[Richard Boyd]

It’s not a laptop, it’s an I-Mac. And, yes, I know I could use more RAM, bit I wouldn’t think that a lack of RAM would cause it to simply mute during scrubbing.

[Richard Boyd]

Judging by the colleagues I’ve talked to, if Apple is counting on a new generation of students learning FCP-X they are going to be sorely disappointed. There are just too many issues and problems with FCP-X. I can’t depend on Apple any more. We will be moving our program (50 FCP seats and 400+ students to Premiere ASAP.

[Richard Boyd]

Apple has already said they will have bulk licenses soon.

There may be more support coming.

more features over time.

FCPX is in its very earliest stages of functional development and the database/metadata structure would seem to lend itself to server integration . . . at some point.

With all due respect to you and to Apple. They’ve been working on this release for at least 2 frikkin’ years!!! OK granted it’s an all new package – but that was their decision. Nobody out here was screaming “Hey, Apple, if you don’t mind could you please completely re-write FCP and screw up everyone’s world?” Why do I need to keep waiting for them to actually make software that works?

Sure, for a couple of semesters I can continue to use FCP7, but the nature of the beast is that I have to plan ahead – and right now Apple is asking me to buy a very large set of “soon, maybe, possible, at some point, third party, etc.” To say the least their credibility is suffering – and they are definitely NOT responding to the concerns of the professional community. In fact, it appears that they are surprised that anyone’s upset at all. I can’t tell if they are just that clueless or if they just don’t care. Either way it’s not reassuring.

[Richard Boyd]

In addition to the issued raised above here are some of the problems I see:

1. Our school currently has 55 seats of FCP. How do we upgrade? Does Apple seriously expect us to open up 55 different I-Tunes accounts so we can individually download 55 separate stations of FCX? Aside from the time/pain-in-the-a.. issues, imagine me going to my purchasing department and asking them to fund 55 different I-Tunes accounts.

2. Our students keep all of their project work on personal firewire drives. I’m still unsure of the file saving process in FCX but it appears to be incompatible with our workflow.

3. Most of our more advanced students post their audio in Pro-tools and color correct in Color. We teach them to because that’s how the real world works What are they supposed to do now?

4. For the last 10 years we’ve been telling our students: “Final Cut Pro is completely professional software. It’s a major player in the film industry and proficiency in FCP will allow you to work in professional shops.” Now what do we tell them?

[Richard Boyd]

Chris:
That it’s unfortunate that Apple has temporarily placed a small number of people in awkward situation, but that it’s unlikely to have the sort of wide impact on the future of the NLE market that people keep claiming it will.

I currently have 55 seats of FCS7 in 2 different editing labs for my students. I was planning on updating this fall to the new version of FCP that we have been anticipating. Aside from all of the other issues, attempting to set up 55 different I-Tunes accounts so that we can individually download 55 different copies of FCX is absurd beyond the ken of mortal man.

So, we are considering our options – best guess we will probably move to Adobe PP. And guess what – our students will train on Adobe, buy Adobe, use Adobe, convince their friends to use Adobe, etc. We train 200 or so students a year. Multiply us by dozens of different schools and a few years, and you know what – you have a pretty wide impact on the future of the NLE market.

[Richard Boyd]

Actually there is a difference between regular 75 ohm video cable and cable rated for HD-SDI. HD rated cable has a lower inherent capacitance which improves its bandwidth substantially, especially over long distances – say 25 feet or more. Also, BNC connectors rated for HD-SDI are manufactured to higher tolerances and have improved bandwidth specifications.

Belden 1694 is a fine choice if you are going to stay analog or Standard Def, at least for video, but it would be completely un-useable for professional balanced audio signals since it has only a single inner conductor.

[Richard Boyd]

Walter,

I understand your concerns. Here’s the difference between your position and mine:

Even though I may own footage of Jimmy Carter, I don’t have permission to use his image. The same is true in the other cases you mentioned. I agree, I do confidential work in the petrochemical industry and defense industry all the time. But, in my case, if the client wants a re-edit, or wants to do another project along the same lines, I have access to that material and my competitors don’t. I don’t want some other production house producing a project that I shot using my footage. That’s the difference. I own my footage, the clients owns their name, image, and information.

If for some reason they insist on having the raw footage, I’m reasonable, but I don’t give it away for free, unless the job contract specifically allowed for that up front. BTW I’ve worked for Fortune 500 corporations for 15 plus years using this arrangement and never had a problem.

[Richard Boyd]

When a client comes to us to produce a project, we quote a price – for a finished project. The client gets a finished tape, or disc, or file, whatever, and that’s it. Anything that our company acquires, makes, films, records, etc. during the production process belongs to us, not our client. If you buy a car from Ford, you don’t have a right to the machinery Ford used to make the car.

On the other hand, the client paid for the finished project. It’s theirs to do with as they see fit.