[Herb Sevush]

Chris –

Most of your remarks are valid and reasonable, but here your trying to have it both ways.

Apple has always, as far as I know, pulled old versions when new ones went on sale

Over and over you have stated that this is a new 1.0 release and should be judged that way. It is most emphatically NOT a “new version” but rather a new application using an old name.

Pulling FCS3 off the shelf is the single most damming thing about this whole situation. Nothing you have said explains it in any way, yet you go on distorting your own logic in trying to defend it and I can’t figure out why.

If Apple were interested in staying in the broadcast side of the business they would have given a a migration path for large companies with multiple licenses – by eliminating any future for FCP 7 before FCPX is ready for high end use they have guaranteed that many if not most of these users will move on to new platforms, and sooner rather than later. If you have ever had your core programs EOL’d, you’d know that the quicker you make the change the better off you are.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Buddy –

Anyone who says things like “Digital is where its at” doesn’t have the ability to insult anyone, so no offense taken.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Ken –

But what worries me are the reports that iMovie Pro has to transcode all its imported media to ProRes – no native support for H264 or XDCAM etc.

Couldn’t agree more. I started an earlier thread entitled “its worse than we thought” primarily because of this information. Welcome to the future – but first we have to transcode all your material.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Douglas

will FCPX achieve the necessary functionality (OMF, XML, import old sequences or projects, multi-cam) … BEFORE the current FCP7.0.3 stops working in Lion?

I think you’re being naive. I don’t think FCPX will EVER have most of these features – it’s not necessary for the market they are aiming at.

Knowing they were killing FCS3 the same day they were releasing X, if they wanted X to be able to open FCP project files it would have. This is real basic stuff, I’ll bet Automatic Duck will have a file conversion available in the next few months. If after 2 years of development Apple can’t do it now, why would they do it 3 months from now?

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Everything you need to know about the value of that article can be found here –

What’s really rubbing users the wrong way, however, is Apple’s decision to discontinue its mid-range Final Cut Express video editing software.

Yeah, thats what’s pissing us off.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

I don’t think they will ever implement a sophisticated multi-cam system.

I don’t think they will accept FCP7 projects, although it’s possible they will accept XML.

I don’t think they will ever support OMF.

i don’t think they want to spend an hours worth of effort to compete with Avid. I think they are happy to get out of that market and concentrate on making they best ever Youtube editor.

Mostly I don’t think they are nearly as stupid as you seem to think they are. They sent a very specific message with this release — they knew what the pro community would think and they released it anyway. My guess is Automated Duck will have a way to translate FCP to X in the next 3 months. Apple’s been working on X for 2 years, if they wanted it to open FCP7 projects it would have.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Buddy –

It must be that you don’t want to get it.

This isn’t a beta version of FCPX, this is a beta version of iMovie Pro. It’s not that they didn’t have anyone to catch these “flaws”, it’s that they have re-targeted the software and no longer care about the comparatively small numbers of high-end users. They took the Final Cut name because it’s way cooler than calling it iMovie, and they don’t care if we all howl at the moon as long as the App store is making sales.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

The problem is that Apple created Imovie Pro but deceitfully called it Final Cut Pro X. You can tell that it’s an Imovie upgrade because like all upgrades it accepts earlier versions of Imovie files, just as you can tell it’s not an upgrade of FCP because it can’t accept earlier FCP files.

All the apologists keep insisting it’s a 1.0 release, but why should we treat it that way when Apple calls it version 10. If Apple had been remotely honest and said, here’s the future of digital editing, it’s called Imovie Pro Ver. 1 and it will soon supplant FCP as the editing tool of the future there wouldn’t be all this commotion.

But of course they wouldn’t have sold so many versions on opening day, and what’s a little fraud compared to the bottom line.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

I’m sure, after years of development, that there will be plenty of things to admire about the way X handles things. My guess is there will be just as many things to loath and regret.

You may be too young to remember when Mazda came on the scene with the Wankel rotary engine – a new paradigm for car engines. It was better, in some ways, but then it was not better in many others, and it failed because it is not enough to be different – you need to improve things that need improving, not make things different to be different.

The standard NLE GUI has evolved over many years, through many different designs by many different companies because it works in a huge variety of situations and is extremely customizable – that’s why Premiere basically copied FCP when they made the Pro version a few years ago and why most editors can go from Avid to FCP to Premiere so easily – yes you can make a car with no steering wheel and a gas pedal you push with your nose, and it might have it’s advantages in some situations – but nobodies asking for it and your going to loose a lot of customers along the way, especially if you leave off the wheels and expect the buyers to wait a few months until you figure out how to attach them.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

all events are available from all projects.

Actually that sounds like a horror show to me. I like to be able to choose what material is in front of me when I work on a project, not have everything I’ve ever worked on loaded every time I start my NLE.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions