Long-time newsletter reader and Final Cut Pro developer Alex Gollner (Alex4D) posted a blog late yesterday about a secret meeting between Apple and some of its enterprise customers in London.
You can read the entire blog here.
Here’s a summary of the key points that Alex listed in his blog, covering tweets from Sam Johnson, who attended the event:
1. FCP XML in/out is coming via 3rd party soon…no FCP 6/7 support project support coming ever it seems…
2. Ability to buy FCP7 licenses for enterprise deployments coming in the next few weeks…
3. FCPX EDL import/export coming soon…
4. FCPX AJA plugins coming soon for tape capture and layback…capture straight into FCPX bins.
5. XSAN support for FCPX coming in the next few weeks…
6. FCPX Broadcast video output via #Blackmagic & @AJAVideo coming soon…
7. Additional codec support for FCPX via 3rd Parties coming soon…
8. Customizable sequence TC in FCPX for master exports coming soon…
9. Some FCPX updates will be free some will cost…
So far, there is no official word from Apple about this.
What I find most interesting about these statements is the degree to which Apple is counting on third-party developers, rather than Apple itself, to provide missing features in Final Cut Pro X.
Next week, both AJA and Blackmagic Design are doing stage presentations at my Final Cut Pro X Event – we should learn a lot more about this latest news then.
Click here to learn more about our Final Cut Pro X event.
Thanks,
Larry
25 Responses to Changes Coming to Final Cut Pro x
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Silas Denyer says:
July 9, 2011 at 7:37 pm
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Lee Faulkner says:
July 10, 2011 at 11:11 am
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Tony Obfenda says:
July 11, 2011 at 10:28 am
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Frank says:
July 11, 2011 at 10:53 am
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Randy says:
July 11, 2011 at 11:03 am
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SAM says:
July 11, 2011 at 12:05 pm
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T. Payton says:
July 11, 2011 at 12:13 pm
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MarkK says:
July 11, 2011 at 12:32 pm
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Larry says:
July 11, 2011 at 1:13 pm
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Trevor Hughes says:
July 11, 2011 at 12:45 pm
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Jonathan Pienaar says:
July 11, 2011 at 1:28 pm
← Older Comments Newer Comments →I’m no fanboi, but here’s where I sit. FCP7 was always a relatively cheap solution, backed by some 3rd-party bolt-ons. It punched way above its weight.
FCPX is $200. Let’s think on that for a moment. That buys what, an Avid manual? Some Avid merchandise? If, for $200, I can buy a basic framework onto which I can bolt on whatever professional-grade goodies I need for my particular workflow, how do I lose?
It is a different approach. The main thing Apple have got wrong IMHO is to cancel FCP7, which is just daft.
Hi
Got our 25 seat volume licence upgrade from having a current AELP agreement on Friday 9 July. Good news!
But it came in the form of 75 unique download codes !!! One for each seat of FCPX, Motion 5 and Compressor 4.
I haven’t attempted a deployment yet… But it seems the intent is to do 3 downloads from the App store per workstation!
sigh…
Lee
All this sounds EXPENSIVE to me.
After investing so much $$$$, blood, sweat and bad footage in the previous FCP’s to have to go through all this?
I find it hard to believe that Apple, with all of the talent it has at it’s disposal, can not have a simple program or plug-in written for Final Cut 7 that can gather all the data needed by FCX to import a FCP7 project. Even if absolutely everything weren’t perfect the knowledge that we could go back to an older project to make changes would make the rest of this painful transition bearable.
F.
