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Media (Apple) Media Businesses Apple

Apple Updates Pro Media Apps 94

Posted by timothy from the cough-up-dough-and-make-more dept.
macguys writes "Apple Computer has released updates to its media Pro applications. Among the new software released are upgrades to Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack (now called Soundtrack Pro), DVD Studio Pro, Motion and Shake. A bundle of all the new applications (except Shake) is available under the name Final Cut Studio."
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Apple Updates Pro Media Apps More

Apple Updates Pro Media Apps

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  • Looks like these apps will need a lot of Power (Score:5, Informative)

    by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Sunday April 17, 2005 @09:11PM (#12265705)
    That was a capital P "Power" - as in Power Mac.

    Last year at the NAB, Apple followed the Sunday softweare intors with Monday hardware intros. Let's all hope Think Secret [thinksecret.com] is right.

    They are predicting Dual G5 configurations from 2.0 to 2.7 GHz in the Power Macs and iMacs from 1.8 to 2Ghz.

    They go on to predict Super Drives replaced with Dual layer support, better graphics cards in the iMacs, 512MB RAM standard on all models (as well as Tiger/iLife)

    What they do not know is if Apple with drop the dual core bomb, giving us four cores in a Dual processor Power Mac.

    Quite frankly, with Tiger and Final Cut Studio, the 17" Power Book will continue to hodl the top spot for Professional editing on the go.
    • Supposedly the PowerPC 970 MP (Dual-core) comes with 1M L2 cache. The system Think Secret describes only have 512K L2, which means that it is the old single core version.

      • Re:Looks like these apps will need a lot of Power (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Assuming that anybody who actually knows is even talking to Think Secret anymore. Now that it has been established that they can not protect NDA-violating sources, I imagine the well is likely to dry up pretty fast.
    • I've been holding out for the longest time, waiting for the mythical G5 Lappy. My PB G4 800 has been enough to get by until now. I can hold out until June, September at the latest.

      Then the choice will be between the 17" or the 12" with my 22" cinema display.

      • You're not getting a G5 PowerBook by June. Have you seen the heatsinks in the G5 towers? We'll need new CPUs with smaller dies before that will happen, and those are still at the rumor stage.
        And, btw, why? As was discussed when Tiger was announced, what does a 970 get you? You won't use 64bit in a portable, as there aren't enough ram slots anyways. You'd be happier with a dual core "Freescale" G4--and those might happen a lot sooner.
        • I'm well aware I'm not getting a G5 PB by June, outside of a miracle.

          But why is it important to me? Did you see the system requirements for FC Studio if you want to work with HDV or HD DVD?

          For the time being this will mean getting an iMac or a Powermac if the need for using HDV comes up. A Powerbook would be a whole lot more useful to me. If a small HDV job comes up, I might be able to use a partner's Powermac.

          If the dual core freescales meet the FC Studio requirements for HDV, then great.

          • Did you see the system requirements for FC Studio if you want to work with HDV or HD DVD?

            It's not my business, so I didn't look that closely, but that's a nice point. Mac OS Rumors has been muttering about using a Cell-based co-processor for HD video tasks; I wonder if that's how Apple hopes to get HD FCP and friends working on a PowerBook.

            Inclusion of a Cell co-processor, on the surface, seems like a useful thing to do, and not only for FCP--I would think, if it was handled correctly, that the Mac

          • Did you see the system requirements for FC Studio if you want to work with HDV or HD DVD?

            Unless you want to use Motion, even the current PowerBooks will do (HD features require 1GHz or faster single or dual processors). So a 1.7 GHz dual-core G4 should be able to do it too.

            • Hey, you're right. I misread that.

              Well, either way, I'm still looking at upgrading the hardware. I love this TiBook, but it's days as my main machine are numbered. I'll probably keep it, though. It still boots OS 9. I don't think any recent computers from Apple will actually boot into OS 9, though you can run "Classic".
      • If I were going to hold out for a laptop, it would be for the dual core G4, not the G5.

        For my mobile computing needs (I recognize that your's may differ from mine) The 64bit power of the G5 is way overkill and will translate nicely into poor batery life and a hot lap.

        The dual core G4 on the other hand would provide 5+Ghz combined speed (yeah, you don't combine dual processors like that but just go with me on this) while also providing a cooler operating environment on my lap and enough battery life to get
        • My dear friend, Amichalo:

          Maybe you forgot to RTFA, but this is about the pro apps, namely FC Studio. Neither your 400 Ti nor my 800 Ti will be able to run most of the apps in FC Studio. I don't think your PB will run any, in fact.

          G5 Powerbooks might be a pipe dream, but Dual Core G4s aren't exactly shipping either.
          • I have the last version of the studio. and with the exception of Motion, which requires a bigger video chip, it all runs, albeit slowly, on a 667 Ti. I wouldn't recommend it though.

