Final Cut Studio 2: Compressor 3 - Technical Specifications
| Final Cut Studio 2 - Part Numbers | |
| Retail | MA886Z/A | 
| Upgrade from Final Cut Pro | MA887Z/A | 
| Academic | MA886Z/A | 
Additional Information
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 
 
*Some features require additional hardware. Capturing HD resolution video using the ProRes 422 format requires a Mac Pro with an Intel Xeon processor or a G5 Quad computer and a qualified third-party capture card. DV, DVCPRO 50, and DVCPRO HD output requires a FireWire-enabled camera or deck. SD output via FireWire requires an AJA Io. Please contact your Apple Authorized Reseller for information.
Compressor 3
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 
- Copy protection requires that you output your project to a replicator. Macrovision requires that users work with a Macrovision-certified replication facility or execute a Macrovision usage agreement. Check with your replicator for costs and minimum quantities