HD For Indies

UPDATED: More comments/analysis added below

Think Secret is reporting that Final Cut Pro 5 will be revealed at NAB in a couple of months. I saw the headlne and thought to myself "I already knew that. With HDV, IMX, and 1080i50 DVCPRO HD support, what are you going to tell me I DIDN'T know?"

Apparently, a LOT. Read the article for all the details.

Here's the biggies:

-it's not shipping at NAB
-It requires/relies on QuickTime 7 and Tiger
-LOTS of Core Video integration, meaning more/better realtime blurs, effects, etc. (perhaps even better RT compositing as well)
-more audio tracks (rumored)
-multicam support (rumored)
-other Pro Apps improved or brand new
-Motion to get Core Video stuff as well

Mike's Comments/Analysis:

OK, first off, this is from a rumor site, so who knows if it's true. Actually, I take the potential delay as a good sign - based on rumors I'd heard, I expected Final Cut Pro 5 to be a minor update supporting new features with other features like better fiber channel integration, but honestly I'd expected Core Video stuff to get wrapped into the next version. With the benefits of QuickTime 7 and Tiger due over the summer, and an expected spring release date for FCP 5, Core Video, Spotlight, etc. wouldn't be integrated until next year at NAB. Apple's more on the ball than I expected if this comes to pass.

If this is true, that means we're on our own until this summer in terms of HDV & AIC support in Final Cut Pro HD. Final Cut Express HD has shipped and is available, but doesn't have all the goodies of Final Cut Pro. I'd expect FCP5 to import FCE HD projects, though.

In light of the fact that Apple announced June 6 as the start day of their World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC), I'm betting they release Tiger (OS X 10.4) at or right before the beginning of the WWDC, so the developers can learn all about it. Why have the WWDC and NOT have the new OS ready? That'd be silly. Unless it was almost ready and developers would be to play with a very late beta. But in general, it would make the most sense to have it available at WWDC. So why schedule WWDC for before the OS is ready? I say OS X should be out right around my birthday - June 4th. Happy Birthday to me!

-So I'm also betting that FCP 5 won't ship until after my birthday - if it depends on QT7 & Tiger, it's not releasable until those are out. So sometime in June for FCP 5 at the earliest.

-this also sounds like FCP 5 will be a big release in terms of more power under the hood. Great!

-Core Image & Core Video - which I've written about here and here extensively in the past, which means that the OpenGL card's GPU (graphics processing unit) and the CPU (central processing unit such as G5) work together to do lots of very impressive realtime effects, color correction, blurs, etc. This'll mean a LARGE increase in what you can do in real time. Maybe, possibly, mixing codecs and/or frame sizes on the same timeline.

-at least one brand new Pro Video app, and updates to others. Exciting!

-mike