Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X and Compressor
Late yesterday, Apple updated Final Cut Pro X and Compressor; mostly to fix bugs but with a few new features thrown in.
Here’s a list of what’s new, in both features and bug fixes and some initial comments on what’s working and what isn’t.
FINAL CUT PRO X (v. 10.3.3)
Features
- The ability to expand the width of the Inspector to view parameters more easily
- Diamond icon displayed in Timeline when user modifies Roles display
- More color options in the Roles editor
- Support for Canon Log 3 and Sony S-Log3/S-Gamut3 media processing
Bugs fixed
- Fixes issue with updating older libraries
- Faster redraw of audio waveforms when using clips that are being imported while recorded to disk
- Reveal in Browser correctly displays the location of the original clip in the Browser
- Resolves an issue in with the Viewer could occasionally disappear when exiting full screen mode
- Resolves an issue in which Share to DVD could become unresponsive
- Improves font quality of DVD menu and chapter titles
- Improves image quality when creating a DVD
- Enhanced DVD User dialog messages with embedded links to documentation.
Comments
Of all the complaints I received from the original 10.3 update, DVD burning was at the top of the list. Apple made some changes with all their updates, but this is the most extensive series of fixes so far.
Let me know if you still have problems burning DVDs after this update.
COMPRESSOR
Features
- Command line options for monitoring job status
- Dithering option adds noise to images to minimize distracting patters such as color banding
- Option, when creating iTunes Store package, to identify health warning text as required by Indian law
- Support for animated PNG and animated GIF image sequences
Bugs Fixed
- Improves watermark image quality
- Timecode filter is accurately displayed against drop-frame media
- Fixes sync issue for audio transcoded to AC-3
- Resolves an issue in which Share to DVD could become unresponsive
- Improves font quality of DVD menu and chapter titles
- Improves image quality when creating a DVD
- Enhanced DVD User dialog messages with embedded links to documentation.
Comments
There good and bad news here. Based on my immediate testing, the watermark issue is not yet fixed. Text quality remains poor when a Photoshop watermark is “burned” into the video using the Watermark effect. This broke with the 4.3 update and remains buggy.
On the other hand, Richard Hale sent me an email this morning saying: “This update (13 April 2017) of Compressor fixes the broken importing of sequential files. Hurray!”
SUMMARY
Updates are free and available in the Updates section of the Mac App Store.
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6 Responses to Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X and Compressor
Hi Larry,
I’ve written to Apple after each of the last three FCP X updates to request a fix to the presets in the Share function. They have not fixed the problem, so I’m starting to wonder if it’s not a problem and that there is a way to change those presets that I don’t know about.
Specifically, I’d like to make the Codec preset H.264 Better Quality. It always reverts back to H.264 Faster Encode. The other selections in the window will stay with whatever choice I make for them the next time I use the Share function, but not Video Codec. In each type of output the H.264 Faster Encode is always pre-selected, no matter that it is never used.
To your knowledge is this a bug, or is there a way to accomplish what I want that I just don’t see? Thanks! -Brad
Brad:
You are correct – this customizability is a feature of Compressor, not a bug.
Right-mouse click (or Control-Click) the compression setting you like, then select Duplicate. This new duplicate will appear in the Custom section of the Settings panel, with all the settings of the original. Make the one change you need and, poof, you are done.
I have about ten custom settings that I use on a regular basis and duplicating an existing setting is the easiest way to create one.
Larry
Since updating to FCPX 10.3.3 when ever I create a master file the yellow triangular warning icon with an “!” in the middle for the yellow triangle. When I click it the following appears:
Master file:(null): The selected video codec is not available for your current project setting. Please change you project setting or select a different export format.
I have not changed my project settings in three years! I did the upload anyway and it plays fine on my computer. Only time will tell how uploading video to Vimeo and YouTube to my subscribers will work. Any thoughts?
RE the codec unavailablity, yes I had the same problem, but it still seemed to proceed and play back OK. This dialog might be just in error itself. But time will indeed tell.
I had already tried that. And I tried it again just now, based on your suggestion. Same problem. The “Better Quality” option for Video Codec always reverts to “Faster Encode” the next time you select that codec.
This didn’t use to be the case. Until a recent update, FCP X would stay with the settings of the previous time you exported a video, including Video Codec. I exported with Better Quality every time, and never had to check the menu to make sure. Now, I have to go to settings (otherwise this would be uneccesary since the other settings carry over from use to use) and select Better Quality.
It wouldn’t be a big deal, but it seems like it should be so easy for Apple to fix.
Thanks for your help, though!
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