[Bill Davis]

[Rob Essers] “In 2018 for me it’s still not possible to use AV output without hiccups with Blackmagic devices no matter which version of the Blackmagic Desktop video I use.”

Seriously? That’s on Apple?

I use AV output every single day with FCP X and NO additional hardware or software – and it works pretty much flawlessly.

I can configure my 40″ client monitor to show anything from my desktop to the Viewer, to just the master output in a few clicks, reliably.

So I’d question if this is more likely an Apple issue, or a BlackMagic one.

That said, I think one reason BlackMagic has these issues is that they are swinging for an amazing array of hardware fences in a way nobody else is.

They are shepherding the digital video industry into a new era where devices aren’t the dumb coax connected boxes of our youth, but mostly just Vid-oIP nodes on a network.

That ain’t easy. It means every freeking device has a ear and a voice, and they have to negotiate with each other to work at all. The benefits are massive, but the disruption is equally massive. So I give them lots of leeway to experiment – and yes, fail, as needed.

It’s the only way to suss out this much complexity and figure out what’s actually going to work going forward.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Michael Gissing] “As I said, the problem is not just Apple. But the social consequences for the richest companies in the world to use loopholes to avoid fairly sharing their good fortune with the peoples of the world who make them so wealthy are that health and social services like education are not properly funded by governments.”

While I generally agree with you on all of this, Apple is a corporation first and foremost. If Apple strong-armed Ireland to accept those terms, Apple is at fault. But my experience with many of the (in my opinion toxic) “municipal stadium deals” of the 90s and 2000’s – is that politicians literally THREW tax exemptions at large corporations under the umbrella of “economic development” and “job creation.”

Great swaths of large corporations rushed to those troughs. So if Apple, with a fiduciary duty to it’s shareholders didn’t participate in those perfectly legal offerings – that’s something the shareholders could legitimately take them to task over.

Having spent some time with a camera documenting life in the Executive suite – I can’t count how many times I saw that while the focus that the prior week had been on customer issues, suddenly it shifted to “shareholder value” as an earnings call approached.

I just think it’s more complicated than you’re implying here.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “Which is precisely what the nMac Pro was designed to prevent. That paradigm was bring unfinished design to market and then make it impossible to modify. Brilliant. But it did have a cool looking case.”

Yep, Apple kept right on failing their way to the top.

Maddening, isn’t it?

Hey, what if each failure actually taught them something they needed to know?

Wouldn’t that be weird?

????

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “Bill, I’m glad you’ve gotten to know so many cool people, but for the folks on this forum do you think you could put up some kind of banner or notice when you’re actually arguing for what you believe as opposed to arguing to change the color values of the NLE multiverse. I know it would make my life much simpler.”

Uh, NO.

First off, who says I don’t believe every word I’ve posted?

You can be solid blue because that’s what you believe is the correct position. God knows the solid yellow folk believed they were correct.

That fact that I elected not to bend over backwards to appear “balanced” – in the face of guys like Aindreas (who didn’t give a jot about any such balancing) – is prima facia evidence for my case.

IF the X haters were rarely asked to compromise their positions. Why should I? The result is a skewed chartreuse world. (And that’s objectively ugly!)

Here we are. Closer than ever to Green.

And that’s a good thing, IMO.

Also, the same shrinking level of privacy is afforded to everyone on the interwebs, so nobody gets to have an advanced clue as to why anyone writes anything. As we now know, I might not actually exist. This whole 7 year long argument could all just have been Russian hacker led miss-direction aimed at sowing chaos in the American NLE industry!

Be vigilant!

????

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Bernard Newnham] “What’s in it for you Bill, and all those other Apple cheerleaders here?
“

I explained it on another board not long ago.

When X was released, (scratch that: When X was PREVIEWED, long before anyone had touched it IRL, everyone showed up hating it. That hate continued for the 2 months before ANYONE had touched it.

I thought that was fascinating. A bit like Witch Trials in that it was lots of folks saying I can’t possibly know the truth yet, but I accuse and CONDEM you anyway!

The day it was released, I was as confused as anyone, but in the weeks following, I kept seeing idea after idea that was fresh and fascinating. The database reminded me of Filemaker Pro a bit. Keywords looked AMAZING. The Magnetic timeline, which like most editors with a decade of chair time behind me, totally weirded me out at first, started then slowly making all kinds of sense.

Yet for the next TWO YEARS – that initial crap understanding of what was happening continued.

