14 DAY TRIAL // Developed by Apple itself in Cupertino, Final Cut Studio is a professional video- and audio-production suite exclusively tailored for Mac OS X. The software is a direct competitor to Avid Media Composer in the high-end movie-production industry. A Support document (HT3979) posted on Apple’s website contains a complete list of answers to frequently asked questions about the suite, including how to use it, how to find your serial number, system requirements, compatibility with other software and hardware, etc.
“With more than 100 new features, the new Final Cut Studio advances the art and technology of filmmaking with innovations that help you work faster, collaborate more efficiently, and finish brilliantly,” Apple said when it introduced the latest version of the software.
Final Cut Studio contains six main applications and several smaller ones for video editing. The major applications it includes are: Final Cut Pro 7 – real-time editing for DV, SD and HD; Motion 4 – real-time motion graphics design; Soundtrack Pro 3 – advanced audio editing and sound design; DVD Studio Pro 4 – encoding, authoring and burning; Color 1.5 – a new color grading application adapted from Silicon Color's FinalTouch; Compressor 3.5 – a video encoding tool for outputting projects in different formats.
Additional applications included are Cinema Tools 4.5 (tools specific to film processing) and Qmaster 3 (a distributed processing tool). The applications in Final Cut Studio (2009) are only available for purchase as a part of Final Cut Studio (2009).
Requirements to install all Final Cut Studio applications include a Mac computer with an Intel processor, 1GB of RAM (2GB of RAM recommended when working with compressed HD and uncompressed SD sources / 4GB of RAM recommended when working with uncompressed HD sources); an ATI or NVIDIA graphics processor (integrated Intel graphics processors not supported) with 128MB of VRAM; display with 1280-by-800 resolution or higher; Mac OS X v10.5.6 or later; QuickTime 7.6 or later; DVD drive for installation; 4GB of disk space required to install all applications (Final Cut Pro, Color, DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, Cinema Tools, Compressor, and Apple Qmaster); 46GB of disk space required for optional content; 9GB for DVD Studio Pro content; 7GB for Motion templates; 22GB for audio content and 8GB for LiveFonts.