Two Video Software Updates Released

/ 29 August 2008

Late yesterday evening and early this morning (in other words during Obama’s great speech and as we were soundly sleeping) Apple silently sent out two key software updates to the Mac and Windows community relating to video.

The first update is a Final Cut Express update to v4.0.1 that fixes some major permissions-related problems in the software package. This update can be obtained via Software Update and the release notes (yes, Apple actually wrote release notes for this update) can be found at the above link.

The second video-related update is not technically an update at all, but rather the first public release of a new software component. This is a new QuickTime component that allows QuickTime v7.5 and up to recognize and interact with Apple’s new ProRes video format. This new codec is a format that is “a visually lossless format that provides uncompressed HD quality at SD data rates” (AppleInsider). AppleInsider also provides a closer look at this new video codec from Apple. This package cannot (yet…) be obtained from Software Update, but you can find the standalone installers for Mac OS X and Windows on their website. This codec should be installed onto your system even if you have a version of Final Cut Express (or Studio/ Pro) installed.

It is my suggestion that you install whatever of these two software updates that apply to you sooner rather than later. Enjoy, Alex.

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