My position was “WAIT – there’s some kind of amazing stuff happening here – and many of you are missing a great new forest because you’re standing with your nose pressed against a temporary sign that some largely clueless person slapped up before the building was even finished.

So in that environ, I started posting about X.

But to understand HOW I was posting you have to add a Part 2 to that Part 1.

I described it to someone who asked me this same question elsewhere, like this.

Put Good and Bad on a Spectrum. Color one end Yellow (X=horrible) and one end Blue (X wonderful)

What’s in the middle? Green, right?

I saw so much YELLOW poured out on the webs for so long about this tool – yellow that I thought was simply wong in an extremely shortsighted way, that it was annoying. I could see real value in all the new stuff in X, but the loudest voices would allow for NO VALUE \ whatsoever for many, many months. It was a lonely time, for those of us who thought this might actually be an interesting road to follow.

So here’s the thing. Let’s say the truth is allways Green. X was never as Bad at legions were saying, but also never as all good as I was implying (wink).

Thing is, if I simply started a modest racket implying AQUAMARINE is the Truth – I’d be hobbling my own purpose – which was to pull the overall debate back into the green middle as efficiently as I could.

The only things being said in defense of X, were couched in moderation so as not to offend the bright yellow legions. But here’s the thing. What happens if you add GREEN to Yellow? You don’t really get more Green – you get Chartruse. And that’s NOT where I felt the debate should ACTUALLY be. I saw way too much value in the concepts behind X to allow for chartreuse to win the day. The only way to get to green is to add pure Blue to the pure Yellow being argued so loudly.

And so that’s what I did. Took on all comers with pure BLUE arguments.

And in time, (totally NOT just because of me, because the Blue Army grew and grew rapidly) I started to slowly see the overall on-line opinions start to shift.

There are still ALL YELLOW folks out there stuck in a 2011 mindset – and when I see one, I’m delighted to roll out the ALL BLUE arguments. That’s just fun. But this simple strategy that was largely instinctive and only half planned at first, turned out to be super effective in ways I never imagined.

Because of it – because I uncompromisingly argued for a thing I felt I was seeing that the larger market was missing, I got noticed. I thought it was just by folks on newsgroups like this – but I was GOBSMAKED when I realized that a MUCH wider world was watching.

There were literally moments when I was backstage somewhere and I went up to introduce myself to someone notable that I’d never met, I’d stick out my hand and say Hi, I’m Bill Davis” – and the response was “I know. Nice to finally meet you in person.”

So what started as a tiny personal crusade in an internet backwater, kinda came to have unexpected, lasting, and incredibly positive side effects for me.

I know way more cool people now, quite by accident, because I fought a clearly blue fight for so long.

And it was easy, because when I look at X, not only did I actually see a lot of blue, but because the blue in it was making my work easier and easier, faster and faster in the real world – it was super easy to keep ignoring the small flashes of yellow that legitimately did make their way into the discussions.

People think I can’t “see” the yellow. And I get why. But I’m not (generally) an idiot and I can see it well enough. But nothing yellow about X has ever really caused me much of a problem – so there’s no real value in worrying about becoming more yellow about things. There are still plenty of those folks around.

So while it’s easy to just box it under “fanboisim” – (and while I’m sure some of this is EXACTLY that, as it’s generally understood, the implication of being a fan boy is that you suspend your critical thinking in order to do so.

Thing is, what if there are ACTUAL legitimate and positive reasons for appearing like someone who stays on one side, even if you “get” the other side.

Worth thinking about that, perhaps.

That a good enough explanation? ????

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “The iphone/ipad success did not stop the Mac division from releasing the Trash Can, a failure that Apple has acknowledged.”

Perhaps we just see “failure” differently.

I see the trash can as a stage in the evolution of Apples offerings. It served – and continues to serve – many of those who own them. Yes, in hindsight, it had insurmountable issues effecting both performance and longevity, and never performed as perfectly as I’m sure Apple intended – yet in hindsight, when I look at, for example, the standalone eGPU unit just released by BlackMagic, it’s hard to argue that there wasn’t more than a bit of form factor influence from that much maligned unit.

I note often that the landscape of the entire computer industry has largely switched from design-perfect-ship – to design – ship – iterate. This follows from the connected “now” when it’s common to push a software or firmware updates that correct issues that might have been in place on initial delivery. (Call it the Hubble Space Telescope effect?)

