The Editblog

Let’s recap some of the Final Cut Pro Extreme rumors that dropped last couple of weeks.

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0702finalcutpro6.htm – Think Secret kind of rehashed their post from last year’s NAB prediction that Apple would  release Final Cut Pro 6 and drop Final Cut Extreme at a $10,000 price point.

Mike at HD for Indies has a sensible response.

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/03/02/final-cut-pro-6-final-cut-extreme-details-displays-again/ – Today we get MacRumors telling us that we might just see that Final Cut Extreme with 4 Cell processors (like in the Playstation 3) and cards with even more Cell processors and 4 HD-SDI inputs.

And if you just have to buy something Final Cut Pro 6 today, then click over to WalMart.com and pre-order Digital Video Essentials: Apple Final Cut Pro 6 because we all love to order all of our tech stuff from WalMart.

One thing that is often mentioned when talking about this mysterious Final Cut Extreme is that part of the reason for its development is to put “Final Cut more in line with Avid.” That is all that is usually mentioned. “Final Cut Extreme will compete with Avid.” Maybe, but Final Cut Pro already competes with Avid on many levels and though we often use the term Avid to refer to Avid non-linear editing there are many products in the Avid line-up. Final Cut Pro already competes with many of them but often with add on hardware. Let’s look:

iMovie = Avid Free DV

Final Cut Express = Avid Xpress DV

Final Cut Pro = Avid Xpress Pro

Final Cut Studio =  Avid Xpress Studio

Final Cut Pro w/ Aja IO options = Avid Xpress Pro w/ Mojo options

Final Cut Pro w/ Kona or Blackmagic cards = Avid Media Composer w/ Adrenaline

Final Cut Pro w/ Multibridge options = Avid Media Composer Adrenaline w/ Avid DNxcel

??????????? = Avid Symphony Nitris and Avid D|S Nitris

Hmmmm… maybe there is a place for Final Cut Extreme. Truth be told it is difficult to compare these apples to these oranges as Final Cut Pro software has pretty much the same functionality across the board; it is the hardware and/or the software plugs-ins you add on that allows for different kinds of functionality in editing, effects and finishing. Avid is different. There are real differences in the software between the Avid Xpress Pro and Avid Media Composer lines. The Mojo, Adrenaline and Nitris hardware options differentiates them even further. And when you get into the Avid D|S line you have a near totally different software interface that ads a number of advanced editing and finishing features that other solutions don’t have. I didn’t even mention the Avid Liquid family that adds a whole other line-up to the mix. The Avid Xpress Studio, Liquid, Symphony and D|S products are Windows only by the way so if you are a Mac-only user like myself they often don’t factor into the mix.

What does all this mean?  On the surface it means that for every Final Cut Pro set-up you can build, you can also build a comparable Avid set-up. People often say that Avid is more expensive. For the most part this is true but when you look at the many different options you have in the hardware and software you can see why. You can’t really say that you can build a comparable FCP set-up for every Avid set-up. As you can see there is nothing at the top of the line in Apple’s camp. You can add Final Touch or Colorista for better color correction (at least you could add Final Touch until Apple bought them), and After Effects or Shake for stabilization and motion tracking, or Motion for … playing but then you are really having to rely on 3rd parties and other software to finish out your system. That’s something you don’t have to do with Avid. So maybe Final Cut Extreme will be something totally different, something more than Final Cut Pro with hardware to push 4K files around. Maybe we will get an advanced titler with one click motion tracking and Final Touch color correction in its own tab. And maybe Avid will answer with advancements in their already strong and proven line-up. Only NAB 2007 will tell.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Editing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.