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Apple Offers Discounts to Adobe Premiere Users

Posted by pudge on from the ooo-slam dept.

JHromadka writes "Apple is responding to Adobe dropping future Premiere releases with great deals on Final Cut products. You can trade in Premiere for a free copy of FC Express, or $500 off FC Pro."

26 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Express or Pro? by twocoasttb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, I'm thinking about doing the trade-in deal, as opposed to the $500 upgrade deal. What could I do in Premiere that I couldn't do in Final Cut Express? The marketing stuff doesn't allude to anything...

    1. Re:Express or Pro? by capmilk · · Score: 4, Informative

      With Premiere you can directly record analog video, Final Cut Express only lets you record from digital sources. Apart from that, FCE seems fine for my purposes.
      If anyone could recommend a good recording application, I'd be really glad.

    2. Re:Express or Pro? by skinfitz · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What could I do in Premiere that I couldn't do in Final Cut Express?

      How about "more or less anything?" Premiere is awkward to use, but once learned is an extremely powerful package. The amount of layers that you can use alone makes it more "powerful" than FCP.

      FCP is a good package - lets make no mistake about that - if you want simple video editing, then it can do it, however Premiere is a lot more flexible, if a lot more complicated, however with power comes the knowledge pre-requisite.

      You want to do extremely complicated edits, use Premiere and perhaps consider After Effects. You want pain free relatively basic editing, get FCP.

    3. Re:Express or Pro? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      You say the number of layers you can use makes Premiere superior?
      FCP supports unlimited layers with nesting, while Premiere is limited to 99 layers last I checked. (although there's no reason for anyone who has a clue what they're doing to be troubbled by that limit)

      FCP is much more suitable for professional video work than Premiere ever was, hell it's even creeping into the low end of Avid's territory.

    4. Re:Express or Pro? by daviddennis · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have never heard anyone defend Premiere before as anything other than awful. I tried it, briefly, and quickly realized that any other video editing program had to be loads better.

      I thought you could do all the layering you would ever want on FCP. From version 1, FCP had "segments", sort of like subroutines of video that you'd already edited. You can easily prepare and combine in any way you wanted with other segments, which is an enormously powerful feature that was only added to Premiere with the advent of Premiere Pro (this new Windows-only version).

      FCP also has extensive keyboard shortcuts that make you a lot more efficient. Again, Premiere Pro brags about this, but FCP did it first.

      Could you give an illustration on something you could do in Premiere that you couldn't do in FCP?

      I know you can do wonderful things in After Effects, although it's about as fast as a drugged slug. But Premiere? You've roused my curiosity :-).

      D

    5. Re:Express or Pro? by bursch-X · · Score: 2, Informative

      With Premiere you can only record analog video if you have a card that will give you the video inputs.

      There are cheap converter boxes that convert FireWire to and from S-Video and "normal" consumer equipment video connectors (whatever those are called in English). They work very well, and usually also work with iMovie.

      --
      There are two rules for success:
      1. Never tell everything you know.
    6. Re:Express or Pro? by Gizzmonic · · Score: 2, Insightful

      two words:

      BATCH CAPTURE.

      In other words, if you're using something that supports device control (like any DV cam), you can run along your tape and mark input and output points, then press the shiny red button and have your editing program do the capturing for you.

      This method saves a lot of time as you don't have to be at the computer every second, nor do you have to ride the "start" and "stop" buttons to get perfect in and out points.

      for some it's not a big deal, but there is no way in hell i'm paying for an editing program that can't do batch capture. i started editing on a controller system (destructive, linear editing) and i'm too spoiled.

      that being said, final cut pro is 10 times better than premiere. but final cut express is just a cash-in. i don't think there's really a need for a program between Final Cut Pro and iMovie, and even if there is, Final Cut Express does NOT get the job done, at least not nearly well enough to be worth $300. Hate to say it, but Premiere has much more features, and if you're gonna spend $300 on an editing program, you may as well plop down $200 more and get Premiere.

      --
      (-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
    7. Re:Express or Pro? by Gizzmonic · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, if you capture an entire tape, you're looking at huge amounts of hard disk space...you get maybe 5 minutes per GB with uncompressed DV.

