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By: Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Tuesday, August 11, 2009 - 11:05 am |
Apple’s latest version of Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro 7, offers an overhaul of the ProRes codec, delivering new versions that meet not only the high-end needs of the market but also the needs of those looking for a ProRes codec that allows faster, more efficient workflows.
At the low end is ProRes 422 (Proxy), a 45-Mbps format designed for offline editing needs. “If a user doesn’t want large files for a project, they should check out ProRes 422 (Proxy),” says Richard Townhill, director of Video Product Marketing for Apple. “And we’re starting to hear of people using it for the final broadcast.”
Like its higher-rate Apple ProRes 422 siblings, ProRes 422 (Proxy) supports full-frame, 10-bit, 4:2:2 video, making it suitable for use in offline editing workflows with Final Cut Server. It also supports full 1920×1080 and 1280×720 resolutions, enabling full HD resolution while editing and accurate representation of FCP motion effects. Whereas the bandwidth and storage requirement for 60-interlace-frame-per-second material at 1920×1080 is 45 Mbps, that jumps to 103 Mbps and 46 GB per hour for full 1080p.
At the other end of the spectrum is the new Apple ProRes 4444 codec, preserving motion-image sequences originating in either 4:4:4 RGB or 4:4:4 Y´CBCR color spaces. Apple ProRes 4444 supports 12-bit pixel depth with an optional, mathematically lossless alpha channel for true 4:4:4:4 support.
Of course, that type of quality comes at a cost in terms of storage and bandwidth. Data rates are 330 Mbps with storage requirements of more than 135 GB per hour for material recorded at 24 frames per second. Looking at 60 frames per second? ProRes 4444 at 1920×1080 at 60i is 330 Mbps or 148 GB per hour, and those rates climb to 754 Mbps and 339 GB per hour of storage.
In the sweet spot for sports broadcasters is Apple ProRes 422 (LT). It provides visually lossless coding performance for full-width 10-bit video sequences but at 100 Mbps or less, depending on the particular video format. “ProRes 422 (LT) is great,” says Townhill, “if you have a lot of footage or want to archive it later on.”
Apple says the low data rate of Apple ProRes 422 (LT) also makes it an excellent choice for transcoding complex camera codecs like AVCHD.
Enhancements for Final Cut Pro include new tools for improving slow-motion effects, an important feature for sportscasters. A variable speed dialogue box allows users to type in a playback rate and easily ramp the speed of effects within a clip. Another enhancement allows the speed of a clip to be changed without impacting the timeline of surrounding clips. Says Townhill, “Now you can change the speed, and everything downstream remains in the same place on the timeline.”
Also look for iChat theater to support Final Cut Pro. With iChat, up to four participants — say, a producer, director, and clients — can be invited to watch a project online complete with timecode.
And for those looking to export content without impacting productivity, the system now supports exporting from Final Cut while working on other projects.
The new formats and a wealth of new editing capabilities in Apple Final Cut Pro 7.0 aren’t the only advances from Apple. Final Cut Server 1.5, for example, now has unlimited seats standard for $999 and also has upgrade pricing of $299.
“The server has a wide range of uses and includes a whole spectrum of utilities, asset management, and automation tools,” says Townhill. “It’s fantastic for offline editing workflows.”
The server software for Final Cut Server can run on a MacBook Pro for use on location, a Mac Pro in the studio, or a full Xserve configuration for larger-scale facilities.
Compressor, Apple’s encoding application, is also included with Final Cut Server. It uses optical-flow technology to analyze media frame by frame and algorithmically produce conversions and handle tasks like retiming, scaling, cropping, padding, video filters, and metadata integration.
“New is the ability to save presets for a piece of material and get those specs back into Final Cut Pro so that other material can be exported to match those specs,” says Townhill.
The Compressor engine also encodes MPEG-2 and H.264 files as well as various QuickTime formats, including the Apple ProRes 422 codec family and formats for iPod and Apple TV. For even more options, Telestream’s Episode Pro plug-in can be added to encode to VC-1, WMV, GXF, and FLV formats, along with High Profile H.264 and a number of third-party proprietary broadcast-server formats.
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