Apple updates Final Cut Studio with over 100 new features

Apple has announced a significant upgrade to its market-leading Final Cut Pro professional video editing package which is claimed to offer faster all-round operation - complete with new ProRes codec options, time-saving interface improvements, easy collaboration tools and the inclusion of AVC Intra HD editing capabilities.

New features of Final Cut Pro 7, which sits at the heart of the boxed Final Cut Studio collection, include new versions of the Apple ProRes codec that will allow users to edit faster and at higher quality across a wide variety of workflows. The family now includes ProRes 422 (Proxy), ProRes 422 (LT) and ProRes 4444, in addition to the original ProRes 422 and ProRes 422 (HQ).

New delivery options mean that users can now choose the output format in the Share window, whilst continuing to edit as projects are rendered, compressed, and even published to the web in the background. This convenient new Easy Export feature makes it possible to export a file to iTunes for syncing with iPod, iPhone and Apple TV as well as facilitating publishing to YouTube or MobileMe or even burning a Blu-ray disc2 or a DVD using a choice of Apple-designed menu templates. Users can also create custom presets in Compressor for use in the Share window.

iTheater Chat Support
Users can work with clients or collaborators as if they were in the same room - in real time - from anywhere in the world. This is achieved simply by sending the Final Cut Pro video to iChat Theater to let everyone see the same footage in order to view dailies, select shots and make edits.

Change clip speeds with ease in the redesigned Change Speed window, which includes presets that ease in and ease out retimed clips. A new option lets users make speed changes without rippling the sequence, enabling free experimentation without affecting the surrounding clips.

It’s now easier than ever to create dramatic transitions with moving mattes, too, we're assured; simply apply a matte instantly by choosing one of a range of Apple-designed transitions, available through a free download.

Editors can now colour-code clip and sequence markers and use them to search or jump directly to important locations, with the ability to add marker notes and metadata while the clip is playing, create a custom name for each marker colour, and control whether markers of a specific colour are visible in the Timeline.

Of course, when working under deadline, every second counts. Final Cut Pro is now designed to save setup time when clips are being transferred from a wide range of file-based cameras including Panasonic P2 and Sony XDCAM. The files are automatically copied to media storage volumes the moment the media is mounted.

Improved Log and Transfer
A new Log and Transfer option allows the easy set up of custom metadata which can be added to project assets in a single step. Improvements to the interface are claimed by Apple to make handling of file-based media even more robust in Final Cut Pro 7. We're assured that it will now be easy to find and mount missing volumes during batch ingest, and to sort clips to show only the ones that require re-ingest. Improved automatic naming makes it easier to identify clips that span multiple cards.

Native AVC-Intra support
A very welcome piece of news for many HD editors will be the announcement that Final Cut Pro 7 will now facilitate easy integration with the latest high-quality cameras from Panasonic. Native support for the AVC-Intra format means that footage can be directly ingested into Final Cut Pro at high speeds — without transcoding. Editors will be able to work with real-time effects and edit with multiple streams, thanks to ultrafast decoding of both 50-Mbps and 100-Mbps formats.

For more information, see the full Apple news release.

Source: Apple UK with additional notes by Colin Barrett, SimplyDV