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FCP4, DVDSP2
At NAB (which I’m told you don’t pronounce as “nab”), Apple announced Final Cut Pro 4. From what I’ve read, it seems that FCP has evolved from a stand-alone application to a suite of apps. New additions include Compressor (Apple’s answer to discreet’s cleaner?); a scoring program called Soundtrack (which means little to me as I’m not an audio guy); and LiveType, a titling app. And with LiveType comes LiveFonts, an Apple original format for animated fonts, which sounds interesting, although the examples on the site look a bit cheesy. The previously separate Cinema Tools (formerly FilmLogic) is also included. All that for the current $999 price tag. It is scheduled to ship in June.
Apple also previewed DVD Studio Pro 2. Besides having its price cut in half to $499, DVDSP2 appears to have a new interface. There aren’t many screenshots on the site, but it looks like the previous version’s somewhat frustrating flowchart model is gone. Also new are templates and something called “Context Sensitive Drop Palettes”. It should be available in August.
