Final Cut Express 4
by Apple
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List Price: Category: Software See more product details and other editions |
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Software Reviews of Final Cut Express 4
Customer Review: Junk
Summary: 1 Stars
I've been a user of Premiere CS3 Master Collection, Premiere Elements, iMovie, FCE4 and Pinnacle. They all have strengths and weaknesses (MOSTLY WEAKNESSES). FCE was by far the most promising and stable.
However, the user manual is terrible as well as all the guessing on Apple's Forums.
Even worse... It won't export Anamorphic properly. And if you Export using custom settings for 16:9, there are audio bugs if you do audio layback. Like NOBODY these days exports 16:9. Apple can't even test that? Think I'm crazy? Google it!
iDVD '08 is the icing on the cake. Annoying themes, slow, crash-y... BTW, if you think I use Hoopty machines; think again. I'M SO GLAD I DIDN'T POP FOR THE FULL VERSION OF FINAL CUT PRO.
There are those who say 'I got it working over here"! So? Video is not in the realm of anything less than large scale systems with paid engineers to troubleshoot. The desktop revolution for video is a joke.
Customer Review: Final Cut Express
Summary: 4 Stars
A little more complicated than i expected. I am pretty much a novice and have used imovie 08 for a little over a year. I felt like i had outgrown that application and many of my videos started to have the same look/feel so i decided to move up to FCE. I signed up for the one to one at the apple store for instruction. in 2 x 1 hour sessions i have a pretty decent understanding about how the application works. If i did not sign up for one to one, i'm not sure i would have gotten anywhere. If you don't have access to a apple store/ one to one for training class i'm not sure i would get this product. Customer Review: This is the WORST program for High Def AVCHD Video editing
Summary: 1 Stars
This program is the WORST for editing Sony or Panasonic AVCHD. I feel like I was sold a bill of goods based on a lot of false representations in the product description regarding how easy it was supposed to be to work with High Def AVCHD files. I am going to try to return it to Amazon immedietly.
What they DONT tell you is that:
1) There is no native Codecs for editing AVCHD in FCE 4, so that the video file has to be converted into Apples proprietary Codec for editing
2) This conversion increases the size of the file 10 times from the already large original AVCHD file
3) The codecs conversion also converts the 5.1 audio down to 2.0 stereo.
4) There is no support for transfering back to the Sony codec and burning to Blue Ray
5) While FCE 4 will convert Video files not yet transfered from your camcorder to your hard drive, it will will NOT open or convert any M2TS files already on your hard drive !!! You need to get a seperate program to convert them to the Apple Codecs.
6) For editing, they recommend that the video files should be accessed from a second INTERNAL ATA hard drive, seperate from the hard drive that the FCE 4 software is installed on, requiring two internal hard drives. They state that an external firewire connected hard drive is too slow for editing AVCHD video files
The following are excerpts directly from the FCE 4 manual:
- Final Cut Express does not have native editing support for AVCHD footage.
- AVCHD footage is not captured natively but is transcoded to Apple Intermediate Codec
- When you choose to transfer AVCHD audio in the Logging area, audio is
automatically mixed down to stereo.
- It is not possible to delete clips on an AVCHD volume, even if read-and-write permissions on the volume are set to allow file deletion
- Before ingesting AVCHD footage, keep in mind that the disk space required is about ten times greater than the size of the native AVCHD file. Transcoded AVCHD Files Require Significantly More Disk Space Than Native AVCHD Files. When ingesting AVCHD files in the Log and Transfer window, video is transcoded to the Apple Intermediate Codec. The final ingested files are significantly larger than the original files. Final Cut Express does not estimate the size of a transcoded AVCHD file before ingesting, so it is possible to exceed the available space on your capture disk during transfer.
Customer Review: Good editing program
Summary: 5 Stars
The program is good but not easy and simple.
One needs time to learn the program.
Overall is a very good editing program.
Customer Review: Final Cut Express is Awesome
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been using Final Cut Express for three months now. I have edited many videos with it and I keep learning how much more it has to offer. My videos turn out to be very professional. I am sure Final Cut Pro has some worthwhile features, but I don't know how I could ever beat FCE for the money.