Final Cut Pro 11 is out, and it's underwhelming to say the least

 Alright, FCP11 is out, and it's seriously underwhelming. Apple has been asleep at the wheel for a number of years / releases and that's really a pity.

Adobe Premiere and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve are on fast update cycles and are now feeling more advanced than FCP. That's a real shame.

What's new? Not much really: Magnetic mask, basically AI powered automatic masking,  and AI powered transcription.

That's it? Yep.

Note that DVR's Magic Mask was introduced 4 years ago, and it got AI powered transcription for at least a full year. PP has had it for even longer. And we already had third party tools and plug-ins doing these two things very well for many years as well.

So FCP is sadly LAGGING behind.

Well there is also Smart AR conform, Auto Enhance Light and Color, Smooth SloMo, Voice Isolation. I hope Apple is way better at implementing these features than the concurrence, because let me tell you, I am not in a rush to try them out. And if they are not substantially better than PP or DVR, I will feel even more let down by Apple. 

Oh yeah there is also spacial editing and export to Vision Pro. Vision Pro is a lame, dead product. No one likes it. So unless you specialize in outputting programs for VP, this FCP "feature" is going direct to the graveyard, and it feels to me it's pulling FCP with it. Bad feeling.

So yes, that's really it, and it feels like nothing new and ground breaking. Still Apple calls it version 11. Really? 10.9 would have suffice. That's one more nail in the coffin of FCP. What's planned for v12, a new logo?

FCPX came out in 2011, we are now heading toward 2025, FCP will be 14 years old, and to me it has stalled. It is more stable, it is still more enjoyable to use than Premiere and Resolve, but the long list of improvements the community has identified and is craving for is not being implemented. Apple does not care. Apple is drinking the cool aid. 

Both Adobe and Blackmagic are listening to their communities and implementing features that are useful to their users. In turn they feel recognized and appreciated. It's also making the apps more enjoyable to use and more powerful. And to me it feels like they are taking over FCP.

At this time I don't even feel I want to upgrade. Why bother? Everybody and his brother are doing AI transcription these days. Will Apple do it any better? It looks very limited at the moment. 

Until I need to do some difficult moving mask in FCP, I think I'll stay on 10.8. 

Blackmagic Design Resolve v 19.01 available

 Resolve 19 is out of Beta, version 19.01 is now available to download from BMD website:

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/davinci-resolve-and-fusion

From the release notes:

DaVinci Resolve 19.0.1

About DaVinci Resolve 19

The free version of DaVinci Resolve 19 includes all of the same high quality processing as DaVinci Resolve 19 Studio and can handle unlimited resolution media files. However it does limit project mastering and output to Ultra HD resolutions or lower. DaVinci Resolve 19 only supports a single processing GPU on Windows and Linux and 2 GPUs on the latest Mac Pro.

If you need features such as support for multiple GPUs, 4K output, motion blur effects, temporal and spatial noise reduction, multiple AI-based tools, HDR tools, camera tracker, voice isolation, multiple Resolve FX, 3D stereoscopic tools and remote rendering, please upgrade to DaVinci Resolve 19 Studio.

We hope you do decide to upgrade as your facility grows and you do more advanced work!

What's new in DaVinci Resolve 19.0.1

• More responsive timeline updating when moving a large numbers of clips.
• Smoother playback when using fixed playhead in edit.
• Addressed disabled matte nodes being enabled in duplicated timelines.
• Addressed media management issues when transcoding embedded AAFs.
• Addressed applying clip grades potentially causing unlinked mattes.
• Addressed Windows issue detecting new audio devices after launch.
• Addressed viewer annotation markers not honoring selected marker color.
• Addressed an issue with directional blur at 180º angles.
• Addressed a license activation issue on systems with macOS 15 beta.
• Addressed Dolby audio bus-assign workflows not engaging the renderer.
• Addressed incorrect GetClipProperty script return values for audio clips.
• Addressed issues with executing compiled Lua scripts on Windows.
• Addressed an issue with some shortcuts with the latest Mac updates.
• Scripting API support to query audio mapping for timeline clips.
• Scripting API support to query format for audio tracks.
• General performance and stability improvements.

