MIKE Ive been using FCP3 for 2 years, over 20 Full length movies & full feature DVD's (DVDSP 1.5) & its been ROCK SOLID! I have several nominations and One "BEST DVD OF THE YEAR" award - AVN Awards... so, I know what I'm doing & I have to be productive with tight deadlines... 'nuff said on that.
Heres the deal I found with FCP4/HD...
Upgraded to FCP4/HD on a second G4 *(Not primary machine) then attempted to "re-do" and entire project from capture to Final DVD using FCP4/HD to see if there would be any problems.
Well... first off, I cant capture anything at length in FCP4... all tapes capture perfect in 3, out of 18 tapes, I could capture ONE in its entirety, the rest would not go... after an entire day, I moved on. NEXT UP...No Rendering previews like FCP3... RT... real time? thats nice for 1-2 layers of video with basic transitions & FX, but try 6 video layers & 5 stereo audio tracks... there is NO real time anything... you must render... & there is NO DRAFT render, so you have to WAIT!!! even on a G5... a little faster, but why take away the draft render mode? thats just LAME! NEXT up... export as a Final Cut PRo Movie is gone, QT movie is not the same... what gives.. BIG problem for me as I do a "rough" edit first, then export Video & Audio seperate, Clean the audio up, then import back into FCP for "final" edit... major problem there. NEXT UP... cant view timeline on an external TV (Via Sony DV deck)... OK, so maybe I dont have it set up right, BUT, I can capture from the deck (sort of!)... FCP4 see's the deck, but no video... Tried all setting variations... no go. FCP3 shows video via firewire external all the time, no special set up required... another BIG problem. NEXT UP... track selection... cant figure out all the little "bullets"
to the far left that make "pairs" & stuff... is a track selected or not for copy or paste? FCP3 was very cleqar & simple.
So, why so many drastic functionality changes??? Why not just ADD the killer NEW features to a SOLID FCP3 base???? that would have been super cool! Now FCP4 is all F***ed up!
STAY WITH FCP3!!! Its not worth the hassle!!!
(Version 4.5)