Neat Blog

Final Cut disables older plug-in interfaces

The newly released Final Cut Pro 10.6.6 and Motion 5.6.4 stop supporting the older plug-in interfaces FxPlug2 and FxPlug3, while keeping only the newest FxPlug4 supported. What does that mean for a user of those video editing applications in practice? — That means that some older plug-ins will stop working after FCP or Motion are updated to the latest versions (10.6.6 and 5.6.4 correspondingly).

  1. If you know that you do use some FxPlug2 and/or FxPlug3 plug-ins, then it may be a good idea to postpone updating FCP and Motion to the new versions.
     
  2. If you are not sure about the plug-ins that you use, or you just generally want to secure your existing setup, then it is a good idea to back up your existing version of FCP and Motion in case you have to go back.

    For more information on how to back up those applications, please see the introductory sections in the official release notes for Final Cut and Motion.
     
  3. Regarding Neat Video plug-ins for Final Cut, most older versions of those were based on FxPlug2. Specifically, the v2, v3, v4 and v5 Standard Version (legacy) plug-ins for Final Cut were based on FxPlug2 and so the new versions of Final Cut and Motion will not be able to use those plug-ins, unfortunately.

    If you have Neat Video v2, v3 or v4 and you want to continue using them, then the only option is to keep the older Final Cut and Motion and not update to Final Cut Pro 10.6.6 and Motion 5.6.4.

    If you use Neat Video 5 Standard Version (legacy), which appears as ‘Reduce Noise v5’ in effects, then you can switch to using Neat Video 5 SR (Second Revision), which appears as ‘Reduce Noise v5 (SR)’ in effects. The SR version is based on FxPlug4, so it will work fine in the new versions of Final Cut and Motion.

    The v5 SR version is a part of the v5 product (Neat Video v5 plug-in for Final Cut) since May 2021, when the SR version was first introduced. With a v5 license you can download the SR plug-in from the My Products page in your account.

    You can then use the Project Converter tool to switch your project from using the Standard Version (legacy) (‘Reduce Noise v5’) effects to using the Second Revision (‘Reduce Noise v5 (SR)’) effects. Please read this article to learn how to do that. Please note however that this conversion has to be done using an earlier version of Final Cut or Motion (10.6.5 / 5.6.3 or earlier), before updating Final Cut and Motion to the latest versions 10.6.6 and 5.6.4.

    Going forward, we plan to keep developing and updating the SR (Second Revision) version based on the FxPlug4 interface because apparently only that interface will remain supported by newer versions of Final Cut and Motion.