15.04.03
Apple Announces Final Cut Pro 4 |
(NAB, Las Vegas, April 2003) - Apple® has introduced Final Cut Pro® 4, a major upgrade of Apple&';s Emmy award-winning editing software for film, HD, SD and DV. Packed with more than 300 new features, Final Cut Pro 4 introduces RT Extreme, for real-time compositing and effects, powerful new interface customization tools, new high-quality 8- and 10-bit uncompressed formats and for the first time in an editing system costing less than $100,000, full 32-bit floating point per channel video processing. Final Cut Pro 4 also includes three completely new integrated applications-LiveType for advanced titling, Soundtrack for music creation and Compressor for full featured batch transcoding.
The revolutionary RT Extreme is an enhanced software-based, real-time effects architecture that scales smoothly with processor speed to support an increased number of simultaneous real-time video streams and hundreds of real-time effects. RT Extreme allows software effects to be viewed in real time on an external broadcast monitor when connected via FireWire® or an external breakout box.
LiveType, a unique new titling application available only in Final Cut Pro 4, enables users to create dynamic, animated titles quickly and easily. LiveType includes LiveFonts, a new approach to text animation in which every character of a font is a separate animated movie.
Soundtrack, a breakthrough music creation tool also available only in Final Cut Pro 4, gives editors the power to easily create high-quality, royalty-free music scores for their projects. Soundtrack automatically matches audio loops regardless of tempo and key, providing real-time arranging and mixing.
Compressor, a new batch transcoding tool that comes bundled with both Final Cut Pro 4 and DVD Studio Pro 2, lets users batch and export directly to multiple formats including MPEG-2 for DVD, MPEG-4 for streaming media or any supported QuickTime® format. Compressor includes watermarking, real-time preview and 30 high-quality filters and effects, providing an ideal platform for high volume or repetitive encoding tasks. Compressor comes with a new world-class MPEG-2 software encoder, which provides professional controls for adjusting bit rate and selecting one- or two-pass VBR encoding.
Final Cut Pro 4 offers editors new customization options including over 600 tools and commands, a mappable keyboard, custom interface buttons, custom window layouts and enhanced screen layout options. Customized settings can be saved, exported and imported onto any Mac with Final Cut Pro, making it easy to preserve all the custom settings when switching from one Mac to another.
With its open architecture, Final Cut Pro 4 fits into virtually any production pipeline and provides incredible developer extensibility through a new XML interchange format and FireWire-based I/O framework. This new standards-based composition and metadata interchange format, combined with a new import/export plug-in API, allows developers to create tools that integrate Final Cut Pro 4 into a wide range of production workflows. In addition, the new FireWire-based I/O Framework allows third-party developers to build FireWire-based I/O devices for fully uncompressed 8- and 10-bit 4:2:2 broadcast video.
Pricing & Availability
Final Cut Pro 4 will be available in June through The Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple&';s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $999 (US). Registered Final Cut Pro users can upgrade to Final Cut Pro 4 for $399 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Final Cut Pro 4, including a list of certified, compatible hardware and software can be found at www.apple.com/finalcutpro.
Press Contacts:
Cameron Craig
(408) 974-6281
cam@apple.com
Jerry Hsu
Apple
(408) 974-7603<
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