Goodbye FCP

[abostonboy]

Very happy with Sony Vegas.

Did you know that you can download the CS2 version of Premiere from the Adobe website with a serial number for free?

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

Not legally unless you own the software...

[dirtyratstudios]

The red text has only been added in the last few weeks. It didn't say that previously and there was much discussion about the software:

http://www.mobilemag.com/2013/01/14/...-free-sort-of/

[abostonboy]

Adobe killed the activation servers for CS2 late last year and all the blogs took what they said as meaning they are giving the software away for free. Adobe quickly clarified it that same day.

This is the original post that caused all the confusion.
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1114930
Not sure why it took another month for bloggers to think Adobe was giving it away for free....

Since Adobe had to release new versions of the software for those that owned it to re-install, maybe that is what caused the confusion.

[dirtyratstudios]

adobe.jpg

I saved an HTML copy of the page on January 12, 2013. Here is a screengrab of part of that page. You can see it doesn't have the red text or any other suggestion that the software can't be used. It has links to all the software to download, plus all the serial numbers (I left those out of the screengrab) and it is a public page on the official Adobe website.

Currently that page is number two for a Google search for "Adobe CS2", so many people will go straight to it. Just as I did back in January after reading the blog posts. Hardly surprising that people still thought Adobe was giving away the old software for free in January.

Must admit I didn't check the page again before posting the link on this thread. I got it from my bookmarks.

[abostonboy]

Sigh....

All is good. The day after all the blogs announced that CS2 was free. Adobe issued a statement saying that was not the case. Looks like Adobe messed up on a couple levels here -

#1 They retired the activation servers.
#2 They didn't communicate the situation well at all.

Initially it was believed the company got tired of keeping the activation servers running to support legitimate installs of ~8 year-old software and decided to give it away. But that's only partly true.

Turns out Adobe did retire the activation servers used by CS2 back in December, but when legitimate owners of the suite started complaining that without these servers they'd be unable to reinstall their copies if needed, the company began offering versions of CS2 that didn't need activation.

Adobe later clarified that in order to legally use CS2 users still require a purchased license, and that the move was just meant to assist its existing customers. Yet the download page and serials are still live.

http://www.techspot.com/news/51316-a...t-mean-to.html
Date - Jan 11, 2013

Posted on Adobe -

Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products, including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago, do not run on many modern operating systems, and are no longer supported.

Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. The serial numbers provided as a part of the download may only be used by customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products.

http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations...n-servers.html
Date: Jan 11, 2013

Yeah. I know they had a page w/ serial numbers and no red text.

Looks like Adobe royally fucked up the activation servers and now have to offer downloads with a working serial number.

[RobertChandler]

Is anyone using Final Cut X? Seems like they've added a lot of new feature. It looks like it may be good now that it does multi cam clips and DVD chapters. Looks like there may be a learning curve but I know I can't go on using Final Cut 7 forever.

[nickbaer]

I'll go FCX as soon as I know I can drop AVCHD files on a Sequence/Timeline, with no pre-conversion.

[nickbaer]

Looks like Apple has (actually) been listening to disgruntled users, regarding the Final Cut X debacle.

http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/...,2837576.story

Will be interesting to see if the results are real, or more Silicon Valley hype.

Premiere gives me a headache, but I use it because you can drop AVCHD files on the timeline with no pre-conversion. But the trade-offs are painful.

Since I am in Las Vegas, I'm going to (try) to go to the LAFCPUG event during NAB. That should bring this into focus.

I luv The Rio - I shot a popular movie there!

[nickbaer]

An update:

A month ago, I did several projects in FCP again, my 3 year old FCP 7, and promptly cancelled my Adobe Cloud subscription for Premiere Pro!

I gave the Adobe Cloud subscription and Premiere 9 months.

HD didn't cause any marked improvement in VOD sales, but it did cause delays in those HD releases going live. My three DVD-R On Demand sales portals - including myself - don't do Blu-Ray, so I had to create a separate SD video version anyway. And I author DVDs in Apple DVD Studio Pro anyway, because the learning curve for the GUI for Adobe Encore was not cost effective.

It will cost me $299 to buy the current Apple Final Cut Pro. (There used to be a 30-day free trial, which I didn't see at first glance this morning.) There's also a $10 App to covert FCP projects from 7 to X.

I spent $50/month for 9 months for the Premiere Pro Adobe Cloud subscription. I'd be $150 ahead had I not tried Premiere Pro, I did not learn anything new about editing, input file formats, media, output file formats, audio, for the $450 experience.

FCP now supports AVCHD file formats, which is the raw file format for modern Consumer and ProSumer cameras (video and still that also do video).

Apple bungled FCP for 2 years, but now it looks like they're back on track.

I also read somewhere else this morning that someone thinks Adobe Cloud subscriptions is brand new! I found it a year ago, and I never considered myself the first on the block.

Cloud subscription/subscribing is a great concept. Adobe software isn't necessarily, but the subscription vs purchase concept fits an age-old model adopted by the hardware side of the business decades ago - called equipment leasing.

Apple meets it half way, with far more cost effective Apps, and cloud backup of your purchase(s).

[RobertChandler]

I'm going to get a new iMac and I'm thinking about switching to Final Cut 10 as well. The price is great and it seems like a lot of the features it was missing have been added back in (like multi clip editing). I hope Apple continues to support it and it continues to get even better.

[dirtyratstudios]

How do you use Premiere Pro in the cloud? Uploading original camera files doesn't seem practical at all.

[nickbaer]

The Cloud Subscription allows you to use the CS6 software application programs. All of them: PhotoShop. Illustrator, DreamWeaver, Premiere and the rest.

You download them to your computer. All of your input/output data files are on your computer and hard drives.

If anything happens to your computer, you download the programs again. Once your subscription runs out, the programs stop working. Supposedly. Mine haven't yet.

The term "Cloud" is way over-used these days. The work is performed locally on your computer. Whether you would ever upload your files to a data storage service, is a separate matter.

[jIgG]

One of the issues with the cloud services from my understanding is that you have to commit to 1 year of service. So that $49.95 a month subscription is a $599.4 fee I think.

And once you stop paying your Adobe product/s are deactivated when they check with the servers, which they do every 30 days. So you'd be renting the software instead of paying $600 once and getting updates until the next version comes out.

You can also get just Premiere Pro for $20 a month by itself, not sure if that carries a minimum of 1yr commitment or not.

The plus in the cloud offering is the offline storage, on Adobe's servers and being able to access your work from elsewhere and make edits using their mobile apps.

[dirtyratstudios]

The plus in the cloud offering is the offline storage, on Adobe's servers and being able to access your work from elsewhere and make edits using their mobile apps.

Not much of an attraction except for people who are just chopping up small affiliate clips. Files of any quality will be far too big to upload and download. One minute of basic AVCHD footage is a 100Mb file. Why bother when you can have it on a harddrive or cheap 16Gb SD card?

Also I wonder if Adobe have any rules about what can be stored on their servers? Eg. no porn?

[nickbaer]

I haven't tried saving clips on Adobe's cloud.

I have the same concern about stuff suddenly not working, e.g. clips deleted, once they find out they're adult.

if you want to cancel your 1-year subscription, supposedly you contact them, pay 50% of the remaining term, and you're done.

Instead, I drew down the balance in my bank account so the bank wouldn't authorize the $49.99 monthly charge.

That seemed to work, too.