Final Cut Studio 2

To confirm, Motion and FCP both have effectly the same SmoothCam feature. Depending on where you are doing your primary editing for the content, you would use one or the other.

3. DVDSP can't be upgraded anymore to a level than it already is other than adding support for blue laser formats. Compression is done with Compressor and Photoshop does the layered graphics. Design of the DVD interface/template is pretty much all there. What is really needed is a better compression scheme that allows more control over encoding of various scenes, as MPEG encoding is a black art.

True HD DVD and blu ray authoring would be nice, with all the fancy stuff, of course it would be nice if everyone could decide on what that is suppossed to be and not have to spend oodles on the software;)

On the compression side of things, the compression markers in FCP can help somewhat when feeding into Compressor, and it will be interesting to see what Compressor 3 may have changed/added to help. Was hoping they would roll some of the features of other encoders in, like multi multi pass - did some tests with demos of Cinema Craft and in paying homage to Nigel Tufnel, put it up to 99 passes

Hey guys,

For those who haven't read it...i have offered some detailed info on FCS2 in the front page NAB Coverage article. Would be happy to offer any other feedback from the the show.

-shawn

Hey guys,

For those who haven't read it...i have offered some detailed info on FCS2 in the front page NAB Coverage article. Would be happy to offer any other feedback from the the show.

-shawn

Shawn cool thanks for the info on the Studio. I am placing my order shortly and looking forward to it (they said shipping in May, I was going to buy the day it was announced )

Did not know if you looked into whether it is worth capturing from an HDMI card/Blackmagic Intensity as part of the workflow? It also looks like it will do the job internally farily well based on the work flow you suggested (?) As an aside on the workflow, when using Smooth Cam it looks like it should be done after switching the sequence and prior to sending to Color?

On the Compressor side, any speed increases (and how well did ttargeting the processors work) and did they add multi mutli pass encoding?

On Motion side I was curious about the Photoshop layers and how it is different from the current version of Motion (I am able to bring layers in now, get a dialog as to either merge or retain.)

And DVD SP is a big bummer on so many levels.

Okay, I am placing my order now and going to stop asking questions.

PS Looks like Edius users cannot tease Mac users anymore, in fact that was the first thing I noticed when the announcement came last week. Comes from hanging out here I think

Open format timeline – This is perhaps the most exciting addition to FCP. Users can now edit any supported video format in the same timeline without rendering into the timeline format.

Drew,

Let me see if i can answer your questions:

Did not know if you looked into whether it is worth capturing from an HDMI card/Blackmagic Intensity as part of the workflow? It also looks like it will do the job internally farily well based on the work flow you suggested (?) As an aside on the workflow, when using Smooth Cam it looks like it should be done after switching the sequence and prior to sending to Color?

-Capture: if you are capturing a higher res source (HDCAM, XDCam, DVCPRO HD), then the Black majic makes sense. If you are filming with HDV, then you will not get any material benefit. The all HDV workflow till finish phase minimizes file sizes, minimizes encode generations and minimizes time.

-Smooth cam: I would select the clips you want to smooth, create new clips using in/out & export and replace in the timeline. Since you will not be rencoding yet, no addition encode generation. Then set sequence to ProRes and run smooth cam. This is an interesting question though b/c you are referencing the master clip (HDV) and creating a new smooth file (ProRes).

On the Compressor side, any speed increases (and how well did ttargeting the processors work) and did they add multi mutli pass encoding?

-Speed comes from 2 areas:

1. Much faster time to set up batches, modify and reuse

2. QMaster Cluster - I did not get actual performance increase numbers but utilizing multiple cores should be a benefity. Problem with multi-core architectures is that the software continuously dynamically allocates across cores and under-utilizes all of them. QMaster will let you assign to cores and keep individual process cranking (without interruption) until done. Some one more techy may correct me here.

On Motion side I was curious about the Photoshop layers and how it is different from the current version of Motion (I am able to bring layers in now, get a dialog as to either merge or retain.)[/quote}

 

-The layers function looked cleaner and more expansive, however I did not spend enough time on this to elaborate more here.

 

And DVD SP is a big bummer on so many levels.

 

-I agree. More support for true HD authoring would have been really nice.

 

I am ordering as soon as available too...looks really good....especially Color!

I am ordering as soon as available too...looks really good....especially Color!

Thanks for the info, have to step off for a bit so may write more later

But I did get inspired by the thread and placed my order, shipping May still

Will let you know wheen I get an update on the order

Just ordered, ships on May 31st and arrives on June 6th. There is no upgrade for those with the academic versions so you will have to get another academic version for 699.00 plus 54. for shipping OR get the non academic version for the full 1200. price. I went with the academic. For those with pre intel chip G5s, they have come out with the Radeon PCI Express G5, ATI Radeon X1900 GT graphics card at 349.00.

