (speaking of closed ecosystems)?
Most of these things that you mention are interface problems, not “closed ecosystem” problems. There is no question that FCPX needs a lot of work. They have a feedback page right here so you too can help make it better: https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html
Jeremy
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Maybe they will fix those “interface problems” as you put it.
But I tend to think most of them just won’t make it though.My overall thinking of a closed ecosystem is still yet to come.
Even if some current omissions may be added in a very near future.Yes, I think Apple might EOL FCPX as well in the future – 3yrs max.
Then you’ll have iMovie Pro FOR REAL. How about that for a bomb?Cheers,
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[Christian Schumacher] “Maybe they will fix those “interface problems” as you put it.
But I tend to think most of them just won’t make it though.”If you personally don’t think it will make it through, or have a bad feeling about it, fair enough. I don’t think anyone is betting the farm on FCPX quite yet.
[Christian Schumacher] “Yes, I think Apple might EOL FCPX as well in the future – 3yrs max.
Then you’ll have iMovie Pro FOR REAL. How about that for a bomb?”Well, it will be the first consumer editing device to support 4k editing, multicam, 4444 and capture cards. Hope the soccer moms and dads are ready to spend a whole lot of money on a new camera and lens package. Little Tiger’s soccer games will look amazing.
And seriously, if it goes away, it goes away. We will make it. $397 won’t put us out of business quite yet.
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Well, it will be the first consumer editing device to support 4k editing, multicam, 4444 and capture cards. Hope the soccer moms and dads are ready to spend a whole lot of money on a new camera and lens package. Little Tiger’s soccer games will look amazing.
Well, for all I know this is the first software updgrade in history that
in order to restore its former functionality (except 4K)its users will have to wait
an entire year for a patch? WOW! that’s something to brag about…Not!Those patches are damage control and it will end up
in a buggy piece of software at the end, we all know that.I keep hearing your incidental jokes about soccer moms
but hey, iphone 5 is around the corner, isn’t it?
And gawd knows what’s the next gadget they will come up with…Judging for their recent history of releases it will be closer
to that proud mom you speak of than any creative hardcore user around here.
So, be careful what you wish for, Jeremy.Do you honestly think they are prioritizing a ecosystem
of power users over a ecosystem of gadgets users? How come?Firing an entire pro team of workers?
Disrupting visual content packages?
Introducing consumer aspects in its editor?
(And waiting a year to get functionality back?)
Care to elaborate on that?Cheers,
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[Christian Schumacher] “Care to elaborate on that?”
Yeah, I have some thoughts on everything you said, but let me ask you differently what I alluded to earlier. What is your definition of a “hard core” or “power user”? I’m curious what you think that is.
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My definition of a power hardcore user? My pleasure, Jeremy.
From an Apple standpoint, it is the user that fits into the below:– Utilizes -one or more- Apple computers to run production software of any kind.
– Have to share multiple instances of work within a range of production needs.
– Relies on an ecosystem of production devices that are made of several vendors.
– Needs to tag along with complimentary activities of different workers involved.Now that you have my definition, could you please elaborate on how Apple
will improve that power user environment? I think It will better if we narrow down
to just sound and moving picture production for the sake of relevance here. -
[Christian Schumacher] “Now that you have my definition, could you please elaborate on how Apple will improve that power user environment?”
You are starting to lose me a bit here as these are really vague, but I’ll take guesses. I asked this to gauge how it relates to FCPX being the “Closed Ecosystem” you have mentioned. You still haven’t really answered that, but that’s OK.
[Christian Schumacher] ” Utilizes -one or more- Apple computers to run production software of any kind.”
-How does FCPX prevent you from buying another computer?
[Christian Schumacher] “- Have to share multiple instances of work within a range of production needs.”
-By multiple instances of work, do you mean multiple copies of the raw materials? I think a hard drive will solve that for you, or better yet a SAN. FCPX also has very easy ways to make proxy files and to move/copy those files to wherever you need if you don’t have shared storage. Speaking of shared storage, XSan is built in to Lion, which will probably lead to easier project sharing, but that’s just a guess. Can’t imagine what soccer dad would do with XSan.
