Final Cut Pro X 10.4 Coming Later This Year With Improved Color Tools, HEVC and VR Support

[MacRumors]

At the Final Cut Pro X Creative Summit, which includes a visit to Apple's Cupertino Campus, Apple announced the next version of its video editing software aimed at professionals, Final Cut Pro X 10.4. Details about the announcement were shared on Twitter by FCPX experts Peter Wiggins, Alex Gollner, and Richard Taylor, giving us a hint of what's coming later this year.

Image via Richard Taylor​

The update will include new color tools, like color wheels and a white balance picker, with new controls for the color board. It will include support for HEVC, the new video format introduced in iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra, and direct import of iMovie for iOS timelines. The new version of the software will support VR and HDR workflows.

Apple gave a sneak peek of #VR video features in next versions of Motion 5 and Final Cut Pro X at 1 Infinite Loop today pic.twitter.com/vAtZeeuY4o - Alex Gollner (@Alex4D) October 28, 2017

Apple shared several demos of the new version of Final Cut Pro X in action, including an 8K timeline on the new iMac Pro.

No specific release date for Final Cut Pro X 10.4 was announced, but Apple did say that it's coming before the end of 2017. Final Cut Pro X can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $299.99. [Direct Link]

(Thanks, Olivier!)

Article Link: Final Cut Pro X 10.4 Coming Later This Year With Improved Color Tools, HEVC and VR Support

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

It'll be interesting to see how long Apple sticks with the 10.everything scheme.

 

[MartyF81]

Hopefully they fix the issue with FCPX crashing on External Displays since High Sierra upgrade before this! FCPX dead in water.

 

[HiRez]

It may be too late for Apple to regain prominence, I know a lot of people in the industry who bailed to Adobe Premiere in the last 2 years. Our company just moved about 40 FCP seats to Premiere this year. Unfortunately the botched Final Cut X rollout created sticky negative preconceptions about the product that persisted long after Apple fixed and improved much of it.

 

[Glassed Silver]

It'll be interesting to see how long Apple sticks with the 10.everything scheme.

Condsidering they went with it for so long I consider any change at this point to be very vast and to come with structural changes to the underlying platform...

Now you could be arguing for days how that may pan out, I think ultimately it's going to be dictated by practicability.

If the move for Mac to ARM were to happen it's going to see a uniform access to apps for both macOS in the form of macOS allowing access to "iOS apps" as a feature, later on both might get merged with each becoming optional "universal binary" options for the developer.

Now, personally I think the x86 platform offers way too much edge over ARM which is part of the RISC family of processors (where the hint is in the name - Reduced instruction set computer).

However, with the recent moves by Apple I'd be hardly surprised to seem them go this way.

Maybe as a co-processor?

Either way... That might be the time when they make a new name rise above the trusted X "brand".

Another guess from mine is that they might push any drawbacks to later releases...
Examples:
x86 Support will likely remain existent natively to the first couple of generations until "app support" advocates ARM as single-support architecture.

Apple might be wisely advised to heavily Incentivize devs to at least "also support" ARM during the first few releases. (It'll be extremely exciting to see Parallel's and VMWare's moves)

Once that's done they can claim the new gen of Macs has 9x% support of "Mac App Store apps" support (another case of tough **** for legacy lovers... there will be "legacy x86" support in the form of a "Rosetta"-style implementation)

I'll be very blunt with you guys, I don't want any of this to happen. I've long considered my future Mac putchases to be mostly home office-level purchases. Heavy [x86] tasks will likely mostly be relegated to Windows on a self-built machine because beefy raw computing and gaming doesn't necessarily require Mac these days for my tasks.... Hell even my Adobe alternative Affinity Photo and Designer launched for on Windows...

It's not the same, but as a semi-professional I need to keep my spendings in check. Maybe Mac Pro will remain x86-ARM hybrid, but I really fear that we might see a shift to ARM in Mac.

Maybe i3 to keep basic x86 compatibility for Bootcamp and easy Parallels and VMWare suppport as well as legacy and pro apps support on some level...

All just guesswork. Felt like doing a good old type down though. Looking for open discussion!

Glassed Silver:win

Notice / tl;dr: I'm drunk, should be light minded, still came to MR and felt inspired to share my thought about the platform / ecosystem that re-ignited a new joy in computing in me over 10 years ago. I really love Mac, iOS (as limited as it may be... Maybe one day we get the optimal mix of Android's openness and iOS's privacy) and anything else Apple [that they still offer... ugh]

 

[Sean4000]

Every 5 years my media group changes out systems. 2012's MacPro "upgrade" that wasn't really an upgrade was our last straw. My Apple systems went immediately to the render farm. Now, in 2017, we view the upcoming iMac Pro as too little too late. It serves us no purpose. In 2 weeks when I'm finished building new AMD Threadripper boxes, our existing workstations will completely replace the Macs now in the farm. We'll be a WinLin system front to back.

