Upgrade Your Editing Workflow: Final Cut Pro 10.5 Replaces X Version for Seamless Video Production

To coincide with the release of macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple released an update to the Final Cut Pro professional editing program and canceled Version X, so the new version is now called Final Cut Pro 10.5.

Apple is in the process of migrating its Mac computers to "Apple Silicon". Last Tuesday, the company released three Mac models that run on ARM-based integrated "M1" chips instead of separate Intel CPUs. Because of this tectonic shift, applications must be rewritten and optimized to run efficiently on these new computers and the ones that follow.

Final Cut Pro 10.5 release notes

Aside from the new "Squircle" icon on macOS Big Sur, there's not a whole lot new under the sun:

•  Improved performance and efficiency on Mac computers with Apple silicon.
•  Smart Conform accelerated machine learning analysis using Apple Neural Engine on Mac computers with Apple silicon.
•  Option to create a copy of your library and automatically convert media to ProRes Proxy or H.264 in different resolution.
•  There's also a list of bug fixes and improvements. One of them I want to mention at this point. "Fixes an issue where local lookup tables are not available in enhanced or proxy sections." This guy has been bothering me for weeks now and it's nice to see it fixed.

Pro Video Formats 2.3 has also been updated. Final Cut Pro users can download it via the “Software Update” function in System Preferences. One item caught my eye:

“Includes built-in support for Avid DNxHR® decoding and playback and Avid DNxHD®.”

And this is important for people who need to work with this codec.

Compressor & Motion

Both apps accompanying Final Cut Pro also received rework from Apple Silicon and got a new icon: Motion wore it to version 5.5 and Compressor to 4.5.

The result

I was expecting more exciting features, but re-engineering a huge, performance-hungry app like Final Cut Pro for an entirely new architecture is no small feat. The Pro Apps team may have kept busy for the past two months.

It will be interesting how Final Cut Pro performs on M1-equipped devices, and it will be even more exciting when more powerful machines are introduced with the new Apple architecture next year.

When it was released in June 2011, I remember Apple said it had a 10-year roadmap for Final Cut Pro, which would theoretically expire in 2021. After this update, I am sure that road has not yet come to an end at all. . Maybe we'll see a massive Final Cut Pro 11 update (?) In June 2021? Ten years after launching (remakes) Final Cut Pro (X).

Versions of

•  Apple Final Cut Pro, 
•  Apple Motion, and 
•  Apple Compressor 

Are available on the App Store.