            I'm waiting till after NAB to order my new one. here's hoping for some price drops, I can live without the latest and greatest, but I want my compositor!
        • For my mobile computing needs (I recognize that your's may differ from mine) The 64bit power of the G5 is way overkill and will translate nicely into poor batery life and a hot lap.

          I suppose such people probably exist, but I've had the hardest time trying to figure out who really has a need for multiple GHz of processing power in a laptop. I mean, sure a dual-G5 system you can pull out of our backpack and show off to your art-geek friends sounds kewl, but does anybody really do video-editing at Starbuck'

          • According to Apple's own comments during various earnings calls with analysts, Apple continues to see a migration from pro desktops (Power Macs) to pro laptops (PowerBooks).

            I agree with you that it doesn't make sense to try to get in a couple hours of video editing time while flying from here to there, yet my own observations seem to enforce Apple's claims.

            Witness a videographer I worked with last year that had Power Macs in studio for editing but also used PowerBooks for going to clients and working on c

  • They're All Updated (Score:5, Informative)

    by The Lost Supertone ( 754279 ) on Sunday April 17, 2005 @09:30PM (#12265835) Journal
    Uhh, It's now Final Cut Pro 5, not Pro HD (4), DVD Studio Pro 4, not 3. Soundtrack Pro (previously only sound track, I think that's now relegated to Final Cut Express), and Motion 2. These are MAJOR apps, and there are lots of people who they matter to. Complaining this gets mentioned on Slashdot along with "Random thing dealing with Robots or Google" is hardly mature. You're getting mad that Slashdot is reporting on the release of Apple's flag ship OS and flag ship video editing apps, just wait till Slashdot reports that Apple soon will be updating their flag ship pro desktops!

  • XGrid? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Rauser ( 631244 ) on Sunday April 17, 2005 @09:53PM (#12265979)
    It seems to me that some of these apps could really take advantage of XGrid, especially since it appears that they are only going to work with OS X 10.4. Can anyone confirm whether XGrid capability is present in any of these apps?

    • Re:XGrid? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Suburbanpride ( 755823 ) on Sunday April 17, 2005 @10:35PM (#12266220)
      It wouldn't suprise me, although I don't have any info on it.

      Apple's Logic Pro [apple.com] audio suite released a few months ago has the ability to offload audio rendering tasks to other g5's on the same network. A very cool technology that makes a lot of sense to use in pro video enviroments where it is likely that there a dozens of other workstations on the network.

      Info on distributed audio processing here.

      • Re:XGrid? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Rauser ( 631244 )
        Ahhh, I should have RTFA... It does appear the DVD Studio Pro [apple.com] has XGrid-like capability built in, with the ability to farm out rendering and conversion jobs to other Macs on the network. I'm sure that this is gonna give XServe sales a big boost...

      • Re:XGrid? (Score:3, Informative)

        by BorgCopyeditor ( 590345 )
        to other g5's on the same network

        Actually, to any machine. I use my iBook G4 and squeeze a little more processing power out.

    • Shake already has that (at least 3.5), it comes with a peace of software called 'Qmaster' which allows to set up a small renderfarm out of your OS X machines for Shake jobs, it also supports Maya and Adobe After Effects, and is fully scriptable so any kind of command line utility can be built into it to dispatch render jobs in the network.
    • Well, it's not quite the same, but DVD Studio Pro 4 [apple.com] can distribute encoding over a network. Check it out [apple.com]. I imagine that'll come in handy, because it'll take a long time to work with H.264.

  • Free stuff, too! (Score:5, Informative)

    by dr.badass ( 25287 ) on Sunday April 17, 2005 @11:49PM (#12266609) Homepage
    This seems like a kind of unusual thing for Apple, but they're also offering a 30-day free trial of Motion 1.0 [apple.com]. It's not the new version, but for people that wonder what Motion can do, or bored Slashdorks, it should be interesting.

    Note: it requires a system with a fairly recent video card.

  • And Logic Pro, too (Score:3, Informative)

    by BorgCopyeditor ( 590345 ) on Monday April 18, 2005 @12:26AM (#12266785)
    Logic Pro just got bumped [apple.com] to 7.1, with some fixes and a few new features.

  • HD-DVD not Blu-Ray? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by alanoneil ( 749691 )

    Has anyone else noticed the new "HD-DVD" creation feature of DVD Studio Pro 4? Not a mention of Blu-Ray anywhere. I though Apple was part of the Blu-Ray consortium?

