ProRes 422: Apple New's High-Quality Codec for Post

I think that I downplayed the significance of ProRes 422 in my write-up of Final Cut Studio 2. After doing some more research, it seems like a real great codec. I just read an Apple white paper on ProRes 422 (PDF file) for lots of good detail on what I think is a big addition to FCS.

Here's Apple's summary of what's so great about ProRes 422:
Enter Apple ProRes 422, a new format designed for pristine HD quality, economical hardware confi gurations, yet high-performance, multistream Final Cut Pro real-time editing—for both high-defi nition (HD) and standard-defi nition (SD) formats. Apple ProRes 422 features:
• The quality of uncompressed HD at data and storage rates lower than uncompressed SD.
• Performance comparable to or better than the existing HD codecs in Final Cut Pro.
• The ability to work with HD on slower drives, and with more users on shared storage.

In my FCS2 write-up, I thought that ProRes 422 was all about the the $3500 AJA IO HD. But Apple says in the white paper, "Capture ProRes 422 in real time from any HD-SDI source." OK. I'm used to having Blackmagic or AJA point out support for specific codecs with their hardware, and I haven't heard any mention from them about supporting ProRes 422 (except for the IO HD.) But for the time being, I'm going to take Apple at its word.

But ProRes 422 isn't just for folks with those super-expensive decks with HD-SDI outputs. Apple mentions that you can mix ProRes 422 in a timeline with native HDV footage:
"Through a new user preference in Final Cut Pro 6.0, the editor can choose to render projects in HDV and XDCAM HD using ProRes 422. This will result in faster rendering time and a higher-quality 4:2:2 composite. For projects that are mastering to HD-SDI, ProRes 422 is the perfect rendering choice. "

So capture your HDV in its native codec, low-bit rate codec (lower bit-rate than ProRes 422). But then don't render effects in highly-compressed MPEG-2 codec. FCP 6 doesn't mind having HDV and ProRes 422 in the same timeline. Well, this changes a lot of my thinking about editing HDV in other codecs as the best way to post it The new ability to mix codecs in the same timeline, really means capture in the native codec if you can (no conversion/transcoding and you don't have to use more bit-rate or storage on a higher bit-rate codec until you render something.) And you don't need some 5-drive RAID to play back those high-quality renders--my guess is that a G-RAID will play back the highest bit-rate ProRes 422 fine.

ProRes 422 also support 720x486 standard-definition resolution. This is a 4:2:2, 10-bit codec at rates comparable to DVCPro50 and IMX 50, which are only 8-bit codecs. So Apple doesn't mention how you can capture SD into ProRes 422. It seems like again it is a good option for rendering at the least.

So again:
-For all intensive purposes, visually lossless
-HD quality at SD files sizes
-Do more with your video--your drives can feed you more streams and the processors can handle the footage faster than uncompressed

Apple also alludes to support from Sony, Panasonic, and RED. It would be interesting to have some of these tapeless cameras capture directly to ProRes 422 if it really is such a great codec, but it's not clear what other manufacturers might do with the new codec.

More on ProRes 422:
Studio Daily: "EXCLUSIVE VIDEO DEMO: ProRes 4:2:2"
Apple Insider: "A closer look at Apple's new ProRes 422 video format"