Compressor 3.5.3 or 4.2 ??

Question

Level 1

8 points

Compressor 3.5.3 or 4.2 ??

Coming from FCP7 and Compressor to Premiere Pro and now to FCPX I am about to compress my first project and want to know if I should use my old Compressor 3.5.3 or if I should purchase the newer Compressor 4.2?

Is 4.0 better? Does it do more? Anything missing from 3.5.3?

Will be using on MacPro 2013 3.7GHz 4 cores, 16 Gb mem, and AMD FirePro D300 Video x 2 with RAID Thunderbolt external media drive.

Any help on this subject would be helpful.

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), 3.7 GHz, 16 Gb, FirePro D300 x 2

Posted on Apr 16, 2015 8:25 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,992 points

Apr 17, 2015 1:07 AM in response to Penn-Ohio

The latest version is quite a bit quicker, has some new features that are very useful. Also has MXF export if you need that.

Reply

Answer 2

Penn-Ohio Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 17, 2015 8:09 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

So, would I still need to keep 3.5.3 or can I dispose of it (i.e. sell it) ? Also, does 4.2 now utilize all four of my MacPro's cores in the conversion?

EDIT: Oh, and do I still have to buy/download a plugin to do .wmv's like I did with 3.5.3 ?

Reply

Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,992 points

Apr 17, 2015 8:29 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

.

Reply

Answer 4

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,992 points

Apr 17, 2015 8:30 AM in response to Penn-Ohio

You can't sell separate apps from the FCS bundle.

Can't test MacPro behavior. You might try googling it.

Can't do WMV. Check with Telestream if they have a plugin.

Reply

Answer 5

Penn-Ohio Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 17, 2015 8:41 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Gotcha Tom. I would actually unload the whole original FCS2 purchase and Final Cut Suite 3 upgrade. I like keeping things to a bare minimum and after watching the SuperMeet video with Larry Jordan, I'm convinced that FCPX is my only source path for all future work for the most part and will only use it and thus need to unload any of my former FCP7 things (including the suites) if I am able as I will not open them any longer if the new ones are a total replace if you follow?

Reply

Answer 6

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Apr 19, 2015 6:51 AM in response to Penn-Ohio

Penn-Ohio wrote:

Gotcha Tom. I would actually unload the whole original FCS2 purchase and Final Cut Suite 3 upgrade. I like keeping things to a bare minimum and after watching the SuperMeet video with Larry Jordan, I'm convinced that FCPX is my only source path for all future work for the most part and will only use it and thus need to unload any of my former FCP7 things (including the suites) if I am able as I will not open them any longer if the new ones are a total replace if you follow?

Removing FCS from your system and reselling it are to separate issues. To remove all the associated files and to free up the space, I'd suggest using FCS Remover from Digital Rebellion. Tom previously addressed the second issue as well as other questions you asked. BTW, you might want to spend some time with the FCP X trial version before you commit to it. While I have grown to prefer it over legacy FCP, not everyone does.

Russ

Reply

Answer 7

Penn-Ohio Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 20, 2015 6:12 PM in response to Russ H

Thanks Russ for the suggestions and the recommendation for FCS Remover. I will certainly take that approach.

I can't see any reason I would go back to FCP7 since all my cameras are AVCHD and it just didn't work for me in FCP7. Most of my videos are longer than 5 mins and/or are multicam where FCP7 was always getting the video and audio out of sync when the multicam was about 12 mins or longer and when the single clips were over 15 mins. I tried converting the clips before hand, stream clip, transcoding in fcp7, etc and nothing worked. That's how the "rough road" began to Premiere Pro then finally to FCPX.

Also, Compressor was never a real friendly app in my opinion, i never once used motion, and other than DVD Studio Pro which I really really liked, I have no reason for the product. A few DV/HDV projects that I have possible, I'll just recapture via FCPX or have a friend capture in fcp7 and shoot me the HDD.

And for DVD studio pro (now end of life) I can just use Toast Titanium 12 that is finally pretty easy to menu and set up. I would still like to see a NEWER more friendly DVD Studio Pro and if I could get it stand alone or something close to it then for sure FCS2 and FCS3 upgrade (full set) would be "outta there" :-)

Reply