[Tim Wilson]

[Michael Kienitz] “BTW the two forums are the perfect compliment for schizophrenia.”

Honestly, I wouldn’t want to do without either forum. The occasional personal attacks pain me, but the conversation is otherwise invaluable. We understand that these are high stakes issues, and tempers can flare. (Although we’ll step in if we see something getting out of control, and invite you to let us know if you see something we miss.)

Frankly, very few people outside these walls are trustworthy enough that I really care about their opinions. Here, I know that most of you work for a living with this stuff, rather than just talking about working for a living.

As someone who has both worked and taught, I most definitely put training in the “talking about work” category, unless that trainer…like the ones based in the COW….are also deriving most, if not virtually all, of their living from “real” work. Arrogant yes, but I could not possibly care less what a trainer or columnist has to say. I just don’t trust them. YOU folks, I’m listening to.

That’s always been the beauty of the COW. While there are leaders here that are respected as the best the entire industry has to offer, those leaders are well aware that the community itself is the authority. A little guidance is a good thing, but a thousand voices of experience is a great thing.

I just want to keep emphasizing to people who find too much negativity and noise for their taste in this particular forum, that we have a relatively positive, signal-y forum right next door.

It’s a BIG world after all. 🙂

[Tim Wilson]

Primal Scream Therapy? 🙂

Please head on over to our FCPX Techniques forum. The conversation is much gentler, and people are actually talking about USING the thing, instead of the politics of the release.

You’ll find it linked in the orange nav bar, above.

Best,
Tim
Creative COW

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

[Tim Wilson]

As I mentioned parenthetically, I did indeed leave Avid in 2006, when I came to the COW…and ironically, among the reasons Avid hired me was my Final Cut Pro expertise…which I haven’t looked at since I left Avid. 🙂

My roots at Apple go back to 1979, when my father became the manager of Apple’s first manufacturing facility in Carrolton, TX. (Yes, Apple used to manufacture in the US.) He eventually moved to Cupertino to become a director of operations. When the Mac rolled out in 1984, my father stood on the stage to introduce Steve. A couple of years later (1985? I forget) my brother-in-law started as a product manager, and worked there for 13 years, give or take. By the time he left, he was reporting directly to Steve.

I’m still an Apple fan, but since I haven’t actually edited for a living since 2001, have just been watching this whole thing through the eyes of COWs.

It would not surprise me at all if we met in LA, as I spent a ton of time there….but it would surprise me if I said anything to say besides, “Sorry bro, I don’t know anything about P2.” 🙂

Tim

[Tim Wilson]

The Cube RAWKED!!!

Darren, Videoguys.com still has the crossgrade in stock.

[Tim Wilson]

[Mike Cohen] “I think this is a hypothetical similar situation:”

When the Harvard Business School was the first to begin teaching the case study method in 1920, one reason why it was so controversial (and still is, actually) is that sample sizes are necessarily statistically insignificant — one of a gajillion. They can all be seen as exceptions to “well known economic laws,” so what the heck can you learn from them?

With Apple, that’s kind of the point. Most of what you’re going to learn from an Apple case study is that they write their own rules, which may or may not apply to anyone else.

I’m not saying anything about Apple one way or the other. I’m talking about case studies. I agree that this is going to make a great one, but I’d advise any student of mine that there’s not enough to base a case on, one way or the other, for at least a year.

Because what do we know about the iPhone 4 antenna “debacle” a year later? It affected a lot more people, got WAY more ink, and I can summarize the net net in two words: Whatever, dude.

We’ll know more in a year, at which time we might find that Apple is an exception to its own exception. Or not.

[Tim Wilson]

[John Godwin] ” when Avid bought Pinnacle they quickly cut the high end products”

Not immediately, though. At the first Avid+Pinnacle NAB, there was a whole set of Blue demos running multiple streams of uncompressed HD – the ONLY product in the entire booth doing that! There were Blue roadshows, and a whole new sales channel.

In the meantime, “classic” Avid editors were wondering – rather rudely in some cases 🙂 – when THEIR support for 1:1 HD was coming.

To be honest, I don’t remember the timeline for what happened next, but in the beginning, it was a love match, not a takeover.