Pre-Installation Notes

For DaVinci Resolve 19.0, we have taken efforts to keep the project libraries compatible with DaVinci Resolve 18.6.6. While this allows you to access the project library with 18.6.6, individual projects created or opened in 19.0 will no longer be accessible in 18.6.6.

We recommend a full project library backup as well as individual project backups before opening projects in 19.0.

Minimum system requirements for Mac OS

• Mac OS 13 Ventura.
• 8 GB of system memory. 16 GB when using Fusion.
• Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 12.9 or later.
• GPU which supports Metal.

Minimum system requirements for Windows

• Windows 10 Creators Update.
• 16 GB of system memory. 32 GB when using Fusion.
• Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 12.9 or later.
• Integrated GPU or discrete GPU with at least 2 GB of VRAM.
• GPU which supports OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.
• AMD/Intel Driver – as required by your GPU manufacturer.
• NVIDIA Driver – Studio driver 550.58 or newer.

Minimum system requirements for Windows for Arm

• Windows 11 for ARM.
• Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite series processor.
• Recommended: 16 GB of system memory. 32 GB for 4K or Fusion use.

Minimum system requirements for Linux

• Rocky Linux 8.6 or CentOS 7.3.
• 32 GB of system memory.
• Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 12.9 or later.
• Discrete GPU with at least 2 GB of VRAM.
• GPU which supports OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.
• NVIDIA/AMD Driver version – as required by your GPU.

Installing DaVinci Resolve Software on Mac

Double-click the DaVinci Resolve Installer icon and follow the onscreen instructions. To remove DaVinci Resolve from your system, double-click the Uninstall Resolve icon.

Installing DaVinci Resolve Software on Windows

Double-click the DaVinci Resolve Installer icon and follow the onscreen instructions. To remove DaVinci Resolve from your system, go to the Programs and Features control panel, select DaVinci Resolve, click on Uninstall and follow the onscreen prompts.

Installing DaVinci Resolve Software on Linux

Double-click the DaVinci Resolve Installer and follow the onscreen instructions. To remove DaVinci Resolve from your system, select the uninstall option after running the installer.

Additional Information

You will also need to download and install the latest Blackmagic Design Desktop Video software for monitoring with your Blackmagic Design video hardware. Desktop Video is available from www.blackmagicdesign.com/support.

© Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd. All rights reserved. Blackmagic Design, Blackmagic, DeckLink, Multibridge, Intensity, H.264 Pro Recorder and "Leading the creative video revolution" are trademarks of Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd., registered in the U.S.A and other countries. Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems. Avid Media Composer and Avid Pro Tools are registered trademarks of Avid. Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion and Apple Soundtrack Pro are registered trademarks of Apple Computer.

Updated September 04, 2024.

Apple Final Cut Pro 10.8 Update June 20, 2024

 Yoohoo! The day before summer apple releases FCP 10.8! Let's see what's in store.

Final Cut Pro release notes

Learn about current and previous updates for Final Cut Pro on Mac.

Before installing a Final Cut Pro update, verify that your system still meets Final Cut Pro system requirements. Then make sure to back up your current version of the Final Cut Pro application and your Final Cut Pro libraries.

New in Final Cut Pro 10.8

Released June 20, 2024

Final Cut Pro 10.8 includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

• Automatically improve the color, color balance, contrast, and brightness of video or still images using the new Enhance Light and Color effect, powered by machine learning.

• Enable Smooth Slo-Mo to create amazing slow-motion visuals with an AI-enhanced algorithm on Mac models with Apple silicon.

• Stay organized by renaming color corrections and video effects in the inspector.

• Drag effects right from the inspector to other clips in the timeline or viewer.