    Author SD or HD DVDs with greater speed, efficiency and flexibility than ever before. Integrated, scalable H.264 encoding allows you to fit HD content on DVDs using existing drives and media. Go from native HDV to HD on DVD with no recompression from Final Cut Pro. Even create HD DVD versions from existing SD DVD projects.
    link [apple.com]

    CUPERTINO,

    • Re:HD-DVD not Blu-Ray? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Nowhere in that blurb to they actually specify the "HD-DVD" format. They simply refer to "HD DVDs" as opposed to "SD DVDs." They could well be talking about Blu-Ray, which is, after all, one of the "HD" formats for future DVDs.
    • If you check the site carefully, you'll see Apple has taken a platform neutral approach. You can produce HD-DVD (i.e. H.264) content and then write it to whichever disc format you choose.

      - Jasen.
    • I think it might be due to the fact that there isn't much by the way of Blu-Ray drives, but one can technically write an HD-DVD onto a DVD-R, because that's one of the smaller official sizes in the standard. There aren't any real HD-DVD drives or players available for consumer or pro use either, I think it's just demo and prototype hardware.

      Apple may just be in both consortiums. I know one of the Korean hardware makers is too. I don't think Apple would be smart to provide "pro" tools and neglect both of

  • Apple's calculator still broken (Score:3, Insightful)

    by intmainvoid ( 109559 ) on Monday April 18, 2005 @03:50AM (#12267452)
    Final Cut Studio: US$1299 or GBP£899. Is the exchange rate really 1.44?
  • I don't mean to sound like a complainer, but . . .

    WHY couldn't Apple have silenced the countless people crying for Applescript support in Final Cut Pro?? I see that they support Applescript now in Soundtrack, and they taut it as a great feature. They even rub it in your face that you can run Soundtrack scripts from within Final Cut Pro. This begs the obvious question: If Applescript is so great, why not support it in the flagship product of your video editing suite??

    I know the old arguments about how
    • Automator is what apple is pushing as future of applescript. maybe you should be investigating that.
      • I believe Automator is simply a GUI front end to Applescript. It still relies on each application's Applescript dictionary to operate. From the little I played with Automator it appears to only handle tasks that could already be done with Applescript, just in a more "user friendly" way.

        My main complaint is that Apple has not allowed any reliable form of automation within their Final Cut Pro product.
        • i have dabbled in FCP. Im interested, what kind of automation do you think is needed?
          • I'll be quite honest. I don't personally use Final Cut Pro at all. The only reason this is on my radar is because I have a client who uses it quite a bit, and has hired me to write an application automating posting media clips to a custom media management portal.

            Our original concept was to have a script you could fire in Final Cut Pro when rendering a clip. It would create a jpg thumbnail of the key frame and export it to the server. It would take the clip and render several different versions for proofi
        • I believe Automator is simply a GUI front end to Applescript

          No, it isn't. Automator can run any code snippet you want it to which allows programers to setup just about any type of action they want.

          More info here [apple.com]
          • Wow! I had no idea. I mean, I know you can do shell scripts in Automator. You can already do that with Applescript, but I had no idea that Automator Actions could be Objective-C as well as Applescript. That seems really cool.

            I wonder if Automator automatically exposes Actions based on an application's Applescript dictionary, or if the application developer has to manually create a new library of Automator Actions. I would imagine if I know Applescript I could easily wrap the existing Applescript dictiona
    • Take a longer look at Compressor.app...that's what I use for all my automated video production needs. You can set-up droplets to change things like the video's frame size and the like plus it supports Applescript links. Nothing like getting an email on my cell phone when my files are done rendering.
      • Thanks for the tip. I will look at that today. It might meet some of our needs, but I think a strong argument for full Applescript functionality in FCP still exists. Even if the examples I originally cited can be handled by Compressor, there are many other things in FCP that I'd love to automate.

        What if I want to grab a still of the key frame? There are countless other examples I can think of where if I had Applescript, I could improve my productivity. I wonder what the *real* reason is that Apple doesn'
      • oh, that is cool. i had no idea it did that.
    • It's very simple really; Final Cut Pro is undergoing "not developed here" syndrome. Since it's not orginally Apple's code, it has no native support for AppleScript. To be truthful, they're probably thinking about it a lot; Apple usually takes their time before they do major reworks of products, especially ones they've purchased from other companies. Think about NextStep. It was acquired by Apple in 1997 and it took them four years to re-introduce it as Mac OS X (and IMO it was still not ready).

      So my fina
      • Yeah, I am also of this opinion. I have done some feasibility studies of FCP on a medium company. Literally thousands of dollars could be saved by having FCP AppleScriptable. Not anything magical about that, mind you, just that the megabucks could be saved by refraining on the purchase of ultra-expensive custom developed solutions that only have the added value of being able to automate some human-resources intensive tasks.

        The GUI widgets in FCP are non-native and this hints that the task of making it Appl

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