I suspect it’s what we’ll be seeing for the future. The hardware configuration goes out the door with the best design and performance compromises that can be figured out at that time’s price point – and then as data comes back in – things are expected to improved. That’s kinda what the “overclockers” started. Take what you get initially, and if you want to risk it – modify for improvement.

Personally, I see computers as no kind of long term solution for much of anything anymore – but as an evolving base under my work. When the base gets too old, to dinged up, or simply out of date to be acceptable. The base gets changed. Sometimes, it miraculously happens while I’m sleeping via software update. Other times, I have to take action and pull out a credit card. But the only thing I know for sure is that living through THIS pace of change – whatever is sitting on my desk today – will seem awfully old and cranky all too soon. So I just accept that as how it works.

All the tape decks, turntables, and mixing boards I’ve ever owned are roach fodder now. Including all the ones I struggled MIGHTLY to figure out how to initially afford.

I’m not sure why I should see my computer any differently. Evolve or die. That’s the new normal for people AND gear, IMO.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Herb,

While these are overall largely silly “push poll” type points… I’ll play.

Generally. Nobody said Apple HAS to be #1. I’m noting their sustained success as a simple data point that shows that their customers appreciate their products and services and how they do business. It’s a counter to the constant foolish narrative that Apple (again and again) is doing things woefully wrong and that everyone with a clue knows that as soon as people “wise up” to their deficiencies, their success will cease. That’s all.

As to “whats in it for me” – basically it just is a “after the results are in” look back at my oft articulated opinions from back in 2011 that Apple was driving the industry forward, not dumbing it down, as many alleged. People regularly said they’d FAIL with their strategy. They have not. And in fact, we can see nice examples of how their competitors have come to adopt some of Apples signature creative efforts – buttonless smart phones being one – the FCP X skimmer leading to “hover scrub”, being another: to provide both generic and NLE specific examples.

And as to your last point, I’d argue that the FCP X story has EVERYTHING to do with why Apple is doing measurably better than all the naysayers expected. It’s another clear example of Apple hiring people with vision – supporting that vision even if it appears widely disruptive at first. They looked to reap longer term benefits by making those directional decisions. Apple does that over and over again. Sure they miss plenty of times. But they also succeed more than most – as EVIDENCED by how their corporate creative ecosystem has succeeded regarding market valuation beyond what any other modern global company has managed.

Every corporation has a culture. Apples is more oriented to looking for opportunities to disrupt and improve, than most of their competitors. And that approach now has yet another objective metric to support that it was the correct leadership direction for achieving long term results.

That’s simply worth noting as they cross this particular (perhaps temporary) rubicon.

Nothing more than that.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Michael Gissing] “I’d be happy if Apple (and Google, etc) paid tax in the many countries they operate in.”

If that’s a plea for consistency in taxation anywhere in the world, for Apple or ANY large multinational, good luck with that.

This was just on Apple Insider today.
Apple says it has paid $10.4B of $15.1B in back taxes to Ireland
https://goo.gl/cVJUbn

And that’s just ONE of the countries it operates in.

Ireland itself proposed the special deal to draw the business, just like cities and “special authorities” deals for large employers, sports teams,and economic engine class enterprises.

I’m pretty sure that as a publicly traded company, Apple has a duty to stockholders not to pay any more in taxes than they are legally obligated to.

The problem is that we all know that the nature of the “obligation” itself shifts like crazy once the deal negotiators sit down.

But I don’t think that’s changed in the whole history of the human race.

Let me know when someone figures out how to stop it. But I’m not holding my breath.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Bob Zelin] “I know it’s coming. I just don’t like it. Bill Davis LOVES THIS !”

Sorry to be so content, Bob It’s a curse.
Tell you what, tho… To make you feel better I might just go over to Cafe Press and order you a spiffy new T-Shirt with the best quote I read tonight on the Forum discussions of the milestone thingy…

Apple:
Now more Doomed than Ever!

(I wonder if Aindreas would like one too?)

????

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “The obvious question is why do you care? I know that I don’t care what Adobe’s valuation is, as long as they’re not going out of business. Does Apple’s financial success mean anything positive for FCPX or Mac’s in general? If so, then what? if not, then so what?”

IMO, Apple can’t do what Apple does best (which is take chances when they see opportunities that might disrupt current practices, but that they feel may pay off in the longer term) if the company isn’t strong overall financially.

More money in the bank, – the more willing they reasonably may be to take risks in forward looking initiatives.

Basically, the stronger the company grows after exhibiting a culture of innovation to the marketplace – the MORE innovation we’re likely to see.

Pretty much that simple, as I see it.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.