[Roland Blaser]

Thanks for the input. Setting the parameters manually within Compressor instead of using presets was one of my first actions. However, it didn’t work. While the single pass H.264 encoding works as before, the multi-pass (“best quality”) results in huge files with approximately four times the size…

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Science journalist, cameraman, video editor. 30 years of science communication for Swiss National TV. Awarded Prix Media by Swiss Academy of Science. Nominee Descartes Prize for Science Communication European Union.
> New Mac Pro. MacBook Pro. FCPX. Logic Pro X.

[Roland Blaser]

Thanks for your points of view. Of course I will do a soft transfer to FCPX on my future Mac Pro. However for my main customer I produced around 80 TV reports with FCP 7. All the title effects, lower thirds and so on will have to be transferred to FCPX too. I guess the old reports will stay on FCP 7 whenever possible (for future encodings or small changes).

More important: I use a typical broadcast workflow with an external audio software (Soundtrack Pro in my case) for audio finishing (music, effects, commentary, final mix). You know: multiple stereo and mono tracks in a specific order…

I’m pretty sure I will like FCPX for its performance, for its features, for its innovative approach. Hard to accept is the trackless philosophy. Future will show whether Apple was right. I know, there are rolls but fact is: it makes working with multiple audio “tracks” more difficult for me.

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Science journalist, cameraman, video editor. 30 years of science communication for Swiss National TV. Awarded Prix Media by Swiss Academy of Science. Nominee Descartes Prize for Science Communication European Union.
> Mac Pro 8 core, MacBook Pro. AJA ioHD. FCP 7.

[Roland Blaser]

Lance, I’m with you.

Apple could have sold me at least two Mac Pros in between. My Mac Pro 8 core 2,1 is still nice for FCP 7 but not compatible with FCPX anymore (the last one with 32 bit EFI). Of course I have FCPX running on my MacBook Pro 13″ Retina but this is rather for fun compared to my 30″ Cinema Display attached to the old horse below my desk.

Simply the small upgrade steps of the Mac Pro line were never attractive enough to replace the 2,1 until now. However now I’m really looking forward to get a new Mac Pro. Compared to the 2,1 most probably it will be like replacing an old propeller airplane with a supersonic plane.

And even the Thunderbolt 2 RAIDs are already available in different flavors (Pegasus2 Series) – great! Questions left unanswered for time being: prices of the 8 and 12 core models, the higher performing GPUs, RAM/Flash memory. And: is there any nice high-res monitor that could replace my 30″ Cinema Display?

Let’s hope we will know the answers (or most of them) next week…

Regards from Switzerland,

Roland

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Science journalist, cameraman, video editor. 30 years of science communication for Swiss National TV. Awarded Prix Media by Swiss Academy of Science. Nominee Descartes Prize for Science Communication European Union.
> Mac Pro 8 core, MacBook Pro. AJA ioHD. FCP 7.

[Roland Blaser]

Hi Steve

I’m not at NAB but most probably it’s about what Larry Jordan got from Apple concerning FCPX. Maybe Sony has a prerelease…

Regards, Roland

from Larry’s blog:

MXF Plug-in Support

FCP X has been able to read MXF files (think XDCAM EX), but not the native MXF wrapper that contains them. In the past, it needed to convert MXF to QuickTime. In the future, FCP X won’t need to make this conversion. Apple was quick to stress that this was not a move away from QuickTime, instead it was adding support for a common video format.

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Science journalist, cameraman, video editor. 30 years of science communication for Swiss National TV. Awarded Prix Media by Swiss Academy of Science. Nominee Descartes Prize for Science Communication European Union.
> Mac Pro 8 core, MacBook Pro. AJA ioHD. FCP 7.

[Roland Blaser]

Hi Oliver

As a senior FCP user I expected Apple to improve a very nice and professional tool (FCP7) instead of bringing something completely different (FCP X). Means recoding and some GUI redesign.
Keeping the proven concept and tool and, maybe, in parallel publishing something else: iMovie Pro for all the people always looking for something new. Would have been the much better way for most of us, including Apple’s reputation within the video pro community.
A soon as iMovie Pro would have reached a certain quality, we could have jumped to the other ship, leaving nice but older FCP7 behind…
Will Apple ever learn how to treat pros?

