[Ben Scott]

I think it should be changed

but then where would Aindreas Gallagher bless us with his insights

[Ben Scott]

its funny seeing some of the replies in here

have any of you actually tried to convert frame rates with difficult footage in FCPx

it does a very good job in my opinion and I have been testing against conversions made through different settings in compressor (frame controls turned on and frame rate conversion set to best or better)
Just to let you know this was tested on a grade 1 HD sony monitor
I would put a bet its the same engine as best(the second from best option whatever its called) in compressor

the scaling down of graphics is superb and really does put fcp7 and avid to shame, no aliasing. In fact the rendering of stills with lots of resolution is surprisingly good more like after effects and renders very quickly in my opinion.

the scaling up of content wasnt perfect to be honest I would still say a conversion using hardware e.g. Kona 3 card is noticeably better

the color space conversions and reading/interpreting of gammas in RGB video has been spot on, looking on tektronix scopes for that one, if there were issues these had been introduced in compressed RGB formats like h264 on export (from the old FCP7) rather than import.

I would actually say that the choices FCPx makes when it helps get formats together in an open timeline are better than I expected and something I can trust to give excellent quality in most cases, there are of course times when an Alchemist has its uses.

and lastly as long as you dont go need the crop image controls when using the spatial conform tools set to stretch you can rely on the aspect ratios getting read properly or being a hell of a lot easier to fix (did notice some black edge oddness with HDV footage in a SD anamorphic sequence when set to fit but fixed easily by setting squeeze)

sorry if all the terms used here werent exactly those used in software (i am writing this on a PC and the macs in the other room)

the fact that there are so many plugins for specialised outputs from compressor makes the whole system a lot like the PDF example given in these commments, just think 7 years ago if someone said you can make a DCP from final cut pro for less than £1000 for the software licence you wouldnt have believed them

[Ben Scott]

i find many things are significantly faster or at very least something I don’t need to think about like I did in the past.

transcoding and linking media is the main timesaver and not needing to patch.

some things I have found buggy (skimmer that flies off screen when zoomed in) or not to my liking (color board for colour balance)

but I can see how much easier things could become once the broadcast monitoring out arrives, lets hope getting out to tape is just as easy as whats been released so far

[Ben Scott]

hiding clip connections doesnt turn them off

it hides the little line that represents the connection

and that great feature is in the pop up window for project view down bottom right of FCPX timeline

good to know the software your criticizing

[Ben Scott]

i have done tests importing many files from many different codecs

this feature works, its again one of those things you worry is “consumer” but actually just works, bit like photoshop has done all those years using the same technology.

the monitoring to TV is coming, from what I have seen with DVD output the computer monitor display is far better than it had been (but yes it isnt broadcast monitoring) and is very close.

it will be interesting to see a proper video out in the new year

getting files out is with share and that is basically compressor, so no gamma shifts using export with quicktime compression horridness

it didnt in fcp7 that well

and most definitely isnt something you are going to find on an avid, especially on export. Try AMA if you need to get the video in reliably

[Ben Scott]

this whole forum back and forth is pretty unpleasant

for those moaners get over it

use the other software and stop wining about what you perceive you dont have any more

for bill
I agree with you on lots and think you have made a lot of valid point.
I wouldnt even have engaged this idea of fcp8 (or rumour from someone).

for Aindreas
well done you proved yourself to be as unpleasant a character as ever

[Ben Scott]

I would love to test something working with motion templates subtitling workflow in FCPX

I can see how much easier it would be to change the titles if someone brings off spec subtitling, not an uncommon thing at my work and extremely slow to fix

also be good to get some form of spell checker or even punctuation checker to different channels syntax

[Ben Scott]

passed the trainer exam

yes its tricky

especially getting content in, there are lots of tricky questions to ask.

[Ben Scott]

exactly what I noticed

so how do we do cut across tracks (which arent there)

the wrap in a compound clip, trim and then split apart compound clip which doesnt work properly

I think this must be getting worked out with the new multiclip as its really not worked out at the moment

[Ben Scott]

just because Motion isnt after effects is hardly a reason to diss it

In my opinion it is much much better for specific tasks and those tasks seem to be the ones asked for the majority of the time e.g. design, basic 3D, GPU accelarated graphics.

If you need high end compositing After Effects fits a few needs but its a shame it still feels like Photoshop with keyframes, its such an inefficient use of screen estate in a software of today that it is frankly laughable.

I chose to move off from After Effects many years ago as a consequnce of the time spent moving between tabbed windows that never worked. Combustion (and by that I would probably suggest Smoke) are good for nodal compositing and those needs as is Nuke. If this is what you need, then the software exists to do those tasks, its just not made by Apple (Shake never was going to fit in it was old code and Apple wasnt making lots of cash of it).

I would love apple to build all my software but if it retains an open XML output then it is still as valid as when FCP4 launched those features, that these are out within a 3 month period of launch says a lot