From NAB - Is Apple <i> fibbing </i> again?

cheroxy wrote on 4/18/2004, 5:04 PM
Here is their press release from NAB,

"Final Cut Pro HD delivers the ability to capture, edit and output broadcast-quality high definition (HD) video over a single FireWire® cable, without requiring any additional hardware—an industry first."

Is that true? Can't Vegas already do that in version 4? How do they really compare to Vegas on HD issues? It really pissed me off when Steve touted Garadge band (although a great piece of software for so cheap) as the first thing to to what it does. It was a blatant copy of Acid. All my video buddies are MAC users and I have to back my self up. Help me out here please!

thanks,
Cheroxy

Comments

filmy wrote on 4/18/2004, 5:35 PM
Vegas was never able to output HD/HDV via firewire in the past. As for FCP being 'the first' to do it - JVC obviously packaged a little basic NLE with the HDV camera that allows for capture, editing and output via firewire of HDV material. Beyond that there have been freeware programs that allow for firewire output/input of HDV/DVHS material as well. So FCP is not really the first...but they may be the first 'full' NLE to offer it...but wait - according to your quote FCP has the *ability* to do it. Ahhh...well that is something different.

As with any marketing hype you have to take it with a grain of salt. I would say Vegas probably was the first NLE to be able to import, render and edit HD material with no hardware support...but a lot of that has to also do with the fact that Vegas has never 'officially' supported any hardware, so how it handles HD and HDV, normally only a few frames per second/minute, has to do with Vegas being a software only NLE. But following suit - Vegas has the 'ability' to edit HD material in "real time" in a software only enviroment. Going with that is the fact that, hardware aside, most people on any system can not playback HD material without investing a lot of money in ram/processing power and fast SCSI/Raid configurations a person could argue that almost any NLE has the *ability* to so something with HD. And that is probably the issue(s) that any company is not talking about - I doubt the reality is, for example, a person with a 500 dollar "e-machine" and an 80 gig 5200rpm ATA drive could pump out broadcast quality HD material in real time. The 'ability' to so something and the actual 'doing of,' as most hype would lead a person to believe, are different. SoFo and Sony love the hype saying that Vegas loves to do 'real time' preview with software only - but we all have had many discussions about what makes 'real time' really real time.
ibliss wrote on 4/18/2004, 5:58 PM
well looking at apples own website (www.apple.com if you're lazy!) it talks of 'DVCPRO HD' over firewire, at a data rate of 14 mbps (a panasonic thing, from a quick web search) perhaps not the the high end' HD format that we might at first assume when reading statements from Apple. Doesn't really look like anything that Vegas can't (or won't) handle.
cheroxy wrote on 4/18/2004, 6:09 PM
I wonder if they made their announcement today instead of tomorrow to try and beat Sony to the punch?

rmack350 wrote on 4/18/2004, 9:06 PM
I wonder if they're really concerned about Sony or even Adobe at this point. Different platforms, you know?

For your talking points, it'd be good to do a bit of homework on DVCPro HD. All I know was that Panasonic's SD format was a DV50 format (vs. DV25) that could be transfered ofer 1394. For Apple's Final Cut Pro HD I'd say the first question is which firewire? 400 or 800?

As far as it goes, Vegas should be able to do the job but you might need a seperate app to capture and print to tape. Vegas would need a codec to work with. That's about all.

Rob Mack
filmy wrote on 4/18/2004, 9:10 PM
Well...all I sort of have to say at this point is -

firewire

vegas

Sony J-H3 HDCAM Deck