      Even for a user with lots of hard drive space, that limits your focus. Making a list also saves huge amounts of time.

      If you're a consumer user that's just manipulating small clips anyway, then iMovie is the way to go. I still don't think that FC Express is worth $299...

      --
      (-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
  2. Also avaible for windows.... by quandrum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just noticed this is also available to windows users of Premiere. Might be enough to switch to a 2x2 G5 and FCP.... (okay, I just really want a G5.. mmm)

  3. Memo by Mikey-San · · Score: 4, Funny

    Adobe: "We'd give you the new version of Premiere, but we decided not to write it for you. Sorry."

    Apple: "We'd give you a cut of the business we're about to take from you on our platform, but we decided not to write the check. Sorry."

    Yeah, I know, probably not like that, but still, it was sorta funny.

    --
    Mikey-San
    Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
  4. Ebay! by rumpledstiltskin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is a pretty sweet deal when you consider that you can get cheapo versions of premiere on ebay. there weren't any restrictions on version number that I could see from the fine print. just no academic or similarly discounted versions.

    1. Re:Ebay! by scrotch · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Where did you see the academic/discounted version restriction?

      All I see is that Premiere LE doesn't count. That's the Lite version, not the academic or bundle version.

      I've got a copy of v5 from the Video Bundle (or whatever it's called) that I got an academic price on. And I want FCE!!

      If you saw a restriction, though, I'd like to know before I mail off my CD.

  5. Worldwide availability? by Mitz+Pettel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While this page claims that the FCE and FCP offers are "available worldwide", it also says that deliveries "must be made to addresses within the 50 United States or the District of Columbia", and there's no sign of the offer on Apple's UK site. What gives?

  6. Go Apple by runenfool · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Im glad Apple did this as its exactly what I asked our rep for as soon as the Adobe announcement was made.

    Adobe has decided that not only can it not compete with a better product (its competing when its not bundled for free with the OS), but that it wants to push a much more serious rival's media software (WMP).

    FCP is a great reason to own a Mac, and offering free or inexpensive cross grades to FCP from Premiere on both platforms is exactly what Apple needs to do to stay competitive.

    The media technologies are actually the key to the Premiere/FCP battle. Keeping MPEG4 at the front of the game is extremely important to all of us who are interested in seeing open media technologiers (and who don't want another reason to be stuck on Windows). Having Adobe push Microsoft's solution (not saying you can't do anything else - but notice the prominent mention of MS technologies in their PR release for Premiere) is bad for all of us.

    My point? Apple competing hard for open media standards via products like FCP is great for those people who will never use either piece of software.

    1. Re:Go Apple by burns210 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This will be great for Apple now, but pissing off Adobe even more is going to do what? Push them away! How pissed off do you want Adobe to be when they make very popular pro-level applications(photoshop comes to mind)? How many ways does Apple have to undercut third-party developers because they think they can home grow a better product?

      In a niche market like Apple, where pro-level applications keep you in the game and bring credibility to your platform, you can only piss off and drive away so many developers.

    2. Re:Go Apple by daviddennis · · Score: 4, Informative

      There's only one catch to your argument: Unlike Photoshop and After Effects, Premiere was hopelessly bad compared to Final Cut Pro.

      Premiere's creators were interviewed at Digital Video Editing.com. I can't link easily to the article since DVE is using frames heavily, but go to the page and read part 1 of the interview. They use corpspeak and evasiveness where they can, but there's no question they were very much aware that Premiere was horribly inferior to Final Cut, in feature set, user interface and pretty much everything else.

      The situation with Photoshop and After Effects could not be any more different. Both are applications beloved by their users, that have received quality updates. As a result, sales are split about 30/70 Mac/PC, instead of Premiere's 10/90 Mac/PC. Because of this, it's profitable for Adobe to produce a Mac version of these programs, especially with the new G5 offering the needed processor oomph.

      In short, I would not call Apple's purchase of Final Cut betraying Adobe. I would consider it Apple's acknowledgement that they needed a high-quality video editing program, and Premiere wasn't going to do the job.

