Apple releases Final Cut Express 4

So if the student edition isnt eligible for upgrades, then its not worth $20 less. I just bought a copy of the academic edition and I never saw anything on the website that said it wasnt elligible for upgrades, will they refund me or let me pay the difference to ge the other one?

I'm having a bit of trouble, it won't allow audio on this program. It says Unrendered. Anyone know how to change it so the audio plays along with the video like normal and so you can add music to go with the video?

damn really? No upgrades for student editions? Alright, looks like i'll be sticking it out with my version 3.5 for longer then.. How are current version 3.5 owners going about handling all the livetype files and soundtrack loops? When i upgraded my MBP leopard, i installed final cut express and those files alone were like 11 or so gigs.. The applications themselves were only 512mb

I was excited about this at first... a new version, and it's cheaper too! But the fact that they left off Soundtrack entirely makes the price drop make sense.

From a Macworld article: "Paulsen explained that virtually everything people need to do for audio editing can be done in GarageBand with its recent advances." This makes some level of sense, but for those of us who were so turned off by the new iMovie that we'd rather save our $80, that's no consolation. (but I suppose for the same $300 I would have spent on FCE I could buy both).

But there are some more audio features in FCE... from the same article: "...Final Cut Express also has enhanced audio controls, allowing you to automatically raise any clip to its maximum level without distortion using the new Soft Normalize and Gain controls."

What I wonder is - if you had the old version, and paid the $99 upgrade, would it wipe out Soundtrack or would you still have it?

It was my understanding that Student versions are not eligible for upgrades

i bought final cut express 3.5 with my 15" 2.16ghz macbook pro back in march '07. It was only 99 extra to get it put in pre installed at the student discount. I still haven't gotten around to using it, but do plan to soon... I actually just got done watching that tutorial dvd. I hope the cost to upgrade at the student discount rate is around $50 if it's going to be costing like 99 new for students

"although PowerPC users are left out in the cold for AVCHD love: it's Intel-only"

this only happens in Final Cut Express? or also in the latest Final Cut Pro?

looks like ill be purchasing this since apple blacklisted some serials on their new FCP2 update, good timing apple!

#14 - I was in the same boat as you. Called Apple Support, they issued an RMA for me to return 3.5 and are shipping me 4.0. I only had to pay the shipping for 3.5 back to them.

Academic price is 179, BUT according to apple's final cut express 4 pdf manual thing which can be found here:

http://images.apple.com/finalcutexpress/docs/L353892A_FCE4_PO.pdf

if you go to the last page, you'll see INSTITUTIONAL pricing is at $99.... so if you wait a bit, college bookstores will start carrying it.... and for 99 dollars, how can i NOT buy it?!