[Christian Schumacher] “- Relies on an ecosystem of production devices that are made of several vendors.”
You mean capture cards? Coming in 2012 and has been announced by Apple and all capture card company makers.
[Christian Schumacher] “- Needs to tag along with complimentary activities of different workers involved.”
I guess you and your co workers can get up and go get a juice from the fridge together, instead of taking turns?
Can you please be more specific? Are you taking about interchange? FCPXML is new and released. It will take some time for everyone to ramp up, but it’s already happening.
OK, now that you answered back to your other post:
[Christian Schumacher] “Well, for all I know this is the first software updgrade in history that
in order to restore its former functionality (except 4K)its users will have to wait
an entire year for a patch? WOW! that’s something to brag about…Not!”What patch is coming in a year? I’d love to know. A new XML came in 3 months, and multicam and capture card support will be coming within the next 6 if not before.
[Christian Schumacher] “Those patches are damage control and it will end up
in a buggy piece of software at the end, we all know that.”How do you know these things? They aren’t patches, they are features. It was a decision to release FCPX in it’s current state. Do you really think they were done?
[Christian Schumacher] “I keep hearing your incidental jokes about soccer moms
but hey, iphone 5 is around the corner, isn’t it?
And gawd knows what’s the next gadget they will come up with…”I don’t know what the iPhone 4S has to do with our discussion. (I don’t know when the iPhone 5 is coming out).
[Christian Schumacher] “Judging for their recent history of releases it will be closer
to that proud mom you speak of than any creative hardcore user around here.
So, be careful what you wish for, Jeremy.”What, that iPhone video works in FCPX? It already does. So does Alexa footage.
[Christian Schumacher] “Do you honestly think they are prioritizing a ecosystem
of power users over a ecosystem of gadgets users? How come?
“Now that I know what some of the terms of a power user come from, I am not sure how FCPX or Apple is preventing anything that you term as a power user. I do think that thunderbolt is a pretty powerful connection protocol and it will change what we need as Pro users. It might make our computer smaller, but it won’t make them any less powerful. From the invention of the first “computer” that was bigger than a bus, the trend has been miniaturization. An 8 core laptop with a thunderbolt port might be very good for the bulk of users. I don’t doubt Apple will have one of those in the near future.
[Christian Schumacher] “Firing an entire pro team of workers?”
Do you know who was fired and why?
[Christian Schumacher] “Disrupting visual content packages?”
You mean killing Shake? Yep. That did happen. And Autodesk/Discreet killed Edit. The Foundry killed Storm, Avid and Ppro stopped supporting the Mac for a while, M100 killed 844/X and on and on and on. Some software dies. FC Studio was probably killed due to a really really old code base that Apple decided not to rewrite. They had other ideas and time will tell if it was a smart move or not.
[Christian Schumacher] “Introducing consumer aspects in its editor?”
I’ve said it before. I think iTunes is pretty decent software. What would be wrong with aspects of iTunes going in to FCPX if it makes my job easier? Is that what you mean by a “consumer aspect”?
[Christian Schumacher] “(And waiting a year to get functionality back?)
Care to elaborate on that?”Yes. Writing software, and software that works, takes tremendous effort and time. What we are seeing now is the beginning of the public version of Apple’s effort. It will only get better and if it doesn’t, we will move on and survive.
I can only go on what Apple has shown and what is currently available. Only Apple knows what they will do in the future. They have not announced that they are killing FCPX, they have made good on what they said was coming for FCPX, so I can only believe what they are telling me. If it turns out to not work or not be true, then so be it.
I have no problem with my job getting easier. If the tools get a little smaller, get a little faster and aren’t as hard to use, that means I get to go home earlier. I’ve spent more than enough time in the edit suite. If the it’s the right tool for the right job, then it’s the right tool, right?
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