• Use new filters in the timeline index to quickly identify clips with audio effects, video effects, retiming changes, missing media, or missing effects.

• Search in the timeline index by reel, scene, camera angle, camera name, custom metadata, or effect name.

• Search in the timeline index for user-created roles.

• Search for clips in the browser using new “Starts With” and “Ends With” search criteria.

• Enable or disable timeline scrolling using a new toolbar button.

• Improves timeline scrolling behavior during reverse playback.

• Fixes an issue where captions would sometimes flicker when timeline scrolling is enabled.

• Fixes an issue where browser items would be appear to be renamed when naming a folder.

• Fixes an issue that caused disabling the audio roles of a clip to make the video roles appear disabled.

• Accurately tone-maps HDR video content in 360° view for 360° projects.

• Fixes an issue that could cause ProRes RAW clips to be displayed incorrectly in the viewer on Intel-based Mac models.

• Fixes an issue that caused a freeze frame from a log-encoded clip to appear too bright in an HLG timeline.

• Fixes an issue that caused a disabled Color Board effect to be incorrectly enabled after exporting and reimporting an FCPXML of the timeline.

• Fixes an issue that caused the Space Designer audio effect to show presets as missing.

• Fixes an issue that could cause Final Cut Pro to stop responding when rendering with another app active.

• Fixes an issue that caused switching between the angle viewer and the video scopes to change the angle viewer selection back to “Enable video and audio switching.”

• Fixes an issue that caused Final Cut Pro to stop responding when both a folder and an enclosed item were selected in the browser.

• Adds support for sharing 8K ProRes MXF files.

• Improves support for Canon C2 AVC media.

• Adds support for Canon XF-AVC 1920x1080 59.94i/50i H.264 25Mbps.

• Removes support for disc burning.

• Updates FCPXML to version 1.12.

Get complete step-by-step how-to instructions and information on all features in Final Cut Pro. For a list of recent enhancements in Final Cut Pro, refer to What's New in Final Cut Pro.

OK, so a bunch of interesting things here. Notable to me are these three:

In YELLOW we have machine learning enabled Light and Color Enhancement, and Smooth Slow Motion. I'm very curious about these two, and I will test asap what kind of features and results we can get.

In ORANGE, search expansion, including audio and video effects, missing media, missing effects! Yes! finally Apple! It only took 9 years.

I have a 5 parts rant saga about missing effects in FCP and how extremely difficult it is to track them here: Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4, Part5. So much so that I had to report this to Apple, and likely many of you did as well, maybe, just maybe, Apple listened? But come on, 9 years?... I will be reporting how useful these improvements really are. Fingers crossed.

In RED, here goes the disc burning share option. Oh well, no one burns disks anymore, and when I did I used Toast anyway. I actually never used this once. But I understand it makes some people upset, not fun to loose a tool when you rely on it in your workflow.

Apple is yet again giving us crumbles when we are hungry for a full meal. No improvements on role based mixing or anything of the sort, which to me, and to many advanced users would be the feature to propel FCP to another level. Maybe in 2033.

Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 12.8 Update

 BMD Desktop video software 12.8 is available as of today.

I mentioned the previous version of DV 12.7.1 being broken on macOS Sonoma 14.1.1.

I've now updated Sonoma to 14.2.1. Hopefully this DV update fixes the problem and we again have access to BMD in/out devices on Mac with Sonoma.

I will report as soon as I have a moment to install.

From the BMD website:

About Blackmagic Desktop Video Software

Welcome to the Desktop Video software

This software includes everything you need to set up your DeckLink, UltraStudio and Intensity for video capture and playback with your computer.

