The Most Asked Questions About Final Cut Pro X

MasterfingFilm.com by Tom Wolsky

It started with the bizarre announcement that a team from Apple was taking over the LAFCPUG Supermeet at NAB. Nearly 2000 FCP users gathered to hear what they presumed would be the unveiling of the next version of Final Cut Studio or at least a new Final Cut Pro 8. What they got was a glimpse of a wholly new application, completely unlike the Final Cut Pro many had known for more than 10 years. It resembled iMovie more than it did FCP. It would be a new standalone application, delivered over the Internet, at a radically low price, to de delivered in about two months. After an exciting demo that showed off many great features, those present were mostly left with more questions than answers.

It’s been a strange wait. The blogs and forums have been filled with speculations, a single thread on the Apple forum running onto 56 pages, 838 messages, with almost 70,000 views before the application was released. There was great exciting as well as great wailing and gnashing of teeth. It was like Christmas was coming, except we weren’t quite sure when, though we even knew something about what present we were getting, except we weren’t sure if it was going to be a Ferrari or a Matchbox replica of a Ferrari, or something in between. What became striking as more and more information emerged is how very much this application is based on iMovie and how very little it is based on Final Cut Pro. read more...

The questions flew constantly over the two months without real answers. Here are some of the most asked questions. Most can now be answered; a few we will only know in time.

What computer can support it?
Perhaps the easiest question to answer now. You need a computer that’s running Mac OS 10.6.7 or later with an Intel processor that’s 64-bit capable, which means any machine running these processors: Core 2 Duo, Quad-Core Xeon, Dual-Core Xeon, Core i3, i5, or i7. Other recommendations include 2GB of RAM (4GB of RAM recommended), OpenCL-capable graphics card or?Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later, 256MB of VRAM, Display with 1280-by-768 resolution or higher, with 2.4GB of free disk space.