[Craig Seeman]

[Tim Wilson] “So, provocatively, what’s your take on this? Not just your take on his take, but your thinking on the big picture?”

Everyone always expects the unexpected from Apple and FCPX. Even PPro users, finding it a comfortable (and impressive) progression from Legacy, are eyeing FCPX, not because it’s “the best” but the most innovative (not every risk is a success though).

The past year Apple FCPX has been focused on “professional” (broadcast) improvements with Library rethinking and MXF support. Many FCPX users may even be frustrated, for the time being, at Apple’s pragmatic approach of the last year. This probably has given some none FCPXers time to play with it without feeling they’re being hit with “feature innovation” onslaught. I think people are expecting a few rounds of feature improvements along with more innovation in the coming year though.

Adobe PPro has been adding new features at a somewhat consistent and relatively fast pace. Not the “radical” features that Apple is capable of though. In fact when “radical” Adobe feature, speech recognition, didn’t progress, they dropped it.

What is clear to me is that there’s two very divergent company development philosophies. Adobe the progressive and Apple the risk taking radical.

Big picture.
Adobe PPro grows fastest but Apple’s FCPX inroads will quicken.
In the next major update Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve will develop into a more reasonable NLE. Plugin developers are quickly adding support.
Avid MC will remain in its niche and as the other NLEs progress, will see more erosion outside of its niche. Avid will refocus on making that niche more profitable though.

Ultimately, Apple’s exciting to watch because, sometimes, despite some faltering, they do innovate.

[Craig Seeman]

Short answer. Depends on the NLE.

FCPX requires ProApps Codecs and the most recent was released three days before your post. My wild guess is they wouldn’t have done it if it were no longer needed.

PremierePro may have built in support from what I understand.

[Craig Seeman]

YouTube’s recommended settings.
Create custom settings from these.
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en

[Craig Seeman]

Along the same lines, Sachtler FSB6 with carbon fiber legs. If your rig is really heavy then the FSB8.

[Craig Seeman]

[Michael Gissing] “Just to bump this topic and let people know – the Red Giant 40% of sale is on for one day right now. I just bought Universe Forever license for $240”

As did I. Great tool set and the fact that one “membership” allows for the use in many programs means it’ll endure a transition in tool sets as needed.

Heck the “lifetime membership is “almost” like buying FCPX was. No upgrade fees (although Apple, unlike RedGiant) reserves the right to issue a new paid version).

[Craig Seeman]

[Tim Wilson] “Avid would sell ZERO Unity networks without Media Composer. “

But that would make MC as utility integral for Unity not so much something that has great value to them with stand alone MC sales. It’s not that MC should or could “go away” but its value to them is really as part of Unity.

I have to wonder it EditShare is hoping LightWorks because their Media Composer in that it becomes integral in making their storage systems more valuable. It seems why they might have found value in LightWorks. They want/need an NLE with ties to their storage system that they can add value to.

[Tim Wilson] “That’s the definition of “an NLE company.” No NLE = no company.
“

I would consider them a Broadcast Enterprise company that makes an NLE to best take advantage of that. Semantics maybe but I don’t consider them an “NLE Company.” In fact, these days, I don’t think there are any NLE companies per se.

Apple would survive without FCPX. Adobe could survive without PPro although for them, it may be seen as, at least, an integral tool in After Effects work (not that it’s value is in any way limited to that).

My own guess as the array of NLEs improve, Avid’s NLE ONLY market share will erode (which has no baring on MC’s use with Unity system). In fact Avid, with proper management decisions, will weather that.

[Craig Seeman]

[TImothy Auld] “why in the hell is it not on the FCPX action page?”

One has to wonder about Apple’s marketing of FCPX. The In Action page is “dormant” to say the least.
Personally, these days I think Apple’s marketing is the weakest link.

Of course if Apple has decided word of mouth from “professionals” is important than arguably 10.1.4 was their “marketing” release given that MXF may cause some involved in broadcasting to talk more seriously about FCPX.

[Craig Seeman]

I think Avid is rethinking their business model.
Their handling of MC/Symphony and updates/upgrades were probably a large part of their problems. This for a company that really isn’t an NLE company anymore.
They’re services a small niche and if that’s their objective, they need to make it more profitable.
One might loosely compare them to what Grass Valley Group has gone through.

[Craig Seeman]

I’m sooooo predictable 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPatfgoNBRo

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[Craig Seeman]

I can’t help but think FCPX developers are aware of the demand but have some new way to handle this that’s been difficult/time consuming/AVFoundation dependent to implement. Granted this is highly speculative.

As time goes on, I think we’re not seeing certain “obvious” features implemented because they’re working on a more difficult to implement alterantive.

I do wish Apple had some base level of communication. It would be nice to get even a basic:

“We hear you, we have something in mind, it’ll take time to implement.”
Something like that would at least let us know that a feature request is on their radar even if they can’t say much else.