Final Cut Express 4 has AVCHD support, iMovie ‘08 integration

Posted by Dennis Sellers Nov 15, 2007 at 7:12pm

Apple has released Final Cut Express 4, an upgrade to its video editing software based on Apple’s award-winning Final Cut Pro 6. The price has been reduced to US$199 (from $299), and the update adds support for the latest AVCHD cameras, allows mixing of standard and high definition content on a single timeline.

It also includes the ability to import iMovie ‘08 projects, and gives users access to hundreds of FxPlug cinematic effects and filters. The new Open Format Timeline in Final Cut Express 4 allows users to mix and match DV, HDV and AVCHD material, all in realtime using the same editing and trimming tools found in Final Cut Pro, says Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. Supporting both 1080i and 720p HD resolutions, Final Cut Express 4 automatically performs the necessary scaling, cropping and frame rate adjustments. When starting projects from scratch, the new simplified setup automatically configures everything based on the first clip dropped on the Timeline, Schoeben adds.

Final Cut Express 4 lets you import iMovie ‘08 projects and enhance them with editing capabilities such as multiple layers of video and graphics, picture in picture effects and animated titles. It includes over 50 new FxPlug filters, including Soft Focus, Vignette and Light Rays, with hundreds more available from the FxPlug developer community. With enhanced audio controls, users can automatically raise any clip to its maximum level without distortion using the new Soft Normalize and Gain controls. Final Cut Express 4 also features LiveType 2, which provides an environment for creating dynamic and fun animated titles and includes a library of animated fonts, textures, templates and effects.

Owners of previous versions of Final Cut Express can upgrade to Final Cut Express 4 for $99. Final Cut Express 4 requires: a Mac with a 1.25GHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, or Intel Xeon processor; for AVCHD: a Mac computer with an Intel processor; 1GB of RAM or more; an AGP or PCI Express graphics card compatible with Quartz Extreme; or an Intel GMA integrated graphics processor in a MacBook or Mac mini computer (some FxPlug filters are not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors); a display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher; a DVD drive for installation; Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later; QuickTime 7.2 or later; 500MB of disk space to install Final Cut Express and LiveType; and an additional 500MB to install LiveType content

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