[icruise]

Just watching the keynote -- Apple is releasing a semi-pro version of Final Cut Pro called Final Cut Express. Apparently shares file formats with iMovie and Final Cut Pro. Looks pretty much like FCP in terms of interface. $299.

Reactions?

Sounds like a great alternative to iMove for those who want more power.

[mishap]

Originally posted by Icruise:
Just watching the keynote -- Apple is releasing a semi-pro version of Final Cut Pro called Final Cut Express. Apparently shares file formats with iMovie and Final Cut Pro. Looks pretty much like FCP in terms of interface. $299.

Reactions?

Sounds like a great alternative to iMove for those who want more power.

just so everyone knows..

an edu discount and $299 will buy you FCP3 last time i checked.

[tr]

does anyone know exactly what features were left out of Express from FCP?

in terms of edu discounts, it doesn't really make sense to go the Express route. edu pricing for express is $249, while FCP is $299 (and edu DVDSP is a whopping $499, the most expensive apple software right next to the unlimited user OS X server. i guess apple figures student's aren't authoring DVD's that much... )


tr

[Chaaaosss]

From 2-pop:

There's no Render Manager, no deleting files from inside FCE; you gotta go out and delete files out in the FInder.

No keyframe graph in filters or motion tabs. Motion keyframes in the Canvas only.

Limited use of favorites.

Default transitons are limited to one second cross dissolve or audio cross fade.

Basic editing and titling are identical to FCP. It's a damn good editor for $299.

Paul from Apple posted this list over at the LAFCPUG forum. It's a good overview:
http://www.lafcpug.org/phorum/read.p...29#reply_20655

Author: Paul from Apple
Date: 01-07-03 18:03

Final Cut Express is the perfect solution for DV enthusiasts that are looking for a powerful, affordable DV editing application. Final Cut Pro is the solution for professional editors and advanced videographers/filmmakers.

Some key differences between FCP and FCE:
1. Final Cut Express is DV only (NTSC and PAL frame rates only, no 24fps support).
2. Final Cut Pro supports 3rd party capture cards.
3. Final Cut Pro supports timecode, Final Cut Express does not present timecode information to the user.
4. Final Cut Pro allows you to LOG and capture.
5. Final Cut Pro includes support for RS-422 control.
6. Pro users can use OfflineRT, Express can not.
7. Pro includes three-way color correction and other advanced tools that Express does not.
8. The keyframing model is substantially different in Express. Only Motion tab items can be keyframed. Filters cannot.
9. Final Cut Pro has a Media Manager, Express does not.
10. Final Cut Pro supports EDL I/O.
11. Final Cut Pro can be extended with Cinema Tools.
12. Final Cut Pro includes Audio OMF export.
13. Pro supports Edit To Tape and Insert editing.
14. Pro can do a Batch Export.
15. FXScript is not in Express.
16. AE plug-ins are not in Express.
17. Undo: FCP = 99, FCE = 32.

[Eug]

Final Cut Express is DV only

That's funny, I dropped in an MPEG-2 file and it accepted it just fine. All I had to do was change the name from .m2v to .mpg and it worked.

Mind you, most of my other .mpg or .m2v files didn't work (until I exported them in QT to .dv). I dunno what it was with this specific file, but it was a direct video rip of a DVD movie trailer, whereas my other files were clips from a DVD-RAM camcorder. (These clips play fine in QT 6.0 in OS X, but do not in QT 6.0 in Windows so there is something strange about them.)

Am I understanding this correctly? Because I don't actually use Final Cut. I'm an iMovie simpleton who was just lucky enough to have a chance to play a while with FCE. (I've never used FCP.)

By the way, FCE accepts .mp3, .wav, and .aif files, but not .mp2 as far as I can tell.

[Chaaaosss]

What's really going on is that you can only capture DV. Final Cut Pro can still import a lot of different files.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Chaaaosss:
What's really going on is that you can only capture DV. Final Cut Pro can still import a lot of different files.

Yeah, but this is Final Cut Express, not Pro. What are the supported importable file types in Express? Anyone know, because I didn't expect MPEG-2 to be one of them. Are there many others?

[Chaaaosss]

Anything Quicktime can handle.

[k2director]

Chaaaosss is right. Express can stil IMPORT a bunch of file formats, including video formats. But any project you create in Express is essentially using DV as its native codec, so when you import those different file formats, you will have to render them, and Final Cut Express renders them in DV (transparent to the user). So the best quality you will ever get out of Final Cut Express is media rendered in the DV codec (ie, compressed about 5 times, etc...). But hey, that's great for many purposes--a lot of video makers shoot their material in DV anyway (indie films, industrial videomakers, wedding videographers, documentarians, etc.), and it looks good enough for their purposes.

On the other hand, the Pro edition lets you create projects that that are not only in the DV format. Let's say I'm producing a top-tier broadcast commercial. The video was shot on film, transfered to Digibeta tape (very high end format), and I want to bring it into Final Cut with no compression. That means I'd have to set up a Final Cut Pro project whose native codec is uncompressed (cause that's the 'codec' that my files might be in), or the proprietary codec of one of the companies that makes high end capture cards that I happen to have. This is no problem with Final Cut Pro, but if I tried to bring uncompressed media into Final Cut Express, it would, again, have to be rendered to DV, and I would lose the benefits of using uncompressed video!

[Eug]

OK gotcha.

In the case of MPEG-2 it ain't a problem, since it's not a high resolution format to begin with anyway.

Anything Quicktime can handle.

That isn't true. I have lots of files which QT can handle (and which QT can export to DV) that are not importable by FCE at all.

[Avon]

No Log and Capture??!!

That blows. Makes it pretty much useless if you ask me. Makes editing a 60 min DV tape so much faster.

Does not realy make much sense if you can get the educational version for 50 bucks more.