FCPX 10.0.8 PRE-RELEASE DISCUSSION

This past Tuesday was 75 days since the release of 10.0.7 in on December 6th.

While I was bullish in the back half of last year about a 10.1 around NAB, I'm less convinced that's the case now.

If I had to guess, I think the most likely scenario is that we'll see another maintenance update in the next couple of weeks, dealing most specifically with the plug-in bug, along with other sundry fixes. Then at NAB Apple will either privately or publicly demo new features for the 10.0.9 release in June. I'd expect these features to centre around either Roles or collaborative workflow.

I think another nice, substantial FCPX update, accompanied by the release of a new MacPro at WWDC would be a good boost for the software.

Obviously we won't see any OS oriented improvements (whatever those would be) until 10.9 is released in the fall.

My 2 cents.

I am super interested to see what they have planned for the next major release. With the .0.6 update I feel they added back most all the features that were since it was launched. The only thing I can think of that I miss is the audio mixer. It'll cool to see them start to add real new features now.

I'd like to see round tripping with motion as well as a release of a new audio program Logic Pro X?

I agree with DP in that 0.8 is going to be maintenance.
The crazy thing is they might pull off a little something before NAB and that would be a very tight schedule between two updates... or they could wait 'till around WWDC for 0.9.

Basically if 0.8 happens next Tuesday there's a slim chance they might have something in April otherwise 0.9 will be closer to WWDC. That one may have updates relevant to the new OS 10.9 as well as some GPU hungry features that might may the upcoming MacPro update desirable.

Improvements in Roles and Collaborative workflow would be important (the latter would make some buzz if it were known around NAB). My hunch is we'll see something like ganging and dual LIVE scopes under those dual viewers for the MacPro GPU to chew on. Roundtripping happens with Motion only when LogicPro X is released IMHO but then maybe that might be ready for NAB.

It's possible that 10.0.8 could be maintenance with one new key element for example.

Apple's going to be having their secret meeting at NAB so they're going to have something to say to somebody worth reporting.

DSvoboda356 wrote: The only thing I can think of that I miss is the audio mixer. It'll cool to see them start to add real new features now.

Mixing is going to be an interesting nut to crack. Proper bus-based mixing was never in FCP7, so that would be entirely new to the platform.

The maturing of Roles is key to making this work, since there are no tracks to assign. Roles could technically become tracks, or more like a sub-mix if you prefer- since a Role could incorporate more than one "layer" of audio (for instance, a "Dialogue" Role could be 4 or 5 elements deep). Obviously you could sub-Role out each characters dialogue if you needed that granularity of control. So effects or levels adjustments can be controlled at the clip, Role (submix) or Master Mix level.

OR as has been mentioned Apple could end up keeping the mixing within X relatively rudimentary, with complex mixing meant to be round-triped to LogicX. But until we see tight integration with other apps (like Motion) we're just speculating on that one...

Roles are also I think going to be critically important to timeline organization. The development of Roles is critical for a lot of reasons.

Frankly, between Roles and Collaborative Workflow, I'm having a hard time deciding which should have priority...

I'm going to switch roles with you mate, because I'm bullish that at NAB we are going to get some good stuff. I think it will be too long to wait until June and will go against Apple giving us a substantial update every 6 months.

I do wonder if the collaborative hole that exists FCP X won't be plugged by OS 10.9 but we'll see.

The only other thing that we could see instead of a major update to FCP X at NAB is the introduction of Logic Pro X and hopefully Motion X.

The tricky part about NAB is that there are only 6 Tuesdays between now and NAB. Normally that would be way too short for a maintenance update and a release (not that normal is a rules with Apple). I'd guess if we don't seen the maintenance update this Tuesday or next the latest, there's going to be at least one interesting feature thrown in before NAB.

Basically if maintenance update isn't out by March 5 (next two Tuesdays) then the update coming up before NAB will include at least one noteworthy feature.

It's always possible that around NAB the secret meeting will result in another roadmap list which would be all the more important if the preceding (upcoming to us) release is minor.

These are always interesting threads....the predictions. I dont think Tuesday is a standard anymore. But I am no prophet. I'm sure lots of money is spent analyzing and predicting when exactly is best to release things or its based on their next meeting vote in conjunction with the actual practical state of the updates; like whether they are ready for release or not.

Anyway, all updates are good, and I'm always looking forward to playing with new features.

But I'm going to be selfish at the moment and my main concern is (because some of my customers want it) easy - easy blue-ray authoring. The way they set it up through share is easy. But my results are not. So I would just request, if anyone at Apple is reading this (I've already sent them bug reports if anyone was wondering) to have Blu-ray, FCPX, OSX work with this Samsung SE-506BB that I have, seamlessly, in the next update.

Here is the discussion, www.fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/...11-imac-3-4-27#21596

Ohh and of course any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated. All I'm trying to do is burn a BD-R from FCPX with this Samsung drive. Or maybe the 10.0.8 update will help

I can't see any business reason why Apple would be even remotely interested in Blu-ray authoring. At best I could see a little bit more controls in creation of menus but certainly nothing like DVD Studio Pro or even iDVD. I just don't see a growing or even a sustained market for it. It certainly wouldn't generate revenue for Apple relative any R&D costs.

