I noticed some people on here just were not all that impressed with the new FCS3. I personally think that there is a lot of great stuff in this upgrade and well worth the $299.00 upgrade price. I tend to like my tools to be updated with productivity features and not so much flashy cool toys. To me this update really expanded FCP as a solid production tool which it already was. At some point you sort of reach a point with a program that you have done most of the main core of stuff and all that is left is little productivity updates to make what the program does just a little bit better.

So for those who think this is a weak update what exactly did you want to see? What would have made you excited about this update. I would just like to know since I was pretty impressed with the update.

(1) Native AVCHD editing
(2) New Interface and look for Final Cut Pro & Color (which desperately needs it!)
(3) Blu-Ray support in DVD Studio Pro (can't believe this didn't happen since it's in Compressor)
(4) Rewrittten in 64 bit and Cocoa - shocked this didn't happen either

I'm happy with the improvements though.

One thing I would love to see, and it might already be possible-I have not upgraded yet, it might be great to be able to convert the XDCAM EX BPAV files directly to ProRes LT.

I have not seen the output from ProRes LT, but if its as clean as regular "old" ProRes then it should be worth working with. It takes about five to seven hours to render a two and a half hour XDCAM EX movie from FCP6 and three hours (or less) to render a similar ProRes project but the file is almost five time larger.

There's always a trade-off.

Or it would be nice if the render performance of XDCAM EX projects were comparable to ProRes projects. I am impressed with the quality of the XDCAM output from FCS.

(1) full access to AU interfaces
(2) native AVC/H.264 editing
(3) 64-bit cocoa
(4) superior caching of visible audio waveforms
(5) superior ergonomics on rubber bands
(6) something above 8pt text or whatever the GUI currently uses

as it is, it's not a bad upgrade. it's cheaper, but then we've also lost LiveType?

...but then we've also lost LiveType?

LiveType is completely integrated into Motion 4 now. Obviously the interface isn't the same but everything you can do LiveType can be done in Motion 4.

-C

(1) I wish they had incorporated a more modern approach to the the editing interface & timeline. Steal ideas from Vegas, iMovie etc., or even better use good old Apple creativity to leapfrog the competition.

(2) I wish FCS would move away from the "suite" approach, and focus on more efficient interface design so we don't have to constantly "round-trip" to another program to get our jobs done. To me the "suite" approach is just an excuse for the interface design laziness that creates software bloat. But I do appreciate Apple pruning & consolidating features into other programs, which I think shows that they are heading in the direction of an updated/modern interface. In the end I'm hoping they are able to consolidate everything into 2-3 programs that are very efficient and powerful.

(3) And I wish they had included better media management features along the lines of Lightroom. Or at least I wish someone would create something similar to Lightroom media management but for video.

(4) Having said that ... I will be upgrading to FCS3 because the new ProRes formats are very useful for me.

In the end I'm hoping they are able to consolidate everything into 2-3 programs that are very efficient and powerful.


Yes. I, for one, would love to see Soundtrack Pro incorporated into Final Cut Pro.

I think that one would be the easiest to do and would make the most sense to combine (for starters).

(1) I wish Apple would stop forcing us to re-wrap/transcode our video into Quicktime. I appreciate that the Quicktime architecture has some advantages, but Quicktime should be a choice for the user not a requirement.

Yes. I, for one, would love to see Soundtrack Pro incorporated into Final Cut Pro.

I think that one would be the easiest to do and would make the most sense to combine (for starters).

I don't think this would be easy nor would it be recommended. This would add a whole slew instability issues. For instance, when you use VSTi / DX / audio plugins, they already make soundtrack crash at almost every instance. Also, "save as collected" would be muddled - collect what, video or audio? That is like trying to combined Motion into Final Cut.

I think this is a tough sell.
-C

You boys wont have long to wait. The real FCS3 is set for release late September.

Yes be careful what you wish for in terms of integrating software. This is how programs get bloated and it can happen very fast. It also has nothing to do with lazy coding. If you take a program that is X big and another one that is X big you will then have a program that is 2X big. That is just a rule of math. Not everybody may want the same sort of things integrated. Some people prefer FCP to be lean at editing only. If the products were integrated then those people would complain. The is true of a fancy GUI. The fancier the GUI the more system resources get used. I'm sure nobody wants FCP to become like Vista aero. Good gui design isn't just about fancy flash style looks but effective and quick.

You boys wont have long to wait. The real FCS3 is set for release late September.

Where did you hear this? Any links to the story?

I just wish I don`t have to press Q every frikkin time I make an edit to switch back to Viewer.

You boys wont have long to wait. The real FCS3 is set for release late September.

Explain yourself.

