LAS VEGAS -- At a press event on Sunday, Apple demonstrated new versions of its Final Cut Pro, Shake and DVD Studio Pro applications. Final Cut Pro 4 will be available in June for $999 and will incorporate 300 new features, says the company. The application's RT Extreme feature allows users to work in realtime by offsetting preview quality when desiring more layers or effects. The release also includes a customizable interface with access to over 600 Final Cut Pro tools and effects. FCP4 supports the DVCPRO50 codec, features software-based 8- and 10-bit uncompressed SD or HD formats, and can render in 32-bit floating point color.
Final Cut Pro 4's LiveType function provides 8GB of fonts and 150 pre- configured effects. Its Soundtrack tool offers 4GB of musical loops, which can be mixed, matched and assembled to create custom music tracks. Score markers allow users to precisely target on the timeline where they want their musical cues to appear. FCP4's Compressor feature helps prepare content for output, serving as a fully-featured transcoder with 30 presets and filters. Existing Final Cut Pro users will be able to upgrade to Version 4 for $399.
DVD Studio Pro 2 has been entirely redesigned from the ground up, says Apple, featuring an entirely-new user interface that provides a simplified approach to DVD authoring. The tool's menu editor is context sensitive, helping users quickly and easily place content where they want it to appear on the DVD. DVD Studio Pro 2 also includes Compressor for managing output, as well as powerful compositing capabilities. The release will be available in August for $499 or for $199 as an upgrade. Apple also showcased Shake 3 at their NAB press event. The latest release will be available in June and will offer broadcast monitor support for NTSC, PAL and HD. Shake 3 includes audio syncing capabilities and Qmaster, Apple's solution for distributed rendering. The Linux GUI will cost $9,900 and the Linux renderer will cost $3,900. A Mac version with unlimited rendering capabilities will cost $4,950.