But yes, the moral of the story is that very few favorites remain intact over time.

Worst example ever: I read in the Wall St. Journal that there are rumors that Kellogg’s Corn Pops could be dead by 2012!! I still haven’t gotten over losing the original flavor of Alpha Bits. Don’t get me started on Quisp and Kaboom!

[Tim Wilson]

Bob Zelin posting just to get a reaction? I can’t imagine!

But if you read for a while, which I’ve been spending more time on than I should, the “yays” are gaining momentum. And while the FCPX Techniques forum is hardly wall-to-wall love, people are definitely finding that what they’re looking for is in a different place.

Not minimizing the genuine anguish mind you, or the things that reall aren’t there…or there yet…but I think that your replies there are spot on. It all changes. It has always sucked, and it doesn’t suck any more this time than it will next time.

[Tim Wilson]

[John Godwin] “Avid bought it, eventually, evidently to kill it off as competition”

Not at all. The purpose of acquiring Pinnacle was filling in holes across the board, from playout servers and broadcast CG to consumer software sold at Circuit City. Liquid was seen very specifically as filling in a gap that Avid otherwise didn’t see a way for themselves to fill — people outside Hollywood who wanted fast, powerful, standalone stations with integrated feature sets. You looked at Xpress Pro when Avid bought Pinnacle. Did it look like competition to you? Of course not. Liquid was seen as a key strategic, complementary product.

Less than a year later, Avid acquired Medea storage for the very same reason – a strategic complement in the area of standalone storage, where Avid’s focus has been shared storage.

Note too that Avid EOL’d Xpress Pro in 2008, Liquid not until 2010. Guessing now, but perhaps a growing market for a lower-cost, software-only Media Composer did them both in. Since Liquid was never meant to be a “feeder” for Media Composer — it was considered its own “pinnacle” if you will — folks like you quite reasonably went elsewhere.

FCPX makes perfect sense. Liquid’s timeline was indeed far ahead of its time, and its integrated toolset (one application, many tasks) has not yet been equaled. It’s clear that FCPX is making a run at this, and I think that many former Liquid people might be very happy with FCPX in the long run.

After all, the long run is what’s going to make this most interesting, eh?

[Tim Wilson]

[Devin Crane] ” The FCPX forum is basically for bashing FCPX”

Well, more precisely, to talk about it rather than work with it.

But yes, this forum is for people getting to work, and I think Pogue offers some sound advice, both workarounds and solutions…and I’m increasingly thinking that third-party solutions ARE the solutions.

Now THAT is starting to veer off topic. 🙂 Anyone wanting to get to work, though, will find something helpful in Pogue’s column.

[Tim Wilson]

Of course, the same writer said just last month that the A in Avid stands for AVOID. That kind of swing in a month is exactly what will hose you as a stock investor. Look at the long term: profit, loss, confidence.

For example, MSFT is consistently doubling both revenue and profit: stock flat over 10 years. Avid’s profit up 54%, trading between 11 and 18 — with record years while the stock was in that range – so another example where confidence is an issue.

I still like their products a lot (disclosure: used to work there), and think Media Composer should be on your list of options alongside Premiere…each will be better for some folks…and you can certainly buy both for under $2K total…but stock?

It kills me that the Fool analyst was writing off Avid because they didn’t respond to FCP in a timely fashion (better advice in 2002 than 2011, when they ARE making sound responses) and that they’d priced themselves out of the edu game — when you can buy Media Composer for $299 and FCS for $799. This has been true since at least 2003.

Of course it was Avid Xpress back then, but still, you could just as easily (and wrongly) argue that Apple has finally responded to the price pressure of Avid, waiting until 2011 to meet the price that Avid has held for 8 years! Please. This guy simply doesn’t have his facts straight.

Betting against Apple as a STOCK is a mug’s game. Even while it has flattened at well over $200, you could look at fundamentals and argue that it’s undervalued.

General advice: avoid stocks. 🙂 Or avoid thinking that these short-term issues will affect long-term value.

And certainly avoid using stock price to evaluate the worth of products to you.

Fun to talk about though. 🙂