Peter Blumenstock
Forum Replies Created
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True, but this, too, is nothing new with Apple. My first video card was an Igniter card from Aurora. It was pci. Then apple moved to pci-x without telling them: they offered to replace the card for a nominal few. One year later Apple moved to pci-e… without telling before and all that time they refused to help them build a FW based IO product because the did just that with AJA and the original IO. Half a year later they were out of business and a very bitter letter from the owners describing how much Apple sucked in their lack of information and support circulated I think even around here back then.
If you talk to smaller companies nowadays building hardware for the Mac (some are here on Cow) is is pretty much the same thing. Quote: “We find these bugs in the OS, we cannot work around them, we report them to Apple over and over again but, as usual, they never even respond”.
And the very same thing happened yesterday with the release of a certain piece of software. -
Premiere works with AJA, BMD etc. and this is where a lot of people will go and some very big players like the BBC have already gone last year. AVID is also opening up a bit with more support for AJA and Matrox. Now, if Avid is really clever and if they have learned anything from FCP’s success back in the day when they were market leaders they would open up Media Composer to work with all cards from AJA, BMD, etc. in their next release. The money they’d loose from NitrixDX sales would be nothing compared to the thousands and thousands of users streaming over to buy a Media Composer working right out of the box with these cards.
Apart from that, there is nothing really any of these companies can say. It’s not a question of updating drivers, the funcionionality to add such hardware simply isn’t there in FCP X. Otherwise AJA wouldn’t have come up with their current “workaround” using desktop preview. -
Wrong. I want their products. Very badly, actually. Because since yesterday they are the only viable option to get work done. So I am more than happy to hear suggestions and comments about other software. Cause tons and tons of people here will switch – some sooner and the still-in-Apple-believers a little later.
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I agree with you but let’s be realistic here: it was all wishful thinking and hoping up to yesterday but the writing’s been on the wall for years.
Back in the early day, Apple bought new technology left an right. DVDdirector, Spruce, Emagic, NothingReal, Silicon Color. There was an Xserve Raid, an XServe, Apple was at trade shows and actually talked to professional users.
Bit by bit it all dissapeared, with no decent replacement. It is time to wake up and simply face the facts. Apple has become a candy colored consumer oriented toy store and that’s it. That’s where the money for them is, that’s where their future is. And with FCP X being a single monitor app that cannot even interface with any external hardware and post houses taking their business back to Avid or Premiere the next step is equally obvious: bye bye Mac Pro. I’ll bet that in two years from now that piece of hardware is history, too. -
I have a 10 GIG Ethernet card in my Mac which only works under the 64bit Kernel due to a bug in the OSX network stack (thank, Apple, for that, too).
32bit will give me kernel panics.
MC 5.5 requires you to boot into a 32bit kernel, only 6.0 will become full 64 bit. -
Waiting for Media Composer 6, then I am outta here.
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Given Apple’s past track record I don’t really care what may or, more likely, may not come in a future update.
What matters to me is the status quo. And with Apple pulling FCP7 it can be described in a very simple way with regards to Apple’s “Pro” apps:
Professional editing: not possible. Professional color crading: not possible. DVD authoring: not possible. Blu-ray authoring: not possible.
That is the situation a companies are facing who have spent the past 9 years with Apple, their hardware, their software, investing in the fcp ecosystem with both hard- and software – and they are left in the cold right here and right now – with no certainty that this situation may ever change an a ton of potential expenses waiting around the corner once they have realized it is time to move elsewhere… In my book, that’s a betrayal of trust.
Why pull FCP7? Why not continue selling it if all those missing features will be part of a future upgrade? Because… I firmly believe they won’t. -
I don’t consider the ability to export a file with 4 discreet audio channels a high-end workflow. It’s part of the most basic feature set a NLE can have in the year 2011. It doesn’t get more basic than that.
It part of the same attitude Apple shows with regard to lots of other things that are not part of the i-consumer hype. Server hardware: gone. Apple’s answer: Mac Mini or an MacPro that cannot be rack mounted. Shake: gone. Apple’s answer: Motion. DVD authoring: gone. Apple’s answer: nothing. Blu-ray authoring: never been there. Apple’s answer: nothing, don’t care. Color: gone. Apple’s answer: FCP, without preview capabilities on an external monitor. Great. Not one single person in a professional work environment will color correct that way.
And to make matters worse, they have pulled FCP 7. If a post house needs another license because FCP X simply cannot do the most basic jobs they are out of luck. What a great move that really serves Apple’s customers to get the job done. They can play a 4k timeline 24/7 and export it to Youtube but cannot output 4 channels of audio.
The broadcast and post house market will run a mile a from FCP X. It’s about time Apple falls flat on their arrogant nose with their lackluster commitment to established markets. Where is Apple at NAB or IBC, nowhere to be seen anymore. They were there big time when they wanted those customers. Now they have them and that was that. Moving on. Talk to Avid about future plans and you get information, talk to Apple and you get silence. I have enough, I simply don’t want to bet the future of my business on such a company anymore and from the reactions here and elsewhere I am not alone. -
Really?
Here is one little example that renders the entire app completely useless. Just take a look at the ridiculous audio options. I can choose stereo or surround for my project. That is it.
What if I need to work with 4 channels of audio. Or 8, or 12. And that’s as basic as it can possible get. 2 channel final mix, 2 channel m&e for subsequent dubbing in foreign countries. Or 5.1 final mix AND 5.1 M&E to be laid off to HDCAM-SR. Can’t be done. I cannot even create such a project and export a QT file so I can subsequently output it using AJA or BM tools.
Are you seriously saying Apple didn’t have enough time to implement such “advanced” features and it will be added later on? My take is that they don’t care. It is a workflow the average consumer won’t need so they don’t care. We can do 4k but cannot output a file with 4 discreet audio channels. Hilarious, pathetic. -
I am 100 per cent with you. FCP X is an abomination and a slap in the face of the established user base. And unfortunately it is once again proof that Apple is totally unpredictable and cannot be trusted in their commitment to certain markets. FCP X isn’t something that can be fixed with a few updates; its ignorance for the most basic features and workflows is almost funny and grotesque.
I don’t feel comfortable anymore basing my business and income on a software and company behind it that obviously has no clue and interest in what pays the bills of the people using it. Exporting to Youtube certainly isn’t one of those things. What a joke! Maybe the time has finally come consider stepping away from all this nonsense, secrecy and lack of interest in real world usage and go with Avid, Adobe or maybe even look at Edius.