Roland

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Science journalist, cameraman, video editor. 30 years of science communication for Swiss National TV. Awarded Prix Media by Swiss Academy of Science. Nominee Descartes Prize for Science Communication European Union.
> Mac Pro 8 core, MacBook Pro. AJA ioHD. FCP 7.

[Roland Blaser]

My answer is “b” for sure (want the audio tracks back).
For my TV workflow it is much easier to have the old fashioned audio tracks. Gives me a clear presentation of the whole audio stuff like IT, narration track, music, special effects and so on. I’m editing at home but as the final audio mix is done within the TV station, I have to output omf audio with a given track distribution – that’s a professional workflow I’m faced with since the invention of non-linear editing.
Yes, I’m one of those old fashioned guys who would like to have FCP8 instead of FCPX. I’m sure FCPX has some very nice features. However, I need to make money with my editing tool. And I prefer a robust tool over a tool with a lot of gadgets. I’m sure FCP8 could have most of the nice FCPX stuff implemented – but the “old fashioned” way I prefer. New is not always better, sometimes it’s just different. Concerning editing: it’s rather difficult to invent the wheel again and again. Since Apple had the arrogance to tell me what workflow is good for me, I have a pretty different view concerning this company…

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Science journalist, cameraman, video editor. 30 years of science communication for Swiss National TV. Awarded Prix Media by Swiss Academy of Science. Nominee Descartes Prize for Science Communication European Union.
> Mac Pro 8 core, MacBook Pro. AJA ioHD. FCP 7.

[Roland Blaser]

Hello Gary

Thanks for clarifying! Very strange that the hardware encoding (PorRes, Avid codec and more) is not underlined in their product description. After reading through all this stuff I came to the conclusion I would have to capture everything uncompressed and the Mac has to do the encoding for ProRes and other codecs afterwards. If I would be their marketing guy, I would really underline this on-the-fly hardware encoding (while capturing)…

Thanks,
Roland

Science journalist, cameraman, video editor. 30 years of science communication for Swiss National TV. Awarded Prix Media by Swiss Academy of Science. Nominee Descartes Prize for Science Communication European Union.
> Mac Pro 8 core, MacBook Pro. AJA ioHD. FCP 7.

[Roland Blaser]

Hi Ken,

keep in mind that Apple promised to introduce broadcast quality monitoring for FCP X for beginning of 2012. Means: FCP X will stream a broadcast quality signal to external units like AJA and Black Magic Design interfaces (as FCP did up to release 7).
Depending on the technical details, video interface producers will have to implement it into their firmware or code the respective drivers, of course. Don’t see reasons why this couldn’t be done for ioHD.
But something else: AJA VTR Xchange has nothing to do with the Apple implementation as it allows the ioHD and other AJA hardware to ingest footage from tapes (or other sources) independently from a third party editing tool as FCP. The question is: how long will AJA VTR Xchange be supported as the new Control Room software will take over this job for AJA’s hardware (except ioHD as we know from this thread).
IMO the whole thing (not to support ioHD anymore) is a pure marketing decision. I recommend AJA to reconsider this decision. If a marketing decision converts the AJA ioHD into a door-stopper it would be clever to offer ioHD owners a discount for an ioHD successor, for instance.

Roland

[Roland Blaser]

Dear AJA guys: an “error”? This explanation stinks to heaven. You are serious, right? Well, we, the ioHD users, have two ways we can go after ioHD: AJA or Black Magic Design. What do you think we will do after AJA leaves us behind in the dessert? A clever marketing would have managed this in a different way…

[Roland Blaser]

Hi Greg! I agree: better something that works instead of quick and dirty. However, after announcing it for October why not simply let us know that it takes a bit longer? Any AJA people reading this forum?