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Final Cut Express 4

Final Cut Express 4

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From: Apple
Category: Software

List Price: $199.00
Buy New: $135.99
You Save: $63.01 (32%)



New (12)

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 23 reviews
Sales Rank: 59

Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Macintosh, Powermac, Mac Os X
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Standard
Operating System: Macintosh
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 5.3 x 0.6

MPN: MB278Z/A
Model: MB278Z/A
UPC: 885909193417
EAN: 0885909193417
ASIN: B000Z3DXT2

Release Date: November 22, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW, FACTORY SEALED ! (100 % SATISFACTION GUARANTEED OR YOUR MONEY BACK!! FAST SHIPPING)

Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 23
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3 out of 5 stars excellent video editing product   May 26, 2008
 3 out of 6 found this review helpful

If you want to video edit and are a novice this is the product for you. Just load up your video and then drag and drop it into this product. The more you use it the more proficient you become. Make videos like Spielberg and when you become that good, download your videos to Youtube for approval. When the public becomes impressed, now you are ready for the $1200 pro version of Final Cut.


2 out of 5 stars disappointing   May 3, 2008
 8 out of 13 found this review helpful

Final Cut Express is a difficult program with a steep learning curve and is in stark contrast to the beautifully human engineered Imovie program. When I saw the title "Visual Quick Start Guide" I expected just that. Instead I have labored to page 170 and just started to learn about the browser. I expected to see a quick initial guide showing how to do a first editing job followed by more detail on each step. Instead I had to labor through endless detail on basic features first, which are easily forgotten by the time basic editing (page 221), trimming edits (page 319) or creating transitions (page 389) are discussed. A concise description of basic editing is sorely missing. May be this book is useful as an encyclopedia for the program, but "learning Final Cut Express the Quick and Easy Way" is a completely misleading description.


2 out of 5 stars Not ready for AVCHD yet   April 29, 2008
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This software crashes when importing AVCHD files from certain cameras, my Panasonic HDC-SD9, for one. I had to buy additional software to read and convert the files before importing them into FCE4.

Also, although it reportedly supports AVCHD files, it does not support their 5.1 surround audio, and as of right now, it doesn't support full 1920x1080 resolution.

Currently, FCE4 only supports a maximum resolution of 14401080. Video can be exported as 1920 from FCE4 using Quicktime Conversion, but not without interpolation.



5 out of 5 stars Impressive. Time to learn.   April 27, 2008
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

(Note that when I compare "iMovie" with FCE-4 below, I am referring to timeline-editing versions of iMovie).

I've used timeline versions of iMovie for years - to quickly create movies at home, and video presentations for work. I sometimes wanted more power than iMovie had and I wanted to stay with timeline-based editing. So, I gave FCE-4 a try.

FCE-4 has an impressive professional feel with a UI that is an extension of iMovie's. FCE-4 has a longer learning curve compared to iMovie, though this is not a criticism - it has more features. But be ready for that. Having never used any prior version of FCE, the tutorial book "Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Express 4" by Diana Weynand, was key in ramping-up.

I am still learning it, but am impressed at FCE-4's technical capabilities. I've taken some side-tracks to learn more about "movie-making" generally (lighting, sound, story, etc). This is all part of it and is fun and educational overall.

Compared with iMovie, FCE-4 is a significant step in capabilities, and also in terms of time investment to learn it.






4 out of 5 stars Upgrading from iMovie? Read this   April 15, 2008
 12 out of 12 found this review helpful

Final Cut Express is a very powerful video editing package. If you are thinking about making the step up from iMovie (as I did), you need to understand that the level of sophistication and power in this package is exponentially greater than that of iMovie. If your video editng experience is limited to iMovie, don't expect to be able to install FCE and be off and running in an hour or two. You'll need to plan on investing some real time to learn the program.

This is in no way a criticism of FCE - it is as advertised, a "light" version of Final Cut Pro, which is used by professionals everywhere. I just want your expectations to be set properly. You'll need to invest in a third-party manual, as only soft copies of documentation are included, and they are for reference only, not for training. Just be CERTAIN that the manual you get is for the FCE 4 - there aren't many available as of this writing.

FCE is a very expansive and powerful program; just don't expect the type of plug-n-play results you got from iMovie. You'll need to spend time to understand the numerous differences in how iMovie and FCE operate.


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