You cannot, however, organize your files or delete clips during rendering.

Final Cut X renders in the background, so you can keep right on editing. Once you’re past the shock of the new layout, the first thing you’ll notice is that Apple has left most of the old Final Cut’s greatest annoyances on the cutting-room floor.įirst - and this is huge - there’s no more waiting to “render.” You no longer sit there, dead in the water, while the software computes the changes, locking up the program in the meantime, every time you add an effect or insert a piece of video that’s in a different format. In fact, it looks and works a lot like iMovie, all dark gray, with “skimming” available you run your cursor over a clip without pressing the mouse button to play it. The new Final Cut has been radically redesigned. You can’t change the settings of your exported QuickTime movies without the $50 Compressor program. You can use a second computer monitor, but you need new TV-output drivers to attach an external video monitor. They say the new program is missing high-end features like the ability to edit multiple camera angles, to export to tape, to burn anything more than rudimentary DVDs and to work with EDL, XML and OMF files (used to exchange projects with other programs). Some professional editors are already insisting that Apple has made exactly the same mistake with Final Cut X they pointed out various flaws with the program after an earlier version of this column was posted online on Wednesday. Didn’t Apple kill off iMovie, too, in 2008, and replace it with an all-new, less capable version that lacked dozens of important features? It took three years of upgrades before the new iMovie finally surpassed its predecessor in features and coherence. Apple veterans may, at this point, be feeling some creepy déjà vu.

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