What's new in Desktop Video 12.8

New features and bug fixes for DeckLink IP models:

• Fix an issue where Rec.2020 video was incorrectly tagged.
• Ensure audio is passed through during keying.
• Add support for PTP follower only mode.
• Fix an issue where audio is captured on the wrong channels.
• Fix an issue where corrupted video is sometimes received during loopback capture.
• Ensure all flows are stopped after a video format change on the source.
• Fix intermittent issue where black video is captured after changing video input format.
• Fix issue where network settings would sometimes disappear in Setup utility.
• General performance and stability improvements for all models.

Mac OS Specific

Minimum System Requirements for Mac OS

• macOS 14.0 Sonoma or later.
• macOS 13.0 Ventura.
• Mac OS computer with either Thunderbolt, PCIe slot.
• 8 GB of system memory.

Note: The following products are supported on macOS Monterey and Ventura:

Apple silicon and Intel Macs:

• DeckLink Duo 2
• DeckLink Quad 2
• DeckLink Quad HDMI Recorder
• DeckLink 8K Pro
• DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G
• DeckLink IP HD
• DeckLink IP HD Optical
• DeckLink IP/SDI HD
• DeckLink Micro Recorder
• DeckLink SDI Micro
• DeckLink Mini Monitor HD
• DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K
• DeckLink Mini Recorder
• DeckLink Mini Recorder HD
• DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K
• DeckLink SDI 4K
• DeckLink Studio 4K
• UltraStudio Recorder 3G
• UltraStudio Monitor 3G
• UltraStudio HD Mini
• UltraStudio 4K Mini
• UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3
• Intensity Pro 4K
• DeckLink 4K Pro
• DeckLink 4K Extreme
• UltraStudio 4K
• UltraStudio 4K Extreme

Intel Macs only:

• DeckLink Mini Monitor
• DeckLink HD Extreme 3
• DeckLink HD Extreme 3D
• DeckLink SDI
• DeckLink Duo
• DeckLink Quad
• DeckLink Studio
• UltraStudio Express
• UltraStudio Mini Monitor
• UltraStudio Mini Recorder
• Intensity Pro
• Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt

Third Party Software Support

• DaVinci Resolve 17 and 18.
• Fusion 17 and 18.
• Apple Final Cut Pro.
• Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2022 and 2023.
• Adobe After Effects CC 2022 and 2023.
• Adobe Photoshop CC 2022 and 2023.
• Adobe Character Animator CC 2022 and 2023.
• Autodesk Flame 2024.
• Avid Media Composer 2023.
• Avid Pro Tools 2023.
• The Foundry Nuke (Intel Macs only).

Windows Specific

Minimum system requirements for Windows

• Microsoft Windows 10 or 11 64-bit
• Microsoft Windows computer with either Thunderbolt, PCIe slot or USB 3.0 port.
• 8 GB of system memory.

Third Party Software Support

• DaVinci Resolve 17 and 18.
• Fusion 17 and 18.
• Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2022 and 2023.
• Adobe After Effects CC 2022 and 2023.
• Adobe Photoshop CC 2022 and 2023.
• Adobe Character Animator CC 2022 and 2023.
• Avid Media Composer 2023.
• Avid Pro Tools 2023.
• Magix Vegas Pro 20.
• The Foundry Nuke.

Linux Specific

Minimum System Requirements for Linux

Basic system requirements:

• x86-64 running Linux 3.10 or higher.
• AArch64 running Linux 4.9.140 or higher.

A system with ample memory is strongly recommended.

Supported ARM Platforms

Desktop Video has been tested on the following platforms:

Nvidia Jetson AGX Xavier and Nvidia Clara AGX:

• DeckLink 8K Pro
• DeckLink Quad 2
• DeckLink Duo 2
• DeckLink Quad HDMI Recorder
• DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G
• DeckLink SDI Micro

Thunderbolt Hotplug Requirements

Supported kernels older than 3.12 require an extra step after plugging the device in. You must tell the kernel to rescan the PCI bus using the following command:

# sudo sh -c 'echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/rescan'

Kernel 3.12 and later support hotplug without the need for any extra steps.

