Apple makes Final Cut Studio 2 available next month

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Yesterday the second version of Apple’s Final Cut Studio was presented, a productivity suite dedicated to video production. This edition integrates a range of renewed functions and includes Final Cut Pro 6, which introduces the ProRes 422 10-bit post-production format, for uncompressed HD files with their own SD quality file size, and support for several formats video and frame rates on a single timeline.

In a statement, Apple explains that Final Cut Pro 6 includes an open format timeline (Open Format Timeline), which allows publishers to mix and match multiple video formats. This tool also includes an optical flow based on SmoothCam technology, to eliminate accidental camera movements and other oscillations.

The editing package also includes Motion 3 – which features an intuitive 3D environment, over 1,500 new design elements and new usage tools – Soundtrack Pro 2, which includes dozens of tools for multitrack sound editing, Compressor 3, which allows batch encoding in several formats, and DVD Studio Pro 4.2 for creating DVDs in SD and HD-DVD format.

Final Cut 2 also features the Color application, a new color correction and editing tool that allows you to create characteristic color environments in different images, and Compressor 3, the latest version of Apple’s coding tool, which integrates a new interface and support for different standard codecs, namely, MPEG-2 and H.264, and adjustments to broadcast content for television, web, iPod, Apple TV, DVD and mobile phones.

Companies like Panasonic, Sony and RED have already expressed their support for the ProRes 422 format, stating that this is an innovative format to be integrated into their new generation of cameras.

On the same day, Steve Jobs’ company also presented Final Cut Server, a server application, compatible with the video editing package, which offers media and content management and allows the automation of the workflows of professionals from post-production and broadcasting.

Final Cut Sudio 2 will be available from May, at the Apple Store, for 1,246.2 euros. Users of previous versions can upgrade the suite by paying 483 euros or 659 euros, depending on the version the user uses.

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