Final Cut Pro X

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.
  1. Broadcast monitoring requires OS X v10.7.2 or later. Broadcast monitoring via Thunderbolt requires a Thunderbolt-enabled Mac.
  2. Some features require additional hardware and software.
  3. Blu-ray recorder required to burn Blu-ray discs.
  4. Native editing includes support for import and playback without transcoding.