the blog site of heath mcknight

A little late, but I wanted to put up some updates. Apple released OS X Lion (10.7) today for only $29.99! (That’s 99 cents more than Snow Leopard! wink) There are a lot of cool things about it, but I thought I’d link to some stuff.

Mac Rumors links to a bunch of reviews.

TUAW provides a bunch of OS X Lion tips.

You can use the internet for a Lion “disc-less” recovery or repair. Neither has an optical drive (no surprise with the MB Air, but BIG surprise with the Mini). Get the external SuperDrive, if you need it.

Boy, Apple doesn’t like physical media anymore; so long, boxed software. Years ago, I did a review of the original VUDU download device (now software-based), and I started to think DVDs will go the way of the CD soon. Wow, now software, too! Hey, I got Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5 and Compressor 4 off the Mac App Store, and it STILL freaks me out that it’s all downloadable (plus, run Software Update for content, etc.).

New Mac mini and MacBook Air, both faster, better graphics and Thunderbolt!

Notice that Apple dropped the “Mac” from OS X with Lion?

Lion will create a partition on your Mac for maintenance, plus how to create a boot disc or disk.

Apple will sell a USB drive in August 2011 for $69.

A friend of mine tells me Final Cut Pro X is faster with Lion.

Front Row is gone, but TUAW details how a blogger installed it via Snow Leopard.

Adobe has released their first official app onto the Mac App Store, and it’s Photoshop Elements 9 (PSE 9). The regular boxed version retails for $99, and comes with Elements Editor, a comprehensive set of incredible image editing tools, along with the Elements Organizer, and easy and powerful way to organize all your photos.

But the new version on the App Store is $79.99, but doesn’t include the Elements Organizer. Adobe is aiming this app squarely at iPhoto users, and expects them to organize their photos with iPhoto. You know, that’s not a bad idea, because iPhoto really works well when you’re in the app, and opening a photo or set of photos into an editor, in this case PSE 9.

By the way, here’s my review of a bunch of great Mac photo editing software, including PSE 9 and iPhoto, on TopTenREVIEWS. I also reviewed Apple’s Aperture 3, a professional organizational and editing app (now $79.99 on the App Store, formerly $199 in the box) and Adobe’s similar Photoshop Lightroom 3, which is $299.

You know, with Apple putting all their software on the App Store, they’re saving money on production and shipping costs, and we’re reaping the benefits. NICE!

A source very close to Apple tells me they are working with companies to offer true 10-bit video output for monitoring for Final Cut Pro X, and it’s coming soon. I don’t have any other details, but I’m assuming the companies include AJA, Blackmagic Design, Matrox, etc.

I just wanted to post up a link to Apple’s Final Cut Pro X Resources Page, with a lot of great information, including supported third-party plug-ins, tools and content. They also discuss and link to FCP X training (web and books) and more. There’s no doubt it will grow as more third-party apps become compatible with FCP X.

Also, here’s an earlier post about Apple’s FCP X FAQ page and more. Lots of great information from Apple!

I thought I’d just quote Matrox‘s entire press release detailing how Final Cut Pro X users will be able to capture multiple tape formats with their hardware and software solutions, plus export back to tape. They also offer a way to monitor in FCP X. This is great news so far, and Matrox is continuing to work on solutions!

Using Matrox MXO2 devices with FCP X and Compressor 4

In the first release of Final Cut Pro X, the interaction with I/O devices such as the Matrox MXO2 products is different than with previous versions of Final Cut Pro when it comes to capturing, monitoring, and outputting video. Exporting to H.264 files from the new Compressor 4 using Matrox MAX-enabled MXO2 devices remains up to 5 times faster than software alone.

Capture
With FCP 7 you can capture from tape or live sources from within the app. With FCP X you use the Matrox Vetura Capture stand-alone application to quickly and easily capture to many of the QuickTime codecs that are installed on your system such as Apple ProRes 422 HQ, XDCAM HD, and many others.

Monitoring
With FCP 7, the Matrox MXO2 devices provide full quality audio and video monitoring via digital and analog outputs so you don’t need to rely on just a preview-quality output when making edit decisions. The Matrox MXO2 products also include the unique Matrox HDMI Calibration Utility that lets an HDMI monitor perform like a broadcast HD/SD monitor.

FCP X does not support professional video monitoring. For full-screen, preview-quality output you can use the second DisplayPort output from your computer in Full Screen Mode. The audio outputs of the MXO2 devices can be used for audio monitoring.

Print-to-tape
With FCP 7 you can print-to-tape from the timeline within the app. With FCP X you must first export your timeline to a 1080, 720, PAL, NTSC .mov file then use the Matrox Vetura Playback app to record to tape through your MXO2 device.

Lightning fast H.264 encoding
Matrox MXO2 devices with MAX give you the same accelerated H.264 encoding with Apple Compressor 4 as they did with Compressor 3.5. You can still deliver H.264 video up to 5 times faster without sacrificing quality! Matrox MAX taps into Compressor to let you quickly and easily create H.264 files for the web, mobile devices, Apple TV, and Blu-ray discs from a variety of video sources including SD, HD, and RED proxy files up to 2K.

More to come
Matrox is committed to adding new features to the Matrox MXO2 products to further enhance FCP X workflows for professional users. As the FCP X software platform evolves, so too will the workflows we can offer.

Apple has released a Final Cut Pro X FAQ, which gives many details and promises some key features, while also explaining why you can’t import FCP 7 (or earlier) projects into FCP X. Highlights:

1. You can’t import FCP 7 projects into FCP X because of the complete re-design. Maybe an XML import will fix that?

2. Multicamera, XML, AAF, OMF and EDL support coming. Multicam will be an Apple update (and I suspect XML, too), but they’re saying third-parties are getting the APIs. For now, and for $500, you can use Automatic Duck.

3. Third-party plug-ins will work, once they’re updated to 64-bit.

4. Apple will update FCP X to support assigned audio tracks for export.

Plus lots more info on media management, Blackmagic and AJA working on drivers to import and export tape (other than DV, DVCPRO SD/HD, HDV — something I’ve done with FCP 5, 6 and 7 and Beta SP via the Matrox MXO 2 mini, same with using a broadcast monitor via the MXO, which Apple discusses), bulk license purchases, exporting audio for Pro Tools (Automatic Duck) and more.

It’s a great read and makes me really want to try Final Cut Pro X even more.

Update: Someone on DVinfo.net/forums pointed to another post from Apple, Key Features for Professional Editors. Apple’s listening, and they are serious about FCP X and pro editors.

Information from Apple on importing Sony XDCAM media in FCP X. This is similar to how we were doing it in 07/08, until Sony created a driver/plug-in so you could use FCP 6′s (then FCP 7′s) Log and Transfer. I have a feeling that will happen again soon.

Also, just a reminder that Apple also posted info on all the features in FCP X, along with top features and tech specs. Plus, here’s a list of graphics card support. The minimum is an OpenCL-capable graphics card or Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later, 256MB of VRAM. That’s the minimum on the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and my feeling is you should go one step better on that graphic card, because the next full version of FCP X may not support that bare minimum. It happens with every major update to any Mac software app that depends on a good graphics card, trust me.

Philip Hodgetts posts a theory on updates coming when OS X Lion appears, and could we be getting true monitoring via AirPlay, the Apple TV and an HDTV?!