For more informations on Final Cut Express 4, head to:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/

System Requirements

• A Mac computer with a 1.25GHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, or Intel Xeon processor
  For AVCHD: A Mac computer with an Intel processor
• 1GB of RAM or more
• An AGP or PCI Express graphics card compatible with Quartz Extreme; or an Intel GMA integrated graphics processor in a MacBook or Mac mini computer
• Some FxPlug filters are not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors.
• A display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher
• A DVD drive for installation
• Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later
• QuickTime 7.2 or later
• 500MB of disk space to install Final Cut Express and LiveType
• Additional 500MB to install LiveType content

It is finally answering the one question out of many that I currently care about.

“Why doesn’t Final Cut Express support AVCHD? Final Cut Pro can, but I rarely use it for small projects. Wait a minute, iMovie ’08 can too. I feel that iMovie ’08 is under-powered, and Final Cut Pro is an overkill. Apple, please add AVCHD support to Final Cut Express. I would like to import and edit the AVCHD-encoded clips that I took using my new Panasonic HDC-SD5 camcorder.”

OK, apparently Apple was not going to add AVCHD support to Final Cut Express 3.5 and older. The AVCHD support will be built in Final Cut Express 4.

Anyway, I like using Final Cut Pro; but it’s a bit overkill at many times. I like using iMovie HD ’06; but it’s a little bit limited in features. I like using iMovie ’08; but it’s missing some important features such as audio extractions, and many others. In my mind, I’d say that for most of the projects I’m working on, I can sufficiently handle them in Final Cut Express. I recently purchased Panasonic HDC-SD5 camcorder and it records into the AVCHD format. I was going to fire up Final Cut Pro to work on some videos, but since Apple announces Final Cut Express 4 with AVCHD support; I don’t need Final Cut Pro for most of my projects.