[Ben G unguren]

[Tim Kolb] ” Try uninstalling FCP and doing that.”

I’ll just take your word for it 🙂

What would you suggest as a good editing intraframe codec (as opposed to AVCHD or H264, which work okay, but can slow things down sometimes, especially on slower machines) that can be exported software-only?

[Ben G unguren]

[Tim Kolb] “ProRes encode capability is only available inside FCP”

Really? I just converted a bunch of AVCHD files to ProRes using a custom preset made in Premiere and then processed with Adobe Media Encoder (CS5, all, on a Mac that also has FCP installed). Maybe I’m misunderstanding something, but converting to ProRes is entirely doable without using FCP directly, as long as you have the proper codecs installed.

[Ben G unguren]

[Chris Knight] “It simply helps to edit non-intra-frame footage in FCP.”

As I understand it, intraframe compression packs the image information into individual frames: ProRes 422. Interframe compression, on the other hand, will use information from neighboring frames: H264.

While it’s AWESOME that PPro can edit with interframe video (unlike FCP), in my experience things still tend to run more smoothly (and render more quickly) when the video is intraframe (ProRes 422, e.g.). I’m not an expert, but I believe this is because interframe video requires more processing power to decode, so if you transcode to PR422 you can get a lot of the frame-by-frame processing out of the way in advance….

[Ben G unguren]

[Will Barry] “can I just use a custom frame rate in the render settings for the 25 fps output and set the field render”

I’m pretty sure you can do that. Did you try it?

Be sure to scan through the 25fps render to look for anomalies, especially if you’re using any hold keyframes and/or motion blur, which can exhibit unexpected behavior in these situations.

[Ben G unguren]

Almost to 2300 now!

[Ben G unguren]

[Chris Kenny] “I think it’s far more likely that Apple knows exactly what’s missing from FCP X, and is working on adding it… but saw no reason not to ship as soon as they had something useful to a decent number of users, even if it wasn’t useful to all users yet. This would be consistent with past Apple practice.”

In other words:
PUT YOUR TRUST
IN APPLE

In other words:
PUT YOUR [career, funds, facilities, future, reputation]
IN APPLE

All is well. Apple will take care of you, wherever they are. Now back to bed, everyone, off you go….

[Ben G unguren]

Keep in mind that there’s a 30-day fully-functioning trial of MC available for anyone who wants to give it a run….

[Ben G unguren]

For the university where I teach classes, we’re going to wait at least until the end of 2011 to see what Apple does (we currently run FCP 7 on everything, and Avid on a few machines). If Apple doesn’t step up their game by then, our money goes to Media Composer.

At the university level, you have a responsibility to prepare the students with software that they will use in the professional world. And I can’t imagine many of them successfully marketing their abilities with the current configuration of FCP X once they leave school. FCP used to be an easy bet for anyone who wanted to start editing, and Avid for the “serious” editors who wanted to be bilingual (as it were). We’re all concerned that FCP won’t be worth learning two years from now, at least for the aspiring professional.

Here’s what I’m telling anyone who doesn’t understand the problem: it’s the UNCERTAINTY that’s killing us. We have budgets to arrange, computers and software to purchase, classes and syllabi to prepare. And all of a sudden one of our primary resources seems to be flaking on us. This could be a real wrench in university-level video production classes for a while.

[Ben G unguren]

[Brad Bussé] “I’m waiting a couple of months for the dust to settle and see what/if Apple has to say by then”

Right on, Brad. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions (tempting though it may be).

I had a conversation with an editing buddy of mine about this, and we are wondering if Premiere could now come into a more prominent position, like FCP did vs Avid a decade ago. In my experience, if you say to a production house “I edit in FCP” or “I edit in AVID” then you’re fine. But if “I edit in Premiere” (and only Premiere), you will lose some respect. (Remember 12 years ago: If it wasn’t edited on AVID it couldn’t possibly be a good film?)

Unfortunately, in the freelance world, a lot of software is about reputation, and from my perspective Premiere isn’t quite popular enough yet…. (Go get ’em Adobe!)

[Ben G unguren]

[Chris Walsh] “Apple has tarnished its rep as the all-knowing Pied Piper of the Post Future. New announcements will be greeted suspiciously, scrutinized, dissected, and beaten to death”

Well-put, Chris. Unless Apple acts fast, this will leave a pre-dark-mark on releases for the next five years at least.