Steve B)

Just ordered, ships on May 31st and arrives on June 6th. There is no upgrade for those with the academic versions so you will have to get another academic version for 699.00 plus 54. for shipping OR get the non academic version for the full 1200. price. I went with the academic. For those with pre intel chip G5s, they have come out with the Radeon PCI Express G5, ATI Radeon X1900 GT graphics card at 349.00.

Steve B)

Just found out my upgrade shipped yesterday, earlier than expected (was suppossed to be beginning of June, though the full sets, as oppossed to upgrades, were shipping earlier).

Now I need to get an Octo Tower

Just found out my upgrade shipped yesterday, earlier than expected (was suppossed to be beginning of June, though the full sets, as oppossed to upgrades, were shipping earlier).

 

Now I need to get an Octo Tower

Hah, in Switzerland they ships only in JULY

And I can not order it in the US Store to ship to here...

I hope you will enjoy it.

I got the same email. It shipped yesterday and should arrive on the 24th.

Steve B)

I'm seriously thinking about getting a ProMac and FCS2. I had everything loaded up in the Apple Store Cart earlier, but then froze when it came to actually hitting the 'purchase' button. FCS2 does look amazing though.. I'll mull it over the weekend before I finally decide, but at the moment it looks like I'll be jumping over to the good ship mac.

turncoat...

Dive safe

DeanB

Simon,

Go for it, you won't regret it. However, be sure that your Mac will have enough ram and processor speed to run it.

Steve B)

Honestly, the graphics card is most important, followed by ram, followed by cpu. Get the ATI 1900 above all else.

I was thinking about 2x 2.66 dual core Xeon's with 4gig ram and the ATI x1900 gfx. Initially thinking of 2x500gig HDDs and the 23inch Cinema HD screen. I can always add more HDD and another screen once I recover from the bankruptcy that this purchase will push me into!

What do you mac boys think of the spec?

Cheers, Simon

Simon,

I really would go with the faster 3GHz processor. You have the ram right, FC really doesn't make use of anymore than 4gigs ram tho it is Motion that is the more ram intensive. After Effects will also benefit from the 4gigs ram. Two 500 gig internal drives will be fine. The Apple displays are great. I use just the one 23" HD display and have lots of timeline space. Don't feel like I am missing out because I don't use a second display.

Looks like your new system will be making me jealous very soon now.

Steve B)

Keep in mind that in 3 weeks the new Macs will likely be announced at the WWDC. I need to get a laptop but am holding off until then.

Shawn,

Remember that the smooth cam feature works by analyising the entire media of the clip. This creates a new render file. It does not work on only the in and out points of the clip and can take awhile to complete. The good thing is that you can continue work in FC while the analysis is completing and can actually have a queue of media. If you use your media manager later on, it will eliminate the analysis and you will have to redo it. However, the render manager does not affect the smooth cam renders. It really is fairly simple to use tho, you might need to rescale the clip up a bit to avoid black boundries caused by filter.

Steve,

The smoot cam info is really lost with Media Manager...really unfortunate. I don't have my FCS2 yet, so question: I thought you could create a new master clip with the smooth cam. If you do this, this won't be lost right?

shawn

Shawn,

While I have Studio 2, I haven't had the time to install it yet. I'm waiting for Mary Lynn to go first and then learn from her mistakes. We're both daring eachother to go first. Never the less, go here for a review of Studio 2 tutorials I was recently sent. The whole package is only $29.00 and well worth it. At this point, I am unaware that you can make a new master clip, since it analyizes (sic) all the media from the clip, it is not creating anything other than the render file the filter creates.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/6_on_6_douglas.html

Steve B)

Well, I have the suite installed. Frankly speaking, the smoothcam filter is far more weaker, than its brother in shake. You do not have so strong controll over it as in shake.

so, I will use - if needed - it in shake.

I was thinking about 2x 2.66 dual core Xeon's with 4gig ram and the ATI x1900 gfx. Initially thinking of 2x500gig HDDs and the 23inch Cinema HD screen. I can always add more HDD and another screen once I recover from the bankruptcy that this purchase will push me into!

 

What do you mac boys think of the spec?

 

Cheers, Simon

I am using a 2x2.66 with 2 gigs of ram, and 4 harddisk: 1 500 gig for the system and 3x500 in raid 0 for capture (I have an AJA Kona LHe capture card) and playback. The weak point is the factory installed geforce graphic card, I am thinking to switch to the x1900. It drives a 30 cinema, which is quite convenient. An external JVC 15 inch broadcast monitor is hooked on the Kona, during color corrections it worth its price.

So, I think an octo mac is good, but only during rendering are my 4 core fully utilized, I think it is better to spend that extra money for the better cards, more hard disk an for a 30 inch CD...