Final Cut Pro

The latest vesion of Apple's editing sotware is Final Cut Pro Studio 2 which includes a suite of applications that allow you to perform all the post productions functions needed to offline, colour grade, sound mix, add effects and graphics, standards convert, playout and deliver, all within one work station. It's versatile and affordable, although you do need some serious hardware and storage capacity to go with it, which all adds to the price.

The Studio 2 package includes:

"Final cut Pro 6" Edit in DV, SD,HDV, XDCAMHD, DVCPROHD and uncompressed HD (requires 4Gb ram) and it can mix different formats and frame rates in the same timeline.

"Compressor 3" Playout to different formats to create material for the web, ipod, mobile phone, DVD authoring, Blue Ray and the next generation of HD DVD. It can also standards convert your programme for international versioning.

"Colour" A new colour grading tool with many useful features including motion tracking.

"Soundtrack Pro 2" Mix your location sound, add spot effects, and more all with the option of 5.1 surround sound. There's also a library of royalty free music and sound effects.

"Motion 3" is a 3D compositing and animation tool with real time design ability.

"DVD Studio Pro 4" allows you to encode, author, burn and deliver DVDs