Technical Specifications

Minimum
System
Requirements

Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better.
2GB of RAM (4GB of RAM recommended).
OpenCL-capable graphics card or
Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later.
256MB of VRAM (512MB of VRAM recommended).

Display with 1280-by-768 resolution or higher.
OS X v10.6.8 or OS X v10.7.2 or later (OS X v10.7.2 or later for broadcast monitoring).
2.4GB of disk space.

Application

Broadcast monitoring of video and audio with third-party PCIe and Thunderbolt I/O devices.¹
64-bit architecture to take advantage of more than 4GB of RAM.
Background rendering using GPU and CPU.
ColorSync-managed colour pipeline.
High-precision floating-point render in linear-light colour space.
Uses Grand Central Dispatch to tap into all available processors.

Full-screen, real-time preview playback of SD, HD, 2K and 4K media on a main screen or an attached LED Cinema Display.
Customisable keyboard.
Full Unicode support.
GPU-accelerated exporting.
Full-screen view in OS X Lion.

Editing and
Timeline

Multicam editing with automatic sync and support for mixed formats, mixed frame rates and up to 64 camera angles.
Magnetic Timeline automatically keeps material in sync, prevents clip collisions and eliminates gaps.
Clip Connections keep secondary material in place while trimming and moving the Primary Storyline. Choose to hide or display Clip Connections in the timeline.
Compound Clips allow complex compositions to be simplified into a single clip.
Auditions combine multiple clips into a single clip so you can see alternative takes, colour grades or effects in context.
Duplicate a clip inside an Audition to compare different effects on the same clip.
Edit while importing media in the background.
View material in Filmstrip or List view with a mini-filmstrip and metadata columns.
Skimming functionality enables fast viewing of large amounts of material.
Skimmable projects in Project Library enable viewing before loading.
Mix frame sizes, frame rates and formats in the same timeline up to 4K in real time.
Edit at 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94 or 60 fps.
Create the correct project setting with the first edit.
Insert, Overwrite, Replace, Append and Connect with keystrokes or drag and drop.
Extend edit to Skimmer position.
Split edits with J and L cuts in the timeline.

Top and Tail in a single keystroke for news and documentary editing.
Direct access to iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto and Aperture through Media Browsers.
Timeline Index for timeline navigation, and for selecting items based on text searches and other important metadata.
Position tool for moving and deleting media in the timeline and leaving gaps.
Clip Markers that include to-do items that can be checked off when tasks are completed.
Snapping to Playhead, Skimmer, Clips and Markers.
Replace with Gap.
Lift from Primary Storyline.
Create Storyline to consolidate B-roll into a single unit.
Insert Placeholder.
Insert Gap.
Numeric entry of precise clip durations.
Blade tool for adding edits.
High-quality, real-time vectorscopes, waveforms and histograms.
Record Audio tool for adding narration.
Six Clip Appearance presets for timeline display.
Multi-Touch gesture support.
Organise, view, mute and export based on automatically assigned or custom Roles metadata.
Customise project start time.

Trimming

Inline Precision Editor allows you to skim media around the edit before trimming.
Basic timeline trimming.
Trim tool for advanced timeline trimming functions.
Ripple and roll.

Slip and slide.
Lift and ripple delete.
Dynamic 2-up trimming with Show Detailed Trimming Feedback enabled.
Keyboard and numeric moving and trimming.

Effects

Advanced chroma keying with controls for colour sampling, edge adjustments and light wrap.
Shared Render Engine with Motion and Compressor.
Add multiple effects and transitions within a range selection.
Multistream real-time effects in SD and HD formats.
Alpha-channel support in real time.
Integration with Motion for advanced motion graphics work.
Use ‘Open in Motion’ on any effect,
modify in Motion and save as new in Final Cut Pro.
Numeric and keyframe control for precise animation and effects.
Copy and paste motion and effect attributes to multiple clips.
Access music, sound effects, transitions, filters, colour looks and generators through Media Browsers.
Over 150 advanced 2D and 3D title templates.
Over 90 high-quality transitions.
Over 125 sophisticated animation templates with video drop zones created by a top Hollywood effects company.
Over 110 filters, keys, blurs and colour looks.

28 backgrounds, elements, solids and textures.
Trim, crop and Ken Burns effect.
Distort tool with keyframes and onscreen controls.
Transform tool with keyframes and onscreen controls.
Stabilisation effect in real time after background analysis.
Rolling Shutter correction to improve DSLR video.
Spatial Conform to make different aspect ratios fit seamlessly into a project.
Retime tool for speed changes controlled in the timeline, for entire clips or selected ranges.
Rewind, Instant Replay and Speed Ramp in a single click.
Three Retime quality settings: normal, frame blending and optical flow.
Preserve audio pitch when changing speed.
Find and Replace Title Text.
Show Title/Action Safe Zones for positioning titles and effects.
One-step transitions for Secondary Storylines.
Conform Speed to change source media frame rate to the project frame rate in one step.

