Agreed.

But a while back, I considered getting an Apple accreditation. It turns out that our standard way of working - ensuring the scratch disk is assigned per project - was not just a no-no, it was cause to not award an 'Apple Certified' whatnot. Thus, the certification didn't seem worth bothering with.

The Apple team were adamant about this. So I wonder if this will ever be fixed.

That's exactly what I got from the Apple retail store this afternoon. You have to ask them for the upgrade version. Inside the sleeve is a very nice sturdy cardboard box, and the discs and docs inside that are in those fold out cardboard boxes they've been using for the last couple of years. The manual is electronic, and there's a brief introductory manual for FCP (doesn't touch on any of the other apps.

Does that mean full versions have the manuals?

heath

Have they ever worked with multiple projects at the same time? and tons of removveable hardware for backup? Illogical!

That spec for Color is if you only have one screen. If you have a second display to connect to use with the scopes and preview then it should work for you just fine.

Is LiveType still included in FCS3?

Ronan, thanks for the info.
I was planning to uninstall FCS2 using FCS Remover.
One question on installing the FCS3 upgrade...

Does the upgrade come with a new serial number or do I simply use the serial number that came with FCS2?

I only ask because with some software such as Adobe Suite, the upgrade installer looks for a previous install of the Adobe software.

If FCS3 looks for a previous install of FCS2, and it's been removed from my system before I install FCS3 then there could be install issues. Just checking...

Thanks again for the insight.

In the distant pass, you would keep the previous version on your system and the discs would just upgrade it. For the last few years, the upgrade is actually a full version of the software, and you should just uninstall the old version of Final Cut Studio.

Heath

Hmmm...

Still no firewire support for Color.

Still no funds available to provide accurate display of color grading.

Still completely winging my color correction.

Still can't figure out why Apple won't add this simple feature for those of us who aren't made of money/shooting exclusively in HD.

Pass.

Christopher,

I recommend one of the MXO boxes:

Scan Converter - Output and Monitoring Device - Matrox MXO

It works with Color 1.0 just fine. However, check this out:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1151

Heath

Do you think there's a chance that it's not technically fast enough/feasible? Color taxes systems enough without having to maintain a proper MPEG2 transport stream out the FW port.

Im pretty disapointed with the release, If it was released last year I can see it being a half hearted release but its been like 2 years and with all the progress Adobes making I was looking for something more earth shattering. It looks like a transistional release im pretty sure they will kill DVDSP in the next release like they did Livetype this time. I think they know its not that big thats why its so cheap, I wish I could try it before I upgrade with the apple smoke and mirrors in one line it looks like they added some stuff in another it doesnt ie native AVCHD editing. I wish they would release these 100 new features in a easy to see page instead of putting into a doc with the existing features.

I have the MXO2 and it works great with Color 1.4. Now there's the MXO2 mini for around $600. For about $2K you could have a real progressive 1 to 1 pixel Plasma that can be color "calibrated" for color correction.

It works great. I realize this has noting to do with the latest release of FCS but I wouldn't use the fact that you can't push video down firewire from color stop you from upgrading.

Its not clear to me, now that we can "Send to" Compressor from FCP7 does that mean that I can use Qmaster and render a FCP7 project over multiple CPU's? There's a bit of confusion about this. At least I'm confused...

FCS3 comes with a new serial number. But if you deinstall FCS2 before installing FCS3, FCS3 will ask you also your original FCS serial number.

If I upgrade can I still open my final cut 6 projects in the new final cut?

Is Livetype no longer in the suite?

Nope, and we shouldn't be surprised as the writing was on the wall for some time that we should look to Motion to do what LiveType did.

Hence the interesting non-update to DVD Studio Pro.

But then I wonder if the move from 7.0 to 7.1 will be a biggie, the one that would be Snow Leopard only and may require surrendering of install disks like the 5.0 to 5.1 did.

Having said that, I'm STILL waiting for the install disks, so can't contemplate/comment on just how Compressor could begin to do what DVDSP does.

