HD For Indies

OK, there is a tiny bit of conjecture in this one, but I'm 99% sure here's how it's going to go:

1.) Apple will roll out Final Cut Pro HD 5 at NAB in April. At least announce if not ship.

2.) The scoop on HDV & the Apple Intermediate Codec: HDV will be supported the same way it is in Final Cut Express HD, which I finally confirmed IS a 4:2:0 codec specifically made for working with HDV. There are 720p and 1080i setups for HDV, and you can "roll your own" other sizes. The codec is 4:2:0 only. There are other output options. But when you choose the 1080i or 720p options in the QT export panel, you're actually preconfiguring a whole bunch of things that get written into the quicktime movie header - the field order, pixel aspect ratio, clean aperture, as well as media and playback dimensions. If you choose "other" then you are free to go the "size" box and enter custom dimensions - say 720x480. But the other meta-information is not setup, so the intermediate codec *could* be repurposed for other media types, but it is really focused on supporting HDV, which is 4:2:0, and comes in 1080i and 720p flavors, and making the import and export of those HDV formats as simple as possible. The audio is transcoded as well, from Mpeg-1, layer 2 audio to straight-up, uncompressed 48KHz PCM.

3.) Fiber Channel connectivity has been described as "important" in this upcoming release

4.) IMX and 1080i50 DVCPRO HD will also be supported.

5.) DVCPRO HD 1080i50 will have less compression per frame than 1080i60 DVCPRO HD. Same overall bandwidth used, fewer frames per second, more bandwidth per frame, so less compression, better quality. See my previous post about 1080i50==>1080p25==>1080p24 workflows for the new Panasonic camera.

6.) Similarly, 1080i50 HDV codec (and it's Apple Intermediate Codec) will have higher bitrate per frame for same reasons.

7.) I'd expect lots of demonstrations of Xsan integrating with Final Cut Pro HD now that Xsan has shipped. I'll have more to say on Xsan in the near future. I did get this key bit of info: for each workstation that wants to work with uncompressed HD simultaneously, you'll need a fully populated X-Serve RAID. Want one uncompressed, one compressed HD station? One X-RAID fully populated. Want three simultaneous uncompressed HD users? Three X-RAIDs fully populated. Eeyouch.