Supported Distributions

x86-64:

• Ubuntu: 22.04, 23.04
• Debian: 11
• Fedora: 38
• CentOS: 7

Nvidia Jetson AGX Xavier / Nvidia Clara AGX:

• JetPack 5.1

Several different package formats are supplied:

• Native package (.deb) for Ubuntu and Debian based distributions.
• Native package (.rpm) for RedHat and Fedora based distributions.
• Tarball and packaging files for custom installation.

Full release notes including installation instructions are available in the ReadMe.txt found in the downloadable tar archive.

Installing Desktop Video Software

If you have installed the drivers prior to installing any of these applications, we recommend that you uninstall and reinstall the drivers. This will ensure that all relevant components are installed in their required locations.

Additional Information

Please check www.blackmagicdesign.com for additional information on third party software compatibility and minimum system requirements.

Some applications may use third party code under license. For details please refer to the included "Third Party Licenses.rtf" document.

© 2024 Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd. All rights reserved. 'Blackmagic Design', 'Blackmagic', 'Blackmagic Cloud', 'DaVinci Resolve', 'Fusion', 'Fairlight', 'Ultimatte', 'HyperDeck', 'DeckLink', 'HDLink', 'Videohub', 'Intensity' and 'Leading the creative video revolution' are registered trademarks in the US and other countries. All other company and product names may be trade marks of their respective companies with which they are associated.

Updated January 24, 2024.

Apple Pro Video Formats Gets An Update As Well

 

Apple just updated Final Cut Pro to v10.6.6, Compressor to v4.6.4 and Motion v5.6.4, and with them Pro Video Formats gets updated to v2.2.5:

Pro Video Formats

The Pro Video Formats package provides support for the following codecs that are used in professional video workflows: 

• Apple ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ*
• Apple Intermediate Codec
• Avid DNxHD® / DNxHR® decoder
• AVC-Intra 50 / 100 / 200 / 4:4:4 / LT
• AVC-LongG
• XAVC
• XF-AVC
• XF-HEVC
• DVCPRO HD
• HDV
• XDCAM EX / HD / HD422
• MPEG IMX
• Uncompressed 4:2:2

* Requires a Mac computer that supports Metal: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205073 

The list is unchanged from Pro Video Formats 2.2.4. And I'm not seeing a dedicated page with a download link yet, one has to go through System Preferences, Software Update to install it.

Final Cut Pro 10.6.6, Compressor 4.6.4, Motion 5.6.4 Updates

Cheers to FCP 10.6.6. update, release by Apple today. As always out of the blue, although people who follow these kind of things, like Richard Taylor at fcpx.tv, said an update was coming on Tuesday, and there it is.

Like Rich, I wish Apple put more dedication and enthusiasm into developing FCP new features and improvements, instead of branching into a subscription only iPad version. 😩

macOS Monterey 12.6, or more recent. Small update better than no update I suppose. Here is what's new (I'm skipping the iPad blah, because at this point I don't care about it.):

• Automatic HDR/SDR color management with tone mapping. This should be helpful.
• New titles, effects and generators. We'll see how nice they are.
• Color Adjustment effect with presets. Hmmm, kinda like under the previous bullet point isn't it? I hope it's not too gimmicky.
• Again falls under the second bullet point. Scene Removal Mask to remove bkg without green screen. AI powered I assume, we'll see if it's any good.
• ProRes RAW Settings window. That's good. I hope it gives access to all the tweaks available.
• ProRes RAW plug-ins from various camera manufacturers. OK.
• HEVC export up to 8K, hardware accelerated on silicon Macs. I like.
• Export to EXR with Alpha channel. I don't care, but OK.
• Handful of bugs fixed.

Compressor gets updated to v4.6.4. A few improvements: auto center crop, Copy/Paste files now allowed, improved IMF packages, auto surround channels labelling when using command line. What an obscure last entry!

