April 10th, 2000

[4:50 PM] Apple Updates Final Cut Pro With Broadcasters In Mind by Staff Apple has announced the release of Final Cut Pro 1.2.5 from NAB 2000 Expo. The company has added several new features with broadcasters in mind, including the ability to work with a 16:9 aspect ratio. According to Apple: Building upon the incredible features of Final Cut Pro™ 1.2, Apple® today announced Final Cut Pro 1.2.5, which brings support for 16:9 wide-screen format, YUV processing and "make reference movies" to Apple's award-winning video editing, effects and compositing software. "The new Final Cut Pro 1.2.5 running on a blazingly fast Power Mac G4 or a portable PowerBook is an industrial-strength digital video dream," said Philip Schiller, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "The new update of Final Cut Pro adds more power with 16:9 editing and YUV processing for professional movie makers in the studio and on the go." Final Cut Pro 1.2.5 offers support for capturing, editing and exporting 16:9 media; YUV processing for preserving values of the original source material; and "make reference movies," which saves rendering time and disk space by minimizing file sizes and using "pointers" to source files. The features join the incredible lineup of enhancements found in Final Cut Pro 1.2, which include: Power Mac™ G4 Velocity Engine™ optimization; increased rendering speeds; improved batch capture; "JKL" keyboard commands; and support for PAL, the dominant video and broadcast standard in Europe. You can find more information on Final Cut Pro at Apple's Web site. The update will be free to registered owners (Yeah, Apple!), and the full version is priced at US$999. The Mac Observer Spin: The new update will likely make some FInal Cut Pro users pretty happy. This is a solid update that adds some much needed improvements to the software. Apple