Why is FCP so wimpy?

[Jim Wiseman]

Well, I’ve decided to hedge my bets. Media 100 just released their new Media Suite which now runs both in software and with AJA boards. They have a special upgrade offer for $1895 for current M100i owners which includes an AJA Kona LHi card (which also works with FCP 6 and 7). I was really not anxious to upgrade my G5 Quadcore PCIe 2.5Ghz to a Mac Pro for 3k plus to run FCP 7, so I gave them a call. They said download the fully functional trial software, now at 1.02, and try it out, no card needed. This I did, installed, and imported my XDcam EX-1 1920 23.98 mov’s converted for a FCP project with XDcam transfer. They converted to ProRes 422HQ faster than realtime on import to M100.

I was able to play two streams of 422HQ in real time with the G5 at full res, apply filters such as levels concurrently. Will test other realtime features when the board arrives next week, although I am sure it will also do concurrent simple titles. The processors were not fully stressed. This was with a single LaCie Firewire 800 HD.

In short, I ordered it today, and plan to run the G5 with the LHi/M100 and also with FCP 6. I will run FCP 7 and my AJA ioHD on my Macbook Pro. Now I can wait another generation for the next upgrade to the Mac Pro’s and not be forced to buy a new tower immediately. I had honestly forgotten how much I missed the real time features of the M100 since moving to HD shooting.

There are a lot of features I will certainly use in FCP 7, but for my situation, this promises to be a great solution. BTW, the new M100 Suite supports roundtripping to Color 1.5 via XML, as well as interchange of timelines between applications, as long as the features are supported on both.

Jim Wiseman