Audio

Subframe audio keyframing.
Support for audio samples up to 192kHz.
Real-time OS X Audio Units and Logic plug-in effects included.
Support for 64-bit third-party Audio Units plug-ins.
Keyframable audio levels and effects.
Adjust audio filters in real time during playback.
5.1 surround monitoring and keyframe control for panning.
Preset animations for 5.1 surround panning such as Back to Front, Rotate, Create Space and more.
10- or 31-parameter EQ built into each audio clip.
Match Audio for smoothing out EQ from different microphones.
Audio enhancements for volume normalisation, background noise removal, and hum removal for both 50Hz and 60Hz.

Audio analysis during import option to remove serious background noise and flag medium-level issues for enhancement.
Over 1,300 royalty-free sound effects included as a separate download.
Individual audio channel control for enable/disable and configuration.
Audio skimming with pitch preserved.
Fade handles at the head and tail of each clip.
Audio pan controls.
Disable and solo controls.
Audio waveform display in viewer and timeline.
Logarithmic audio fades.
More than 100 audio filters.
‘Show Reference Audio Waveforms’ preference to see original waveform height when adjusting volume in the timeline.
VU meters that expand as needed.

Colour Correction

Unique Colour Board with controls for saturation, exposure and colour.
Match Colour for precise shot matching in one click.
Balance Colour instantly improves skin tones, removes colour casts, and expands dynamic range of bright and dark regions of the image.
Keyframable masks with size, rotation and softness adjustments.

Adjust inside or outside of colour mask.
Unlimited numbers of colour corrections per shot.
Save and reuse colour settings presets.
20 Colour Board presets.
Over 20 advanced colour looks in the Effects Browser.

Supported
Formats and I/O²

Apple ProRes family, a 10-bit, full-width VBR codec that supports all major frame sizes and frame rates from ProRes Proxy to ProRes 4444.
Resolutions supported up to 4K frame sizes.
Background transcode original media to ProRes 422 or ProRes Proxy for better performance.
Create Camera Archives from any media folder for importing into Final Cut Pro.
Import Camera Archives from third-party video capture cards and software.
Import from Apple devices including iPhone, iPod touch and iPad 2.
Import projects and Events from iMovie.
Sony IMX, XDCAM, XDCAM EX, XDCAM HD and XDCAM HD422 import supported with additional Sony software.
FireWire device control for streaming capture for tape-based HDV, DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD.
Export presets for Apple devices, including Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Export presets for YouTube, Podcast Producer, Facebook, Vimeo, CNN iReport and email.
Export and burn DVD, AVCHD disc and Blu-ray disc.³
Apple-designed menus for DVDs and animated menus for Blu-ray discs.
Export as Image Sequence.
Export as HTTP live streaming for Internet streaming to cellular, Wi-Fi and broadband.
Export to uncompressed 8-bit and 10-bit 4:2:2.
Export audio as AAC, AC3, AIFF, CAF, MP3 and WAV files.
Import and edit layered Adobe Photoshop files.

Native editing⁴ support for:

H.264 from GoPro and iFrame cameras.
H.264 from DSLR cameras.
Broadcast Wave Format.
DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD.
HDV.
Panasonic AVC-Intra, including AVC-Intra 100 and AVC-Intra 50.
Sony IMX, XDCAM HD, XDCAM HD422 and XDCAM EX.
JVC-created XDCAM EX.
Canon XF MPEG-2 ingest supported with additional software.
AVCHD, including Panasonic AVCCAM and Sony NXCAM.
Uncompressed 8- and 10-bit SD and HD.
Apple Intermediate Codec.
Still images including PSD, BMP, GIF, RAW, JPEG, PNG, TGA and TIFF.
Compressed audio including AAC, AIFF, BWF, CAF, MP3, MP4 and WAV.
XML import and export for collaboration with third-party finishing tools and media asset management systems.

Media
Management

Media relink to manually connect projects and Events to files that have been moved or modified.
Content Auto-Analysis attaches useful metadata during import.
Range-based keywords for creating custom searchable metadata.
Create Smart Collections for automatically organising clips based on selected criteria.
Keyword Collection created by importing a folder of media.
Mark ranges as Favourites or Rejects for sorting and sifting.
Media management tools for moving and copying media.
Render file deletion per project.
Move and Merge Events functions.
Consolidate Project Media for moving media to another system.
Extensive search, sort and sift capabilities in the Event Browser.

Transcode Media function allows a choice between optimising to ProRes 422 or creating ProRes Proxy media in the background while editing.
Group clips by creation date, date imported, reel, scene, duration or file type.
Group Events by year, or by year and month.
Show date ranges in the Event Library.
Arrange clips by name, take or duration.
Reveal clip in Finder or Event Browser.
Custom comment fields.
Preference for connecting to proxy or original high-resolution media.
Send-to-Compressor integration.
Import media and use both Events and projects directly on Xsan.