Final Cut Studio 2: Compressor 3 - Technical Specifications

Minimum Requirements to Install All Final Cut Studio Applications

•A Macintosh computer with a 1.25GHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, or Intel Xeon processor
•1GB of RAM
•An AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card (Final Cut Studio is not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors)
•A display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher
•Mac OS X v10.4.9 or Mac OS X v10.5.5 or later
•QuickTime 7.1.6 or later
•A DVD drive for installation

Available Disk Space

•4GB of disk space required to install all applications (Final Cut Pro, Color, DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, Cinema Tools, LiveType, Compressor, and Apple Qmaster)
•Additional 55GB required to install all optional templates, content, and tutorials (may be installed on separate disks):
•9GB for DVD Studio Pro content
•8GB for Motion templates and tutorial media
•24GB for Soundtrack Pro audio content
•12GB for LiveFonts and LiveType animated elements and templates
•2GB for Apple Pro Training Final Cut Studio Tutorials media

Recommended Configurations

The following are recommended for all applications:

•2GB of RAM when working with compressed HD and uncompressed SD sources
•4GB of RAM when working with uncompressed HD sources
•A display with 1280 x 1024 resolution or higher
•4 GB of hard disc space is required to install all of the Final Cut Studio 2 applications
•An additional 55 GB of hard disc space is required to install all optional templates, content, and tutorials (may be installed on separate discs):

•9 GB for DVD Studio Pro content
•8 GB for Motion templates and tutorial media
•24 GB for Soundtrack Pro audio content
•12 GB for LiveFonts and LiveType animated elements and templates
•2 GB for Apple Pro Training Final Cut Studio Tutorials media


 

High-Performance Encoding

•H.264 Apple devices, web, mobile devices, and HD DVD
•Compatible I-frame insertion
•Full QuickTime support
•MPEG-2 encoding
•MPEG-1 encoding
•MPEG-4 encoding
•Distributed encoding with segmentation options
•Two-pass VBR encoding for MPEG-2
•Provides Dolby-certified encoding to Dolby Digital Professional AC-3 format
•Accepts QuickTime (single-channel or multichannel), AIFF, Sound Designer, and WAV files
•Advanced chaptering for AppleTV and podcasting
•Closed caption support for QuickTime and MPEG-2
•Scaling and down-converting
•Standards conversions
•Retiming
•Preview with split-screen comparison
•High-quality image processing
•More than 100 presets included
•Automated encoding with droplets
•Automatic and custom cropping
•Automatic and custom padding
•14 image processing filters: brightness/contrast; highlight, midtone, and shadow color corrections; deinterlacing; gamma correction; noise removal; sharpen edge; black/white restore; watermark; text overlay; timecode generator; fade in/out; and letterbox
•Four audio filters: dynamic range; peak limiter; Apple: AUGraphicEQ and fade in/out
•Post encoded files to iDisk or FTP
•Reverse Telecine
•Deinterlacing
•Droplets for automation

Dolby Digital Professional Encoding

•Dolby-certified encoding to Dolby Digital Professional AC-3 format
•Accepts QuickTime (single-channel or multichannel), AIFF, Sound Designer, and WAV format sound files for encoding
•Support for all channel formats from mono to 5.1 surround sound
•Automatically creates 2.0 or 5.1 based on number of channels in the source media file
•Confidence decoding for preview of AC-3 files

Video Filters

•BlackWhite Restore
•Brightness and Contrast
•Color Correct Highlights
•Color Correct Midtones
•Color Correct Shadows
•Deinterlacing
•Fade In/Out
•Gamma Correction
•Letterbox
•Noise Removal
•Sharpen Edge
•Text Overlay
•Timecode Generator
•Watermark (Image, animated with QuickTime or Motion files)

Audio Filters

•Dynamic Range
•Peak Limiter
•Apple: AUGraphicEQ
•Fade In/Out

Input Video Formats

•QuickTime

•Apple ProRes 422
•Animation
•BMP
•Video
•Cinepak
•DV
•DVCPRO
•DVCPRO HD
•H.261
•H.263
•H.264
•JPEG 2000
•M-JPEG A
•M-JPEG B
•Photo JPEG
•Planar RGB
•PNG
•Sorenson 2
•Sorenson 3
•TGA
•Uncompressed 8- and 10-bit video


•MPEG-1
•MPEG-2
•Elementary
•Program


•MPEG-4
•AVI

 

Input Audio Formats

•QuickTime

•AIFF
•Sound Designer
•WAV


•Dolby Digital (AC-3)
•Soundtrack Pro STAP

 

Over 100 Presets

•Apple Devices
•Podcasting
•Advanced Format Conversions
•Audio Formats
•SD DVD
•HD DVD
•Motion Graphics
•Web
•Modify Apple presets
•Create your own

Apple Qmaster

•Provides distributed encoding and rendering for DVD Studio Pro (via Compressor) and Shake and image-based rendering applications
•Distribute jobs to up to 10 nodes
•Segment jobs to multiple computers or send complete movies to single nodes
•AutoCluster provides easy setup for unmanaged services
•Create virtual render farms by turning on services to split processor performance
•Control managed services with Qadministrator
•Scheduling allows additional Mac systems to be used during off-hours
•Specify cluster storage location to be on local disk or Xsan
•Note: AVI, 3G, Dolby Digital, and AIFF cannot be segmented to multiple systems

Output Video Formats

•AVI
•QuickTime

•Animation
•Apple Pixlet
•BMP
•Video
•Cinepak
•DV
•DVCPRO
•H.261
•H.263
•H.264
•JPEG 2000
•M-JPEG A
•M-JPEG B
•Photo JPEG
•Planar RGB
•PNG
•Sorenson 2
•Sorenson 3
•TGA
•Video


•MPEG-1
•MPEG-2
•Elementary
•Transport
•Program


•MPEG-4
•M4V
•M4A
•MP4


•Sequential TIFF and TGA
•3G (3GPP)

 

Output Audio Formats

•QuickTime

•AIFF (PCM)
•AAC
•Alaw 2:1
•Dolby Digital Professional
•IMA 4:1
•Linear PCM
•MACE 3:1
•MACE 6:1 QDesign Music 2
•Qualcomm PureVoice
•uLAW 2:1


•Dolby Digital (AC-3) 2.0 and 5.1 surround sound
•MP3