HD For Indies

Can't say where, when, who or how, but my sources indicate that the Radeon X1900 PCIe card (see specs here) is coming to Macs, both for the current G5 based towers AND the everybody-expects-them-at-WWDC Mac Pro towers.

Specs include (this from the above link on ATI's site):

64-bit floating point HDR rendering supported throughout the pipeline

Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing
32-bit integer HDR (10:10:10:2) format supported throughout the pipeline
Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing 2x/4x/6x Anti-Aliasing modes
Multi-sample algorithm with gamma correction, programmable sparse sample patterns, and centroid sampling
New Adaptive Anti-Aliasing feature with Performance and Quality modes
Temporal Anti-Aliasing mode
Lossless Color Compression (up to 6:1) at all resolutions, including widescreen HDTV resolutions


So what does all this jargon mean? For editors, it means some major computing horsepower to do things like realtime scaling, reposition, rotating, and especially high precision color correction in realtime.

At present, the core code of FCP is all about one codec, one frame size, and one frame rate at a time - this is getting very long in the tooth, as many other competing NLEs can mix and match SD and HD on the same timeline. With CoreVideo (an OS X 10.4, akaTiger feature), realtime graphics manipulation using the GPU is possible and much easier.

So if my sources are right (and I'm 90+% sure they are) that this high end card is Mac bound, then when Apple finally shows a version of FCP capable of seriously hooking into CoreVideo (let's call it FCP 6, and pretend NAB 2007 is announce date), this'd be an awfully nice asset to have. For years, the graphics card really didn't make much of a difference for editors - maybe the screen redrew a little faster with the better card - but in the last couple of years, especially with apps like Motion and After Effects (AE much less so than Motion) able to hook into the GPU for major performance boosts, the GPU suddenly became relevant to what would and would not work in realtime on the editor's workstation.

Also, if Apple were able to FINALLY rewrite that core code to handle multiple frame sizes, frame rates, and especially codecs on the same timeline, that would enable tricks like putting 720p24 footage and standard def 60i footage both on a 1080i60 timeline with 1080i60 footage and just editing, and not worrying about waiting for renders for normal operations (like cuts, live playback, cross dissolves, etc.).

-mike