Apple releases new Final Cut Studio
Apple introduced on Thursday a new version of Final Cut Studio, the company's high-end video production suite.
The suite comes with six applications in all, including Final Cut Pro 7, Motion 4, Soundtrack Pro 3, Color 1.5, Compressor 3.5, and DVD Studio Pro 4. Most of the work in this release was spent on the flagship app of the suite, Final Cut Pro.
In Final Cut Pro 7, editors have the ability to edit faster with the help of three new ProRes versions. Users can now choose ProRes 422 (Proxy) for offline editing; ProRes 422 (LT) for projects that require reduced file sizes at broadcast quality; and ProRes 4444 for compositing and digital workflows that require the highest-possible quality.
The new Final Cut Studio includes these apps.
(Credit: Apple)Final Cut also includes support for iChat Theater, giving editors the ability to collaborate with clients in real-time. You can output your video to iChat Theater and talk while your client watches the clips with you.
A redesigned Change Speed window lets you make speed changes without rippling the sequence, and a new Share window gives you more control over exporting your content for Apple devices, the Web, a Blu-ray disc, or a DVD.
Apple's 3D application, Motion 4 allows you to add reflections and shadows that respond to lights and objects as they pass through the 3D space, according to Apple. Motion also includes new text and titling tools, including an Adjust Glyph tool that lets you distort a single character.
Compressor 3.5 comes with a new Job Action features that gives you the ability to have Compressor open a file, publish it to the Web, or send it to your iTunes library. You can also use job actions to burn a Blu-ray disc or a DVD, or trigger Automator workflows.
Final Cut Studio is available for $999 and requires an Intel Mac. Current Final Cut Studio owners can purchase an upgrade for $299.
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple. 
Any professional who is relying on 4 year old hardware for productivity is not the concern of a pro application division when releasing new software versions. They are either unsuccessful or a hobbyist. Older machines are fine for non-processor intensive tasks, but any professional house using 4 year old machines, and planning to keep those machines even longer, is in dire financial straights. Besides already being depreciated in their accounting, they are productivity hogs, costing the company more in a few weeks than the cost of replacing them with faster machines. If you save an hour a day in waiting for things to finish (easily achievable with faster hardware), you make up the cost of that machine in less than a month...
FCS6 is not broken. G5 users can still use it. But as a FCS user, I do NOT want my installation hindered or bloated for legacy G5 support. I want a fast, stable package. I want it to take advantage of the Intel hardware and modern graphics cards. FCP is not stable enough as it is, I don't want PPC support making it more prone to random errors.
initial test here: http://vimeo.com/6049124
with regard to Adobe, they were the first to start ignoring G5 users, so suggesting
them as to G5 users as some more worthy company to support is ridiculous.
They dropped PPC support for After effects then refused to sell or support CS3
(which still worked fine on PPC machine) I had to use ebay to get a boxed version.
Just because G5's are a few years old does not instantly make them worthless,
if you want to save time during the day learn to set up a batch render process and
focus on more important things than the processing power of machines that have been
more than fast enough for years now.
I imagine that Compressor 3.5 and DVD Studio 4.2.2 may well run on PPC machines as they may remain UB, and having Compressor available to PPC means you can replace them on your desk and retire them to render farms where Final Cut Server or QMaster can use their resources.
But FCP 7, Color, Motion, etc. very likely have all the PPC excised from them, and the new features have no PPC code ever written.
surprisingly I've managed to get FCS3 to run on my G5 without issues.
initial test here: http://vimeo.com/6049124
"FCP 7, Color, Motion, etc. very likely have all the PPC excised from them, and the new features have no PPC code ever written."
not true, so far every new feature I've tested works on my G5, if you have one in particular you'd like me to test
I'm happy to report back.
Mr Jobs. Please give us Blu-ray drives and HDMI output on Macs. I beg you. Please!!!!
Thanks. Now if someone could just tell me how to install this in my Mac Mini
And yes, did u find the HDMI thing?
As for HDMI, I do believe there are DVI to HDMI adaptors, although they'll only handle the video component. I don't see the need for HDMI on most machines, but as the Mini is a perfect media center device ('tho I love my Apple TV), it would be a great candidate for HDMI...
The gamma thing's been bugging me for too long, I almost forgot.
Suddenly I'm saddened. hmmm...
- by sparkie321 July 27, 2009 4:20 PM PDT
- Customer from Canada got dinged by Apple big time...
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- by mattmacar August 31, 2009 11:40 AM PDT
- Shouldn't have been from Canada, I guess... (I'd wink, but it seems so superfluous)
- Like this
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(28 Comments)Just bought an upgrade from my Final Cut Studio (FCS) to Final Cut Studio 2 and received it about 2 weeks ago. Last week Apple released the latest and greatest upgrade to FCS for $349 from any previous version.
I just paid $549 upgrading from my older FCS to FCS2. Talking to Apple they tell me I am not eligible for the latest upgrade for free. They had the gall to ask me if I wanted them to route me to sales so I could order the latest upgrade which they helpfully said would cost me an additional $349.
Let me see if I understand this..If I held off ordering the upgrade to the Old version I could have gotten the new version for $349 instead of $549. Now they have my $549 and want an additional $349 to get the latest.
They already have $549 of my money and now they want another $349 for a grand total of 2 dollars shy of $900 bucks to upgrade!!!
Well, Thanks Apple!!