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Final Cut Express HD (FCE HD) is a minor update to last year's Final Cut Express 2.0, although it has some nice additions. The most significant change to the video editor is right there in the title--it now supports high-definition video (HDV). The bundle of Soundtrack for music scoring and LiveType for animated titles adds a ton of value to this version, but those add-ons may not be enough for old users to upgrade. New users who are graduating from iMovie will get a strong program that's almost as versatile as Final Cut Pro. Its multitrack editing is just the same as the pro application; layered video, nuanced audio tracks and a speedy workflow are all possible. While FCE HD is most limited by its video capturing process, we found a few occasional bugs and slowdowns that also disappointed us. Overall, however, FCE HD is easy to recommend to intermediate videographers.
FCE HD is most limited in capturing footage. Like iMovie, you're able to start a tape and capture everything that plays, and like Final Cut Pro, you can carefully mark the in- and out-points of a shot, name it, then capture that precise shot, which saves drive space and gives a head start in organizing clips. Unfortunately, marking multiple clips and capturing them all automatically--called batch capture--is not supported. We imported footage by marking individual shots and capturing them one-at-a-time, but this was a much slower process than batch capture would have been.
With footage captured, FCE HD behaved nearly the same as Final Cut Pro. We made edits by dragging footage to the Canvas window or directly to the Timeline; we like this open approach that lets us decide how to edit. With the multiple tracks, we created layered video and audio, then adjusted the opacity, size and position of the video layers for a variety of effects. Editing was quick and powerful after the initial learning phase.
Dozens of built-in special effects and transitions --such as dissolves, simulated 3D transitions and chromakey--gave our videos more flair. Most of the effects can also be customized; for example, we set the exact length of a dissolve to 20 frames instead of a full second. We could also set keyframe animations based on the size and position of video clips and a few other variables. These techniques take time to learn, but we're grateful for the level of control.
LiveType and Soundtrack are included with Final Cut Express as add-ons for titling and loopbased music scoring. Both programs are strong, although we wish that they could be accessed from directly inside FCE HD; using them requires a process of exporting and importing files. It's easy enough to do; it just created more steps in our workflow. That said, the snappy animated titles and music tracks were worth the extra effort.
If you have an HDV camera, high-definition files look great. While Apple touts that as a major selling point of Final Cut Express, we see it as a chicken-and-egg issue. We're glad that Apple is supporting HDV now, but it'll be several years before HDV hardware reaches most users.
FCE HD was generally stable, but we did have problems with launching. On a 1GHz dual-G4, it regularly took nearly three minutes to open. The worst part was that the screen was frozen for most of that time, giving no progress updates; it looked as if the app had crashed.
FCE HD is easily worthwhile if you've outgrown iMovie. It will let you create nearly anything you can imagine (and import iMovie files). If you're upgrading from version 2, it doesn't add many features, but includes additional apps.
-ZACK STERN
Final Cut Express HD: 
Apple | www.apple.com | 800-692-7753 | $300
Pros: Multiple timelines, comprehensive effects, LiveType and Soundtrack bundle, HDV support.
Cons: No batch capture, slow launch.
Requires: OS 10.3.7 or higher, 450MHz dual-G4 or 500MHz G4 or faster, (HDV requires 1GHz G4 or faster and 1GB RAM), AGP graphics card compatible with Quartz Extreme, 384MB RAM, 15GB drive space for full LiveType and Soundtrack install
macHOME recommends: 1GHz G4 or faster, 1GB RAM
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