FCP and other Pro Apps no longer sold separately
 

As Dennis noted in another thread (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost....7&postcount=8), Apple has decided to stop selling Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro and Motion separately.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/

Hmmm...I use DVD Studio Pro, but not Final Cut Pro. I wonder what the upgrade path for me will be? Or rather, what it will cost...

$1,299. You're going to have to buy the full version of Final Cut Studio. The only upgrade paths available in the Apple Store as of today are Final Cut Studio upgrade from Final Cut Pro, and the upgrade from Final Cut Pro Production Bundle. The only individual software with an upgrade path is Final Cut Express, Shake, and Logic.

Amazon still has the DVD SP 4 upgrade available. Better grab it while you can.

First they're going to penalize people up to $300 for buying an Intel based macintosh, and now they trash the upgrade program. What is this company's problem?

Jason, this doesn't agree with the info on Apple's website. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read this to mean you can upgrade DVDSP to the full Final Cut Studio for $200 which I think is reasonable. The $100 upgrade from FCP seems like a really great deal to me - I will probably take advantage of that myself since I currently only own FCP5 and Motion 1.

Unfortunately, some people are always unhappy with any transition and lose track of the fact that Apple is a business and not a charity. If these prices seem unreasonable you always have the option of continuing to use your current version of the software and hardware, or switching to the Windows platform if you feel it represents a better value.

See the following:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/topquestions.html

I agree with Boyd except a few important points. Even if you own FCP1(heaven forbid )
the maximum amount you will pay is $299 for the complete studio. I am quite sure that the local Apple store has no idea about this upgrade path. In fact on the floor of Macworld even Apple employees had no idea. $299 maximum for a complete FCP Studio does not seem like such a bad deal to me.
dkane

Based on the info above, it looks like that should be $199 (unless you only have FCP3). This is obviously a brand new program, so it will take a few days for everyone to get up to speed. I remember when FCP5 was announced there was also a lot of confusion which cleared up after a week or so...

Holy cow...I bought DVD Studio Pro 4 brand-new from Apple less than 2 months ago, and now I'll be able to upgrade to the entire Final Cut Studio for just $199?

Wow!

I see where this is going to lead to some confusion. I took all my info from the Apple online store, which only shows the full upgrade packages. The prices on the page you listed seem more fair. I imagine they'll update the online store after February 1.

I still think bundling the pro software together exclusively like this is unnecessary.

well i work at apple and i know you can still buy them all sepretly or as the studio pack. just go in to any apple store and you can see that im telling the truth. good luck guys

has anybody tried to buy one of the eligible versions off ebay then upgrade? The only problem i can forsee with this is if the used version you buy has already been registered (apple states you must have bought the original copy yourself from retailer). Since all you're doing is sending in the cd anyways they couldn't know if it was registered or not right? There is no place on the upgrade form (http://images.apple.com/universal/cr...CP4+HD_Ugd.pdf) to provide any kind of unique number or anything.

I think you will need to install and register the individual version of FCP on your computer before you can install the upgrade. If it was previously registered to someone else, I don't know what happens - I suppose it has to do with what kind of cross-checking their servers do when you register.

FCP licenses should be transferable, provided that the seller has uninstalled the software from their machine, and also provided that they didn't replace it with an upgrade. But if they're still using the software, or it's a leftover from an upgrade, then you're essentially buying an illegal copy.

I bought an eligible version from the UK and used it to upgrade to FCS 5.1 in the US.
No registration needed, no problems, and I got the full retail version of everything.

I paid $999 for the original version of FCP (1) and then 299 from then on for upgrades up til 4.5. I paid $999 for the original DVDSP and I think upgraded it once for $299. Back then these were a bargain compared to most of the offerings out there.

I paid $199 for FCStudio when I got the intel MBP which I consider the greatest bargain ever. When you look at what you get with studio for $1299 versus what you used to have to pay for all those programs individually, well I think we all must be getting spoiled to even question that deal!

I've got a guy who will sell me a copy of soundtrack pro for cheap. It's an academic version but it's still eligible for the upgrade according to apple. My question is this though, he thinks he might have already registered it so if i buy it and send in the install disk do you think apple will check who its registered to? Can they even if its just the install disk their getting? Do the academic versions have some kind of unique serial on the disk? Does apple care enough to check? The guy is willing to sell me the copy for 125, so 325 for fcp 5.1 sounds pretty awsome and $125 doesn't sound like a big risk to lose.