http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/

I love Apple again! Native HDV editing, and lots more.

Also, it's $699 to upgrade AND you get Motion 2 AND DVD Studio Pro 4!

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET!

But... It's still Mac only platform. When will they make it right, you know, for a PC? Hehe. The price is mighty nice though.

When will they make it right, you know, for a PC?

Heh, heh... I'll ask Steve to give you a call when it's available. Don't wait up though... ;-)

I wish somebody would ask him;) I've been wanting to try FCP for sometime, but never bad enough to switch to the Apple.

I wish somebody would ask him;) I've been wanting to try FCP for sometime, but never bad enough to switch to the Apple.

Same position I'm in.

I really want to try it out, but its not just changing NLE's it also requires me to work on a platform in which I have absolutely no experience.

I doubt since Adobe no longer makes Premiere for Mac there would be no reason for FC to ever come to PC, besides I'm sure it helps sell more macs...

Funny, this is obviously in response to AVID XPRESS PRO STUDIO. (Minus the hardware though.) Aivd runs cross platform though.

It's amusing to watch the marketing ping-pong.

I am annoyed with Apple about the upgrade path. I own Motion, DVD Studio Pro and FCP, but did not buy them in the production suite -- so I am stuck with a $700 upgrade!?

I am also wondering about the AGP Quartz extreme graphics card requirement.

BTW, don't worry about moving to the Mac because of a lack of experience. Very little is needed to begin with, or even after for that matter.

Hi Peter,

What's this about "AGP Quartz extreme graphics card requirement"?? Can hit us with a link? I think we all need that info!! Thanks!

Chris, go to the page you provided the link for (http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/) scroll down to the bottom and look at the 8th bullet point on the list of "Final Cut Studio System Requirements".

It says: "AGP Quartz Extreme graphics card" -- which is a little vauge.

What I am wondering is whether the stock video in by Dual 2MHz G5 will work or if I am going to have to buy a new card. Is some company going to come out with new cards to fulfill this "requirement."?

The current version of Motion begins to have trouble with playback iif projects get too complex now. So, if I am going to have to pay $700 plus $500 for a new beefy video card I won't be happy.

What I am wondering is whether the stock video in by Dual 2MHz G5 will work or if I am going to have to buy a new card.

You will not have to buy a new card -- the one you have will work fine. The video cards in all PowerMacs since the G4 667MHz model (essentially, every PowerMac since the DP450 / DP500 era G4s) have been equipped with "AGP Quartz Extreme graphics cards". All G5-based Macs would definately qualify.

Bascally, any video cards from the "NVIDIA GeForce2 MX" and better -OR- any AGP-based "ATI Radeon" and better are Quartz Extreme capable (as long as it's an AGP card; some aftermarket cards are PCI-based and won't qualify).

Here's an Apple info page on Quartz Extreme :
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/quartzextreme/


- Duane

Thanks Duane.

I have always been a little hazy on the whole graphics card thing. The link explains the issue well.

Ah yes, thank you!

Peter wrote: "I am annoyed with Apple about the upgrade path. I own Motion, DVD Studio Pro and FCP, but did not buy them in the production suite -- so I am stuck with a $700 upgrade!?"

Take heart, Peter, all is not lost. This response from the Apple site:
"Can I upgrade to Final Cut Studio for $499 if I purchased all of the individual applications separately?
Yes. If you purchased Final Cut Pro HD, DVD Studio Pro 3 and Motion separately, you qualify for the upgrade."
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/topquestions.html

Feel better now?

Wayne Orr, SOC

My faith in humanity is restored.

Thank you, Wayne for sluthing this fact out. [chuckles gleefully]

So, you've already invested in FCP, DVD Studio and Motion, right? Of course you have. They're all killer apps - no doubt about it. Now, for the $499 upgrade, you get major enhancements to all of them. Okay, not bad. Not the cheapest upgrade ever offered, but well worth it if you are in need of, say multicam editing, own an HDV cam, or do "Motion" graphics. Or if you author DVDs and want to inch your way into HD-Blu-next-gen-Something.

