Should I get Final Cut Express HD now or wait?

[ravenvii]

I'm getting really SICK of iMovie. Constant crashing, limited power, etc. It's time to abandon it for good.

I have Final Cut Express 1.0. I'm thinking about selling it and getting Final Cut Express HD. But I have a feeling it will be updated coming MWSF. Should I get it now, or wait? One benefit of waiting is that the new FCE will include a license for QuickTime 7 (the current one includes a license for QuickTime 6, which is useless to me, being on Tiger).

What do you guys think?

 

[Eniregnat]

I have always liked your avatar. I can't wait to see it in rendered HD

Do you really need FCEHD? If you really don't need to upgrade, and your waiting for some sort of revision, I'd wait and just but a key for QT7. If you work is going to suffer, I'd bight the bullet, if not, I'd wait.

What are you working on?

 

[ravenvii]

Working on quite a few short films, both personal pet projects and external, group projects, not to mention editing for the university TV. Quite a bit of editing coming my way (only have done two so far, they're luckily very short and easy, but the upcoming ones, such as my current pet project, and the ones after, are going to drive me to suicide if I use iMovie). No HD content, so I don't need any of the HD features. Is 1.0 still "current" enough to serve me well until January-ish? That's quite a few projects from now to then...

 

[emutree]

I'd say it's almost guaranteed Express'll get an update at Macworld in January, but the upgrade price is very reasonable ($99). I'm hoping this year they bundle on some sort of mini-Motion and mini-Soundtrack Pro.

But anyways, I never used FCE 1, but I upgraded from 2 to HD and the only difference it made was that titles became a hell of a lot more flexible via LiveType. I'm sure stability and performance are probably a bit better too. I'm not sure what else the FCE 1 - 2 upgrade brought, but basically I'd say if you want Livetype or Soundtrack, upgrade. Otherwise, wait until January would be my advice.

 

[solvs]

Depends. Is your sanity worth the money, and then another $100 for the upgrade to come? But then, is FCE 1 not doing something that HD could (except the QT thing, you could just buy that for $30). If you could get it at education discount, and money isn't that big of an issue, go ahead. If you don't think the new version that may or may not come out is anything exciting, you can just wait 'til the next version after that. Or until Leopard.

Yeah, that probably didn't help any.