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Apple Final Cut Pro 7: First Look Review

Jul 23, 2009 3:24 PM, By Jan Ozer

Expanded outputs are chief among the NLE's wide-ranging new features.

As an aside, note that the old Export to Compressor menu command is no longer there. Instead, Apple added a Send To > Compressor menu command that accomplishes the same thing, except that you can continue working in Final Cut Pro moments after you make the transfer. While Compressor is processing the files, you can check the status in the Batch Monitor, as you could if the files were produced via the traditional route. The encoding results appear in Compressor’s History window.

There’s one caveat that may be significant to fans of Qmaster who are working on multiple-core systems. Specifically, while you can share encoding jobs among multiple computers running Final Cut Pro, you can’t send them to a cluster that comprises multiple cores on the same computer. I tried this in error the first few times I tried producing via the Share menu, with consistent encoding failures.

When I asked Apple about this, reps explained that Qmaster works by opening up multiple instances of the encoding program and assigning cores to each instance. However, Final Cut Pro, which actually performs the encoding when you choose the Share command, doesn’t support multiple instances on the same computer, while obviously Compressor does. Again, if you have a cluster of computers with Final Cut Pro installed, you can send the Share job to that cluster.

However, if you have Qmaster enabled for multiple cores on a single computer, the only workflow that implements the feature is as follows: 1. Create a QuickTime reference movie as before. 2. Load that manually into Compressor. Interestingly, if you send the job to Compressor via the button on the lower left in Figure 1 for encoding on a single computer cluster, Qmaster won’t work—you’ll experience the same encoding errors as if you were to encode in Final Cut Pro directly.

How significant is this? It depends totally upon project length and the selected encoding settings, and to a degree, the individual demands of your practice. For example, if your primary concern is freeing up Final Cut Pro for continued editing and you’re not concerned about the fastest possible rendering of your current project, you’ll love the new Share workflow. On the other hand, if your primary concern is the fastest possible production of the project that you’re working on and Qmaster has proven to accelerate this in the past, you may be better off using the traditional QuickTime-reference-movie-to-Compressor workflow.

New outputs

As you no doubt noted in Figure 1, the new Final Cut Studio supports a range of new outputs, including direct export to YouTube, MobileMe, and Blu-ray. When you open the new Compressor for the first time, you’ll see the seven new templates as shown in Figure 4, which you can also access from the Settings window.

As in many consumer editing programs but few, if any, professional NLEs, the YouTube preset lets you input your name and password and upload files directly to YouTube (Figure 5)—no muss, no fuss. The template included in Compressor produces at parameters up to 720p, outputting an H.264 file that YouTube will re-encode to its final parameters. To my knowledge, Apple is the only vendor, consumer or professional, that supports 720p output to YouTube, which, in case you’ve never used it, is absolutely stunning.

Beyond YouTube, you’ll also notice the Apple TV and MobileMe outputs. Whether for personal or professional use, it’s nice to have these three outputs easily accessible from the timeline.

Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
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