What are the advantages of the FCP crossgrade?

[Phillip Van west]

You only need the crossgrade if you want to run Final Cut Studio (5.1 and beyond) on your Intel laptop. And $49 is a steal.

pvw

Phil Van West
Terra Nova Productions LLC
Denver, CO
Video Production/Post-Production

G5 DP 2.5GHz / 4.5 GB RAM / 2x250GB SATA / OS 10.4.7 / FCP 5.1.1 / QT 7.1.2

[Chris Babbitt]

2-Pass VBR (Best Quality) in Compressor now works properly. That was worth the upgrade for me.

[Martin Baker]

The main reason FCP5.1 exists is to run natively on your shiny new Intel Mac for the best performance. Don’t bother looking for benchmarks, just get the crossgrade. Also bear in mind you won’t be able to install any future updates until you make the move to v5.1

FWIW There are lots of enhancements to the latest version even for those of us still on PowerPC. Get the details here:
https://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Final_Cut_Pro_5.0_lbn_z.pdf

Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
Unique plug-ins and tools for Apple Pro Apps
NEW! BigTIme – resizable timecode display for FCP

[Ben Holmes]

You’re just paying for the cost of new discs, as Apple will replace your old ones. As per the others here, don’t even think about it – just get it. This crossgrade was designed for you, and won’t be around forever. The performance gains will be worth it.

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations.

Producer/Director “The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com

[Lee Berger]

I totally agree about the fix to compressor. In the interiem I purchased Squeeze which does an excellent job on 2 pass VBR, but the encode times were more than double.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Les Faires] “Just wondering if it is really a money wise investment to purchase the crossgrade for FCP for my new intel Mac laptop?”

I don’t think you can install the PowerPC version of FCP on an Intel machine. So yes, you need the crossgrade. Render times are noticeably faster with 5.1

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

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Kenny Powerass]

This problem used to drive me bananas! I would’ve payed twice the asking price just to make this alone go away:

Final Cut Pro 5.1 resolves an issue in which mouse movement would cause the
Canvas and the video on an external monitor to freeze during Fast Forward and Fast
Reverse playback.

Go for it. You’ll get more than your money back in time saved. BUT…..
Make sure that you fill out the crossgrade form entirely. I accidentally missed the line about my credit card’s expiration date. Rather than calling my number on the form or e-mailing me at the address on the form they notified me BY MAIL that I would have to resubmit it by either mail or fax. Turns out that after I sent the discs I REALLY needed them back and I had to go without software for nearly two weeks as a result.

[Phillip Van west]

It may be too late for some, but it’s highly advised to make disk images of the disks you have to trade in to Apple. No risk. Great price.

Won’t be this cheap too much longer.

pvw

Phil Van West
Terra Nova Productions LLC
Denver, CO
Video Production/Post-Production

G5 DP 2.5GHz / 4.5 GB RAM / 2x250GB SATA / OS 10.4.7 / FCP 5.1.1 / QT 7.1.2

[Debe]

The crossgrade form says “Orders must be postmarked by December 20, 2006”.

Whether they decide to extend that is anyone’s guess. I’d recommend that folks get it done now. I had an 8-day turnaround sending mine in Express Mail (insured for replacement). The crossgrade disks came back via UPS.

The closer it gets to December 20th, the longer it will likely take due to volume.

debe

[Eric Peterson]

“Also bear in mind you won’t be able to install any future updates until you make the move to v5.1”

I doubt that is the case. FCS 5.5 or 6 or whatever might be next will just have an upgrade path from 5.0.5 or 5.1.1 at two different prices.