I really hate to disagree with you Aindreas, because you are so often dead right about so many things, but here goes.
The real issue isn't that FCPX doesn't allow for persistent Ins and Outs, it's way simpler than that.
FCPX doesn't allow for persistent Ins OR Outs.
It's only about 5-10% of the time that I have any interest in setting Both an In and an Out in the Browser whatever NLE I am using.
(It's called 3-point editing for those who perhaps aren't familiar with the concept. I like my In AND Out to be set in the timeline not in the Browser - I like the Browser to give me just an In OR an Out.)
And I am afraid that the apologists who will tell you that Favorites take care of the lack of persistent In AND Out haven't thought about those editors who only want one of those and don't want to have to be bothered about both.
If I have to use Favorites (when I don't care where either my In or my Out is respectively) I will have "favorited" the entire clip either from the In point to the end of the clip or from the Out point to the start of the clip respectively.
That's why it's not good enough. Yes, if you always needed to set BOTH In AND Out then favoriting solves the issue (if you like that kind of thing). But for editors like me it really doesn't work at all.
Let's be clear about why FCPX works the way it does in terms of range selection. Range selection is unquestionably (if you know what you're talking about) a legacy of FCPX's iMovie origins. iMovie works with ranges ONLY and does not allow you to "set Ins and Outs". What clearly happened (to my mind) with FCPX is that in order to graft on a veneer of "pro" functionality Apple realised that they would have to implement some way of setting Ins and Outs. But this is simply a disguise for the underlying iMovie architecture -
which hasn't changed. You aren't really setting Ins and Outs in any traditional sense - you're just substituting a keyboard manoeuvre for a mouse action defining a range in the iMovie sense. It's equally obvious why the "undefined" range point will default to either the end of the clip or the start.
Aindreas is quite right to suggest that the problem is architectural - and the "faulty" architecture comes from iMovie.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com