Motion gets updated to v5.6.4. Nothing to get excited about really: auto color processing for better HDR/SDR workflow between Motion and FCP, HDR optimized color processing, no green screen background removal, improved playback/export times on silicon, improved Slice Scale filter, stability improvements.

All right, well I shall update soon as I am in between projects, and I'll report when I get cutting / compressing / motioning on these new versions.

Apple, it's getting boring other here in Pro Apps land... iPad version, who cares? You're getting lazy, imitating Resolve/Blackmagic design, and not leading anymore. Wake up!

Pixelmator Pro 3.2 "Lumière"

 Pixelmator Pro is out with version 3.2. It adds video editing capabilities, integration with Apple Motion, and more! Very, very cool!

Now is the time to buy this great piece of software if you haven't already for a mere $19.99 (50% off.) Current users like me get to update for free!

Pixelmator Pro 3.2

Released on December 6, 2022

Pixelmator Pro 3.2 introduces some incredible new ways to create designs with full support for video layers, adds support for popular video formats, includes all-new video and social media templates, brings major improvements to Motion document support, and more.

New Features

With full support for video layers, you can now edit videos and create stunning video designs with all the same tools you use to edit images.

Use the new on-canvas controls to easily control video playback, set video start and end frames, select poster frames, and more.

Work with a number of popular video formats, including MP4, QuickTime Movie, and even moving image formats such as animated GIFs and PNGs.

Quickly create eye-catching designs with cinematic social media story templates and 4K movie title templates.

Video Layers Support

Video layers in Pixelmator Pro work just like any other layers — you can mask or crop them, add effects, change colors, and more.

Find useful information about video length in the video layer description.

Work with videos with transparency, compressed using HEVC or Apple ProRes 4444 codecs.

Import Live Photos from the Photos browser and edit them as photos or videos.

Use quick video editing settings in the video layer shortcut menu, and the menu bar, or use handy, on-canvas controls.

Easily start and stop video playback, mute, and unmute audio.

You can also press the Space bar on your keyboard to play all layers, or Option + Space to play only the selected layers.

With additional video editing settings, adjust the length of the video, scrub through individual frames, or select a poster frame.

For compositions with multiple video layers, use Advanced Settings to delay, loop videos, or choose the behavior of the first and last video frames.

Use playback delay to specify when each of the videos in a composition will start to play.

Keep your videos playing on repeat with Loop or Bounce effects.

Enjoy top video playback performance and a smooth, real-time video editing experience, powered by AVFoundation.

On devices with Apple silicon, harness the power of M1 and M2 chips to edit and export videos of up to 8K resolution.

Optimize videos for export with options for adjusting video size, quality, and frame rate.

When exporting to QuickTime Movie format, make the most of additional video compression formats, including HEVC and Apple ProRes.

Enjoy automatic video color management thanks to ColorSync integration.

Use Quick Export to quickly export videos to MP4 file format.

Export original, unedited videos from Pixelmator Pro by choosing Format > Video > Export Unmodified Video.

Automate video import, editing, and export with AppleScript and Shortcuts apps.

Motion Support Improvements

Enjoy support for video layers and many other improvements when exporting to Motion.

Motion projects will now keep the custom fonts included in Pixelmator Pro documents.

Basic vector clipping masks are now supported.

Color adjustments and effects layers are now supported.

Grain, Vignette, Black and White, and Gradient Map adjustments and effects will now be replaced with equivalent filters in Motion.

RAW layers will now open as bitmap layers in Motion.

To emulate nondestructive gradient and color fills from Pixelmator Pro, shapes will be used in Motion instead.

Fill and Gradient Fill styles now open as Fill filters in Motion.

Positioning of layers with complex transforms has been improved.

Other Improvements and Fixes

You can now show or hide layer handles by choosing View > Layer and Selection Handles from the View menu.

Arabic texts would sometimes be displayed incorrectly. Fixed.

In some situations, Pixelmator Pro would stop responding when upscaling images using Super Resolution. Fixed.