A Retina MPB and FCP7

Forgive me copying and pasting most of this from my original post on C.Cow - I didn't want to type it again! I have no idea if pasting the screenshots in will work, but you can see the original here:

forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1161034

Having posed the question myself on WWDC day, I've been curious ever since ordering my rMBP how it would behave and look with good ol' FCP7. After receiving mine yesterday, I've finally had a chance to find out. I also tried a little 'unauthorised' testing on the full 2880x1800 resolution, courtesy of the 'Change Resolution' app from Wineskin - find it via this link:

9to5mac.com/2012/06/21/how-to-run-your-r...splay-macbook-pro-at ...

For info, I have the 2.6Mhz 15" rMBP with 512Gb flash drive. The MBP came with 10.7.4. As is common with new Apple computers, YOU CANNOT DOWNGRADE the OS, even one percentage build.

The short version: FCP7 looks fine on this new machine. As a former owner of a 17" MBP with a 1920x1200 display, I have mostly been using it at the 'more space' resolution offered in the new display controls (which annoyingly you can't enable in the menu bar any more) which gives this 'effective' resolution. Although not native to the display, you cannot see 'scaling' common with using lower-than-native resolutions.

It's clear that the text in FCP7 is not 'retina' - nor I am sure will it ever be. But it is as clear and readable as it ever was, at least to my eye. Although a smaller screen than the old high-res 17", I find this size more than useable, as the display is so sharp.

CAVEATS: I've seen two problems so far. 1) FCP7 crashed at one point. I have been unable to repeat it, but it was also before I updated to 7.0.3 (the original install was 7.0 from the disks and I got impatient!) so may be related to this. Problem 2) is an old issue: FCP7 DOES NOT LIKE RESOLUTION CHANGES.

As was pointed out to me in the C.Cow thread, FCP7 has always had a 'looping flashing frames' playback issue after resolution changes. Enabling and disabling external video cures it. I'd note that this could be an issue as you will find yourself making more resolution changes with the rMBP - some things are better with more space, some with clearer text.

As a matter of preference, I found the 'true retina' setting of 1440x900 too small for me - as I said I'm used to bigger resolutions on 17" MBPs and 27" iMacs (and cinema displays), but either of the 'more space' settings were fine for general use in FCP7 - the 'two up' window layout in 1920x1200 mode gives video windows of HD material at 49% scale.

Now for the fun bit (assuming you are still reading) - I also used the above hack to run FCP7 at 2880x1800. Although this crashed once at this res running 7.0.0, otherwise it seemed useable. Hopefully I can embed a screenshot below at full size. By creating a 'retina' layout, with a smaller viewer and big canvas, and setting the text size to 'large' in the browser (and larger sized timeline) I was able to have a 100% HD (1920x1080 prores) canvas in FCP7! As someone who mostly uses shortcuts in FCP7, I found this surprisingly useable, although the buttons were predictably tiny!

I'd add that the canvas in FCP7 doesn't (as far as I know) show full resolution in the Canvas - I believe it's half res. In addition, the footage I have is 1080i, so shows interlacing. I couldn't honestly say it looked super sharp (as the viewer does in FCPX), although it looked very nice. In addition, there was quite a bit of 'tearing' in moving video, where the screen struggled to refresh this monster resolution.

I will take a comparison shot of the canvas in FCP7 and X to see how the retina-ready FCPX compares in 100% playback. Incidentally, I think anyone using FCPX will be very pleased with the retina MBP....

Now for some screenshots: (ALL WITH 100% sized CANVAS)

First up (because I know you want it) here's the slightly absurd 2880x1800 FCP7 workspace:

images.creativecow.net/59673/retinafcp7.jpg

Now, here's the same project at 1920x1200 resolution. I left the text size the same in FCP7 so you could see the difference in scale at play here:

images.creativecow.net/59673/1920x1200fcp7.jpg

Finally, here's FCP7 running at 'retina' 1440x900:

images.creativecow.net/59673/1440900retinafcp7.jpg


I think it's clear if you compare the menu bar to the app that there is no 'pixel doubling' going on in the text. I've also set the text scaling in the browser to the small size - otherwise if I'd left it, it would have been huge. Perfectly usable, but if anything the larger GUI text looks worse at this lower resolution. I think that's because your eye gets so used to the pin sharp elements in retina apps so quickly. There really is no going back from the retina display. It's a shame FCP7 will never be optimised for it - I expect to be using it for at least another 12 months.

I'll be carrying on testing FCP7 with my MXO2 (via thunderbolt) and the rMBP to make sure it's stable for an upcoming job. I'll report back if I have any major problems.

I'll also be installing CS6 this evening - keen to see how it looks before its retina update - but having seen FCP7 I'm not too bothered.

Let me know if I can answer any specific queries - I'll see what I can do.

Ben