Brett Sherman
Forum Replies Created
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Cool. You know what would be really cool is being able to extract text from IDs and titles used in FCP X Projects. Is it possible?
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I’ve never tried FCP X spaces. But another option is to use a Convolution Reverb plug-in. For the Mac, it seems the best option is SIR2, which is a bit pricey at around $200. Once you have the plug-in there are tons of free “impulses” you can download. An impulse is like a fingerprint of a room. So you might be able to find one that is similar to the space you recorded in.
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Undoubtedly there will be some users who will us a 4K interface monitor for full screen video also. The price tag for professional 4K video monitors is astronomical ($17K) and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
Rest assured Apple will be coming out with a 4K monitor. How affordable it will be remains to be seen. Given prices of other 4K monitors, I’m guessing around $3000.
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This article is just plain dumb. He suggests two things in it.
1. FCP X is not ready for professional use, let me quote:
“there’s only one answer. No.”
Well, that’s easy to disprove. I’m a professional, I use it. There are many others like me. We can argue all day about market penetration, but the fact is that many professionals use it every day. That point is completely dis-proven.
2. The fact that facilities currently using Media Composer or Premiere Pro CC aren’t switching to FCP X proves that it is not professional.
“It doesn’t matter who (individual users) are using it. It matters which post production facilities are switching their Media Composers and Premiere Pro CC stations out for FCPX. I’ll be honest with you, they aren’t.”
Let me take these one by one. If you are using Media Composer, chances are you need a collaborative workflow. We all know that is a current weakness with FCP X. People get around it, including myself, but if your business is built around a certain type of project sharing it would be difficult logistically to switch at this point.
Second, why would you buy Premiere Pro CC and then a couple months later switch to FCP X. No business person in their right mind would do this. So the fact that no one has done this is not surprising in the least.
There is an obvious bias towards big facilities and freelancers in this article. Fine. But that is a limited sampling of the professionals in the video field. The fact that FCP X has not caught on in a big way with large facilities is not surprising to anyone at this point. But the reasons for that have little to do with whether or not FCP X is “ready for professional use.”
At this point I’m not sure I’d bet the bank on Media Composer being around forever either. Avid has got some real problems ahead.
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Something I didn’t think I’d use, but which I find myself using a lot is Motion templates for text and effects. It’s so easy to customize and have parameters available in FCP X for modifications. Instead of doing graphics in AE, I’m now doing more and more in Motion because I can recycle them with new content later down the road.
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[Jason Goodson] “2. Is there a way to capture video off of my home DVR, directly into FCPX using the Intensity Extreme via HDMI and Thunderbolt? I’ve been able to capture directly into BlackMagic’s Desktop Video Software in NTSC Progressive mode using that set up but that’s been it. (The HD Video I captured, ended up being 2.5GB’s for 1 minute of video.)”
Maybe. But chances are you won’t be able to capture the HDMI because of copyright protection embedded into the digital signal. What you can do is capture a component HD output from your DVR. If it doesn’t have one, you can get an HDMI to component converter.
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[Oliver Peters] “This is only true for personal, non-commercial use. I realize everyone skirts that issue and Apple looks the other way. If you want to play that game, I can install MC on an unlimited number of machines – PC or Mac – and authorize/de-authorize according to which I want to work on at the moment. I do understand your need for concurrent use, but you are utilizing a loophole.”
Simply not true. See the section of the EULA from below that pertains. You can either operate as a user-based license OR a workstation-based licenses. For businesses that have multiple editors, they have to use workstation-based licensing. I don’t. Whether or not I can as a single-user have to workstations concurrently running FCP X is not defined and therefore is not against the EULA. I’m guessing it’s not a problem in that I can only work currently with one computer while utilizing another for unattended work.
“(ii) if you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, to download, install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software for use either: (a) by a single individual on each of the Mac
Computer(s) that you own or control, or (b) by multiple individuals on a single shared Mac Computer that you own or control. For example, a single employee may use the Apple Software on both the employee’s desktop Mac Computer and laptop Mac Computer, or multiple students may serially use the Apple Software on a single Mac Computer located at a resource center or library” -
The list seems a little arbitrary. You need these things, I don’t.
My list would only contain:
FCP X – $300
Motion – $50
Compressor – $50
7toX – $10Total – $410.
Event Manager X, don’t need sparse bundles work better for me. Nattress and Haiwiki – don’t like them. I do wish there were a plug-in that provided real curve adjustment in FCP X (Nattress is not it)
The other thing is licensing. I can legally install FCP X on any computer I use since the license is per user. With Avid I’d have to go through deactivation and activation. Because we have two users at work with two licenses, I’d have to continually be managing licenses, if my partner wants to work on the workstation and I want to work on my laptop. I’d have to deregister my license on the workstation, register it on my laptop. He’d have to deregister his license on his laptop or secondary workstation and license it on the main workstation. Bottom line, it just wouldn’t happen. So for expediency we’d end up having to buy 4 licenses compared to 2.
Not to mention I can ingest material, or render out files from one workstation while working on another with a single license. Happens all the time.
So my calculation – cost for FCP X for our shop – $810. Cost for Avid – $5000.
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I have a setup with a 27″ iMac + 24″ monitor and it works quite nicely. The one (and only one) advantage of the way FCP X organizes it’s displays is that they don’t really need to match. I found with FCP 7, it didn’t work well if they didn’t match.
And the monitor goes to sleep on the iMac, I’m not sure how energy wise that’s a lot different than pushing the power switch.
I think bottom-line is that you will save a lot of money going the iMac route. When you’re self-employed (I used to be) those few thousand dollars make a difference.
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A bit of a diss, but whatever. I’m still not convinced Avid’s media management for my purposes (where I have to retain and reuse media over 10 years time) is efficient. Sometimes it’s easier to just find the file outside the NLE and copy it. It’s just plain harder with Avid to do this. Numbered folders just don’t tell me anything, especially 8 years after I’ve last opened the project.