But, for that same price, you also get Soundtrack Pro, soon to be known as the program that killed ProTools on the Mac. This thing is hot! Any kind of sound design, save easy 5.1 mixing will be easily handled by Soundtrack Pro. Wave edit, multitrack, sound FX library all in one. That's what you're really paying for - and well worth the price, IMO.

okay, here is where i remain confused regarding the graphics card. the apple website has this to say about running Motion:

"One of the following graphics cards is highly recommended: NVIDIA GeForce FX 6800 Ultra DDL or 6800 GT DDL (NV40), ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (RV M11), ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (R350), or 9800 XT (R360)"

Meanwhile their fastest imac and G5 computers, also according to the website, come equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics card--which is not mentioned in the list above, with the exception of their most expensive top-of-the-line PowerMac dual 2.5 ghz, which lists an ATI Radeon 9600 XT as its graphics card.

what am i missing here? do i need to wait for a next-gen computer release to run motion and to keep up with studio, or is the top-line G5 the only unit which currently comes immediately equipped with the right graphics card?

i'm pretty excited about upgrading to studio and had planned to buy a cinema-display screen mac (currently getting a headache from editing on a 15'' G4 powerbook), but i don't want to buy anything until i can be certain that the hardware can support the software.

Are you sure it is the 5200? That may well be nVidia's slowest card.

Well I can't speak for version 2, but I'm running the current version on a dual 2.5 G5 with the stock 128MB Radeon 9600 card and haven't seen any problems. Actually, here's the full compatibility list from Apple's site and the NVIDIA 5200 is included:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/motion/specs.html

One of the following graphics cards:
* ATI Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition
* ATI Radeon 9800 XT (R360)
* ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (R350)
* ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (R300)
* ATI Radeon 9600 XT (RV360)
* ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (RV350)
* ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (RV M11)
* ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 (RV M100
* NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL (NV40)
* NVIDIA GeForce Go5200 (NV34M)
* NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra (NV34)
* NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT DDL

I know the tricky thing is getting it to work properly on a G4 (except powerbooks) which requires purchasing the Radeon 9800 or using various hacks to the 9600 from what I've read in Apple's forums. But I would just save my money for a G5 and not bother with Motion on a G4. From everything I've read it is frustratingly slow on anything less than the top of the line dual processor G5 towers. I know there were also lots of complaints that version 1 bogged down to a crawl with any kind of HD projects.

Will it work reasonably well on a current iBook? Or would that be a definite no-no? FCP 4 ran slowly but could be used on my TiBook G4 at barely 400 MHz so I don't see why it would not work on a +1GHz G4 unless Apple really messed something up. Of course HDV native is probably much more CPU intensive, but I think for DV it should be usable on an iBook. Anybody tried yet?

Motion doesn't run on an iBook due to the graphics card. When you read in the specs that they recommend a 2ghz dual G5 or better that should give you a hint of who they're targeting this application to. If in doubt as to whether it runs on your machine, download the compatability checker here:

http://images.apple.com/motion/pdf/Motion_Checker_v1.0.2.dmg.zip

The requirements for FCP HD 5 are a lot less demanding (but I'm sure it runs best dual G5's). But it doesn't use the graphics card the way Motion does, so it only specs an 867mhz G4. Looks like that would work on your iBook. But forget about Motion on that machine, it's a very different sort of application from FCP.

Now new iBooks have been rumored, so maybe they will change all this. I saw someone run Motion on a 1.33ghz Powerbook and he said he could do basic things. However if you're considering buying Motion then take a few minutes to browse through the forum on Apple's site. There are plenty of complaints about how slow it runs on the dual 2.5 G5...

I posted this on another thread, and hope you don't mind if I slip it in here also:

I attended a seminar featuring Final Cut Pro Studio, and even though I am already a FCP user, I was wowed by the demonstration, as was everyone in attendance, judging by the "Ooohs" and "Aahhs." And yes, there were some Avid folks in the group. I don't know what they thought.

Multicam! Up to sixteen streams of video playing in sync. Cut your own "live" show.
Native HDV input. No ridiculous workarounds.
Output H.264 Hi Def to a dvd now, and play it back on the G5 on the Cinema display.
Native support for P2, now.
Also IMX

And Soundtrack Pro. Watch out Pro Tools! Complete integration with FCP. Surround Sound, Multi-channel audio input, amazing noise correction filters.

For anyone serious about a real post production solution, you got to check out FCP Studio on the G5.

Wayne Orr, SOC

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