We were all teased with the idea of new versions of Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro at NAB last April, but had to wait until summer to see them shipping. Well, it was worth the wait. Apple has outdone itself again. Final Cut Pro 4 is sure to satisfy the seasoned pro on a syndicated four-camera sitcom all the way across the spectrum to the greenhorned rookie just looking to splice together some shots of his daughter's first steps. Either way, when your masterpiece is ready to be screened on your sister-in-laws DVD player over Thanksgiving break--or if it's prepped for distribution internationally--DVD Studio Pro will make you the grand auteur of MPEG-2 authoring.

EDITING

One of the best new features was FCP4's new RT Extreme, Apple's re-written, realtime effects preview, which adds the ability to see previews on an NTSC or PAL monitor Using this, I was able to composite four streams of video--which included three DVE boxes over a background, with a text layer keyed over that and color correction on all the layers--all playing back in realtime. This sequence was able to preview smoothly, albeit at quarter-screen resolution, but must be rendered when it's time to go out to tape. Still, this represents a major workflow improvement over what FCP3 could preview on an NTSC/PAL monitor.

This release also includes a new text tool, called LiveType. It's an advanced titling tool with each text character capable of individual animation. It was very easy to create a variety of great-looking text effects, all previewing in realtime. Included with the new version of Final Cut Pro is 8GB of canned animations and fonts.

Another big plus in this new version is its improved quality, where it's now able to support DVCPRO 50 and uncompressed video such as 8-bit and 10-bit in both standard definition and high definition. Enabling this hefty bandwidth is the implementation of FireWire 800, a full 2x faster than your grandpa's FireWire running at a geriatric 400mbps. Apple is now standardizing FireWire 800 in all its notebooks, desktops and servers. As expected, Final Cut Pro 4 has more sophisticated editing, compositing, effects and audio tools that allow professional editors to meet demanding post production deadlines while maintaining their creativity ... not to mention their sanity

AUTHORING