Apple Announces Final Cut Pro HD

by Tony Fonseca
Published on Apr 18, 2004 12:00 AM



Today at a press conference at the National Assocation of Broadcasters annual conference Apple Computer announced a new version of its popular video editing program, Final Cut Pro HD. Final cut HD is a new version of Final Cut Pro that allows the user to import and manipulate DVCPRO-HD video on their G5, or G4 systems without the use of any add on hardware. The upgrade however noticably doesn't support HDV.

This newest version of Final Cut is the first which allows the user to import and work with uncompressed DVCPRO HD video through a standard IEEE 1394 Firewire connection. This is a huge advantage to those working with uncompressed video as it circumvents the need for add on capture hardware.

Suprisinly, Apple did not announce HDV support with the current version of Final Cut HD, according to the Apple web site it will be coming in future versions of the program. HDV is a prosumer and consumer high definition tape format that has been agreed to by four of the five major camcorder manufacturers. Sony Vegas Video, Adobe Preimere, Ulead MediaStudio, and Pinnacle all offer HDV video editing in their non-linear editing software programs.

Final Cut 3 introduced Offline RT, adding many real time editing features to the Final Cut products. Offline RT effectively makes smaller resolution proxy versions of full frame video to speed up the editing process. Offline RT has been particularly helpful in liberating grounded PowerBook (Mac laptops) editors whose work habits were previously confined by storage and speed limitations.

Final Cut HD takes the Offline RT concept even further with the implementation of HD optimized 'RT Extreme'. RT Extreme is a scalable off line format that allows users to work with HD in full resolution or multiple streams of HD video in preview mode. RT Extreme will speeds up the editing process similar to Offline RT by letting users edit with proxy versions of their HD video.

Although Apple is rapidly changing the economics of HD post production, the price of acquisition high definition video still remains out of reach for many. HDV has become a buzzword in recent months because of its promise to deflate the ever expanding costs of high definition production. Many people anticipated HDV to be at the center of Apple's product presentation, only to be surprised by other concepts already including a compositing program called 'Motion'.

Final Cut HD will sell for the same price as the non HD version of Final Cut Pro at $999. Current owners of Final Cut Pro will be able to upgrade for $399. Final Cut Pro HD is available immediately.