Its just more speculative nonsense aka rubbish posted as fact ... just like all those who posted all over the net oh so definitively that FCS would not be updated until SL shipped because it was completely rewritten and tied to the forthcoming OS release. Complete tosh ... but hey, if you want to pin your expectations on the ravings of uniformed spectulators then go right ahead.

Its just more speculative nonsense aka rubbish posted as fact ... just like all those who posted all over the net oh so definitively that FCS would not be updated until SL shipped because it was completely rewritten and tied to the forthcoming OS release. Complete tosh ... but hey, if you want to pin your expectations on the ravings of uniformed spectulators then go right ahead.

I don't think said people were all that wrong. I personally didn't like the idea of a new major version of a Pro App running on an untested OS (Snow Leopard)

That's a bug tracking nightmare (is this a FCP bug or OS bug?)

I think it may be up to a year until we see a significant patch to FCS that delivers 64-bit and better multiprocessing support. I'm sure we need to be around 10.6.3 before things stabilize a bit and production systems running FCS can be safely run on Snow Leopard.

-Cleaned up FCP interface(at least drop the brushed metal).
-Background rendering (like background analyzing on smoothcam)
-option to use motion's optical flow tech in Final cut pro's slow motion
-Ability to use different source codecs to edit multicam.
-ability to easy ease motion keyframes(center) in keyframe timeline instead of only on the canvas(which is very finicky and usually needs manual fixing of the spline)
-Better titling for paragraphs, lists, and credits.
-ability to see if a piece of media is being used on the timeline in the media browser and in the right click menu be able to have the option to show where is/highlight said clip/media in the timeline.
-updated DVD studio pro- blu ray
-Faster compressor encoding


A lot of the "upgrades" for final cut could easily have just been added to FCP 6 through software update like new prores LQ and proxy, ability to not ripple the sequence with a speed change, SD safe title zone viewable in HD projects, coloured tabs, large timecode window.

Where did you hear this? Any links to the story?

No links, I heard this from my Apple dealer. He couldn't confirm but did mention 26th Sept.

People should note this release is not being marketed as FCS3. It is being marketed as the new FCS.

We wont see the 'real' FCS until Snow Leopard is released; FCP has been completely re-written for Snow Leopard, I'm hoping DVDSP has also. QuickTimeX is released with Snow Leopard and is also a complete rewrite of the program. I think it will be a free download for those of us who have upgraded FCS already and Snow Leopard ships for just $29. So it should be good all round.

Number one desired "upgrade"/fix: that crazy bug where just after rendering I can't drag and drop footage around in the timeline any more and I have to restart Final Cut to fix it. Some of you know what I'm talking about. Stability is a much desired upgrade. :)

No links, I heard this from my Apple dealer. He couldn't confirm but did mention 26th Sept.

Considering that even at Apple HQ the people working there are subject to security that is so high that they could give lessons to the national security services I highly doubt that an Apple Genius would have the inside scoop on anything at all.

Considering that even at Apple HQ the people working there are subject to security that is so high that they could give lessons to the national security services I highly doubt that an Apple Genius would have the inside scoop on anything at all.

I think it's pretty well known that Apple are about to release a new OS - you may have heard of Snow Leopard...

Liam,
No one is doubting the imminent (and already publicly announced) release of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard ... what is being called into question is the veracity of the claims of your dealer regarding a "real" FCS upgrade. He/She is speculating like everyone else ... those speculations may be reasonably well informed just as are many of the speculations we've been reading here and elsewhere across the net since the FCS (2009) release, but just because a point release update might be reasonably likely at that time, it certainly doesn't follow that a "completely re-written for Snow Leopard" version is coming down the track on Spet. 26th. I do hope & believe that a cocoa native rewrite will eventually make it to the light of day but I really think your dealer is talking out of his hat. That said, mate, my own hat is ready in my hand, I'd be only too glad to eat it, along with a large portion of humble pie.
Andy

Mostly I'm disappointed by FCP & DVD Studio Pro..

DVD Studio Pro should have received at least true Blu-Ray Authoring support; but at the very least there should be some newer templates.. I mean com'on.. just because its a pro app doesn't mean everyone is going to build there own motion menus in photoshop and AE.. geezzz.

FCP has actually taken a step backwards in my account.. things that used to play very well (clearly at a high rate), now requires them to be rendered or I will encounter a drop in playback. And I am using the newest Mac Pro 2.66 8 Core, ATI GC and 16GB Ram.. so I shouldn't have to render much of anything.

Also I am now experiencing numerous crashing when trying to playback footage (not yet transcoded) from the 5DM2.. before I was actually able to edit it (almost) natively on this machine.