Early Final Cut Pro X Response Mixed, Updates Coming

[jjhny]

FCPX is really only usable by grandma and hobbyists now, but not for pros. Though I doubt grandma'll fork over the money Apple needs to support the app.

First major gripe - you can't open your old projects - often we update client projects based on older sequences - we don't want to recreate the whole thing again - and pro sequences can be exceptionally complicated - this makes FCPX immediately unusable. The biggest laugh is that you can open an older iMovie file --- WTF??? iMovie??

Also, no tape ingestion with machine control. So your whole facilities tape archives are now useless? Apple says we don't need them? Really? Real post houses are going to just say forget FCPX!

I love Apple, but this is just insane on their part. They better move fast - the anger among the pros is growing, and taking a attitude is dumb. Look what happened to Quark when they took an attitude, everyone just moved to inDesign.

Finally they should have called it iMovie Pro. Because that is what it is.

 

[nostromo77]

Highly doubtful, at least not professional editors - premier is still a clunky joke. If FCP users jump ship, it will be to Avid, but I don't see that happening for some time since FCP7 is still perfectly viable.

Hopefully Apple will get it together, come clean about their mistakes, and fix this Frankensteinian disaster of a software.

I think I agree with you...

But right now, it's a mess, I was really hoping they would be cleaning up the entire studio and instead they divided it into silly apps that can't be done much with unless you buy the entire set. And so Soundtrack is still in the old studio then right?

I would rather stick with FCP... I think I'll wait it out and see what happens. As a filmmaker I don't feel like spending time on new software when the old worked fine.

 

[thunderclap]

I'll bet the updates to FCPX wil come thick and fast, especially once Lion gets pushed out.

"Fast" is not in Apples dictionary.

 

[iBug2]

"Fast" is not in Apples dictionary.

Well 10.1 was released 6 months after 10.0 and solved the major issues. Although the system really matured by 10.4.

 

[thunderclap]

Well 10.1 was released 6 months after 10.0 and solved the major issues. Although the system really matured by 10.4.

Again, "fast" is not in their vocabulary.

 

[iBug2]

Again, "fast" is not in their vocabulary.

6 months is quite fast. People were quite surprised back then how fast Apple could solve so many major problems with the OS.

 

[thunderclap]

6 months is quite fast. People were quite surprised back then how fast Apple could solve so many major problems with the OS.

As you said, that was back then. Look at their track record today.

 

[steveh]

Obviously when I say free, I mean free with new mac purchases. But even if you are purchasing iMovie itself, the whole iLife package (not just iMovie) costs 49$, so iMovie probably costs around 15$. Which is quite different compared to 400$.

It's $14.99 from the App Store.

 

[iBug2]

As you said, that was back then. Look at their track record today.

That's not the same thing as fast not being in their vocabulary though. Unless they changed their vocabulary, a word just doesn't get erased on its own from vocabularies.

Apple is known to take action fairly quickly when necessary even today. They were pretty quick to kick down the door of that iPhone 4 thief.

They were quick to issue a press demo for the antennagate, in three weeks time and issue free bumpers.

 

[iBug2]

It's $14.99 from the App Store.

Wow I missed by 1 penny

 

[AidenShaw]

Adobe doesn't sell hardware

If you are on a Mac Pro, at least you can buy a new card for about 150$. Tough luck if you are on a laptop or iMac.

It'd make more sense for the apps to launch on unsupported cards but simply perform worse. This isn't nice. No CUDA aware process on Premiere requires a CUDA card to run as far as I know. They just run faster on CUDA.

That's because Adobe doesn't sell high margin hardware.

If Adobe puts too restrictive system requirements on Premiere, they've lost a $179 upgrade.

If Apple puts high requirements on FCPx, they'll sell a bunch of $2000 systems.

 

[steveh]

Did they abandon FCP 7.

Yes.

I've made features for $500 and for $150,000 and everywhere in between. I'm all for power to the people, but in this instance, it's ultimately less power for many, and better for a few who do all of their work themselves.

And yet, FCP 7 still runs like it did yesterday.

There is time to evaluate FCPX as updates arrive for future use or not.

 

[thunderclap]

That's not the same thing as fast not being in their vocabulary though. Unless they changed their vocabulary, a word just doesn't get erased on its own from vocabularies.

Apple is known to take action fairly quickly when necessary even today. They were pretty quick to kick down the door of that iPhone 4 thief.

They were quick to issue a press demo for the antennagate, in three weeks time and issue free bumpers.

Valid points, but all your examples appear to be for damage control.

Then we can look at iOS 5: virtually all new features are not innovative but things people have been hollering for for years. Android and WP7 beat Apple to these things, and if Apple wasn't scared they'll lose customers to them they still wouldn't have implemented this stuff.

 

[iBug2]

That's because Adobe doesn't sell high margin hardware.

If Adobe puts too restrictive system requirements on Premiere, they've lost a $179 upgrade.

If Apple puts high requirements on FCPx, they'll sell a bunch of $2000 systems.

Well, not really. If we assume that most FCP users use Mac Pro's (I don't know if that's a safe assumption), all those people need to do is spend 150$ on a GPU.

 

[iBug2]

Valid points, but all your examples appear to be for damage control.