"""It may be too late for Apple to regain prominence, I know a lot of people in the industry who bailed to Adobe Premiere in the last 2 years. Our company just moved about 40 FCP seats to Premiere this year. Unfortunately the botched Final Cut X rollout created sticky negative preconceptions about the product that persisted long after Apple fixed and improved much of it."""

 

[fitshaced]

I use FCPX and so happy to see an improvement to colour tools and white balance. There are plugins that do a really good job but I think these are basic things that should be built in. No need to learn something else now.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

This write up shows it all.

http://www.fcp.co/163-draft/2011-fi...curves-colour-controls-and-360-tools-built-in

 

[diegov12]

Every 5 years my media group changes out systems. 2012's MacPro upgrade that wasn't really an upgrade was the last straw. My Apple systems went to the render farm. Now in 2017 we view the upcoming iMac Pro as to little too late. It serves us no purpose. In 2 weeks when i'm finished building the new threadripper boxes, our existing workstations will completely replace the Macs in the farm. We'll be a WinLin system front to back.

"""It may be too late for Apple to regain prominence, I know a lot of people in the industry who bailed to Adobe Premiere in the last 2 years. Our company just moved about 40 FCP seats to Premiere this year. Unfortunately the botched Final Cut X rollout created sticky negative preconceptions about the product that persisted long after Apple fixed and improved much of it."""

Every 5 years my media group changes out systems. 2012's MacPro upgrade that wasn't really an upgrade was the last straw. My Apple systems went to the render farm. Now in 2017 we view the upcoming iMac Pro as to little too late. It serves us no purpose. In 2 weeks when i'm finished building the new threadripper boxes, our existing workstations will completely replace the Macs in the farm. We'll be a WinLin system front to back.

"""It may be too late for Apple to regain prominence, I know a lot of people in the industry who bailed to Adobe Premiere in the last 2 years. Our company just moved about 40 FCP seats to Premiere this year. Unfortunately the botched Final Cut X rollout created sticky negative preconceptions about the product that persisted long after Apple fixed and improved much of it."""

Why is this being reposted?

 

[Sean4000]

Why is this being reposted?

Interesting, shows up normally on my computer. I'm tired and my hands are really cold so I missed the correct way to quote. but i cannot explain the double post as I cannot see it.

 

[puckhead193]

Probably be available when the iMac Pro ship.
The color upgrades are a huge upgrade compared to this color board thing apple got going.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Interesting, shows up normally on my computer. I'm tired and my hands are really cold so I missed the correct way to quote. but i cannot explain the double post as I cannot see it.

It's only showing once on my view as well.

 

[Sean4000]

This write up shows it all.

http://www.fcp.co/163-draft/2011-fi...curves-colour-controls-and-360-tools-built-in

Good little article. Worth a read.

 

[linuxcooldude]

It may be too late for Apple to regain prominence, I know a lot of people in the industry who bailed to Adobe Premiere in the last 2 years. Our company just moved about 40 FCP seats to Premiere this year. Unfortunately the botched Final Cut X rollout created sticky negative preconceptions about the product that persisted long after Apple fixed and improved much of it.

In the long run, it won't matter. FCPX is more for a new generation of editor.

 

[pat500000]

this and mac pro.....

 

[caliguy]

Great. I actually really like working with FCPX; it doesn't have all the features that Premiere has, but plugins fill a lot of gaps. Additional color control is a welcomed upgrade.

I hope they iron out some issues with audio adjustments when working with Multicam clips. I have lots of popping issues when switching just video tracks (staying on same audio track). Pretty annoying. Have to detach all audio and create a compound clip to fix. Also would like to see better audio normalization options.

Also they need to work on their key framing. Some very annoying bugs with random drifts between points. And let me make "Linear" the default over "Smooth"!!

Edit: I should add that I'm a solo corporate videographer. For my use case, I'll deal with the flaws, because I can edit quickly and efficiently with FCPX. If I worked in an editing house, I'd likely see the value in switching.

 

[Msivyparrot]

From what has been discussed and photo's on twitter, the new imac is BTO...why? why? in 2017 are we still BTO? It is such a stupid idea, it ruins devices, and creates more harm than good...BTO is simply a bad idea...The app becomes more and more complex, yet Apple seem to think 8GB RAM is enough to run it, 16GB is way underpowered, yet they do not sell laptops above 16GB...When post purchase upgrading would solve problems, Apple banned this...So the improvements in 10.4 are non functional in reality...