I could believe DVDSP's non BR could be down to legal wrangles about licenses (i.e. Apple doesn't like the financial/legal deal to 'author' proper BR disks and doesn't want to ship a distinctly 'amateur' way of doing BD-R disks only). I really don't want to believe that DVDSP can't do BD.

So maybe the DVDSP update to BluRay is waiting in the wings for a breakthrough on legally allowing BD authoring for the masses without the possibility of copying BD restricted content.


Oh, and as for 'waiting two years for such a minor update' - again, I'm hoping on this being the 'last' iteration of FCP for systems pre-Snow Leopard. It's already cut out all the PPC owners, so here's Apple throwing the rest of us a bone before clamping down on everyone to get us to SL and the latest and greatest.

Absolutely! You just can't open an FCP 7 project in an older version of FCP, given the history.

Heath

So I should install the upgrade first, then I should be able to uninstall FCS2?

If so, would I ab able to use FCS Remover and remove FCS2 only? I was wondering if this might effect some functions of FCS3. If so, then I would rather remove FCS2 first before install. I don't care about having to input the original FCS2 serial number as well as the new one. Just a little extra work required on my end.

Once running on FCS3, I don't see the need to have 2 instances of FCS taking up valuable hard drive space, especially on a laptop.

The canonical method is to note your serial numbers, current and past, back up your system, copy out your plug-ins, presets, custom settings and so on, then thoroughly uninstall Final Cut Studio with assistance from an app such as FCP Uninstaller:

FCS Remover - Uninstall Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Compressor, Soundtrack Pro, Color, DVD Studio Pro, LiveType, Cinema Tools

Then do a full install again, with a repair permissions just for good measure.

Which kinda redefines 'canonical' I know, but through the pain and botheration of previous experience, that's how most of us do it.

Cheating it last time lead to problems with Compressor not running properly, or DVD Studio Pro popping up mysterious helper apps (benign but freaks out many people), or Cinema Tools crashing, or SoundTrack Pro being unstable - though there's a school of thought that says STP is by its very nature unstable.

So it's like upgrading a swimming pool rather than a car: dig the old one out first.

If you need to have two systems for whatever reason, consider building a boot drive and have the new version on there to 'play with'. When you feel happy, then go through above to 'switch'

IIRC, I have to put in several Serial Numbers, as I started out with 1.x and most serial numbers are 'Upgrade' Serials, so the installer asks me to go further and further back in time until I get to the original. Just part of the joy of upgrading I guess.

Is there a way to leave Live Type on my system without having FCS2 installed?
I tried to do an uninstall of FCS2, using FCS Remover, and selected all of the FCS2 applications, except for Live Type which I unchecked.

I then I installed FCS3.

After I restarted and launched Live Type, I was asked for serial number information, which didn't seem to work, as I was told that the serial number for FCS2 was invalid. However the serial number for FCS2 was a valid license.

Anyone have any ideas...

I still use Live Type and have only played around in Motion a little bit. Live Type is so much easier to perform title animation than Motion, which is why I wanted to leave it on my system.

I want to get this straight before I go ahead and spend the money for the new Final Cut Studio.

I have the Final Cut Studio 2 Academic version that I purchased through Penn State. Now I read somewhere earlier in this thread that I can not buy and use the upgrade version? Instead I must purchase the full version?

Chris

That is correct--if you buy Academic Versions, you cannot upgrade at all. I had a friend who did that with FCS 1 and never did it again when he tried to upgrade to FCS 2.

Heath

Thanks for the quick reply! I can't decide if I should just upgrade to a non academic version.

Don't--go with full version. I think they recently raised prices on Academic Versions to $899 (if I'm not mistaken) and the full version of FCS dropped the price to $999.

Heath

Well the price listed on Penn States Computer Store is a lot lower than $899. So that is why I can not decide.

Yeah, I guess this could be a problem with the idea that somebody here had to buy a used copy of FCP 4 on Ebay for cheap and then buy the upgrade to FCS 3 in order to save some money.

