Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Convert Final Cut Pro 7 projects to Final Cut Pro X

There's a $10 app called 7toX [app store link] that claims to convert Final Cut Pro 7's project files to Final Cut Pro X.

"7toX for Final Cut Pro brings your Final Cut Pro 7 projects forward to Final Cut Pro X so you can use Apple’s powerful new professional editing tools to update or finish your older projects. The lightweight application is simple to use, with drag-and-drop support and progress information. 7toX translates important metadata from your Final Cut Pro 7 Project — including bins, clips and sequences — to a new Event in Final Cut Pro X with the highest fidelity of any translation application for Final Cut Pro. In addition, the application provides clear, detailed reporting after every transfer. "

I haven't had much time to play with it but I'll be looking into it more this week and beyond to see how it fares. I wonder why Apple didn't release an app like this or build something like this into FCPX, even as a "beta" feature.

Had Apple integrated this (as a big red flag warning-ized "beta" feature) and waited until Photoshop Layer import, broadcast monitoring and Multicam editing were ready I believe the adoption rate for FCPX would have been MUCH higher and the bad press would have been MUCH lower. Heck, they may have even had Mac Towers still on display in all of their stores. (meaning, today some Apple stores don't have Mac Towers on display anymore...I know!)

FCPX gets Multicam Editing...finally

Apple has finally updated FCPX with a feature it should have had when launched: multicam editing. And to Apple's credit it now supports 64 streams. They also thought it was time to let FCPX import layered Photoshop files and allow Broadcast monitoring.

How long did that take? And why?

I wonder then how many companies and editors who bought Premiere will even notice given that the gap between launching FCPX without these features and then including them in an update was about seven months.

Some interesting bits:

- Multicam will sync clips based on audio.
- Broadcast Monitoring (technically a beta feature as of this post) requires a PCIe equipped Mac or Thunderbolt.

Compressor and Motion both get some minor updates as well.