One of the biggest things keeping me from doing any long-form projects in FCP-X is the absence of any ability to export to a Quick Time REFERENCE file. I don’t *want* to “share” on the web. I don’t *want* to “share” to DVD (although I might in some cases, just not directly out of FCP-X without the ability to custom “author” the DVD). And I most certainly don’t *want* to use COMPRESSOR to do the compression. Compressor is SLOWWWWW. I’ve always exported a Quick Time Reference file from Final Cut Pro (7 and 6) by unchecking the “Make Movie Self-Contained” in the Export dialog, then bringing the Reference file into a third-party encoding — my preferred choice is Sorenson Squeeze. Squeeze is much, much faster than Compressor, and has many more format options than Compressor, including Windows Media, Real, and Flash to name three. Final Cut Pro X only allows the exporting of a fully self-contained movie file, which could then be brought in to Squeeze for encoding. But the whole point of having the ability to export to a Reference file is so you don’t have to waste all that hard drive space to create an enormous movie file you’ll only use once — to encode to some other format. This is a knucklehead omission on Apple’s part, and it’s a deal-breaker for me.
FCPX appears to be a digital erector set with more “hooks” than a witch’s broom closet. How much will a workable FCPX (with Motion 5 and Compressor) setup cost by the time you factor in all the third-party add-ons? Plus the labor costs for making sure everything is integrated properly? $1k? $2K? More? If you have to learn a new program anyway, aren’t Adobe and Avid after promotional discounts net-net more cost effective? Especially Adobe?
Regarding the Matrox monitoring issue. The press release doesn’t say anything about the future of FCP X, it just a current state of affairs. Notice the title:
“Using Matrox MXO2 devices with FCP X and Compressor 4”
Then states:
“In the first release of Final Cut Pro X, the interaction with I/O devices such as the Matrox MXO2 products is different…”
They mention…
“FCP X does not support professional video monitoring.”
They are not saying they will never have support, they are simply offering a current compatibility statement for users.
On the top of everything said I have very general question. What is the reason to change software interface? Interface that every editor got use to and got comfortable working with? Why one should spend time to learn new interaction with the new upgrade to FCP (FCPX is actually nothing more than upgrade. If it isn’t don’t call it FCP anymore)?
Just the fact of Apple’s changing software interface made me consider conversion to another software (perhaps AVID).
I bet you that management at Apple development more concentrating on being politically correct than on real successes of their work’s product. Very typical for almost every part of the industry.
Mark:
Sometimes, changing the interface helps us see things differently. I’m willing to cut Apple some slack on the interface because otherwise we get ourselves into strait-jackets.
I fully believe that Apple would not have changed the interface if they didn’t feel it was necessary.
Larry
Making a choice some five years ago as what editing system to work with I went with Apple and I have spent hours and days learning the skills. Larrys books and course where a great help. And I had to by my first MAC a G5 (it still works like a iron horse.) big investment as was FCP. The years have come and gone buying updates becoming more and more professional. Kona cards to play out to broadcast monitor all of this cost but it’s a investment. oh FCP comes out for intel of course I up grade again a New Mac also. Now I am getting better at editing getting to know how things work. I enjoy grading so buy a HD monitor to work with my FCP, that’s more investment in my profession. It’s ok because FCP is great and they talking about a new FCP where it will be faster and better.
Well it ends here they stopped supporting editor like and you.
Yes I bought the new FCPX thinking it will be great. wow looks great but I do need all these update which should have been on the first version and if we are going to have to pay for them that will be the last straw.
I am so disappointed that the man I admired (Mr Jobs) could have let down so many people. I challenge Mr Jobs to a open conference to answer the whys and his plan to put thing right for the editing world.
why is he hiding from this behind his companies walls?
I like many others are looking at other systems and hey they have what we need now. but I keep hoping that Mr Jobs will come out personally and adress us with a plan to put things right. Other wise I feel totally let down on my investment and time with Apple and to do it before the special offer on Avid and Premier Pro finish.
If a state company make such a big mistake then a head rolls for bad decision making. I truly hope he stands up to man I thought he was.
I for one am going to sit tight for a while, as my FCS3 suites are running fine. Why rush to “upgrade”, when the new version doesn’t have much in the “Pro” column, and too much in the “Con” column (scuse the puns). I always say, “the pioneers – those are the guys with arrows in their backs.”
Apple will sort the mess out in due course… they should know by now they are alienating the Pros, and Pros buy boxes.