      I really don't think Adobe is going to get rid of Photoshop or After Effects for the Mac, because we tend to be a pretty free-spending market. Isn't it interesting that Macs have something like 5% of the market, but 30% of Adobe sales. That's a nice contribution indeed, that can't be written off lightly.

      D

    3. Re:Go Apple by runenfool · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't think offering a competing, paid product is doing any disservice to your platforms developers. Products like iTunes certainly hurt the Mac MP3 player market because they are free, but when you have something like FCP whose development wasn't being subsidized by operating system or hardware sales you have a (relatively) fair ground on which to compete.

      If Adobe were to ever reach the point where they would consider dropping Photoshop because Apple had a competing program it would be because their Mac sales had dropped so much from Apple producing that much better of a product.

      As far as Apple driving away developers I think they would disagree. I read today how Joz pointed out that Apple had 3 times the developers it did before OS X. As a classic Mac user who is now using OS X that fact is quite obvious.

      I think its also quite obvious that FCP is a strength of the Mac, not a weakness. Apple has gained many more Mac sales with the creation (purchase) and development of a mac only Final Cut Pro versus the loss of users of the cross platform Adobe Premiere.

  7. Re:us only by Mister+Black · · Score: 3, Informative

    US only? From the Final Cut promotion page:

    "This offer is available worldwide, except where prohibited or otherwise restricted by law"

    --

    You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
  8. Burning DVDs by ceri · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Will Final Cut (preferably Express) allow me to burn existing MPEG-2s to DVD? I can export MPEG-2 files from my ReplayTV but can't seem to burn them onto my SuperDrive without first converting them to DV and then using iDVD.

    Ceri

  9. DVD Studio Pro? by ZxCv · · Score: 3, Informative

    Final Cut doesn't do any DVD burning (that I'm aware of, anyway)--that is what DVD Studio Pro is for. So if what you want can be done, it will probably be done with DVD Studio Pro.

    --

    Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
  10. The Fine Print by bats · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you look at the mail in form, there's fine print at the bottom. The 'Trade In, Trade Up' deal where you mail in your Premiere CD for a free Final Cut Express disk does not mention Academic versions at all -- just the Premiere LE.

    Only the 'Your Checks in the Mail' offer mentions Academic software. Sounds like you can't buy FC Pro Academic ($500) and get the $500 rebate. But it seems that you can trade your Academic Premeire disk for FC Express for free!

    I'm licking my stamps now!

  11. Premiere vs Final Cut Express by daviddennis · · Score: 2, Informative

    The most important thing is that Final Cut is a much better designed application. There are about 50 different ways to do anything, it's extremely flexible, and the keyboard shortcuts make it easy to get work done.

    As I remember, Premiere has better titling, but Final Cut has an extensive colour correction system that I believe is included in FCE.

    But the most important thing is simply a far superior design and user interface, something even Premiere's defender (see his message) will admit.

    Hope that helps.

    D

    1. Re:Premiere vs Final Cut Express by bursch-X · · Score: 2, Informative

      Since FCP 4 with livetype. FCP even rules in titling. ;-)

      --
      There are two rules for success:
      1. Never tell everything you know.
  12. all those old cds by Suppafly · · Score: 3, Funny

    Do you just have to mail them the cd, or the license too? Apple could make a killing reselling all of those premiere licenses they they got basically for free.

  13. What will they do with the disks? by Erik+K.+Veland · · Score: 2, Funny

    I hope they put them all together in a huge microwave.

    Zzzap!

    --
    "I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java
  14. Availability in Europe; Adobe cooperation? by Mitz+Pettel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, according to Andrew Webb on MacInTouch, Apple says that

    This promotion is coming to the UK in the next 7 days. The reason for the slight delay (compared to the US one, which started yesterday) is that we have been working with Adobe to get the promo up and running in all European countries simultaneously, which is a logistical nightmare. But we're getting there.
    (emphasis mine)

    So it seems that Adobe is cooperating with Apple on this one (maybe by assuring them that Adobe customers won't be in violation of their Premiere licenses by just sending the media to Apple).