 

[kwikdeth]

From what has been discussed and photo's on twitter, the new imac is BTO...why? why? in 2017 are we still BTO? It is such a stupid idea, it ruins devices, and creates more harm than good...BTO is simply a bad idea...The app becomes more and more complex, yet Apple seem to think 8GB RAM is enough to run it, 16GB is way underpowered, yet they do not sell laptops above 16GB...When post purchase upgrading would solve problems, Apple banned this...So the improvements in 10.4 are non functional in reality...

No, they're plenty functional on the new iMac Pro, which is what this is really about. Gotta find a way to draw in suckers for the $5K buy-in...

 

[simonmet]

No matter how good FCPX is or becomes Apple simply won’t regain mass videographer market share without a classic upgradable desktop, much less an all-in-one. Corporate buyers see the risk in proprietary locked-down everything. Certain Mac-centric niche studios may like the iMac Pro but I can’t see it reaching a wider audience than the trash-can Mac Pro.

At this point we should be thankful Apple is still supporting and developing FCPX. I see it as an attractive option for amateur and prosumer users such as the YouTube set. Maybe even indie film makers.

 

[Msivyparrot]

Yes exactly, that is called post purchase upgrading, you upgrade after the initial purchase of the device, this was the idea of the cheesgrater, the macbook pro, with it's replaceable battery and RAM underneath..It was such a great idea, you bought 2GB RAM and then later, upgraded the RAM, or in the cheesgrater, changed everything, as it should.

Apple for some bizarre reason banned post purchase upgrading, the trash can mc pro was not upgradeable, then the mcbookpro was shown the same bizarre love, then the new 2017 imac and mac pro will be totally BTO...BTO is bad...

In the field you need power, both internal and external, you need to drive the laptops hard, editing, and this consumes power, in the old days, with FCP classic, you could switch out batteries, sure the app itself did not benefit from more RAM, being locked down to 2GB RAM, but email, other tasks, having more RAM helped...

Now in 2017 we have a device that is fixed to 8GB RAM [or 16GB] and fixed battery life, and if that runs out, you are **** out of luck...How in a decade is that progress..unless negative progress is what you desire....

No post purchase upgrading is the bullet to the heart of Apple, Tim Cock is the only one on the planet that can make the decision to end the ban of post purchase upgrading, the industries that use power mac hardware are simply mute and I wonder why...???

Am I missing something? Is post purchase upgrading bad???

 

[Ritsuka]

You can upgrade the iMac Pro run, you just have to open it, so not as easy as before, but not impossible.

 

[Msivyparrot]

Ritsuka, that is just the point, I could if I had the tools upgrade my hunk of junk late 2013 retina macbook pro...You can upgrade anything, if you have the right tools....

That is not the point, the point is, Tim Cock has banned post purchase upgrading, of all devices, from ipods, through ipads, into mac laptops and into the desktops, they are all functionally impossible to upgrade post purchase, yet a decade ago, from 2000-2010, this was easy and affordable, and encouraged, and yes it was actually fun...

Now it is a hateful spiteful act by Apple, almost a middle finger to the consumer...It is a middle finger, flipping the bird to consumers!!!

 

[BvizioN]

Is it really too hard for a multi billion dollar company to make Final Cut Pro X app for iPad pro?

 

[sidewinder3000]

It may be too late for Apple to regain prominence, I know a lot of people in the industry who bailed to Adobe Premiere in the last 2 years. Our company just moved about 40 FCP seats to Premiere this year. Unfortunately the botched Final Cut X rollout created sticky negative preconceptions about the product that persisted long after Apple fixed and improved much of it.

I had a similar experience the month FCP X came out. I was the CD at a big improv comedy theater and we had five FCP 7 edit bays but needed to add two more. Apple wouldn’t sell us new licenses for 7 since X had come out, but X was still so stripped down, and had zero ability to work with a server and be a pro workstation. One of the great ****ups in Apple’s mostly stellar trajectory. They owned the small post studio market, and then gave it all away.

The irony is that now that FCP X has been updated, there are many who claim it is faster and more modern than Premiere. But no one knows that because everyone jumped ship.

I always maintain that if Apple had simply released what they called FCP X as FC Xpress, a light, personal version of their new software that people could get familiar with and learn the new magnetic timeline, and announce that a full-featured FC Pro version (X) would be coming the next year. This would have given them the time to make sure the pro version had all the pro features when it eventually launched, and would have allowed FCP 7 users to continue buying licenses until they were contra or with X.

Tragic.

 

[ikir]

eGPU support!