The Future of Mac Video Software...

[Thargok]

is indefinite.

Where a lot of good apps and new technologys are being created for the windoze side of computing...these programs aren't working out. And this is mostly due to the $99 plus price tag for things as simple as a MPEG-2 encoder. They have virtualdub and a few ripping programs.

Yet when I look at the Mac side...OPEN SOURCE or Open Source based (due to OS X being BSD and all). Sure there are a few programs for professionals (DVDSP, FCP, etc.). But everything for everyday common use is pretty much free.

For example

Sizzle
3ivx (windows as well) /Divx Doctor
Mediapipe
Fourty-Two
ffmpegX
Missing Media EVERYTHING
DivX Gershwin Encoder (Beta 3)
VLC
OSeX
Diva

There are so many more freebies that I can't name them all. But when I first started getting into this stuff almost 2 years ago now, none of these things could have been done with the ease they can be done now.

SVCDs took a few hours of tinkering and a Holy Man to bless the process. Burning them wasn't much easier.

So, Thanks to everyone out there who has done so much for the OS X video community

[frenchps49]

Hear! Hear! Hear!

[BJ_M]

well FCP 4 - when its finally released - will be an awesome program .. but be prepared to have some major software issues with apple soon as apple has now sued motorola over the cpu's and the cancellation of the G5 chip (old news now) and the problems with the g4 (and now the pullout of motorola in cpu fab completly as it was losing money)..

talks are now on with apple and intel , IBM and amd over a replacement .. which of course will mean new code comming in the next year or two ..

.......And then…….there's Motorola, the company who's not even managed to demonstrate a G5 processor to the press, much less ship any. It’s a far cry from the days of yore two years ago when several prominent websites (including The Other Plaice) reported detailed G5 specifications and plans for the CPU to ship as soon as early 2002. As time went by and no Apple G5 appeared, most dismissed the rumors as just that—rumors—but if website OSCast is truly in the know, then Motorola may have recently been hit by a massive lawsuit from Apple alleging the company broke contract by ending development of the G5 processor without giving Cupertino sufficient notice. Perhaps this is how Steve Jobs intends to finance that Universal music buy-out…

It's not hard to see why Apple might've finally lost patience when their erstwhile partner and sued the daylights out of them, as this wouldn't be the first time a Motorola screw-up cost our favorite PC fruit company quite a bit of money. Motorola's never seemed to be able to scale its G4 designs well, with the 500 MHz era jam-up in 1999/2000 being particularly bad.

Even once that particular hurdle was fixed, however, the G4 architecture hasn't exactly been a speed demon. First introduced in 1999 at 500 MHz the current 2003 G4 models run at 1.42 GHz. That's a 284% increase in four years. AMD's K7 architecture (introduced in 1999 as well) has risen from 500 MHz at launch to a high of 2,242 MHz (using strictly MHz) today, for a percentage gain of 448%. If you use AMD's own model numbers, the CPU is a full 600% faster today than it was back in 1999. Intel's P4 has advanced by almost identical ratios.

If Apple can prove that Motorola's decision to halt G5 R&D was done improperly and that it was one in a long string of missed deadlines and bad promises, the company could be in a position to rake in the dough. A potential match-up between Apple and IBM or Apple and AMD makes a lot more sense than a continued Motorola/Apple pair anyway. Motorola's fabs have long been money sinks for the company and desktop CPU manufacture is simply not a major section of Motorola's business—and Apple doesn't command the market share to give them a reason to specialize in it more. It may not be much longer until we see Apple sporting new logos on their oh-so-chic website

http://www.theinquirer.net april 17th....