I bought FC 3 for $50 of a guy here in Norway, then received the FCS upgrade package today. I entered the serial number from the FCS upgrade package, then I was told this was an upgrade serial, please enter previous serial number.
So I did and now I´m in the process of installing the new FCS, all for the total price of $350!
I´m very happy to say the least

I think that if you had put the "original" or first SN from the start that would be all it would ask of you

I had an old FCP 3 license, which was an upgrade version, and the FCS 3 update version took this with no problem.

I actually called Apple to check on this before buying.

I love that starting with FCS 2, you didn't have to own previous versions of every app that was once sold separately, including FCP, DVDSP, and Motion.

Heath

true, I really admire their update program. I guess their thinking is that the more the merrier

I can confirm that. I tried it this time:

- First SN: the one supplied with the package - an upgrade
- Second SN: the FCP3 number (my last full SN for some reason)

Worked a treat.

FWIW: I did a full de-install with FCS Remover, then a full install. All plugs seem to have made the transition. What I DID lose (but got back in 20 seconds with Time Machine) was my custom window layouts, compressor settings and other such twiddles.

Maybe its a case of Mea Culpa, but Apple could look into not letting that sort of thing happen.

Hey Matt,

Quick question, how did you replace the custom window layouts, compressor settings and other stuff?

After about seven hours of wrangling (two systems to set up), it's a bit of a blur. But...

IIRC I opened Time Machine, navigated to

yourUserName/Library/Preferences/Final Cut Pro Settings/

Selected the Window Layouts folder and hit 'restore'.

I had a number of layouts already saved (from way, WAY back) and they seem to work just fine in 7 as they did in 6 and 5.

Compressor location:

yourUserName/Library/Application Support/Compressor/*.setting - ditto.

Jog/Shuttle gesture
 

Oh dear.

Not many people have got it to work. Here's how:

do a 'rotate' gesture: finger down in middle of trackpad, then another finger rotates to draw a 'circumference' around the centre.

The trouble is that, if you're moderately big-fingered, this gesture is easy to misinterpret as a pinch or unpinch gesture so you zoom as well as scrub.

What you can't do is treat the thing like an iPhone version of a BVE5000 jog/shuttle knob. More's the shame. It's certainly not the tactile feel of scrubbing 1/4 tape over the playback head, and neither is it a Harry style scroll. It will probably 'give good demo' in tradeshow booths, but

And the gestures are not consistent. The three finger swipe to get to the top of a sequence in FCP pops open the sequence window in Motion. Maybe it's a good idea, but (to paraphrase Samuel Goldfish) "if Bruce Tognazzini were alive today, he'd be spinning in his grave".

No ProRes LT or Proxy capture via Firewire?
 

Did anyone notice that you CAN'T capture to ProRes LT or ProRes Proxy via Firewire.
So that means that those of us who still shoot with tape, only have the option to capture first to HDV and then transcode to ProRes LT or Proxy. Or capture straight to regular ProRes.

Kind of sucks big time.

I hope Apple fixes this with a patch like they did with the original ProRes and Firewire.

Currently I can't capture to the two new codecs with my Black Magic Intensity Pro card either.
I hope an update is done to the Intensity drivers soon that will enable me to do this as well.

Mainly I really would like the ability to be able to capture via Firewire to my MacBook Pro, as I don't have any other way to capture tape footage to the laptop when I am on the road. The MacPro in the office I am not so much worried about.

Michael, I'd bet thats exactly what we'll see ... hopefully it'll allow one to transcode to full raster too.

Auto Scratch by Edit Mule
 

I came across this interesting plugin called Auto Scratch by Editmule. It keeps track of scratch disks, matching them with projects.

Unfortunately I haven't tried it yet, so no words from experience, but thought y'all might like to look into it.

I can see why Apple doesn't dare to call this Final Cut Studio 3.

Some great improvements but they should have been free for all Final Cut Studio 2 users. I hope we don't have to wait another two years for an update like this. But I also can't imagine that they do another update in a year or so.

Sometimes I really don't understand you, Apple.