It's easy enough to deliver 1080p online or files that can be played from smartphone and tablet ... and out to an HDTV as needed... from a media player too of course. Handing out of physical disks don't even give you the analytics on online video would.

There's a small and declining market for Blu-ray IMHO. It's fine for feature film rentals but even indie films are more likely to use online distribution.

There's some cheap Blu-ray authoring software in the App Store. That's about as close as you'll get from Apple.

Although I completely agree with you C, what you say is not the point.

Blu-ray is a feature that is supported by FCPX, so Apple has an obligation to make it simply work.

I think Apple has shown consistently that they don't have an obligation to make something work just because it's a feature they support.

That's what third party developers are for.

What's not working? I don't see it from the thread. Apple doesn't include Blu-ray burners. Issues of burner and disk compatibility are certainly a good reason for Apple not to bother.

Given the very low price of some media players, there are event people who build that into the cost (and even at cost is worth it to avoid the lost time dealing with optical disk issues) and the client feels they're getting a gift thrown in.

I never count on Apple to do what I expect. I used to hope they'd release features that would get the "professional" (note heavily sarcastic quotations) market on board with the app, but seeing as IMO they have an amazing set of tools and the "professional" editing market has blown them off I'd rather Apple continue to add features that benefit me.

My dream list is:
1. Continue to squash bugs and optimize the software for speed. (plug in bug, import from canon DSLR bug)

2. Export multiple projects at once (select more than one in the oh so clunky project browser)

3. Audio mixing (better than FCP7 - I think you should only have to go to a dedicated audio program for top line pro audio editing and mixing. I think a quicker way to mix roles and apply mastering effects would be enough)

4. iCloud integration with client review options I think would be a killer feature. Kind of like those review services where the client can give feedback, but integrated with FCPX share feature straight to iCloud.

5. Developer hooks so the color board can be used with control surfaces.


Gotta be honest, grasping for straws on stuff I'd actually use. Finding the program pretty fully featured and using it every day.

Better audio mixing options (hopefully Logic X integration).

Better project archiving (i.e. clips with handles, not just the whole clip).

Scrolling timeline playback.

More stability with compound clips. They still seem pretty buggy at times.

General bug fixes and speed improvements.

Another user already posted about this, but the Canon DSLR import bug is really annoying. I would like to see that fixed sooner rather than later.

Yeah, thats my only solution. Throwing it in to to the price, but I have to get it to work first.

Here it is: mid-2011 iMac 27" 3.4, 16GB, GPU 2GB, OSX 10.8.2, FCPX 10.0.7 with an external Samsung SE-506BB, on TDK BD-R, share and export a 1080p 29.97fps 2 hour project that was not more than 22GB directly to the Blu-ray, with no added menu pics or logos, default settings, just the text it auto imports.

Result: 4 hours later: boot volume insufficient space error. (I've got over 500GB on my boot volume)

Result 2: from a 2:38 min project, same properties. A Blu-ray that doesn't play.

I tried both of these on my LG BP125 Blu-ray player that I know works b/c the kidos just watched Harry Potter on it. They both got spit out. The tray just opened after the awkward sounding scanning and spinning.

I even tried to burn an image, from share menu to desktop, and burned both with the finder and with toast. NO LUCK.

((By the way the only thing I got to semi-work was exported three separate QT files, burned with toast, but the playing was extremely choppy. It would freeze and then jump to another frame that would freeze - disaster.))

So thats my dilemma, if I neglected to state it earlier.

...and to be clear, my concern is not to predict, analyze, forecast or hypothesize about the future potential market earnings and current Research and Development expenditures of Apple. Rather, it is to understand how the currently supported technology, as stated by Apple on their site, specifically, www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs/
does in fact work. Looking at the footnotes, you'll notice that they state you need an external Blu-ray writer. Well, which one then? Which one did they test it on? How do they claim for it to work?

All I'm really asking for from someone is for a known and specific solution to a successful workflow, with hardware included, on an iMac of course. So that I dont have to spend wasted money buying burners until I find the right one. Thats what these forums are for, correct?
Anyway, should someone simply understand me, and have the kindest of hearts to actually help me. Then please do. Otherwise, I guess I'll have a really cool looking tower of Blu-ray drives on my desk pretty soon. Thanks.

PS I am hoping that this will be fixed in 10.0.8

I've had no problems burning Blu-Rays. Of course my set up is probably different.

I'm using an Optiarc BD-5300S which I googled to find whether it played nice with OSX. I think Apple does a half ass job of supporting blu-ray players. I stuck it into a MacSales case from OWC and it is connected via USB2.

My workflow from FCPX is to export the compressor files for blu-ray and then drop them into Toast 11. So far, it's been perfect and the quality has been very good. I am using the cheapest BD-R 4x discs I could find (SmartBlu).

Have you googled that Samsung BD drive to see if other people have issues with it? If you have access to another Bluray burner I'd try that. Sadly, they are not all built the same

I burn BluRays through Toast and a Samsung external. Works perfectly.

really???? sh**T ...i actually did check out the samsung online and it said it was great....but no luck for me here in 10.0.7....

I'm using an LG external drive - no problems at all.

I'm certainly looking forward to 10.0.8. There are so many little things they could fix that would make life a LOT easier. The plug-in bug, the ability to split audio within the angle editor and better audio mixing are the main things I'm looking for.

Another Tuesday approacheth. 6 Tuesday 'til NAB.