Why I buy this one ?
- The scalability, performance, and workflow of Final Cut Pro make it the first choice of professional editors everywhere.
- Apple's real-time motion graphics software Motion is the easiest way for artists and editors to animate text, movies, and graphics.
- Editors have access to real-time effects processing that scales with their systems, from DV to fully uncompressed HD.
- From DVD dailies to highly interactive commercial titles, DVD Studio Pro is the easiest and most popular way for professionals to author SD and HD DVDs.
- Soundtrack Pro revolutionizes the way audio and video professionals edit and design sound.

What our customer's say!

"The Best Editing Programs...Period", That's right. Studio 5.1 offers the best digital video editing software on the market. Typical Apple, the applications are almost intuitive and easily understood (the basics, anyway). This suite isn't for the novice who thinks he'll turn his home movies into Cannes-worthy shorts. Sorry. Final Cut doesn't do magic. But it DOES give you the professional tools used in Hollywood.

Yes, Adobe's After Effects is just as wonderful to use as Final Cut, but Final Cut offers something Adobe can't: seemless integration with all the other Apple professional applications. You'll notice that Final Cut Pro exports easily to DVD Studio Pro, and that tracks enhanced through Soundrack work perfectly for that special effects sequence you're mastering on Motion. Until the end of April 2007 Adobe will not have any such integration available for the Mac. And even when they bring out all their creative suites to work on Mac's, there will still be a learning curve.

I'm not saying Studio 5.1 is a breeze to grasp. It's not. But it is certainly simple enough to master the basics, and then build upon your knowledge. There have been plenty of times I've had to scratch my head and figure out how to perform a specific effect in Motion or Final Cut. I don't know what it's called but I know what I want it to look like. The books don't seem to have what I want. The tutorials don't touch on it. Online sources seem to hint at what I'm looking for, but don't quite hit the mark. But upon some experimentation it will dawn on me: there IS a way to do it, and it's called so-and-so and it's DEFINATELY in the books, if I know where to look. Such moments were frustrating, but after achieving my goals, it was definately a learning experience.

Should you go out and buy Final Cut if you feel like 'porting your home videos to DVD? No. Not a good idea. I'd stick with the iLife package; that will be more than enough for Timmy's bath footage. But for those of you who have a lot of extra footage that you think could be turned into some sort of experimental short, or need a software package powerful enough to make your independent film dreams come true, Studio 5.1 is worth the money.

But for those of you not fully convinced yet, or are considering waiting for Adobe's CS3 relese later April 2007, I have an argument to present:

If you've ever used iMovie or iDVD, you already know Final Cut Studio. Simple as that. True, there's a lot of stuff you still don't know about (i.e., color correction, motion graphics, etc.) but you've already tasted the Apple fruit, and the rest of the collection will be just as sweet. I use After Effects off and on. It's a very good product, no doubt about it. In fact, I've used it almost as many times as Final Cut Pro. But there's still a bit of uneasiness for me due to the fact that I'm not used to Adobe's layout. It's not all that different from Apple's, but it's the comfort level I have with Final Cut or Motion or even iMovie that keeps me coming back more often to Final Cut than to After Effects. Yes, this could be remedied by spending more time using Adobe's software, but my counter-argument is that Apple's suite actually is available for the Mac. Adobe only made Photoshop available to us Macies until their decision last year to give Mac's the full product line.

It's safe to say that Adobe has probably done a very good job at their software integration for the Mac. I'm pretty sure it will easily rival Final Cut Studio. But, for me, Studio just works. Will I find myself going to Adobe off-and-on. Yup. Probably more likely now that the entire product line will be made available; but my choice to stick with Apple is one made through experience and comfort level.

Given all of this, it's probably best to go try both Adobe's suite and Studio 5.1 at CompUSA. Compare and contrast the good with the bad, and decide which one you think you'll be more productive with. And, hopefully, you can get your hands on trial versions so that you can test for a few days and pick with a clearer understanding of the costs and benefits.

In any case, I'm more than happy with Studio 5.1. It offers everything I'll ever need for any project.

"Nobody does it better! ", Excellent program bundle. Motion alone is worth the price of the package! I use this professionally and it makes it a pleasure to get shorts and even quick web presentations easy!

"Is Pretty good for beginners!", Final Cut is a very fun program for somebody who is new to the world of editing... It doesn't have a good explination on how to use the program on its books... If the books were more detailed about how to do something, it'll be easier to learn how to edit...

I spent a lot of time on the phone asking other people where do i do something because the books doesn't provide all the info you need...

At the end you get the job done somehow!

"What can I say? ", Great product, strong learning curve, good support. DVD Studio Pro4
the authoring system is by far the most difficult aspect to grasp in
the bundle. I wish that Apple would have directed a little more attention
to walking you through actually using it rather than explaining the powers
of the universe. Now I'm going to have to contact them and take them up
on their over eager support team. The 683 page manual for the authoring
system is well worth having around for explaining things Popular Mechanic
probably never thought of, and also for serious laughter. Don't get me
wrong I love the book it explains everything you could ever need to know
about authoring, but I have yet to come across the part that explains how
to use their program. Great product I am very happy with it!

"XXXtremely Challenging", I hated it at first, thought it was way to confusing, maybe because I'm new to mac as well. But, now that I'm starting to get use to it after 3 months, WoW! It can do lots of stuff. I'm using it to spice up home movies, it's probably a bit much for such use. Just beware, it has a steep learning curve at first. If I hadn't paid so much, I would have gone back to my Pinnacle 10. You definitely need to invest in how to videos.

Dan