Then we can look at iOS 5: virtually all new features are not innovative but things people have been hollering for for years. Android and WP7 beat Apple to these things, and if Apple wasn't scared they'll lose customers to them they still wouldn't have implemented this stuff.

Well to be honest, I don't think anyone ever bought an iPhone for its feature set. It's the user experience people pay for in general. I bet Apple could add half the features to iOS 5 and still not lose many customers. But that's just my guess.

About damage control, it's the same situation with FCPX. Apple needs to do something fast about damage control here.

 

[H. Flower]

How large? For all we know this could only effect 5% of all userbase. Do you have numbers?

No.

So why not release it early and people who can make use of it today can start making use of it and others can wait.

There's nothing wrong about releasing it early.

What's wrong is not indicating what exactly is missing.

On the NAB video Apple touted their broadcast market was significant and that all major media companies rely on FCP in some form!

Why do you insist on defending mediocrity?!??!

 

[thunderclap]

Well to be honest, I don't think anyone ever bought an iPhone for its feature set. It's the user experience people pay for in general. I bet Apple could add half the features to iOS 5 and still not lose many customers. But that's just my guess.

About damage control, it's the same situation with FCPX. Apple needs to do something fast about damage control here.

We're in agreement!

 

[iBug2]

On the NAB video Apple touted their broadcast market was significant and that all major media companies rely on FCP in some form!

Why do you insist on defending mediocrity?!??!

I'm not defending mediocrity. I'm defending the right to sell mediocre products, because nobody is obliged to buy them.

 

[ChrisA]

While the initial release might be disappointing, I have faith that Apple will aggregate all the desired (and needed) features in due time.

Yes, but why didn't Apple call this a "beta" release? It is not even feature complete at this point

 

[iBug2]

Yes, but why didn't Apple call this a "beta" release? It is not even feature complete at this point

Because feature incomplete does not equal beta. As far as I know, this initial release of Final Cut is not buggy or unstable like a generic beta app, but only missing important features.

Also even if they called it beta, they would still put the same price tag on it. They can't just give this away for free.

 

[NY Guitarist]

I'm not defending mediocrity. I'm defending the right to sell mediocre products, because nobody is obliged to buy them.

But at the same time you saying that FCPX is professional?

 

[iBug2]

But at the same time you saying that FCPX is professional?

Define professional. I'm not gonna make the mistake of saying something which will be misinterpreted due to semantics.

 

[milo]

NO professional software is ready for professional use on day one.

Of course all major updates will have a few bugs here and there. But that's not the problem with FCX. How many comparable apps have released a major "upgrade" with crucial features missing that were in the previous version? List some apps, please.

So...what? If a colorist sees "Final Cut Pro" in the menu bar instead of "Color" he's gonna get scared or something?

Seriously, I'm not understanding the complaint.

Obviously, you're not. Audio guys use audio apps. The very idea of an audio guy needing to switch to and learn (and pay for) FCX as compared to something like STP is hard to even imagine. It's not going to happen, those specialists are going to just use other apps from other companies.

FCX looks great for lower end productions where there's no budget for a colorist or audio mixer and the editor has to do his best to wear all hats. But productions that don't cut corners like that are going to use the best tools for the job. And that's color and audio guys using dedicated color correction and audio apps.

It's version 1.0. It's not meant to be. I'd be worried about anyone adopting 1.0 software on day 1, much less a ground up re-write.

If it's version 1.0, that means that they killed off a perfectly good product that many people were using and many people were happy with. If it truly is a brand new product with no upgrade discount, no opening projects from the previous version, and missing features, what's the incentive to get FCX instead of switching to a different app (that already has those missing features!). If you're starting from scratch either way, why not go with the app that actually can get professional work done.

Heck, they might just as well have announced they were killing FC and released this app with a new name.

 

[AidenShaw]

Wow this thread is long
Cant wait till its longer than that stupid "BluRay" one

Apple could kill the BD thread with one inexpensive hardware option.

FCP has been in development for years, and FCPX just came out. Makes sense its not quite up to snuff yet

Not really - FCPX is the replacement for FCP - therefore there's an expectation that it can actually replace FCP. Many posters seem to think that it's a nice upgrade to Imovie, but doesn't meet the needs of many professionals making their living on FCP.

If Apple ships Apple OSX 10.8, and it's basically unusable - it that OK? If they call it Apple OSX 11, does that make it OK?

I think that the answer to both questions would be "no".

Why are you continuing to use this defense?

A large portion of their market cannot use this product.

That's simply bad business, period.

Wait for the crowd to cite the latest quarterly profits as proof that you're wrong. To them, replacing FCP with Imovie+ is sound business. And, in that narrow sense, they're right. It sucks if you actually are a professional, though.

Also even if they called it beta, they would still put the same price tag on it. They can't just give this away for free.

We'll have to see if they're actually able to sell it first, before making that claim.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Define professional. I'm not gonna make the mistake of saying something which will be misinterpreted due to semantics.

A feature complete set of tools ready to be used by working editors, that supports typical broadcast workflows, output than can be viewed on a calibrated external monitor, ability to import/export projects... how much more do I need to say?

BTW, I really like the new UI, but this should have been released as Final Cut (Express) at $129, with an announcement that Pro is coming soon with all the tools that are expected and necessary to work with other post folks (sound, color, VFX) and their apps.