FCE 2 The Forgotten App [forgotten for a good reason?]

[zaphoyd]

Of all the updates at MWSF Final Cut Express 2 has received no notice.

I am interested to know what some other opinions of it are.

I personally believe is a joke on Apple's part. There are no major new features, and the minor new features are all crippled.

If you look at the current Final Cut Express feature overview 8 out of the 10 features already existed, and both the new features are crippled.

One is RT-Extreme. Sure it is nice to be able to render in realtime, but what they dont tell you is that unlike FCP 4 you cannot use it while plugged into an NTSC device. So your realtime color correction, cannot realtime color correct to an NTSC monitor. The difference in display of NTSC monitors and lcd displays is significant. Also Final Cut Express originally boasted realtime effects, and there were only a small handful of effects that actually supported it.

The second is keyframing. You can only keyframe basic layer motion. You cannot keyframe filters, effects, or titles.

You still cant use a scroll wheel either. aaaaaaaarrgg i would pay $99 for just that.

Can anyone point out to me ANYTHING in FCE that makes it even worth having over 1.0.1

 

[robotrenegade]

This app is another one of apples bad moves and wasted money. imovie is good if you want better just get FCP4.

 

[evil_santa]

Ive just upgraded from FCE1 to FCP4, I dont think the FCE1 > 2 is worth the money. I think the RT extreme is very dependant on what mac you are running, Ive just had a G5 DP 2Ghz with FCP4 on demo at work. I had 6 or 7 DV streams running in once. The dv was also on a server across Gigabit Eternet ! My G4 733 can't quite do the same! If you have the money go for the FCP4 upgrade.

 

[tjwett]

personally i love FCE. i own FCP but just don't need it 95% of the time. we have FCP on a PowerMac at work which is now being used mostly for FCP-only tasks like advanced color correction and titling. FCE can handle the bulk of everything else. not sure how long till i pay for the update though.

 

[ChrisH3677]

yeah - i didn't see anything in FCE2 to make we want to upgrade. I thought the iMovie updates were more compelling.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Re: FCE 2 The Forgotten App [forgotten for a good reason?]

Originally posted by zaphoyd

One is RT-Extreme. Sure it is nice to be able to render in realtime, but what they dont tell you is that unlike FCP 4 you cannot use it while plugged into an NTSC device. So your realtime color correction, cannot realtime color correct to an NTSC monitor. The difference in display of NTSC monitors and lcd displays is significant. Also Final Cut Express originally boasted realtime effects, and there were only a small handful of effects that actually supported it.

I agree that the new version is rather lackluster, but you can't expect them to keep one of the strongest selling points of FCP 4 in FCE (the Real Time over Firewire). And FCP 3 only had a handful of FX and transitions that happend in realtime. A dozen or less would be my guess. And of that dozen only 3 or 4 are ones that would get used on a regular basis.


Lethal