Final Cut Pro X woes include App Store issues, support gaps
updated 11:50 am EDT, Tue June 21, 2011
Older Mac Pros need $149 video upgrade
The Mac App Store is actively blocking some Mac Pro users from downloading Final Cut Pro X, according to complaints. One person notes that his two-year-old Mac Pro is being blocked based on system requirements, even though it has a 2.8GHz quad-core Xeon processor and 6GB of RAM. The weak link may be video, in this case an ATI Radeon HD 2600 card.
Having spoken to Apple, the person says he was told an early 2009 Mac Pro can only run Final Cut Pro X if he gets the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 Graphics Upgrade Kit. The kit costs $149 however, and may be preceding an imminent Mac Pro update. Rumors have new systems shipping in late July or early August.
Pro X may also be deficient in terms of support, another professional claims. "The new final cut pro x [sic] is being received very badly by pro editors," the person alleges in an email. "There is not support for many of the key features required in pro editing. Namely: No support for previous FCP project files. No support for output for tape (used in TV companies) no support for EDL and no support for XML. This is unequivocally not a a Professional program. Unless Apple release some updates addressing these key issues which mark the divide between consumer and pro, the pro community will very quickly leave apple behind," the message concludes.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2002
un oh
1) don't know if it was the app store (although I've used it successfully in the recent past) or the Final Cut distribution scheme, but my order resulted in a lonnngggg download of the Final Cut product (yes, the broadband connection I use should have made it less than 1min). Following that, I ordered the separate compressor product which resulted in melt-downs of my paypal account and it's link to the my bank. A call to both resulted in the typical finger-pointing at each other. Now, I use these links at least once a day, and both with app store products. I have no idea what happened with this release via the app store, but I hope Apple clears it up. Now I have to spend dozens of minutes on hold with paypal and my bank to straighten out their messages of doom and gloom.
2) This Final Cut product at first blush (30 minutes of monkeying around with it) seems several cuts beneath its predecessor (sadly!!, I was really hoping for a leap forward) - something akin to a prosumer version. It's definitely more that Final Cut Express, but I can't see any movie houses cross-grading to this from Final Cut Studio - it really feels rinky-dink. Can't use multiple screens anymore (a major impediment in my case). Preferences are severely restricted - no more selecting locations to have rendering take place, i.e., scratch disks.
Then there's the software update that occurs immediately following FCP's installation - codecs and other supporting files.
I don't know . . .